Carrot and coriander soup

Ingredients – serves 4

• 1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 large baking potato, roughly chopped
• 1kg carrots,roughly chopped
• 1 ltr vegetable stock (made from a stock cube)
• 4 bake-at-home mini baguettes (or whatever bread you have)
• 30g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp double cream, or creme fraiche, or yoghurt
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Put a pan on medium heat and add the oil, then the onion. Let it soften for 3 – 4 minutes. add the garlic and continue to cook for 2 more minutes. Stir through the ground coriander and add the potato and carrots. Cover all the veggies in the stock, put the lid on the pan and leave the soup to bubble away for 30 minutes (or until the potatoes and carrots are completely soft).
2. If using bake-at-home baguettes – towards the end of the 30 minutes, heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4, then put the baguettes into the oven and bake them until they are golden and crispy.
3. When the potatoes and carrots are soft, add the fresh coriander along with the stalks (there’s plenty of flavour in the stalks so don’t waste them).
4. Blend the soup to a consistency you like. You can use a handheld blender and blitz it in the pan, or you can transfer it to a food processor. when you are happy with the consistency, taste, and add salt and pepper if needed.
5. Pour a couple of ladlefuls of coup into each bowl, add a pinch of black pepper, drizzle over some fresh cream, creme fraiche or yoghurt, sprinkle over some more fresh coriander and serve with the bread.

Recipe and image courtesy of Mitch Lane – ‘Feed your family for a fiver’