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Vegetable Soup
Serves 6 Prep 15 min Cook 1 hr 10 min Total 1 hr 25 min Type Meal Origin British

Vegetable Soup

A British vegetable soup: leek, potato, carrot, celery and onion simmered in chicken or vegetable stock till tender.

Serves 6 Prep 15 minutes Cook 70 minutes Units Rate

Overview

A nourishing chunky vegetable soup that gets cooked at the end of the week when there's an awkward collection of half-vegetables in the fridge that needs a home. You build a base of onion, garlic and celery softened slow in butter, then add whatever's around: squash, carrots, courgettes, leeks, leftover green beans, a tin of cannellini or butter beans. A light tomato broth pulls everything together, and the soup simmers gently until the vegetables are just tender. Best the next day, by which point the flavours have settled into each other. Eaten with crusty bread, a wedge of cheese on the side, the lid back on the pot for tomorrow's lunch.

Ingredients

Base

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Aromatics

  • 1 leek (halved length-ways and chopped)
  • 1 onion (small, diced)

Vegetables

  • 2 carrots (chopped)
  • 2 celery stalks (chopped)
  • 1 courgette (large, chopped)
  • 400 grams butternut squash (cut into 2 cm cubes)
  • 2 potatoes (cut into 2 cm cubes)

Seasonings

  • 1 tablespoon tomato purée

Liquid/Broth

  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • 1 ¼ litres water

Other

  • 150 grams dried kidney beans (or borlotti)
  • 3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (freshly chopped)

Method

Stage 1 - Prepare beans

  1. Put the beans in a large bowl, cover with water and leave to soak overnight.
  2. Rinse, then transfer to a saucepan, cover with cold water and cook for 45 minutes, or until just tender. Drain.

Stage 2 - Cook aromatics

  1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, and add the leek and onion.
  2. Cook over a medium heat for 2 - 3 minutes, until they begin to soften.
  3. Add the carrot, celery and courgette and cook for 3 - 4 minutes.
  4. Add the tomato purée and stir for 1 minute.

Stage 3 - Simmer soup

  1. Pour in the vegetable stock and 1 ¼ litres of water, bring to the boil and then immediately reduce the heat to low.
  2. Simmer for 20 minutes.
  3. Add the butternut squash, parsley and beans.
  4. Simmer for a further 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the beans are cooked.
  5. Season well.

Notes

  • Beans: Soak overnight for tenderness; canned can substitute but adjust cooking.
  • Vegetables: Cut evenly for uniform cooking.
  • Stock: Vegetable keeps it vegetarian; chicken adds richness.
  • Parsley: Add at end to preserve color.

Serving

Serve hot with crusty bread.

Storage

  • Refrigerate up to 3 days; flavors improve.
  • Freezes well for up to 2 months.
  • Best eaten warm.

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The lamb cousin of cottage pie, and the original of the two (cottage pie came later as a beef variant when lamb was harder to find). You brown lamb mince with onion, carrot and celery, then simmer with stock, tomato purée, Worcestershire and rosemary until the gravy is thick enough to hold a spoon upright. Top with garlic-butter mash piled in rough peaks that catch and crisp in the oven, and bake until the surface is deep gold. The lamb gives it a heavier, more savoury character than cottage pie's beef. That's what marks it as shepherd's rather than cottage. Eaten with peas, a spoonful of mint sauce on the side if you're being traditional, and a glass of bitter or a strong red.

British 1 hour 25 minutes Serves4-6