Jacki’s spicy winter vegetable soup

Today’s soup is the first in an occasional series of guest recipes. There are so many great soup ideas out there, I thought it would be good to look for some inspiration from friends, family and fellow bloggers. Jacki was one of the first to respond to my request for soup inspiration, providing me with a fab recipe for spicy winter vegetable soup. It’s vegan, gluten free, easy to adapt and uses lots of lovely veg that’s easily available at this time of year. Such a gorgeous colour too. I know Jacki will definitely be using the best local veg available to her as she has her own allotment Nairn but I went for the slightly easier option of visiting my local supermarket. Jacki’s recipe is provided below and I’ve added my comments in brackets.

Spicy winter vegetable soup

Serves 4

Difficulty very easy

Ingredients

• 1 – 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 – 2 white potatoes
• 3 – 4 carrots
• 2 – 3 onions
• 2 – 5 crushed garlic cloves depending on your preference
• 1 pint vegetable stock cube Jacki recommends Kallo
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil for sautéing

Method

1. Sauté chopped onions until transparent, then add the garlic, and chopped carrots and sweet potatoes. Continue to sauté at low heat. (Don’t be too precious when it comes to chopping your veg, you have to blend it so shape doesn’t matter).
2. In a measuring jug, add a pint of boiling water to the stock cube, paprika, cayenne and turmeric, then add to the soup pan along with the cubed white potatoes.
3. Bring to boil then simmer until everything is well cooked. Blend well and add additional boiling water if too thick. Add salt/pepper to taste.`(I didn’t add any salt or pepper but I did have to add some extra water as it was too thick for the blender. I may have gone overboard with the sweet potatoes though).

Variations

• You can add chili, chili powder or curry paste for an extra spicy kick. I’ve had a few bowls of this soup recently and added a swirl of chili infused rapeseed oil which was nice but I don’t think it needs any more spices other than those listed in the recipe. I thought the spices cut across the sweetness of the veg perfectly.
• Feel free to mix and match your veg options as you like. No sweet potato? Then try some turnip. This is another recipe that you can easily adjust to your own taste.

Enjoy!

Val x