Posts Tagged ‘Soup’

500g black cabbage (cavolo nero)
1 medium sized onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
4 stalks of celery
sprig of thyme
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil plus extra for drizzling
400ml tomato passata
2 ltr stock
1 loaf of bread, crust removed
600g cooked cannellini beans
grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
zest of 1 lemon

Chop the celery, carrot and onion and crush the garlic. In a large saucepan, heat the oil to a medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion, and garlic and sweat for 10-15 minutes. Add the thyme and passata and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. Cut the cabbage into thin strips and stir into the mixture. Add 400g of the beans and stock and bring to the boil. Then simmer until the cabbage is tender, for around 15 minutes.

Mash or puree the rest of the beans with a bit of water until smooth. Tear the bread into chunks. Stir the pureed beans and bread into the soup. Simmer until the bread breaks down and the soup thickens, for roughly 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Season to taste and stir in the lemon zest.

Ribollita means ‘boiled twice’ so as the name suggests this dish is best enjoyed reheated the day after you make it. When you are ready to serve, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Making your own stock is not only very satisfying, its also a great way to use up some veg (and perhaps some less appetising animal parts)…

There are 2 basic types – white and brown.

White stock: Made by placing the ingredients straight into the cooking liquid
Brown stock: The ingredients are first browned in oil or fat

Perhaps the most thrifty stock is fish stock as it allows you to use most of the fish trimmings:

Recipe: White fish stock

250g fish trimmings (bones, head and skin – try to avoid the gills as these can be bitter)
1 large fennel bulb
1 leek
1 celery
handful of herbs (parsley or chervil stalks or a mix works well)
175ml dry white wine
1ltr water

First rinse the fish trimmings of any blood. Chop the vegetables roughly and place in a heavy-bottomed stock pot. Roughly chop the herbs and add (including the stems) to the pot. Add the cleaned fish trimmings and pour over the wine. Add enough water to cover all the ingredients and place on a high heat to bring to a simmer.

Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove the surface scum with a spoon and discard. Reduce the heat, cover, and leave to simmer for a further 25 minutes. Make sure to skim ever 5-10 minutes.

Once cooked, strain the stock and discard the fish trimmings and vegetables.

Leave to cool. Your stock will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge or a couple of months if frozen. To sace freezer space, reduce the stock further and freeze in ice cube trays.

This makes an excellent base for fish soups and sauces.

This delicious recipe is from Jane Clarke’s ‘Nourish‘ and features in the section ‘In your prime…’

Serves 4

2 garlic cloves
2 litres (31⁄2 pints) vegetable stock
4 lemon grass stalks, bashed
5cm (2in) fresh root ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
8 lime leaves, crushed or whole
the juice of 2 limes
2 large flat mushrooms, cut into thick slices
2 handfuls of frozen peas
2 handfuls of frozen broad beans
2 small hot chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
a pinch of golden caster sugar
20 mint leaves
a large handful of coriander leaves

Buy all the ingredients here

Smash the garlic to a pulp and simmer it with the stock, the lemon grass, ginger and the lime leaves for 7 minutes. Add the lime juice, mushrooms, peas, broad beans and chillies. After 2 minutes remove the lemon grass and lime leaves, and season with a pinch of sugar. Add the mint and coriander leaves.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER OUR JANE CLARKE COMPETITION

Warm up with this juicy autumn soup and make the most of two British classics – the beautiful russet apple and tangy Stilton…

A good knob of butter
1 leek, roughly chopped and washed
1 small head of celery, roughly chopped and washed, leaves reserved
1.5 litres vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 russet apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
2tbsp double cream
60-80g Stilton, rind removed and cut into small chunks
1tsp celery salt

Gently cook the leek and celery in the butter for 3-4 minutes in a covered pot, stirring every so often.

Add the stock, season lightly, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the apple and simmer for a further 10 minutes, or until the apples are soft. Blend until smooth and sieve out any lumps and stringy bits.

Add the cream and serve with the celery leaves torn into the soup with the chunks of Stilton and scatter with a little celery salt.

