Food for Thought with Suzanne Dunaway
Spring soup velouté
I love throwing all my soup ingredients into a large pot, adding home-made chicken broth and letting the whole shebang simmer for about 30-40 minutes.
Add a squeeze of lemon, taste for salt, add a pinch of ground espelette pepper, a little turmeric and voilà, a lovely spring soup to be eaten hot or cold.
I make up my soups as I go, turning to whatever is in the fridge or I have found at the open market where so many incredible vegetables abound.
Any flageolets you like, cooked, will do for the bean part. I love lingots, but garbanzos will work as well. It is all going to be whizzed up anyway to a smooth-textured lovely soup.
My favorite vegetables are in the recipe, but of course you may choose your favorites and come up with a new taste every time!
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 good splash of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 leek, sliced thin
- 1 sweet onion, chopped medium
- 1 large potato, chopped medium
- 1 fresh garlic stalk, white part only (if it’s spring and they are available), otherwise 3 garlic cloves, chopped coarse
- 1 carrot, sliced medium
- 2 cups of cooked lingot beans or cooked, prepared white beans from a jar, doesn’t matter
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- Pinch of ground espelette pepper or a dash of purée de piments
- Chicken broth to cover
- Salt and fresh ground pepper
- Juice of half a lemon
Method
Put all of the ingredients into one large soup pot.
Simmer on low heat for 30-40 minutes or until all the ingredients are soft.
With wand mixer, whiz the soup until it is very smooth and a lovely color, thanks to the turmeric.
Chill and serve with chopped coriander or mint or serve hot with a dollop of Greek yogurt in the bowl.
Meet the chef
P-O Life reader, Suzanne Dunaway, has cooked since she was 5 years old, when she made cinnamon pinwheels from her mother’s pastry dough.
She LOVES to cook. Some might say she LIVES to cook. The smells, the tastes, the textures…
She is a firm believer in simplicity and creates her recipes in the ethos of ‘anyone can cook’.
After years of experience in her own kitchen, cooking schools and private classes all over the world, in this weekly blog, Suzanne shares with us her PO-inspired creations.
With many strings to her bow, she is also an artist and columnist, with two published cookbooks.
Get a copy of her ‘No Need to Knead: Handmade Artisan Breads in 90 Minutes’ here
Or her 5 star rated book ‘Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen’ here
All content and recipes are copyright of Suzanne Dunaway.
