You'll hardly ever catch me ordering soup in a restaurant – there is bound to be something more exciting on the menu, I tell myself, abit like a stubborn child who decides he or she doesn't like something without ever trying it.
This is irrational, of course, not least because some of my all-time favourite meals are liquid and come in abowl: asam laksa, corn chowder, mymother's gazpacho, mydad's cold yoghurty concoctions, harira – Icould live on any of those.
I think my prejudice stems from soups that came into being as a way of using up unpopular or leftover ingredients. Many cooks, including some serious chefs, treat the soup pot as a kind of culinary compost heap into which they chuck whatever happens to be lying around in the hope that it will miraculously be transformed. Alas, the transformation that takes place is often one of decent, distinct ingredients into a uniform slosh of no clear nature. Ionce had a pea soup (in a long-gone restaurant) that nearly put me off that great dish for life – it was so sickly sweet and stodgy I would not be surprised if leftover bits of cake and pastry crusts had been added to the unhappy, thick, grey mass.
A good soup needs to be a well-thought-out affair. It has to look attractive, and balance its textures andflavours, just as any dish does. More importantly – even more so than with solid food – it must clearly taste of its ingredients, leaving no room for niggling doubts about whatwent into it and why.
Chicken and buttermilk
This soup is great both cold – the warm fried chicken provides a great contrast – and hot. If you go for the latter, warm it up very gently after stirring in the buttermilk, to avoid curdling. Serves four.
3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
1 large onion, chopped into 2cm dice
3 small whole garlic cloves, peeled
4 free-range chicken drumsticks or thighs, skinned
2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
Zest of 1 lemon, half of it shaved into strips, the rest grated
Salt and white pepper
About 800ml chicken stock
250ml buttermilk (or whole milk)
15g each fresh basil, coriander and mint leaves, roughly shredded
½ tbsp sumac
Heat two tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic on a low heat for five to 10 minutes, until soft but not coloured. Add the chicken, potatoes, lemon strips, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of white pepper. Pour in stock just to cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and the chicken is cooked.
Remove and discard the lemon strips, and transfer the chicken to abowl. Blitz the soup until smooth and leave to cool down. Once cool, stir in the grated lemon zest and buttermilk. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and refrigerate until cold.Take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before serving, so it's chilled but not fridge-cold.
Just before serving, shred the chicken off the bones, and fry the shredded meat in the remaining olive oil on a high heat until golden and crispy. Divide the soup among the bowls, add the shredded chicken and herbs, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with sumac and serve..
Tomato and sourdough soup (V)
My mom makes some mean tomato soups – this unassuming version is the best. Serves four.
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, crushed
750ml vegetable stock
4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
400ml tin chopped Italian tomatoes
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 slice sourdough bread
2 tbsp chopped coriander, plus extrato finish
Salt and black pepper
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan, add the onion and sauté, stirring often, for five minutes, until translucent. Add the cumin and garlic, and fry for two minutes, then add the stock, both fresh and tinned tomatoes, sugar, a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes, adding the bread halfway through. Add the coriander, then pulse-blitz the soup a few times to break down the tomatoes abit – you want them a little coarse and chunky. (This soup should be quite thick, but add a little water tothin it down if you prefer.) Servedrizzled with oil and garnished with fresh coriander.
Chilled fennel soup with halloumi croutons (V)
Serves six.
70ml olive oil, plus extra to finish
2½ tsp fennel seeds
3 large fennel bulbs, roughly chopped into 2cm dice
2 leeks, roughly chopped into 1cmslices
100ml arak, ouzo or Pernod
1.1 litres water
2 tbsp chopped thyme
Zest of 1 lemon, half of it shaved into strips, the rest grated
20g chopped dill
10g chopped mint
5g chopped coriander
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
200g Greek yoghurt
80g dry breadcrumbs
Sunflower oil, for frying
200g halloumi, cut into 2cm dice
1 egg, beaten
Salt and white pepper
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the fennel seeds for 30 seconds, until they start giving off their aroma. Add the chopped fennel and leeks, and sauté on a medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet – don't let them take on any colour, so add a little water if need be. Pour in the arak, raise the heat and cook for two minutes, so the alcohol evaporates. Add the water, half the thyme, the lemon strips, three-quarters of ateaspoon of salt and some white pepper, and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon, blitz the soup with a hand-held blender (or in a food processor) and leave to cool.
Once cool, stir in the grated lemon zest, herbs, garlic and yoghurt. Taste, adjust the seasoning, then refrigerate. About 20 minutes before serving, take the soup out of the fridge so it's chilled but not fridge-cold.
To make the croutons, mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining thyme. Pour enough oil into a small saucepan so that it comes 2.5cm up the sides and place on medium heat. Once bubbles begin to rise to the surface, turn down the heat to medium-low and leave for a minute. Dip the halloumi in beaten egg, shakeoff any excess and then roll inthe thyme breadcrumbs. Deep-fry in batches for a minute, until golden-brown – make sure the oil isn't so hot that the cheese sizzles vigorously when it goes in. Transfer the cooked croutons to kitchen towel to drain.
Divide the soup among six bowls, drop in a few warm croutons, drizzle with olive oil and serve.
Carrot and coconut soup (V)
Serves six.
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
40g ghee (or clarified butter)
4 shallots, peeled and sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
5cm ginger, peeled and sliced
1 whole stick lemongrass, pounded
3 kaffir lime leaves
Salt
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm dice
½ butternut squash, peeled and cutinto 2cm dice
1.1 litres vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk
3 tbsp lime juice
4 tbsp chopped coriander, to serve
1½ limes, quartered, to serve
Put the seeds in asmall frying panand dry toast on low heat for threeto four minutes. Transfer toaspice grinder or pestle and mortar, and grind to a powder.
Melt the ghee in a large pan and add the ground spices, shallots, chilli, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves and a teaspoon of salt. Cookon medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring often, until the shallots are very soft. Add the carrots, squash and stock, and cook on a low simmer for 20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Remove the lime leaves and lemongrass, and blitz the soup untilvery smooth. Stir in the coconut milk and lime juice, adjust the seasoning to taste and serve garnished with coriander and a wedge of lime
