We’ve finally had a lull in the rain and instead were treated to an afternoon of winter sunshine on Saturday, so I whipped up this hearty soup for lunch then headed out to do some gardening. I can’t wait to make it again because it’s really tasty, easy to make and utterly comforting. Yes please, more please (to both the soup and the sunshine). Serves 4. Recipe from this month’s Waitrose Food magazine.
Ingredients
250g smoked streaky bacon
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions finely chopped
2 sticks celery finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp caraway seeds
25g butter
500g waxy potatoes (eg charlotte)
500g savoy cabbage (1 small)
1 Ltr chicken stock
4 tbsp ish soured cream
Method
- Chop up the bacon into 1cm or so slices, then fry in a large saucepan with the olive oil for around 10 minutes until the fat starts to render and the bacon begins to crisp up. Don’t worry if it sticks to the bottom at all, we’ll scrape up all of that good stuff later.
- Throw in the onions, celery, garlic, caraway seeds and butter, and cook for another 10 minutes or so – as the veg sweats a bit you might find you can scrape up the bacon bits.
- Chop the potatoes into 2cm cubes (don’t both to peel them) and shred the cabbage, then throw them in the pot too.
- Pour in a small slurp of the stock and scrape up any last bacon bits, then pour in the rest of the litre of chicken stock, plus a further 200ml of hot water, and season with pepper. (I used chicken oxo cubes, and per the instructions on the box used 5 cubes. Five!)
- Cover, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 12 mins or so until the potatoes are cooked.
- Serve up with a dollop of soured cream, a little more pepper and a sprinkling of caraway seeds for good measure.
From My Kitchen 