Category: Soup

Garbure

Garbure is a thick French soup, almost a stew, based on cabbage and beans with some form of meat and other vegetables, often with bread added. It originated in the south-west of France, around Bearn, the Pyrenees, Gascony and Landes. It may vary from household to household and season to season, depending on what is available. The basic principle behind this dish is the lengthy simmering of an assortment of vegetables and meats, generally meats preserved en confit. As far as vegetables go, anything is possible. The cabbage may be accompanied by any kind of beans, potatoes, turnips, celeriac, kohl rabi, nettle tops, borrage, leaf beet, beetroot, in fact just about anything that can be grown in the area.

I started with an enormous home-grown cabbage. I didn’t use all of it; this cabbage weighs more than an average baby, and is about the size of a basket ball. I just shaved off about a quarter of it.One word of warning: this involved a lot of chopping and I used a very large pan.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 small cabbage (or part of a larger one), coarsely shredded
  • 3 tbsp goose fat
  • 2 carrots, diced, or use celeriac
  • 1 turnip, diced, or use kohl rabi
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 large leek, split lengthways into quarters and then chopped
  • Parsley, thyme, bayleaves
  • 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
  • A good pinch of salt
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2.3 litres of stock or water
  • 1 can of borlotti beans (you could use any sort of bean, especially canellini beans.
  • 350g potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 250g butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled and cubed.
  • 1 serving of meat per person, for example ham hough, sausage, confit of duck or goose. If you cooked the hough yourself, use the stick in the soup.

    METHOD:
  • Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the cabbage, simmer for ten minutes and then drain well.
  • In a large soup pan, heat the goose fat and add the carrots, celery, turnips, onion and leeks, and stew very slowly for fifteen minutes, stirring from time to time.
  • Add the drained cabbage, and cook for another ten minutes
  • Add herbs, salt, cayenne and the stock, then stir in the beans, potatoes and pumpkin and cook, uncovered, at a very slow simmer for around 40 minutes. You may need to top up with water as required.
  • Submerge the meat in the soup and continue to cook for another thirty minutes.
  • To serve, line each bowl with a slice of home-made bread, ladle the soup over the bread, and top with a portion of meat.

    There are other versions, which include cloves, or garlic, or other ingredients. You can make the base soup, cool before the step where the meat is added. Then, when you need to, reheat what you need.

Courgette and sweet potato soup

I got this recipe from the women who run the cafe at Hebridean Jewellery, which is just down the road. I’ve now made it a couple of times, using slightly different herbs, and it is delicious and creamy, whilst being completely vegan. I got the idea of using mint from the incomparable book ‘A celebration of soup’ by Lindsay Bareham. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 2 large courgettes, peeled and sliced
  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
  • 4 white potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 2 red chillies, finely chopped, or a 1/2 tsp dried red pepper
  • 3 tsp dried basil, or 2 tsp dried mint
  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil and chopped parsley to serve

METHOD:

  • Saute the onions in the olive oil over a low heat. When they are soft, add the chilli and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes more. 
  • Add the other vegetables, herbs and stock, and bring to a simmer. Cook for another 20 to 30 minutes, until all of the vegetables are tender. 
  • Use a soup wand to blend the soup thoroughly so it is smooth
  • Season to taste with salt and pepper; I used salt-free stock and I needed to add a level tsp 
  • Serve with a small swirl of extra-virgin olive oil and chopped parsley. 

 

 

Black-eyed beans and carrot soup

Still eating through the stored carrots, not so many left now. I used some of the salt-free stock that I made earlier in the season with the less pretty carrots. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 125g black-eyed beans, soaked and drained (haricot beans are an alternative)
  • 850ml to 900ml low-salt vegetable stock
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 stick of celery, sliced
  • 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
  • A couple of sprigs of fresh parsley
  • 1 bayleaf
  • A pinch of dried thyme
  • 25g flour
  • 25g butter
  • 300ml milk
  • salt and pepper
  • a grate of nutmeg

METHOD:

  • Put the beans in a large pan with the stock, and bring to a simmer and cook gently for 45 minutes
  • Add the onion, celery and carrots, as well as the herbs, and simmer with the lid on, until everything is tender. 
  • Remove the bayleaf, and blend the soup. You may need to add a little water if it is very thick. 
  • Heat the butter in a small pan, and when it is hot, add the flour and cook for 3 minutes, before adding to the soup pan. 
  • Blend in the salt, pepper, milk and nutmeg, adjusting the seasoning to taste.

