Broccoli and blue cheese soup recipe

Broccoli and blue cheese soup. Looks like the top of the pond next to Peter Chalk when they forget to clean it as often as they should. Incredibly easy and really filling. Sprinkle extra cheese on the top if feeling indulgent (I do every time…)

Photo credit to bbcgoodfood.co.uk

Serves 4. Freezable.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 large onion, roughly chopped

1 large potato, peeled and cubed

1 litre water

Vegetable stock cube(s)

1 whole broccoli

100g (or more/less to your taste) blue cheese, such as stilton, dolcelatte etc

Equipment:

Chopping board

Small knife

Vegetable peeler

Kettle

Measuring jug

Big pan

Hand blender 

What you do

Peel and cube the potato. Chop up the onion and the broccoli. To prepare the broccoli, cut off all the ‘trees’ from the main ‘trunk’ and slice length ways into smaller ‘trees’. Cut off the very end of the main ‘trunk’ and dice because that’s used too!

Fill and boil the kettle.

Make 1 litre of vegetable stock in the measuring jug using boiled water according to the instructions on the packet.

Add the olive oil to the pan and add the onion. Soften for about 5 minutes, making sure it doesn’t colour.

Add the potato cubes and the stock. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce and simmer until the potato is softened. Check by sticking a knife in. This usually takes about 10 minutes.

Add the broccoli and cook for 4 minutes. It should be tender and bright green- don’t overcook it.

Add half the cheese and stir.

Hand blender time. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise everything until everything is smooth. You know the drill by now – don’t burn yourself or make a mess.

Add more cheese if needed, season and serve. Great with cheese crumbled on top.

 

By Kitty Howie, Lifestyle Editor

Mushroom and Parsley Soup

Make sure you’ve got space in your freezer if you’re not gonna eat this bad boy in one go because there won’t be mush-room for much else! Har har. More appetising than the name suggests.

Photo credit to mushroomtable.com

Serves 6. Freezable.

Ingredients

25g butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

40g plain flour

700ml water

Vegetable stock cube(s)

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

3 tablespoons fresh flat leave parsley, finely chopped

75ml single cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

Equipment:

Chopping board

Small knife

Kettle

Measuring jug

Big pan

Small frying pan

Hand blender

What you do

Chop up all your vegetables.

Boil the kettle and make up 700ml vegetable stock according to the stock cube’s instructions on the packet

Melt half the butter in the pan and add the onion and the garlic. Cook gently for 5 minutes with the lid on, taking care not to brown and colour.

Add the flour in one go and stir. It’ll look terrifying but believe in yourself – stir for 1 minute continuously.

Add the stock a bit at a time, keeping on stirring all the time.

Visualise how massive your arm muscles will be due to all this stirring at the end of the recipe. Imagine comparing to the rugby boys.

Add half the mushrooms and the parsley. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the mushrooms are soft.

Get the hand blender involved. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise everything in the pan until everything is smooth. You know the drill by now – don’t burn yourself or make a mess.

In a small frying pan, melt the rest of the butter and fry the other half of the mushrooms until they start to go brown.

Add to the big pan and return it to the heat. Simmer gentle for another 5 minutes.

Stir in the cream, season to taste and serve.

 

By Kitty Howie, Lifestyle Editor

Crammer's Butternut Squash and Pancetta Soup

Left your revision to the last minute again? Tired eyes from staring at your notes and computer screen in the early hours of the morning? Butternut squash is packed full of vitamin A so help out your eyes and revision with this slamming soup.

Photo credit to nature’s pride

Serves 4. Freezable.

Ingredients

100g pancetta, lardons, or sliced streaky bacon

4 fresh sage leaves, optional

Splash of white wine

50g butter

2 medium onions, finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 big butternut squash, roughly chopped

1 litre of water

125ml single cream

Equipment:

Chopping board

Small sharp knife

Big sharp knife

Spoon

1 frying pan

Small plate with a sheet of kitchen roll

1 big pan

Kettle

Hand blender

What you do

Chop and slice all vegetables. The butternut squash looks intimidating but it isn’t – the hardest thing about it is that the flesh is tough. To prepare it, use a big sharp knife and cut off the ends. Next, use a peeler to get rid of the skin. Sometimes I microwave the squash for 3 minutes before cutting off the ends because this makes peeling easier, but you don’t have to. Once peeled, use the big knife again to halve length ways. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Finally, use the big knife to roughly cube.

