Well, summer soup could be lots of things so we should be more specific: lettuce. It is in abundance around now (late June early July); the sweet young leaves have been around for about 6 or seven weeks and now perhpas we just cannot keep up with eating them all.
So, make some soup and have it with an olive bagel or put it in the freezer for another day.
There is a theory that goes something like this: lettuce soup is tasteless and thin. But this applies to certain situations only and these are known as ‘badly made soup situations’ – the recipe below is outside of the tasteless zone, falling well within the really tasty.
- Take about 450 grams of lettuce leaf – this can be a single variety or many. No need to be exact about the weight.
- Wash and prepare and pout to one side.
- Peal crush and chop five cloves of garlic
- Fine chop a medium sized onion
- Add a good glug of olive oil (you can use other oil too) to a soup pan (heavy based if you have one so that you can slow cook with ease)
- When the oil is warmed add the garlic and turn the heat down. Leave for 5 minutes stiring occasionally
- Add the onion; add a good pinch of black pepper and some salt (a teaspoon maybe)
- Leave to slow cook for 10 minutes
- Add a fine chopped potato or two (depending on how big they are and how thick you would like the soup
- Leave to slow cook and cover, stir occassionally to prevent sticking to the bottom and dont be shy about adding a bit more oil if you feel you need to
- Add the lettuce and a litre of vegetable stock (I used vegan bouillon powder but any stock will do fine)
- Gently turn up the heat and cover for about 5 minutes
- Leave to cool and then put in a blender
You can serve hot or cold
Try it with a spoon of with cream cheese, some chopped sorrel or a sprinkle of gamazio and an olive bagel from The Tower of Bagel on the side
Sheffield Organic Growers:
I have more capacity and can starting baking other jewish specialist breads. You might expect Challah is on the list but Gerry does a fine Challah already; so that can wait. Bialys are the thing; of which more another time.
Found a token in your bag? Get a free bag the next week – here’s how:
Find a token in your bagel bag on Sunday and get another bag, free!
Not something i thought i would enjoy but i thought i should experiment and I was surprised. A subtle sweetness which is followed by a mist of heat moving from the throat to the front of the mouth.