Sweetcorn & Chilli Soup - making soup for teenagers!

In the latest Good Food Magazine, I spotted a particularly scrummy looking bowl of soup.

Now I completely love sweetcorn in all its incarnations - from corn on the cob through to polenta.  I have also recently discovered how well sweetcorn goes with chilli - and this soup looked to be just perfectly put together.

You know how you read some recipes and you've got a vague idea how it's going to taste, but you're not quite sure?  This recipe was one that you could almost taste the soup as you read down the list of ingredients - basically, because it is little more than onion, chilli and sweetcorn in vegetable stock.

I knew I'd have two teenagers to feed on Saturday lunchtime and this seemed to me to provide perfect teenager-filling ammunition.  I know that son & heir loves sweetcorn, but wasn't sure about his friend, D.  One thing I did know about D though, was that he has eaten absolutely everything I've ever put in front of him in the past - so I was fairly hopeful.

I purposely didn't tell them that I was making the soup for them.  I've found that if you tell them you're expecting them to eat what you're making, it's tantamount to saying "diss my soup, why don't you?" and they'd have banana sandwiches or some such.

I was hoping that the smell of it cooking would be sufficient to get their taste buds interested - and so it proved.

I opted for extra parsley, instead of double cream

I was tucking into my bowl of soup when they emerged from son & heir's recording studio (a.k.a. his bedroom) on the prowl for lunch.  "There's soup in the saucepan, if you want some", says I.  The sound of the lid being taken from the top of the saucepan is testament to a certain degree of interest, then the question "what is it?".  Having told them, the next sound was that of soup bowls being marshalled.  Success.

I can't begin to tell you, how completely and utterly chuffed I was, to have provided them both with a home-cooked lunch.  Quite ridiculously so.  After all, the soup really took no time at all to make, it's only a wonder I haven't managed it previously.

Anyway, getting back to the soup itself, the flavour (even though I used frozen corn, instead of fresh) was sweet and richly corny, with the fruity hot flavour of the red chilli warming the back of your tongue and the parsley providing that tiny sense of freshness that kept the taste buds interested.  I'll definitely be making this one again.

One note to bear in mind, is that when feeding teenagers, the estimated number of servings needs to be downgraded.  The recipe said "serves 6".  In fact, it served four and a bit - but then they are growing boys!

A second thing to bear in mind is the salt contained in whatever stock you choose to use.  I always opt for a low salt version and add salt to taste, however, you might want to hold off on any additional salt until you can taste to check, in the case of a standard stock cube.

ADDENDUM!  :  It is now April 2014 and I have come to make the soup again.  This time, I included a finely chopped leek instead of the other onion (simply because I had one looking for a home to go to) - and I do believe it improved the depth of flavour of the soup.  Hence, I have changed the recipe to reflect this.

One other change I made to this evening's soup (we ate it as a main course, with cheese scones for dipping) was to add a teaspoonful of Essential Cuisine's cheese stock powder.  Now I do appreciate that not everyone will have access to cheese stock powder, but if you do - it is very well worth including it.  Simply mix it in with the stock when you make it up, but don't change the liquid quantity.  I think this also served to create another dimension to the flavours of the soup.

It's just getting better and better!

October 2014 : Yet another change to the soup recipe - and for the better, we all think.  I included some chopped bacon and a small sweet potato, cut into chunks - just to bulk up the recipe and make it more filling as a dinner, main course soup.  Guess what?  I've included the changes in the recipe.  ;)

SWEETCORN & CHILLI SOUP   (feeds 4-6)

Ingredients :

4 rashers smoked back bacon, diced small
25g butter (I used goat butter, which I recommend!)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced small
½ red chilli, finely chopped

800g sweetcorn niblets (frozen, fresh or a combination of both)

1 litre vegetable stock (I used Essential Cuisine's vegetable stock powder with 1 tsp cheese stock powder mixed in, however the cheese stock is optional)

1 tbsp lemon juice

a handful of fresh parsley, chopped

2 tbsp double cream.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the bacon.  Fry until the fat has rendered and the bacon is beginning to caramelise around the edges.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve.  Sweat the onion off in the bacon oil for 5 minutes or so, then add the butter and leek and cook for around 5-10 minutes - until nice and golden but not caramelised at all - stirring occasionally.

