Soup, glorious soup

I make soup so often, it is a wonder this blog isn't entirely filled up with soup posts.  In fact I was hesitant about making this post, thinking I must have posted similar recipes before, but a review of the archives shows that I write about soup far less than I actually make it: the sum total of soup posts so far consists of a rich tomato, two different versions of hot and sour soup, and a sneaky cheese and beer soup not labelled as such. 

I've recently discovered the joys of stock-making, using my slow cooker to simmer bones and aromatic vegetables for hours on end to create fragrant broths for noodle soups and the like; my freezer now always contains a bag of vegetable trimmings waiting for the next batch.  But what I've even more recently come to realise is that making vegetable stock is super-easy, comparatively quick and very, very worthwhile.  Given that soup is basically stuff cooked in liquid and then blended up to whatever degree you prefer, the liquid used makes a big difference to the flavour of the soup, and even a quick stock set to simmer for 20 minutes with the ends of the vegetables you'll be using in the soup (or that you used in yesterday's cooking and saved in the fridge, or that you might be using later the same day) adds taste dimensions to the soup that go beyond stock cubes and water.  I still use stock cubes to boost the flavour, but the extra step of simmering a batch of the real stuff definitely adds something.

This does require some forward planning so you can save trimmings appropriately, and fairly regular kitchen activity (no point cutting the tops off your onions to make stock if you then don't cook with the onions within the next day or so).  Luckily our boat was an ideal environment for this -- producing two cooked meals a day, with plenty of staples such as onions, carrots and leeks (we had an oversupply of leeks, because I brought some that had been 29p a bag and I couldn't resist the bargain), gives plenty of scope for stock-simmering.  And hot soup is, in my view at least, an excellent lunch at any time, but especially when you have been up since early and out in the still-chilly April weather all morning.

During the week we had: sweet potato and ginger; mixed vegetable; and orange-orange (orange vegetables -- butternut squash, sweet potato and carrot -- with fresh orange).  The first is a favourite of mine but somehow I've never got round to noting it down, so here goes...

(This is us preparing to sit down to a soupy lunch, accompanied by leek, mushroom and cheese tart.  Someone described this as "National Trust lunch"!)

Spiced sweet potato, ginger and coconut soup with lime
1-2 brown onions
thumb-sized piece ginger
2-4 cloves garlic
2-3 sweet potatoes
2-3 carrots
1-2 tsp curry powder (to taste -- I used a mixture of cumin, coriander, cinnamon and curry powder)
1 can coconut milk
1-2 vegetable stock cubes (to taste)
salt and pepper
zest and juice of 1 lime

Throw onion and ginger trimmings, carrot tops and any other suitable vegetable scraps you may have (such as leek tops) into a pot with a few cups of water and bring to a boil on the stove while you prep everything else.

Chop the onions, roughly is fine as everything gets whizzed later on; shred the ginger and chop the garlic.  Meanwhile heat a bit of oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, ginger and garlic gently until semi-cooked.  Chop up carrots and peel and chop the sweet potatoes -- reasonably small chunks (1" or so) will cook faster.  Add the curry powder and fry for a minute or so longer to toast the spices; then add the rest of the vegetables and strain the stock into the pot with them.  The vegetables should be mostly covered with liquid but not swimming in it; add a bit more water if necessary.  Simmer until vegetables are soft, then blend until smooth.  Taste and add stock cubes dissolved in a little of the cooking liquid as required.  Add coconut milk and lime zest and blend in; heat until simmering; taste and season with salt, pepper and lime juice to taste.