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.