This soup is not super-glamorous, but it tastes delicious. Serve with a garnish of chopped parsley, and with slices of brown buttered bread. It is a better colour made with haricot beans, but black-eyed beans are easier to find in the shops. 

Cannellini bean, lamb, celeriac soup

This is a rich, chunky soup with lots of flavour and it uses lots of ingredients that I can get locally. It is another Ottolenghi recipe. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped 
  • 170g celeriac, in bits about the size of a cannellini bean
  • 2 heads of garlic, peeled
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 500g lamb, in 2cm cubes
  • 1.75 litres of water
  • 1 can of cannellini beans OR 100g dried beans, soaked overnight and drained. 
  • 7 cardamom pods, lightly squashed
  • (you could add a stick of cinnamon as well)
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp caster sugar or date syrup
  • 4 firm potatoes such as Charlotte or Jersey Royal, 2cm cubes
  • salt and black pepper
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Chopped coriander and green chillies (depending on your taste)

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and fry the onion and celeriac over a medium heat until starting to brown. This takes around 5 minutes
  • Add the garlic cloves and cumin and cook for another two minutes before turning off the heat. 
  • Put the meat and water in a large pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 10 minutes, and skim the surface to get a clear broth. 
  • Add the onion and celeriac, the soaked cannellini beans, (if using tinned beans, wait until later) along with the turmeric, cardamom, sugar and tomato puree. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour so that the lamb and beans are tender. 
  • Add the potatoes, 1 level tsp salt, pepper, canned beans, and bring back to the simmer. Cook for a further 20 minutes, with the lid off the pan, to thicken the soup. 
  • When the soup is cooked, add the lemon juice and check the seasoning. Serve garnished with chopped coriander. You could add chopped parsley and hot green chillies. Ottolenghi gives a recipe for Zhoug which can be used as a garnish. 

Serve with bread. 

Yoghurt and barley soup

This recipe is based on one in Ottlenghi’s book, ‘Jerusalem’, but there are many versions, in my soup book, in my two books of Turkish recipes, and in a book by Madhur Jaffrey. The key ingredients are yoghurt, eggs, dried mint, and some sort of grain. Some of the recipes use bulghur wheat, others use rice. One recipe has a handful of green lentils, another has some chickpeas. This recipe has herbs and spring onions stirred in. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1.8 litres dilute lamb stock or vegetable stock
  • 200g pearl barley
  • 2 medium onions, halved and sliced
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried mint
  • 60g butter
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 450g Greek yoghurt
  • salt and pepper
  • chopped herbs, try mint, parsley, spring onion, to garnish

METHOD:

  • In a large pan, bring the stock to a simmer, and add the barley and 1 level tsp salt. Cover and simmer for around 20 minutes, until the barley is cooked. 
  • In the meantime, melt the butter in a medium pan, low heat, and fry the onion and dried mint until the onion is soft, around 10 to 15 minutes. Add this to the barley pan. 
  • Whisk the eggs and the yoghurt together in a large bowl. Add a scoop of the hot stock from the barley pan, and keep whisking, and adding scoops of hot stock, until the mixture is warm. 
  • Add the warmed yoghurt mixture to the barley pan, and season with salt and pepper. Heat gently until the soup is almost at a simmer. 
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with chopped herbs. 

Kale, lentil, carrot and sweet potato soup

This is very filling, we got six portions from this easily. It is more of a stew than a soup, really. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 250g puy lentils or similar brown lentils
  • 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
  • a bunch of Kale leaves, ribs removed and chopped
  • 1 litre vegetable stock, such as Marigold
  • Salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil in a large pan, and fry the onion gently with the garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli flakes and cinnamon, until soft. 
  • Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomato puree, and stir. 
  • Add the stock and lentils and bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes with the pan covered, until the lentils are softening. 
  • Add the chopped kale, check and add water if required, and bring to a simmer again for 10 minutes. 
  • Check and season with salt and pepper.
 

Mushroom and potato soup

The idea from this recipe is Italian, but there is the small issue about local ingredients. We haven’t got porcini, or even woodlands that they could grow in. I have got a lot of potatoes though, so I substituted quite a bit. The soup is delicious. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 small sweet red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 to 3 sticks of celery, finely chopped
  • 125g butter
  • 2 medium potatoes, a variety good for mashing (I used Arran Victory)
  • 1.5 litres of boiling water or light stock
  • 1 punnet of chestnut mushrooms, 200g to 300g, sliced
  • 1 40g jar of dried porcini mushrooms
  • salt and pepper
  • 250ml single cream
  • a large bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped.

