Soup season is upon us.
And in my book there’s no easier way to cram in your five a day at the same time as getting a big dose of comfort, than with a humble soup.
Getting off the plane last week was a bit of a shock to the system. From 30 degrees to 5 degrees in 3 hours, our Kefalonian holiday was over and we’d returned to chilly days and golden brown leaves. That, and feeling a little bit bloated from our holiday indulgences.
Soups would be our saviour and steer us in the right direction, break us gently into the darker days and help shed our excesses, and this last week we’ve eaten all kinds of creations, including:
- Jamaican jerk pumpkin soup with coriander and lime salsa.
- Mixed mushroom soup with roasted garlic and chive cream.
- Chinese chicken meatball broth with rice noodles.
- Carrot, red pepper and ginger soup with coriander crème fraîche.
- Italian wedding soup with mini chicken, basil and lemon meatballs.
Some of these will be making their way to the blog shortly, but I thought I’d kick off the seasons soup posts with this super green creation. It tastes full of goodness and has a really hearty texture on account of the lentils, and it couldn’t be easier to prepare – you can have it on the table and ready to eat within 20 minutes.
For five or six
We like to make enough for the lunch the next day, and you could even put some more of it into the freezer.
- 200g puy lentils, or if you can’t find them, use green lentils – made up as per the pack instruction, rinsed and set aside
- 700g frozen peas
- 200g spinach, washed and ready to use
- 1 courgette, diced
- 1 leek, top, tailed and cleaned
- 1pt light vegetable stock
- 150mls white wine
- 200mls cream for the soup
- 50g Stilton
- A tablespoon of butter
- 100mls cream for the Stilton cream
- A few pinches of chopped fresh chives
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
Method
- Into a deep bottomed saucepan place the stock and wine and bring to the simmer, then add all the vegetables apart from the spinach. Cover and cook for about 7 to 10 minutes, until the courgettes are softening, then add the spinach and continue cooking just until the spinach has wilted, then take it off the heat.
- Bring a pan of water to the boil on the hob.
- Add the cream and butter to the pot and using your hand blender, blitz the soup until it’s as smooth as you can get. Taste for the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Put the lid on and leave.
- When the water on the hob is boiling, add the lentils to the pot to reheat for a couple of minutes.
- Whilst this is happening, into a small pan with a lid place the cream and stilton, put the lid on and cook on a low heat until the Stilton has melted, this will take a couple of minutes.
- Take the reheated lentils and rinse, then add to the soup and put it back on a low heat to keep warm.
- Ladle into bowls and top with a couple of pinches of chives and spoon the Stilton cream over the top.