Heat up the frying pan and add either the pancetta, lardons or sliced streaky bacon until it’s crisp.

Add in the sage leaves and stir round. They should sizzle and crisp up.

After about a minute, remove the bacon and sage and place on the plate with the kitchen roll to soak up excess oil.

Fill and boil the kettle.

Return the frying pan back to the heat and add the wine and stir. This should bubble and steam up but keep stirring. This deglazes the pan and picks up all the tasty bacon juices in the pan – also makes it easier to wash up!

Melt the butter in the big pan. Add all the chopped up veg and sweat for about 10-12 minutes. The vegetables should be softened but not coloured.

Add the deglazed wine juices from the frying pan and stir.

Pour 1litre of boiled water from the kettle into the pan – most kettles have measuring lines on them already. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes with the lid on.

Get the hand blender involved. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise everything in the pan, taking care not to burn yourself / splash it up the walls.

Put the pan back on a gentle heat for 5 minutes. You can add the fried bacon and sage here, or leave as a garnish to top the soup at the end.

Swirl in the cream, season and serve.

 

Still unsure how to prepare the squash? Check out the ever enthusiastic Dani Spies youtube video here!

By Kitty Howie, Lifestyle Editor 

 

Leave your Roots Soup

In January, Lifestyle will be bringing you a yummy range of wallet friendly and seasonal soups (not the tinned kind!), guaranteed to keep out the cold and fill you with goodness for the term ahead!

That’s right, back to Uni after the Christmas break. Don’t worry though, this root vegetable soup is crammed full of comfort to help you adjust back to the lack of heating and the absence of Mum’s cooking.

If feeling adventurous you can use beetroot too!
Delicious roasted.
Photo credit to ediblealchemyfoods.com

Serves 4. Freezable.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 parsnip, diced

1 sweet potato, diced,

2 small carrots, diced

1 small red onion, diced

1 leek, sliced

2 sticks of celery, diced

500ml water

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper, to taste

Equipment:

Chopping board

Sharp knife

1 big pan

Kettle

Hand blender

What you do:

Wash all your veg – pay particular attention to the leek because they often have grit inside.

Chop up your veg so it’s all roughly the same size.

Fill the kettle and boil.

Heat up the olive oil in the pan and cook the veg for about 5 minutes until everything starts to smell good and begin to colour. Season to taste.

Pour 500ml of boiled water from the kettle into the pan – most kettles have measuring lines on them already. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Check the veg by prodding in your knife. Everything should be soft.

Time to get the hand blender involved. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise everything in the pan, taking care not to burn yourself / splash it up the walls.

Put the pan back on the heat. Stir in the cumin and simmer until piping hot.

 

Tip: If you have more time, roast the root veg and onions in the oven first! You’ll still have to follow the recipe with the celery as that doesn’t roast well – but it makes for an even more delicious version of this soup.

 

By Kitty Howie, Lifestyle Editor

Get psyched for soup in term two!

In January, Lifestyle will be bringing you a yummy range of wallet friendly and seasonal soups (not the tinned kind!), guaranteed to keep out the cold and fill you with goodness for the term ahead!

Photo credit to the Telegraph for these delicious looking winter soups!
Will yours look as good?

Soups are great to keep out the winter chill and sneak loads of healthiness into your alcohol strung out student body. Furthermore, soups are a fantastic way to keep the cost down of student eating – this is because the ingredients are normally very cheap, especially if you buy from a greengrocer or market, but also because you inevitably end up making a lot all in one go. This means that soup is a fantastic flatmate food – one batch is normally enough to feed at least four student stomachs. However, if your flatmates are more into pizza and refuse to touch anything remotely nutritious and you’ll be cooking just for yourself: fear not! In the vast majority of cases you can freeze the leftovers in portion-sized batches.

We were inspired by the fantastic A Soup for Every Day by the New Covent Garden Food Co, which is the basis for most of our recipes. We adapted them to make them more student friendly by tweaking the ingredients and providing simple and easy to understand instructions..

Maybe our special on soups will inspire you to pursue soup further – this book is a winner!

