Clear Winter Vegetable Soup

Soup. Soothing, tasty, more filling than you’d expect and easy to make. I’ve covered a white winter vegetable soup in these pages alredy. The other week, when I went for lunch with a friend of mine, we had a clear winter vegetable soup that I liked so much I decided to copy it.

I use baking potatoes for this recipe. The starch in the potatoe is what gives the soup liquer its silky texture, so a floury potato, one meant for baking or roasting, is the best option.

Serves: 4. Prep: 5 minutes. Cooking time: 30 minutes.
Stores: For up to 3 days in the fridge, for up to 3 months in the freezer.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions, about 200 grams
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 3 celery stalks, about 100 grams (optional)
• 1 baking potato, about 200 grams
• 3 carrots, about 200 grams
• 1 sprig fresh thyme (optional)
• 0.5 head Chinese leaf
• 1-1.5 litre boiling water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Tools

• Chopping board
• Knife
• Soup pot
• Wooden spoon
• Fork or toothpick

Method

1. Chop the onion and garlic.
2. Heat the olive oil.
3. Soften the onions and garlic.
4. Meanwhile, chop the celery, potato and carrots into 0.5cm cubes (larger cubes are fine, but they take longer to cook) and add to the onions.
5. Cook for a few minutes to soften the celery and get a little colour on the potatoes.
6. Add half a litre of water and stir.
7. Simmer for a few minutes on medium heat.
8. Add the thyme (if using) but remove after a minute or two. It gives off its flavour quickly and could over-power the flavours of the vegetables.
9. The vegetables are ready when the carrots are soft enough – test them with a toothpick or fork. adding more water to make the soup the consistency you want.
10. Finely chop the Chinese leaf and add to the soup.
11. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
12. Season to taste.

Variations

• Add grains: A couple of handfuls of pearl barley turns this simple soup into a vegan Scotch broth and makes it more filling.
• Add tomatoes: For a different flavour, add a couple of chopped tomatoes to the soup.
• Add parsnip: Any root vegetables can be used for this type of soup. If you have swede or parsnip, chop it up and add.