Soup is as old as the hills. Throwing whatever ingredients came to hand into a pot and boiling them up made for a cheap and nutritious meal. Nothing went to waste from bones to vegetable peelings – a genuine case of a little going a long way. Broth, soup or gruel was known as peasant food with every country or culture having its own signature soup – Italian Minestrone, Spanish Gazpacho, Russian Borscht, Middle Eastern Harira, Japanese Miso Soup, Indian Mulligatawny.
And so it is in lockdown that soup really comes into its own. It is cheap to make, is filling and nutritious, you can use whatever you have to hand and the variations are endless. Those peasants knew what they were doing.
Prepare the following ingredients: 1 onion, 1 leek, 1 stick celery, 1 carrot, 2 handfuls wild garlic and 75g dried soup mix or a mix of lentils, split peas and barley or spelt.Start by lightly sautéing the onion in 1 x 15ml (table)spoon olive, rape, groundnut or other vegetable oil.Add the other vegetables and dried soup mix to the pan with 300 ml vegetable stock eg bouillon powder or a vegetable stock cube dissolved in the water.Simmer 30-40 minutes with lid on pan until vegetables are soft, the beans are cooked and the broth has thickened with the starch from the beans and barley. Add a few chilli flakes to turn up the heat and any fresh or dried herbs to pep up the flavour if you wish.Make it a wholesome meal with bread or toast …or fry up some croutons with oil and dried herbs …
or indulge in a savoury Wild Garlic Scone for an extra wild garlic hit.