2.  Add the chilli to the pan and continue frying for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally.

3.  Add the corn, sweet potato, the reserved bacon, stock and some salt and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the corn is tender but still crisp.

4.  Transfer two-thirds of the soup to a blender and whizz to a coarse puree.  Add this back to the pan and stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
  

5.  Bring back up to temperature, taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

6.  Serve with a swoosh of double cream and a sprinkle of parsley.

Printable version

Lunchtime soup : Green Vegetable Broth

I'll often find that our fridge's vegetable drawer becomes irritatingly full of bits of leftover vegetables.  It can get really annoying to have to ferret through several bags that have two broccoli stalks, or a handful of sugar snap peas, when you're trying to find the carrots.

This is exactly what happened when the Green Vegetable Broth was born.

I was digging my way through four or five such leftovers when I thought "it's a shame these can't be made into soup".  Which you may find a bit of a surprising concept, if you've ever made a broth similar to this.  The trouble was, I kept thinking along the lines of a thicker type of soup, or one that required blitzing.  Now I knew that a soup made from green veg. probably wasn't right up there in the ranks of desirably "mushy" soups, so I wasn't thinking any further.  Until, suddenly, I remembered Ramen soups.

Now Ramen soups aren't blitzed, nor are they thick.  A glimmer of hope appeared on my horizon.

What if .. I made up some vegetable stock, then cooked the vegetables lightly in it in soup-sized pieces?  It'd be a little bit like a green vegetable casserole unless I got the soup base right, but it was certainly worth a go.

I had a rummage in the fridge veggie drawer and hooked out all the bits of veggies that were getting in the way, or veggies that I anticipated we'd have some left over from.  I had quite a pile, by the end.  There were carrots (not green, but would introduce some lovely sweetness and colour), a leek, green beans, mange tout, tenderstem broccoli, peas and parsley.  Now that seemed like quite a haul, to me.  Definitely sounded like soup material.

I was just cooking for one (I felt sure that neither hubby nor son & heir would be enticed by either a thin soup or one made almost entirely from green vegetables), which meant I could freestyle without concern for others' likes and dislikes.

So, to begin with, I took a small saucepan and added a teaspoon or so of olive oil, to which I added the leek, which had been sliced finely.  I cooked that slowly, without browning, until it was softened.

Then I took the soup bowl I'd be using and measured out enough water into it, which I then decanted into the pan and began to heat to boiling point.

Whilst it was heating, I added some Marigold reduced salt vegetable bouillon powder (what would we do without that stuff?) - approximately 2 teaspoonfuls - and stirred until it dissolved.  (What I should have done, of course, was to boil a kettle and use boiling water).  It is worth noting here that most stock cubes make up to 400ml of stock from one cube.  Now I wasn't making anything like 400ml, but I was after a very flavoursome stock, so hence the greater amount in a small amount of water.  Had I have been using a stock cube, I'd have started with a half a cube and then tasted it, possibly adding the other half if the stock didn't seem flavoursome enough.  I also added a good quantity of ground black pepper.

Once the stock was boiling, I added a finely sliced carrot and left that to simmer for 5 minutes or so.

Simmer away, my beautiful free lunch!

Next in, was the stems of the broccoli (which I'd cut into four sections.  Leave the fluffy part (the flower heads) of the broccoli until later, as they don't take as long to cook) and the green beans.  Give them 2-3 minutes, then add the heads of the broccoli, the mange tout and the peas.  Continue to simmer until everything is tender, but not so long that you lose the vibrant green colour.

Lastly, chop the parsley finely and sprinkle that in.  Stir, then taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.  I found that I needed to add more salt at this stage - but then the bouillon powder was a low salt one to begin with.

Serve it up and eat it whilst feeling smug that a) you've managed to use up those annoying bits of vegetables and b) you've created a free lunch that not only tastes great, but is incredibly good for you!

I haven't written out the recipe below, as it all depends entirely on what vegetables you have left over in your fridge.  Just follow the cooking times for each and add them in cooking time order, and you'll be fine.

Another point worth noting is that if you are using an ordinary stock cube instead of a low salt stock cube, go easy on the salt until you've tasted it!


Soup - it's what leftovers were made for.