This week we’re celebrating our beautiful tomatoes. It’s the perfect time of year to enjoy sunkissed sweet datterini and meaty San Marzanos grown at the base of Mount Vesuvius. We have all the best varieties, expertly picked every week from the finest markets and growers in Southern Italy. They are so good that they even appear on the menus of some of London’s top restuarants, and have been featured in Theo Randalls “Pasta”, The Metro and Eat In Magazine.

Amazingly tasty this week are the rich San Marzano tomaotes. They are ideal for making sauces and soups and are just delicious in this traditional Tuscan recipe…

500g San Marzano tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
Pinch of crushed chillies
Handful of basil
1ltr beef stock
300g slightly stale bread
extra virgin olive oil

Heat some oil in a large saucepan or pot. Gently fry the garlic and some chillies, removing the garlic when golden brown.

Puree the tomatoes then add to the pot with some basil and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the bread, thinly sliced. Mix. When  the bread has soaked up the sauce, add the hot stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for 15 minutes adding more stock if necessary. Rest for an hour, then mix again to dissolve the bread. Serve hot, but not piping hot, with a drizzle of olive oil and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Have your own favourite tomato recipe? Let us know! View our whole range of  fresh tomatoes online today.

Scallops are a lovely dish for spring. Their succulent texture and sweet flavours are perfectly refreshing. Try them in this tasty spinach broth for a light and sophisticated lunch.

12 Scallops
Salt
120ml Fish stock
200ml Creme Fraiche
500gr Fresh spinach
100ml Double Cream
2 Egg yolks
Juice of 1 Lemon
Chopped tomatoes to garnish

Cut the scallops into slices, 5mm thick, and place in a buttered frying pan. Add salt and the fish stock, poach for 2 minutes, then remove and drain.

Add the crème fraiche to the stock and reduce it until it is the consistency of a light soup. Add the chopped spinach and heat for 2 minutes.

Then bind with a mixture of the double cream, the egg yolks and the lemon juice. Add the scallop slices and adjust the seasoning.

Serve in hot dishes garnished with hot roughly chopped tomatoes.

Finally Spring has sprung and we are celebrating with a soup made of our favourite early spring veg…

Serves 4

2 Garlic Cloves
4 Artichokes
4 Spring Onions
200g Podded Broad Beans
1 Lemon
4 Slices Rustic Bread
250g Podded Fresh Peas
Parsley
1 White Chicory
4 Eggs
1,5L Water
2 Vegetable Stock Cubes
Rock Sea Salt

Boil the water and make the stock by adding the cubes, blanch the broad beans in it quickly, then remove using a slotted spoon. Once cool, remove the white skin and keep the green beans on the side. Blanch the peas and put on the side. Slice the artichoke, leaving only the heart. Click here for a step by step guide on how to do this!

Clean and finely chop the spring onion, fry it in oil with 1 crushed garlic clove and the chopped chicory, and add the artichokes. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the peas and broad beans. Add salt, pepper and the stock, and cook for 20 minutes.

Toast the bread slices and scrub with garlic, cut them in smaller pieces and lay on the plates. Sprinkle with pepper and olive oil, then break an egg on top of them, carefully. Add some freshly chopped parsley to the soup, then spoon in the plates, trying not to break the egg. The soup has to be boiling hot in order to cook the egg!

This recipe is from Beth of Jam and Clotted Cream, a superb food blog featuring some truly delicious recipes! Thanks Beth for letting us share this with Natoora blog reader’s! It’s a lightly spiced pumpkin soup, perfect for cold and wet evenings…

Spiced Pumpkin Soup, Image courtesy of Jam and Clotted Cream

Ingredients:
1 Pumpkin (1kg) – peeled and deseeded and cut into chunks
1.5 litres Chicken Stock
1 Large Onion
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Chili Powder

Place pumpkin chunks in large pan and cover with stock, bring to simmer and cook until pumpkin is tender.

Gently fry the onion and mustard seeds for 5 minutes, add spices and fry for a further minute.

Tip onion mix into pumpkin and stock. Turn off heat and let it cool. Blitz in a food processor until smooth.

It’s a great time to try pumpkin so give it a go and let us know how you get on. If you have any recipes you want to share, just drop us an email!