METHOD:

  • Pour boiling water onto the porcini mushrooms in a small jug, and let this sit while you prepare the other ingredients.
  • Melt the butter in a large saucepan, and gently fry the onion and celery together until they are soft, around ten minutes
  • Peel and grate the potatoes and add to the pan, stir to mix in the butter, and then add the stock or water, and bring to a simmer, and cook for ten minutes
  • Add the finely sliced mushrooms. Strain the porcini mushrooms and add the liquor to the pot. Chop the soaked mushrooms, and add them to the pot as well. Bring to a simmer and cook for twenty minutes.
  • Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste, then blend with a soup blender. Add the cream and bring it all back to a gentle simmer. 
  • Chop the parsley very finely and stir it through the soup. 

We had this with home-made crusty bread. The soup is deliciously buttery and smooth. 

Celeriac, carrot and coriander soup

On consultation with the household, I was asked to make something new with the enormous celeriac that I had bought. I found a recipe in ‘The quick after-work vegetarian cookbook’ but then I tweaked it to make it more to my taste. The coriander definitely lifts the flavour. If you want to make a vegan version, you can leave out the sour cream, or substitute coconut yoghurt. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 onion, peeled and chopped
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 350g celeriac (about half of a large celeriac) peeled and chopped
  • 350g carrots, peeled and chopped
  • around 800ml stock
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 200 – 300ml sour cream

METHOD:

  • Fry the chopped onion in the olive oil over a low heat. 
  • When the onion is soft, add the coriander, celeriac and carrots, stir and cook gently for another 3 to 4 minutes. 
  • Add the stock and bring to a simmer, and cook for around 20 minutes. 
  • Blitz the soup with a soup blender, and add the sour cream, salt and pepper to taste. 

I’m sure there are more tweaks to be had, but this was a nice balance between easy, fast and tasty. 

Spicy carrot and red lentil soup

This soup is quite hot and spicy, but you can cut down on the chilli if you wish. The main flavours come from the use of Tunisian Tabil spice mix and from cumin seed. I got the spices from Seasoned Pioneers. There are a few variations that could be used. It could be vegan, you could add a seaweed stock instead of vegetable stock. If you stir in yoghurt, then it is still vegetarian, but not vegan. It is also good with a chicken stock. It also uses a lot of carrots, which is just as well, because I have grown very many. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 600g carrots, grated
  • 150g red lentils
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • a large thumb-sized nodule of ginger, chopped
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp tabil spice blend
  • 2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 -3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 litre of vegetable stock
  • 1/2 tsp salt

METHOD:

  • Use a large saucepan. Heat the olive oil and cook the onions over a low to medium heat, stirring, until the onions start to turn translucent, around five minutes. 
  • Add the ginger, garlic and spices, stir together and continue to cook for another couple of minutes. 
  • Add the carrots and lentils, mix in well, and then add a litre of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for around seven minutes
  • Use a soup wand or blender to blitz the soup until it is smooth. 

We served this with bread and yoghurt. 

Chestnut and chorizo soup

The weather is very dank at the moment, rain every day, overcast and cold, hardly like midsummer at all. I made this tonight, using vacuum-packed chestnuts, carrots and celery from the garden, and some cooking chorizo from the freezer.

The recipe is from the Moro cookbook, full of interesting recipes that are generally easy to cook and taste wonderful. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 medium carrot, diced
  • 1 stick of celery, finely sliced
  • 120g mild cooking chorizo, chopped into 1cm cubes
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
  • 2 small dried red chillies, crushed
  • half a tin of chopped tomatoes
  • around 500g cooked peeled chestnuts
  • 20 saffron threads, infused in 4 tbsp boiling water
  • 1 litre boiling water
  • salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

  • Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, and fry the onion, carrot, celery and chorizo for around 20 minutes, stirring, until the vegetables are caramelised. 
  • Add the garlic, thyme, cumin and chillies, and stir in well
  • Add the tomatoes, stir again and then a couple of minutes later, add the chestnuts, water and saffron water and simmer for around 10 minutes
  • Remove from the heat and mash the chestnuts. I used a soup wand, leaving the soup slightly rough and chunky. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

I think you could add a glass of dry sherry to this, I’ll try this tomorrow. It freezes well too.