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The problem that is lunch - solved!

Ever since I've been attempting (with ups and downs) to follow this anti-inflammatory diet, I've had a problem with two meals - breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast is another blog post entirely, but lunch has continued to be a problem right up until I remembered soup.

Of course, the fact that we're now into the chilly autumnal days that lead into true winter does help.  Gone are the days of whipping up an interesting salad for lunch.  Take this salad - these days I am not "allowed" the fresh tomatoes or the Feta cheese - and the Kiwi's are only tolerated because of their high Vit.C. content.

It's not so bad though, because there are a myriad collection of vegetables that are at my disposal.  All the green leafies, and basically anything that's not a carbohydrate are open to me to use.

I went through a stage of eating stir fries at lunchtime, until it dawned on me that I was probably overdoing the oil content.  Olive oil is very good when you're on an anti-inflammatory diet, but when you're trying to lose weight as well, you need to just ration it a bit.  Okay, a lot.

Rubbish presentation - bet Monica wouldn't put that in front of Michel!

It's the same thing with oily fish.  Mackerel is easy-peasy, as you can obtain a tin of mackerel in brine for less than £1 and pop it on toast for lunch - but you can't do that every day of the week, not without going off mackerel and anyway the toast is a no-no.

I had a flash of inspiration and put mackerel with an avocado, which went beautifully.  However again, you can't be having that every day.

So when the desire to have something warm, comforting and "food-like" - you know, something that you know you've eaten by the end of it; something that doesn't just fall into the black hole that is your stomach and disappear; something that won't mean you're hungry again by the time you leave the table - came over me, I was so happy when I thought of soup.

I have, so far, made two soups - both of which are versions of one another.

Mmmn, warm, filling, lovely!

The original, Lunchtime Soup, I have already posted about.  However, today's version was even better - and made more agreeable from an anti-inflammatory point of view by the addition of some chilli.

Today's lunchtime soup involved sweating off in some olive oil, a chopped onion, a crushed clove of garlic, two finely chopped sticks of celery and some finely chopped carrot.

Next, I added (all finely chopped) a leek, a parsnip, a courgette, some swede and a sweet potato.  Stirred them all around to get them covered in the olive oil and added 750ml of Swiss Vegetable Bouillon.  Brought it to the boil and then simmered, covered, for 5-10 minutes or until the vegetables were looking half-cooked.

I then added some finely sliced Savoy cabbage and left the soup until everything was cooked through and tender.

Next, using a hand blender, I blitzed approximately half the soup and mixed it in.  Had a taste, adjusted the seasoning and sat down for lunch.  It probably took around a half an hour to make from start to finish - and I've got enough left for the next two days.

Now, from an anti-inflammatory point of view, it works out to be around +340 per serving, which is absolutely great!  The only vegetables that registered a negative score were the parsnip (-35) and the swede (-9).  The savoy cabbage (+1), leek (+8) and celery (+8) are very worth including for their flavour, but don't add much to the cause otherwise.  However, the cause is very much boosted by the addition of the chilli (+170), onion (+257), garlic (+107), carrots (+144) and a majestic +232 from the sweet potato!

In my attempts to find something nice to eat for lunch, I made a Skinny Cauliflower Cheese a couple of days ago.  Now, as a low fat Cauliflower Cheese, I'd say it hit the spot.  However, it missed being suitable for an anti-inflammatory diet, by quite a mile, unfortunately.  However, because it was successful for what it was, I've included the recipe here.

When I was thinking about how to go about this, I realised that in losing some of the intensity of the cheese flavour, I'd need to replace it with something.  Now because I'm a vegetable-lover and it's getting close to Christmas, immediately Brussels Sprouts sprang to mind.  I just adore those little green jewels - and cooked carefully, I felt they would add some interesting flavour notes.

I blanched the brussels along with the cauliflower, for just 2-3 minutes, then cut them in half.  I felt a half a brussels sprout would be more acceptable to find on your fork than a big mouthful.  More in keeping with the size of the cauliflower, too.


The sauce was made by heating a tablespoonful of olive oil, then adding two tablespoonfuls of flour and a heavy teaspoonful of English Mustard powder.  Of course, it would be difficult to call this a roux, as there wasn't nearly enough oil to qualify.  It was more of a r... than it was ever a roux!  However, having mixed everything together, I began to add a pint of skimmed milk and stirred out the lumps.  I added a good quantity of black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg and stirred again.

