Editor's July Pick #9: Soup De Loop

Editor’s note: I don’t know about anyone else but sometimes I have the urge for something completely unseasonal. Often, it’s soup in summer. People use it as a go-to in winter but I find that it’s the perfect meal when you can’t be fussed after a long day and it’s not too hot outside, ticks all the nutritional boxes and it's the perfect one pot meal. Of course if it’s too hot for a warm soup, you could always go with gazpacho!

What to do …

… with your stash of veggie stock.

Back in the day when I was working for my Cordon Bleu Certificate and, may I say, before there were such programmes as Masterchef one of the tasks we were given was an invention test.

The brief was - make a soup with a bowl of cooked peas, sweetcorn, carrot and broccoli.

Here's my recipe :

Soup de Loop

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 green chilli, chopped – seeds removed

glug of rapeseed/Canola oil

1 old potato, cubed

1 litre/1¾ pints of veggie stock

1 dessert spoon of medium curry powder

1 tsp mace

salt and black pepper

Dice the carrots and keep the broccoli in small florets and set aside.

In a large saucepan sauté the onion, garlic and chilli in the oil, add the curry powder and mace. Add the stock and cubed potato and bring to the boil, then simmer until the potato is cooked but firm. Place two ladles of the soup into a blender and blitz until thick.

If you want to gauge the texture the trick is to dip a spoon into the blitzed soup – check the back of the spoon – it will show the texture. If you're happy with the consistency add it back into your remaining soup. Complete by adding your cooked peas, sweetcorn, diced carrots and broccoli. If you want a thicker consistency repeat the “blitz” with two more ladles.

As with all soups taste and adjust the seasoning at the end and you're ready to serve, piping hot.

The result was a chunky, thick soup with visible veggies.

I passed!