My four-year-old is pretty capricious. Like most boys his age, plain pasta or bread are Flynn’s first choice – always! – but he also surprises us now and then with an out-of-character enthusiasm for, say, cabbage one day or mussels the next. This makes cooking for him a chancy experience – unless soup is on offer. For reasons known only to Flynn, a soup can feature all manner of normally undesirable ingredients without so much as a peep of protest. As he’s the youngest and the loudest in the family, the rest of us have to toe the line. But we do this willingly and lovingly, of course, because what’s better than a bowl of warm soup and a blissfully quiet child?
Chicken and black-eyed bean soup (picture top)
Chicken wings are a great and economical way to ramp up the chicken flavour in a soup. This one comes together fairly easily, without having to soak the beans overnight. To make it more child-friendly, serve it without the salsa.
Prep 25 min
Cook 1 hr 15 min
Serves 4
2 tbsp olive oil
500g chicken wings
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed with the flat of a large knife
250g plum tomatoes, finely chopped
1½ tbsp picked oregano leaves
1½ tbsp basil leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp thyme leaves
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
½ lemon
Salt
200g dried black-eyed beans
1 litre chicken stock
For the salsa
1 green chilli, finely chopped (remove the pith and seeds if you prefer less heat)
1½ tbsp basil leaves, finely chopped
1½ tbsp parsley leaves, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
Put a large, heavy-bottomed pot on a medium-high heat and, once hot, add the first eight ingredients and fry, stirring often, for 12 minutes, until the wings are beginning to colour. Add the Worcestershire sauce, lemon and two and a half teaspoons of salt, and fry, stirring often, for three minutes more. Add the beans, add the stock and 300ml water to cover, and bring up to a simmer. Lower the heat to medium, cover with a lid and cook for 35-40 minutes, or until the beans are cooked through but not falling apart.
Turn off the heat, then use a pair of tongs to transfer the wings to a plate and leave to cool. Squeeze the cooked lemon into the soup to release all its juices, then discard the shell. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pick the meat off the bones and add it to the soup pot; discard the skin and bones. Return the soup to a medium heat for five minutes, just to heat through. Meanwhile, mix all the salsa ingredients in a small bowl with a good pinch of salt.
Divide the soup between four bowls, top with salsa and serve.
Hawaij onion and chickpea soup
This take on French onion soup features hawaij, a Yemeni spice blend that complements the sweet onions, and brings with it extra complexity and warmth. The cheesy bread is optional. If you prefer to keep the soup vegan, use vegetable stock instead of chicken and extra oil instead of butter.
Prep 30 min
Cook 1 hr 50 min
Serves 4 generously
75ml olive oil, or 50g unsalted butter plus 2 tbsp olive oil
1.2kg onions (ie, about 7-8), peeled, halved and thinly sliced
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 whole cloves
8 cardamom pods, seeds removed and shells discarded
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
½ tsp ground turmeric
250g tomato passata
30g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained (240g net weight)
1.5 litre vegetable or chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
For the cheesy bread (optional)
220g mature cheddar, roughly grated
10g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
6 slices sourdough, cut about 2cm thick
15g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp dijon mustard
Put the oil (or butter and two tablespoons of oil) in a large, cast-iron saucepan on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onions, stir to coat them in the fat, then turn the heat to medium and cook gently for an hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until completely soft and golden.
Meanwhile, make the spice mix. Put the coriander and cumin seeds, cloves, cardamom and fenugreek in a small frying pan on a medium-high heat. Toast, shaking the pan frequently, for five to six minutes, until fragrant, then tip into a spice grinder and blitz to a powder. Stir in the turmeric and set aside.
When the onions are done, turn up the heat to medium-high, add the spice mix, passata and fresh coriander, and cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Add the chickpeas, stock, one and three-quarter teaspoons of salt and a very generous amount of pepper, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat back down to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
For the cheesy bread, if making, heat the grill to its highest setting. In a small bowl, mix the cheese with the coriander, garlic and a good grind of pepper. When the soup is close to ready, put the bread on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, grill it for a minute, then remove from the oven and flip over. Brush the untoasted side first with butter and then mustard, top with the cheese mixture and grill for three or four minutes more, until golden and bubbly. Cut each slice into three.
Divide the soup between four bowls, top each with three slices of cheesy bread and serve with the remaining cheese bread alongside.
Celeriac, garlic and rice soup with charred lemon salsa
I use garlic three ways here: roasted to add sweetness, fried for crunch and garlic oil to drizzle on top. Feel free to double or even triple the number of garlic heads you roast – the cloves can be kept in oil in a sealed jar and used in spreads, dressings or even folded into mashed potato. This soup thickens as it sits, so add more liquid to get it to a consistency you like.
Prep 25 min
Cook 1 hr 20 min
Serves 4
3 whole heads garlic, top trimmed to expose the cloves, plus 6 extra cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
105ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Salt and black pepper
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium celeriac (700g), peeled and cut into 1½cm cubes
3 cinnamon sticks
1½ tsp dried oregano
80g short-grain rice
500ml vegetable stock
2 lemons – 1 cut into 6 ¼cm-thick rounds, the other juiced, to get 1½ tbsp
10g parsley leaves, roughly chopped
3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
Heat the oven to 240C (220C fan)/465F/ gas 9. Drizzle the garlic heads with a little oil, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, then wrap them individually and tightly in foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly coloured on top and softened. Once cool enough to handle, use a small, sharp knife to separate the cloves, discard the skins and set aside.
Meanwhile, put two tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onion, celeriac and cinnamon, and cook, stirring occasionally, for eight minutes, until everything is softened and lightly coloured. Add the oregano and rice, stir to coat, then pour in the stock, 1.3 litres of water, one and three-quarter teaspoons of salt and a good grind of pepper. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium-low and cook gently for an hour, stirring occasionally, until the rice has started to break down into the soup. Transfer 200g of the mixture (taking roughly equal amounts of solids and liquid) to a blender, add the roast garlic and lemon juice, and blitz smooth. Pour this back into the soup pot and keep warm until ready to serve; remove and discard the cinnamon sticks.
While the soup is cooking, put a large frying pan on a high heat. Remove the pips from the lemon rounds and, once the pan is hot, add them to the pan and cook for two minutes on each side, until nicely charred. Finely chop the charred lemon, then put it in a bowl with the parsley and spring onion.
Heat the remaining five tablespoons of oil and the sliced garlic in a small frying pan on a medium heat, and cook until the garlic starts to turn golden – eight to nine minutes. Add the chilli flakes, if using, cook for a minute more, then drain the solids through a sieve set over a bowl, and add the oil to the lemon and herb mixture.
Divide the soup between four bowls, top each portion with a drizzle of the lemon and herb dressing, followed by the reserved fried garlic and chilli, and serve.