It wasn't burned, honest - just lightly singed!

Next into the sauce, went a half a tub of low fat ricotta, some grated Leicestershire cheese (I had around 50g to use up!) and some low fat double gloucester.  In fact, the double gloucester was the remains of a truckle of double gloucester with chives & onions - which lent another very successful flavour note to the sauce - and successfully used that up, too.

Once the cheese is all mixed in, put the vegetables into a baking dish and pour the cheese sauce over.  Add a micro-grating of parmesan to the surface and bake for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbling.  As you can see, I left mine in for a weency bit too long - but it still tasted marvellous.


Regrettably, at a score of -48 per serving (I was so sure that cauliflower had a greater anti-inflammatory rating than it did), it was a poor show in that regard.  Maybe next time, I'll add an onion and some chilli - that'd do it!


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Lunchtime Soup

You know those days when you're contemplating what to have for lunch and just don't fancy anything that you've got in the fridge?

Well, on one of those days, "Lunchtime Soup" was born.

I could easily have had a sandwich, but as bread is such a no-no with regard to being inflammatory, (one slice of Oat bran bread registering -33) I was feverishly trying to think of something to have that wouldn't upset the apple cart and leave me in pain for the afternoon.

I knew I had a few crumbs of Turkey left from the meat I'd defrosted for use in the Turkey Curry, but I didn't much fancy having Ramen noodles which would have used them up perfectly.  I did, however, feel like having something warm that came out of a bowl.  Something that you knew you'd eaten by the end of it.  Soup!

Now, this was an enticing proposition because I knew I'd be eating it alone - so I could make it just how I wanted.  Hubby isn't a great lover of home-made soups and anyway he already had plans for lunch.

I had a rummage in the vegetable drawer and pulled out the following :

a shallot (which registered +20)
two sticks of Fenland celery (+10)
a parsnip (-12)
a block of swede (-4)
three florets of cauliflower (+18)
one clove of garlic (+107)
a small bunch of parsley (+50)
a handful of leftover roast turkey meat (-17)

plus :

olive oil (to cook the shallot & garlic in - +71)
chicken stock - I used 2 Knorr Chicken Stockpots (-43)
and enough water to cover.


All of which, once you've done the maths, amounts to a total of +200 - which is just wonderful.


So I was able to have - over two days - lunch that not only was good for me, but was low fat, tasted fabulous and soothed my yearning for comfort food!  It would have been even better for me if I'd have had a couple of carrots in the house, but regrettably we'd used them all up.  What makes this even better, is that the soup ingredients were all leftovers - all except the cauliflower, which I'd bought to make a Skinny Cauliflower Cheese with.


I reckon I've hit dieting Nirvana.  Food that is not only good for you (in whatever way you want it to be good for you), but comes as an added bonus on top of your normal planned menus.  Can't be bad!

If you'd like to re-create this lovely yumminess at home, here's what I did (but you can add or remove any part of it, substitute veggies, or use veggie stock - the world is your oyster!) :


LUNCHTIME SOUP  (serves 2)


Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
1 banana shallot, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
2 sticks celery, de-stringed and chopped fine
1 medium parsnip, peeled & sliced finely
a small block of swede, peeled & diced finely
3 florets of cauliflower, each cut in half


600ml chicken or vegetable stock - I used 2 Knorr Chicken Stockpot
a few offcuts of cooked meat taken from a roasted joint
a small bunch of parsley, chopped.

Method :

1.  Heat the olive oil gently in a saucepan and add the shallots.  Cook over a medium heat until they are softened but not browned.


2.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute or so.


3.  Add the remainder of the vegetables, except the parsley, and cook on a greater heat for 3-4 minutes.


4.  Add the stock and bring to a boil.


5.  Reduce to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are very nearly at the desired tenderness, then add the cooked meat.  Make sure the meat has heated through and the soup is back up to temperature, during which the vegetables should have attained the desired tenderness.  Try not to stir too briskly, or you'll break up the pieces of meat.


6.  Add the parsley and stir to combine.  Cook for another minute, then serve.


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