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Make sure you have plenty of French bread to serve in a bread basket. menu Carrot soup with local garnishes

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Carrot soup with local garnishes

Serves: 4 Cooked: on the hob

Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes week one dietary requirements:

vegetarian: OK

vegan: NO, remove a portion before adding the cream( the crème fraiche and beaufort garnishes are not suitable)

dairy free: NO, remove a portion before adding the cream( the crème fraiche and beaufort garnishes are not suitable)

nut free: OK

gluten free: OK( the croutons are not suitable)

300g carrots, peeled and roughly 1 litre water chopped

2 tablespoons cream 1 potato approx 150g, peeled and 4 small sprig of parsley roughly chopped

½ onion peeled and chopped for the garnishes:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 4 tablespoons crème fraiche

25g butter garlic and herb olive oil

1 teaspoon tomato purée french bread for croutons pinch sugar beaufort cheese

1 vegetable stock cube

1. Put the onions, oil and butter into a saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of water and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until the onions are soft and very sweet( this is what will make your soup sweet and delicious so do not cut this part out and wait until the onions are soft before moving to next stage). 2. Add all the rest of the ingredients( except the parsley) and cook for 30 minutes or until the carrots are really tender( you must be able to squash them with the back of a spoon) if you can’ t then your soup will never be velvety smooth no matter how much you blend it! 3. Once the carrots are soft blend the soup until smooth. Adjust seasoning and this is then ready to re-heat. 4. To make the croutons, cube 4 slices of stale french bread, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 180C for 5-10 minutes, sprinkle with salt whilst still warm. For the garlic and herb oil, blend 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs or dried chives and 1 clove of garlic garlic with 4 tablspoons of oil using a hand blender.

To serve: warm the soup through before serving and serve in warmed soup bowls with a sprig of parsley as a little gesture of garnish.

For the garnishes: on a plate, tray or board( one between four people) serve the crème fraiche, garlic and herb olive oil, warm croutons and grated Beaufort cheese.

notes

This soup is the most basic of carrot soup – why? Because we are offering it with a host of garnishes local to your area so that the guests can choose, add any garnish they wish( this will be a talking point) an ice breaker for the first night and a bit of fun, so helping a bowl of soup become something much more than that.