roasted summer vegetable soup
Yesterday I made my favourite soup, based on a Nigel Slater recipe. Rather than give you directions based on just what you should buy, I'll give you the organic bag/use what you have method.
A selection of summer vegetables, eg courgette, carrots, tomatoes, peppers (red and yellow, no green please), onions or shallots, and garlic. I like adding butternut as we move into autumn. Also if you add aubergine and thicken with passata you have a great pasta sauce. Leave out the passata and then this is an ovenbaked ratatouille.
So. Back to the soup.
Chop all your veggies, onions into rings, carrots diagonally, tomatoes into wedges, peppers in slices etc etc. Toss in oil or spray with a mister and roast in a big pan for about an hour at 180C.
They'll fill the room with the smell of garlic and roasted tomatoes. When you take them out the oven be ready to tip them into a big pan, and add about a litre of vegetable stock or a bit more depending how thick you like your soup and then simmer for about 20 minutes.
Last night I added two chicken leg joints to the soup as it simmered and once the chicken was cooked removed them from the soup, stripped the meat from the bone, discarded the skin and added the meat back to the soup.
To serve grate parmesan over the top, buy a loaf of turkish bread, spread thickly with butter, dunk, eat and enjoy.
Soul-food in a bowl.
I have something to say about Nigel Slater's new book, Eating for England, and it's much the same as what I said about Toast. I think his character really shines through with the recipe books, when it's other kinds of writing he comes through a bit tight-lipped spinster auntie.
For a story by someone who's definitely not tight-lipped go and read (and vote) for Jeanne (the Cooksister) at Can You Twist?, an online reality show with six bloggers writing six stories, with one ultimate winner. I love Jeanne's starting line, 'She had never regretted taking him back.'
How can you resist a story that starts with a line like that?
Thank for the cheerleading!! And your soup sounds divine. I made something similar in the winter, only using roasted root vegetables. There's something about roasting that just gives you a far better and more intense flavour than when you steam/boil the vegetables - I just love it!