Full of flavour and easily adapted to whatever vegetables you have to use up. This quick, easy and delicious soup will keep colds at bay.

Make the soup in a saucepan using a stick blender, or use a Thermomix©

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 2 large mushrooms, chopped
• 1 courgette chopped 
• 1 potato, chopped
• 6 tbsp broad beans, podded
• 1 vegetable stock cube 
• 1 heaped tsp Harissa
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbs tomato puree
• 1 tin butter beans, drained
• A good handful of chopped parsley and mint

Step by step:

1. Add 2 tbsp of oil to your pot and sweat off all the chopped vegetables and cook for approximately 10 minutes, or 5 minutes in your Thermomix© (120, reverse blade).
2. Add 1 tbsp Harissa and the tin of chopped tomatoes. Refill the tomato tin with water and add the stock cube and add that to the pot with the tomato puree. 
3. Add the broad beans and cook for another 10 minutes
4. Add the butter beans and cook for another 5 minutes
5. Check your potatoes are cooked. Add the chopped parsley and mint (reserving a little for garnish) and stir
6. Serve in warm bowls with a good dollop of crème fraîche or greek yoghurt, if you like.

Tips:

• Be sure to rinse your butter beans unless you want a thicker soup
• We used Kallo organic vegetable stock cubes with excellent results.
• Use a good helping of chopped parsley to garnish
• Broad beans are added during the last ten minutes and assumes you are leaving the outer skins on them as we have done here. If you take the broad beans out of their skins, add them during the last five minutes.

What is harissa?

A hot chilli paste made with red chillies, peppers, garlic, oil and vinegar (or lemon juice). It is easy to make, but we have used a shop bought one in this recipe.

Carole’s quick minestrone soup HERE

Ingredients:

• 5 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• Olive oil
• 3 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 stock pot / cube
• Handful of chopped parsley
• 3 tbsp single cream
• Pepper for seasoning

Step by step:

1. Chop the bacon and fry in a pan with a splash of oil. Remove half the bacon and place it in a saucepan.
2. Continue frying the rest of the bacon until crispy. Set aside for use as garnish.
3. Add the chopped onion and 2 tbsp oil, the peeled and chopped parsnips to the saucepan and cook for about 5 mins. Add 1 litre of hot stock and continue cooking until the parsnips and onions are soft.
4. Blend with a stick blender, stir through the cream and chopped parsley. 
5. Serve in warm bowls topped with the crispy bacon and a swirl of cream.

Tips:

We used smoked bacon, but pancetta or chorizo make nice alternatives.

Carole’s Parsnip and Pear Soup

This traditional French way of cooking a roast chicken makes that most of the garlic’s rich, sweet flavour because the cloves are cooked in their skins. The chopped celery, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme make this one of the most delicious ways to enjoy one of life’s ultimate comfort foods.

Ingredients:

• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 large organic chicken (approx 1.6kg)
• 2 large sprigs of rosemary
• 2 large sprigs of thyme
• 2-3 large garlic bulbs
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 large carrot, chopped or diced
• 1 small onion, cut into wedges

Step by step:

1. Preheat your oven to 200C / gas mark 6
2. Place the chopped celery, 1 sprig of each herb and a small handful of unpeeled garlic cloves into the chicken cavity.
3. Place half the remaining cloves in a lidded casserole, sit the chicken on top, brush with the olive oil and season well. Arrange the bay leaves, carrot, onion and remaining herbs and garlic cloves around the chicken.
4. Drizzle with olive oil, cover and roast for 1 hour 20 minutes or until the bird is tender and the juices run clear when the flesh between the legs and body with a skewer or knife.
5. A great way to serve the chicken is with slices of crusty toasted bread spread with the soft flesh of the garlic cloves. Alternatively, whisk the garlic flesh with the juices from the bottom of the casserole to make a delicious creamy sauce.

Tips:

Add a glug of white wine or Marsala at step 4 if you like and if you want to shove half a lemon in the birds cavity, all well and good. Having said that, this dish is so flavoursome, these additions are really not necessary.

We had several pieces of green and red cabbage to use up, so quickly stir fried them as a nice vegetable accompaniment. Use a flavoured oil like Filippo Berio’s chilli or garlic oil, Waitrose £6.75 / 250ml.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 350g leeks
• 1 pack lardons
• 380g mushrooms, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 50g (2 slices) of crusty white bloomer, blitzed into breadcrumbs
• 300g spaghetti
• 1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
• 50g parmesan, grated
• A handful of fresh basil

Step by step:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the leeks and bacon, fry for 5-6 minutes until softened and just starting to brown.
2. Add the mushrooms, increase the heat to medium-high and fry for another 8-10 minutes until golden and tender. Stir in the garlic and oregano, season and fry for another minute, until the garlic is fragrant.
3. Heat the remaining oil in a separate frying pan and fry the breadcrumbs over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently until they are crunchy and golden. Season to taste and transfer to a plate and set aside. When cool, stir in the grated parmesan. 
4. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti to the pack instructions and drain well. Stir it into the mushrooms and leeks and toss well. Stir in the lemon zest and juice and scatter the basil and crispy parmesan breadcrumbs over to serve.

Tips:

• Use panko breadcrumbs if you prefer.
• Leave out the lardons for vegetarian option.
• A sprinkle of chilli flakes is good if you like
• Instead of stirring in the lemon juice and zest, serve with lemon wedges if you prefer

Wonderful comfort food, a creamy rice pudding was always served in our house with a swirl of jam. Aarroz con leche is popular all over Spain and often sweetened with honey instead of sugar.

Ingredients:

• 80g dried cranberries or dried cherries, or a mixture
• 50ml rum
• 50g butter plus extra for greasing the dish
• 75g caster sugar
• 125g pudding rice
• 700ml milk
• 200ml double cream
• 1/4 tsp vanilla paste
• Nutmeg

Step by step:

1. Preheat your oven to 140C / Gas 1. Soak the raisins or other fruit in the rum and set to one side. Butter a 1 – 1.5 litre baking dish.
2. Melt the butter in a pan and add the sugar. Gently dissolve over a low heat. Stir in the rice until well coated and cook for another minute or two. Now add the milk, cream and vanilla paste and bring to the boil.
3. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and gently stir in the booze soaked raisins. Top with a grating of nutmeg. Bake for 75 minutes until its golden and cooked through.

Notes:

1. If you prefer to use a vanilla pod and seeds, simply split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds in place of the vanilla paste. The split vanilla pod makes a nice decoration if you are serving the rice pudding in the baking dish to the table.

As temperatures plummet, cook this hearty soup. Stuffed with vitamins and flavoursome herbs, this is a winter warmer to keep colds at bay.

Make the soup in a saucepan and use a stick blender, or use a Thermomix©

Ingredients:

• 1 pack smokey lardons
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell red pepper, chopped and deseeded
• herbes de Provence
• 1 tin / jar cannellini beans
• 1 stock cube (vegetable or chicken)
• 1 tbsp tomato puree + 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• chopped parsley (lots of it)

Step by step:

1. Fry off the lardons and chopped onion, until softened and starting to brown
2. Add the chopped bell pepper and a good sprinkle herbes de Provence, the flour and chopped parsley. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and 500ml hot stock
3. Cook until the peppers are soft. Add the cannellini beans and cook for another five minutes.
4. Season to taste, and serve with a swirl of olive oil and crusty bread

Tips:

• Be sure to rinse your beans unless you want a thicker soup
• We used Kallo organic vegetable stock cubes with excellent results.
• Use a good helping of chopped parsley to garnish