Carrot and Coriander Soup

It’s no secret that I’ve been trying to teach Roger how to cook. Unfortunately, my success rate isn’t as high as I would have hoped; a confidence knock has kept him back after a misspell on my account led to him using a whole bag of flour (how could he use a kilo of flour?) to try to bring pizza dough back to a knead-able consistency when too much water was specified in the recipe. One thing I have learnt is that there is no room for initiative in the novice cook. If a recipe stated “add poison”, I’m pretty sure Roger would, because the recipe said so. Despite these setbacks, I still enjoy making Roger watch me cook, even if he doesn’t, in the vain hope that one day he’ll realise that he can do it too! I know, it won’t ever happen, but please humour me.

In the evenings I have taken to making up a challah dough for dimple rolls, knocking them out in the morning and leaving to rise before serving them hot from the oven with this soup, our new favourite. It’s very fast, easy and cheap to make.

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 stick celery

400-500g carrots (around 4-5 medium sized should do)

1 small-ish potato (around 200g)

Knob butter/olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 ½ chicken stock cubes, dissolved in 1 ½ pints of boiling water

Ground coriander

Single cream.

Method:

1)      Peel and roughly chop all of your vegetables.

2)      In a large pot melt a knob of butter or a slosh of olive oil over a medium heat before tipping in the onion and celery, frying for a few minutes until the onion turns translucent.

3)      Add the carrots and potato and sprinkle in approximately two teaspoons of ground coriander.

4)      Add the bay leaf before pouring over the stock. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the carrot has softened.

5)      Take the soup off the heat, remove the bay leaf and carefully blitz to a puree with a hand blender.

6)      Season to taste with salt, pepper and more ground coriander if necessary.

When the soup is ready to serve, I like to add in some single cream for some velvety-richness. Once in bowls though, an artful swirl of cream is an absolute must!