Roast Pepper, Tomato & Chilli Soup

This soup really is an old favourite of mine, so much so I was  really surprised that I had not posted it already. The Soup has 3 simple ingredients (peppers, tomatoes & chilli) that all work together in the cooking process to give an amazing flavour.

I have tweaked the original recipe over the years to have twice as many peppers as when I first made it as I really love the sweetness that you get when you roast a pepper.

The only thing you really need for this soup is time, as you will find the process of just getting the ingredients ready can take almost an hour. The soup itself is ready quite quickly after that. As always when you use chilli’s the amount you use is really all about personal taste. Personally I hardly ever cook the soup with the seeds from the chilli included or if I do I only add a few as if you use too much chilli the heat/spiciness can overpower the other subtle flavours that are going on.

Chicken Soup

My thoughts on food have always been that it should be practical and suit the need & purpose for what you want. This soup fits that bill perfectly. This recipe is more or less 100% 'a hangover cure'. Although it is mighty tasty I only seem to cook it to cure a bad hangover….hence the reason why I use the soup mixes. The soup is very easy to get together and when it is ready it will really come to your aid and make your recovery day that little bit more bearable.

On the Soup mixture discussion I like to make a 1.5 litre soup with half of the stock coming from the soup mixture. So use enough soup mixture to make 0.75lt of soup. If you can try combining cream of vegetable & chicken soup for best results

Leek and Potato Soup

A real old favourite of mine. What I love about this soup is the simplicity in the flavours in the soup itself can be completely jazzed up with your choice of toppings that you want to add to the soup.

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine. It is essentially a vegetable broth with whatever vegetables are in season at that moment. So if you do not like one of the vegetables below you can easily remove it. Also if you want it vegetarian just remove the bacon.

The process of getting it together is actually fairly simple. The one comment I would make with my own recipe is that I was unable to locate an Italian bean such as cannellini or borlotti so I used red kidney beans. If your beans are fresh or dried you would need to obviously cook them first.

French Onion Soup

This old favourite is very simple to make. You will naturally caramelize your onions & then cook in beef stock before adding a toasted baguette and gooey cheese. I like to use up to 3 different types of onions to give the soup extra taste & flavour.

Creamy Onion Soup

You know only one thing with this post….Winter is coming. From a food perspective I really like European Winters, it means you can start to enjoy your soups again & also more hearty meals like Irish Stew, Goulash Soup, Chicken Stroganoff and of course Lamb or Steak Pies.

Day 18: Slovakian Goulash Soup

Day 18
The Netherlands 2 Slovakia 1
Brazil 3 Chile 0

 

I have just returned from a weekend in Budapest and I had the below soup or a variation of it every day for my lunch. I know the paprika is Hungarian but the Goulash is also a very popular dish in Slovakia.

The rule of tongue with this soup is to really let the beef simmer away for as long as you can, as the longer you leave it the more tender it will become.