Red Pepper And Sweet Potato Soup

I'm fanatical about soups, and today I made a red pepper and sweet potato soup — the perfect winter warmer.

Recipe (3/5 bowls)

Roast in the oven at 200 degrees C. 500gm thinly sliced sweet potatoes, two roughly chopped red onions, a roughly chopped red pepper and two teaspoons of ground cumin. (Coat everything with a good measure of olive oil first.)

After about 40 minutes, when the vegetables are nicely charred at the edges, remove from the oven and liquidise in a large saucepan, after adding between one half-litre and one litre (depending on how thick or thin you like the soup) of hot vegetable stock.

Season to taste.

This is also good with chorizo.

In The Soup

There are certain classic combinations for soups which just seem to work together perfectly - leek and potato, for example. Another one is lentil and tomato. I made a lentil and tomato soup yesterday - and it was ideal for fighting off the the November chill (since I returned to England a week ago the weather has been atrocious - cold, grey and wet. And I immediately came down with a virus).

We love soups round here. They are so versatile, nutritious and tasty, so cheap and easy to make. There are limitless ways of making just a humble vegetable soup - and each time what you make always ends up a little different. Here's the recipe for yesterday's lentil and tomato soup - but I hesitate to give exact quantities as it all depends on how much spice you like, how thick you want the soup etc. (I have another recipe for this soup from The Cranks Recipe Book which results in a much thinner soup and contains no spices at all - but it's equally delicious.)

Sweat a finely chopped onion in some olive oil until soft. Add a mixture of ground spices (perhaps something like 1 tsp of ground coriander, 1 tsp of ground cumin, 1 tsp of ground turmeric, a pinch of ground cloves) and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the washed, red lentils - I think I put in around 300 gm - and a litre of vegetable stock. Cover, bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are mushy. Empty in a couple of cans of tomatoes (you can use all sorts of combinations here - for instance fresh, ripe tomatoes and tomato juice - but if you use fresh tomatoes add these earlier) and simmer a while longer. Season to taste and it's ready! You can intensify the flavour if you want by adding things like a little yeast extract or some tomato purée. I actually cooked some chunks of potato in it as well. The whole soup has a kind of Indian dal feel about it. (I suppose you could also make a similar soup with chickpeas.) You may wish to serve it garnished with sautéed fresh chilli and coriander leaves.

Incidentally, one thing I used to do when cooking simple meals in the gîtes and albergues on the Camino was to use a cheap, packet vegetable soup as a base - and supplement it with a few fresh vegetables and perhaps some pasta, garlic, yoghurt etc. A boring packet soup can be totally transformed in this way. A good tip for flavour is to slowly caramelise an onion and fry off some finely chopped vegetables first before adding the liquid.

Soup And A Curry

Yes, food - to continue the theme of the last post. I'm passionate about it. I love shopping for food, preparing it, cooking it, eating it. Even growing it. I started the vegetable garden very late this year - too late for the usual onions and potatoes I normally plant - but the runner beans, courgettes and sweetcorn are now coming up nicely.

It always amazes me how, at a time when we know so much about diet, nutrition and the direct relation between good food and good health, at a time when we're awash with cookery books and TV programmes, we're still a nation of instant frozen meal buyers and consumers of mediocre, fattening pub-chain fodder and crap takeaways.

Proper food needn't take an age to cook in the evenings - quick home-made soups, stir-fries, fish dishes and scores of other recipes can be ready in half-an-hour. Only yesterday I made a delicious soup by simmering in some stock a couple of potatoes, a couple of carrots, some runner beans, some mushrooms, a pile of shredded cabbage, some celeriac and loads of celery. A little or a lot of seasoning depending on your taste, a quick whizz after the vegetables have softened - and you have a fresh, tasty vegetable soup which can't possibly be reproduced in a packet or tin.

Even dishes like curries can be quick (though some Goan friends we once knew seemed to take all day to prepare theirs). Here's a recipe for chicken bhuna I often make. Raid your spice cupboard and prepare a marinade of yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, turmeric, paprika, ground cumin, ground chilli, crushed cardamom (remove the husk first) and salt. Quantities are very much up to you. Experiment to find the amount of each spice you like. Add to the marinade strips or cubes of fresh, uncooked chicken and leave (several hours in the fridge would be ideal but I can never be bothered). Meanwhile fry some onion in a pan, add some rice (pilau is preferable but any rice will do) and also garlic, cardamom pods, fennel seeds and a cinnamon stick for flavouring, then pour in cold water to the level of 1 inch above the rice. Boil for 5 minutes, then cover with a lid and leave for 20 minutes. This will give you soft, steamed, spicy, flavoursome rice. You then serve this with the marinade-coated chicken you'll have fried 10 minutes beforehand. If you want, you can sprinkle garam masala and chopped coriander over the cooked chicken. And accompany with warm naan bread and a cucumber salad. Absolutely delicious.