All hail the beginning of soup season. My ladle and bowls are at the ready. There’s eating and drinking in a good soup; a thick vegetable packed soup makes a fantastic supper.
Last week, after a four-hour car journey, I arrived home to find a pot of French onion soup on the hob. Despite it being past midnight, I just had to have some. As soon as I opened the front door I could smell it: the distinctive comforting smell of caramelised onions.
My nana always said that women long ago would start to fry an onion as soon as their husband came in the door from work, so that they knew dinner wouldn’t be too long. She would love to know that now I’m coming home to the fried onions.
Broth-style soups such as French onion can be assembled from store cupboard ingredients, as long as you have good stock in the freezer or some nice organic beef, chicken or vegetable stock cubes. Good quality miso paste is also fantastic and makes a lovely savoury alternative to a cup of tea on a cold day.
I love being able to get a teacup-sized portion of soup with lunch for a few euro extra. The Pepper Pot cafe in Powerscourt Centre in Dublin offers such a deal. As do Perry Street Market cafe in Cork and Ard Bia in Galway, to name but a few.
Coming from a farming background, we always had potatoes in the house and leeks in the garden, so potato and leek soup was a regular. My mother used to make incredibly creamy, buttery soup that we would all lap up, from our baby days to our teenage years. My own kids love it, too.
One October my mother was in hospital having one of my little sisters, so my dad was in charge of dinner. He boiled the potatoes so much that they turned to mush, so he salvaged the situation by adding plenty of milk and butter. We all loved it and talked about his legendary potato “soup” for weeks afterwards, much to the amusement of my mother.
Potato-based soups are appealing because they’re filling and creamy. They make for a perfectly bland base for any additional ingredients. I’ve added some sweet parsnip and salty bacon to mine. Along with a swirl of highly seasoned pistou, this bowl is a meal in itself. If you don’t have time to make the pistou, just scatter some finely chopped parsley, or use a ready-made fresh pesto. Roasted red pepper tastes great with it.
If you go to the effort of making soup, do warm the bowls, especially shallow, wide bowls. Place them in a warm oven or rinse in hot water before ladling the soup in.
Soup makes the perfect leftovers for lunch the following day and freezes really well. Just leave room for the liquid to expand.
To make this soup even nicer, add a few star anise to the stock while cooking, remove and then puree for a subtle aniseed sweetness. Then top the crispy bacon croutons with a plump fried scallop. It’s a perfect example of really simple food that tastes amazing.
PARSNIP AND POTATO SOUP: SERVES 6
The five ingredients
- 1 large onion, chopped finely
- 350g parsnip, peeled and cubed
- 480g potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
- 20g parsley, roughly chopped
- 200g maple-cured rashers
From the pantry
- 100g butter or olive oil
- 1½ pints stock or water
Method
Place a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Add 100g butter and the onion. Allow to melt and sauté the onion until soft. Add the parsnip and potatoes. Stir to coat in the butter. Pour over the stock or water and bring to the boil. Simmer until the vegetables are soft, then blitz with a stick blender until smooth and creamy. Season to taste.
Meanwhile fry or grill the rashers until crispy. Chop finely and set aside.
Place the chopped parsley and 150ml of olive oil into a jug. Season generously with plenty of sea salt and black pepper. Blitz until fairly smooth.
Ladle the soup into warm bowls, top with the bacon and drizzle with the parsley pistou.
- Every Thursday we'll tweet and post the five ingredients on irishtimes.com so you can have them ready on Friday. Email givemefive@irishtimes.com with your own suggestions for recipes