We did most of our vegetable shopping at Eat your Greens, Sidwell Street’s newest greengrocer. The fantastic central location and attractive pricing means it’s never been easier (or cheaper) to hit your five a day.

Google maps shows just how central Eat your Greens is!

Soups are easy to make and incredibly forgiving if something goes pear shaped. They don’t require much equipment, the most technical thing being a hand blender (which are cheaper than you think – check out Argos) so no excuses! Even if your main culinary accomplishment is beans on toast, don’t be afraid to get stuck in!

Look for our first recipe – Leave your Roots.

Chestnut Mushroom and Parsley

Make sure you’ve got space in your freezer for this bad boy because there won’t be mush-room for much else! Har har.

Serves 6. Freezable.

Ingredients

25g butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

40g plain flour

700ml water

Vegetable stock cube(s)

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

3 tablespoons fresh flat leave parsley, finely chopped

75ml single cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

Equipment:

Chopping board

Small knife

Kettle

Measuring jug

Big pan

Small frying pan

What you do

Chop up all your vegetables.

Boil the kettle and make up 700ml vegetable stock according to the stock cube’s instructions on the packet

Melt half the butter in the pan and add the onion and the garlic. Cook gently for 5 minutes with the lid on, taking care not to brown and colour.

Add the flour in one go stir. It’ll look terrifying but believe in yourself – stir for 1 minute continuously.

Add the stock a bit at a time, keeping on stirring all the time.

Visualise how massive your arm muscles will be due to all this stirring at the end of the recipe. Imagine comparing to the rugby boys.

Add half the mushrooms and the parsley. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the mushrooms are soft.

Get the hand blender involved. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise everything in the pan until everything is smooth. You know the drill by now – don’t burn yourself or make a mess.

In a small frying pan, melt the rest of the butter and fry the other half of the mushrooms until they start to go brown.

Add to the big pan and return it to the heat. Simmer gentle for another 5 minutes.

Stir in the cream, season to taste and serve.

Crammer’s Butternut Squash and Pancetta Soup

Left your revision to the last minute again? Tired eyes from staring at your notes and computer screen in the early hours of the morning? Butternut squash is packed full of vitamin A so help out your eyes and revision with this slamming soup.

Serves 4. Freezable.

Ingredients

100g pancetta, lardons, or sliced streaky bacon

4 fresh sage leaves, option

Splash of white wine

50g butter

2 medium onions, finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 big butternut squash, roughly chopped

1 litre of water

125ml single cream

Equipment:

Chopping board

Small sharp knife

Big sharp knife

Spoon

1 frying pan

Small plate with a sheet of kitchen

1 big pan

Kettle

Hand blender

What you do

Chop and slice all vegetables. The butternut squash looks intimidating but it isn’t – the hardest thing about it is that the flesh is tough. To prepare it, use a big sharp knife and cut off the ends. Next, use a peeler to get rid of the skin. Sometimes I microwave the squash for 3 minutes before cutting off the ends because this makes peeling easier, but you don’t have to. Once peeled, use the big knife again to halve length ways. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Finally, use the big knife to roughly cube.

Heat up the frying pan and add either the pancetta, lardons or sliced streaky bacon until it’s crisp.

Add in the sage leaves and stir round. They should sizzle and crisp up.

After about a minute, remove the bacon and sage and place on the plate with the kitchen roll to soak up excess oil.

Fill and boil the kettle.

Return the frying pan back to the heat and add the wine and stir. This should bubble and steam up but keep stirring. This deglazes the pan and picks up all the tasty bacon juices in the pan – also makes it easier to wash up!

Melt the butter in the big pan. Add the deglazed juices from the frying pan and all the chopped up veg and sweat for about 10-12 minutes. The vegetables should be softened but not coloured.

Add the deglazed wine juices from the frying pan and stir.

Pour 1litre of boiled water from the kettle into the pan – most kettles have measuring lines on them already. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes with the lid on.

Get the hand blender involved. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise everything in the pan, taking care not to burn yourself / splash it up the walls.

Put the pan back on a gentle heat for 5 minutes. You can add the fried bacon and sage here, or leave as a garnish to top the soup at the end.

Swirl in the cream, season and serve.