🥘  Carole’s potato soup…

🍴 4    ⌚ 40 mins     🍳1     £ 1.60    7 ingredients          

Delicious, inexpensive and one of the easiest soups to make. There are many recipes for potato soup and this one has a broth like consistency and wonderful flavour. Use it as a base recipe and simply add cooked chicken or bacon towards the end of cooking.

Historically one of the cheapest ingredients, potatoes were first grown in the Andes 7000 years ago. The starchy tuber imported in to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century and today there are more than 5000 varieties of spuds.

Did You Know? Potatoes are virtually fat free with only 0.2mg of fat in a medium sized potato. They are a good source of fibre and contain vitamin C and B.

Vary the vegetables and herbs to suit yourself. Parsnips, swede and butternut squash all go well. You might like to add some beans or grains, just don’t forget the spuds!

Ingredients:

• 2 large carrots
• 2 large potatoes
• 1 large red onion
• 3 basil leaves
• Handful chopped parsley
• 2 low salt vegetable stock cubes
• 4 tbsp olive oil

Step by step:

1. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes into large chunks. Chop the onion into smaller pieces
2. Place 2 tbsp of oil in the pan and fry off the onion until translucent . 
3. Melt the 2 stock cubes in 500 ml boiling water and add to the pan with the potatoes, carrots and basil. Cook until the vegetables are soft Add the chopped parsley and serve with half a tbsp of oil on top

Notes & tips:

This soup will keep refrigerated for 2-3 days and freezes well for 3-4 months. Labelling freezer portions clearly with a description and date frozen makes it much easier when you come back to the freezer a few weeks later.

Defrost the frozen soup completely and re-heat in a saucepan (or microwave) until piping hot. You can thin the soup with a little extra hot water or stock, or make it creamy by adding a little Elmlea or single cream. 

Use any potatoes you like, firm ones such as new or baby potatoes will hold their shape well, Charlottes are ideal. 

This soup is a great a next day meal as the flavours get even better. Use leeks instead of onion and add garlic if you like. Add some cooked chicken or bacon if you like. I love to add leftover parsnips, cooked cabbage or Brussels sprouts. Sometimes a finely chopped and deseeded chilli is nice.

Play around with the herbs, dill, thyme, chives all go well. Add extra heat with chilli flakes or a sprinkle of paprika

We used Kallo very low salt cubes (£1.79 most supermarkets) with excellent results.