We will be handing out FREE tasters of delicious home-made soup from our stall at the Local Excellence market this coming Saturday 29th January. The soup is going to be all made by volunteers, from locally-grown, organic veg. Free recipe leaflets will accompany!
If you'd like to try your hand at soup-making, here are the recipes below.
The market runs from 9.30am to 2pm. Come and join in the fun!
To run a stall yourself, talk to Choose Abingdon
Pumpkin and Beetroot Soup (adapted from Jamie Oliver)
Serves 4 - 6
• 1/2 onion,
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• ½ med pumpkin or squash
• 2 tomatoes or 1/3 of a tin
• Seasoning
• 1 ¼ pints of veg stock
• Approx 2 beetroot (1/2 as much as the pumpkin)
• Balsamic vinegar
• Feta cheese (optional)
• Roast the beetroot in some olive oil at 190 with a sprig of thyme.
• When it is roasted take it out of the oven and pour in a dessertspoon or two of balsamic vinegar and stir around.
• Meanwhile soften the onion on a slow heat, add the garlic and cook for a few minutes.,
• Then turn up the heat and add the chopped pumpkin until it begins to brown
• Add the stock and tomatoes and simmer until the pumpkin is soft.
• Add the cooked beetroots
• cool a little and liquidise
• Add the juice of half a lemon and more thyme leaves and seasoning to taste
• Adjust the thickness with more stock if necessary
• It should be thickish and velvety.
• Add parsley or chives before serving and Feta cheese if liked
NB
Minimise the use of energy by roasting the beetroots when you have the oven on anyway to cook something else. Alternatively you can just boil them but the flavour is better when they are roasted.
Curried parsnip (simple)
Serves 4
25g butter
500g parsnips peeled (unless organic) and chopped into 1” dice
1 med onion
1 tsp med curry powder
1 Lt stock
250 mls milk
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
Parsley
• Soften the chopped onion and parsnip in the butter for about 10 mins.
• Add the curry powder and cook for 2–3 mins.
• Add the stock and the milk and simmer gently until the parsnips are soft – approx ½ - ¾ of an hour
• Cool slightly before liquidising
• add more stock, water or milk to adjust thickness
• Add plenty of chopped parsley before serving.
Curried parsnip (slightly less simple)
Serves 6
700g parsnips peeled (unless organic) and chopped into 1” dice
50g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 med onions chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1.5Lt vegetable stock
1 heaped tsp each of coriander and cumin seeds
6 whole cardamom pods (seeds only – cut off the end and squeeze out the seeds)
1 rounded tsp each of turmeric and powdered ginger
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
Parsley
• * Dry-roast the coriander, cumin and cardamom seeds in a small saucepan for 2–3 mins and then crush finely in a pestle and mortar.
• Heat the butter and oil in a saucepan and soften the chopped onion for 5 mins
• add the garlic and cook for a further two minutes
• add the crushed spices and the turmeric and ginger and cook gently for 5 mins
• add the parsnips
• .stir well and then add the stock and simmer uncovered for about an hour
• .seasoning to taste, remove from the heat and liquidise
• add plenty of chopped fresh parsley before serving.
*Dry roasting the spices gives a more genuine flavour than curry powder
NB
You can turn this into Apple and Parsnip by grating a peeled Bramley apple into the soup after it has been liquidised and simmering for a further 5 mins ... Read this ...
