I don’t really write about the fact that I enjoy cooking from time to time but after hearing that people weren’t sure how to make homemade soup, I decided to post my own recipe I’ve been making for a very long time. With my mother being a former cook for over a decade, we’ve always tended to bond while she showed me how to cook different meals. We ended up making our own recipe (which probably isn’t original, might I add) for carrot soup and it’s been something I enjoy making whilst she makes her own.

I’m not one to keep “secret recipes” and so I thought I would share it on my blog for people who are interested in learning how to cook basic meals who don’t know how. I’ve also added my recipe for cheese topped garlic bread which will be underneath the soup recipe. I apologise in advance for some of the photo qualities – I was cooking and taking photos at the same time and it’s something difficult to multitask!

Homemade Carrot Soup

Ingredients 

• 750g of carrots
• 2 medium sized potatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 1 vegetable oxo
• 1 clove of garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Fresh coriander (optional)

Equipment

• Colander
• Chopping board
• Hand blender
• Vegetable knife
• Wooden spoon
• Large saucepan
• And of course a cooker!

 

Step one- Wash your hands! 

 

 

I must stress that it is very important you wash your hands thoroughly to keep good hygiene- especially when cooking for others.

Step two -Prepare your vegetables

You’ll need to peel, chop and wash your carrots, potatoes and onions. I’ll warn you- you may want a cold flannel to hand for when your eyes sting from the onions! If there’s bits of skin still left over, don’t worry- Jamie Oliver tends to leave all of the skins on for roughage, but I’m personally not a fan of leaving it on. The most important part is washing the vegetables thoroughly to again keep good hygiene.

Step two- add your clove of garlic

After peeling your garlic and chopping it (although chopping is of course optional) just add it in along with your vegetables.

Step three- add water to your vegetables

Put your vegetables in the saucepan and fill with water just so it’s covering the vegetables.

Step four- veggie OXO, salt and pepper

Crumble your vegetable OXO into the saucepan and add salt and pepper to taste.

Step five- stir

Stir your vegetables once.

Step six- bring to boil

Bring your soup to boil on full heat .

Step seven- simmer 

Reduce heat to simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Step eight- blend

Blend your soup to a smooth consistency with a hand blender.

Step nine- presentation

For presentation (optional) add a leaf of coriander on top of your soup. Alternatively you could use a swirl of creme fresh.

 

Tear and Share cheese topped garlic bread

Ingredients

• 15g of butter
• 500g of strong bread flower
• 7g of dried yeast
• Salt
• 290 fluid ounces of water
• A squeeze of garlic puree
• Teaspoon of sugar
• 100g of Cheese

Equipment

• Large mixing bowl
• weighing scales
• tea spoon
• mixing spoon
• baking / loaf tin
• measuring jug
• tea towel
• and of course, an oven

 

 Step one- Wash your hands!

Despite washing your hands before making your soup, your hands are now dirty- time to wash them again!

Step two- Dry ingredients into bowl

Put your flour, salt, sugar & yeast into mixing bowl.

Step three- Melt your butter

Melt your butter in the microwave for 10 seconds. Check to see if it has melted – if not, put it back in for another 10.

Step four- pour butter and water into bowl

Measure out 290 fluid ounces of water with your measuring jug and add both the water and butter into the bowl.

Step five- Stir into dough

Add a few drops (about 5) of garlic puree into the mix and start stirring until it turns into a big ball of dough.

Step six- Turn out onto a floured surface

Sprinkle your surface with some flour and turn your dough onto it.

Step seven- Knead for ten minutes

 

 

This needs to be done for 10 minutes straight. It takes a lot of effort and can be a bit tough to do, so you may want to ask someone to help you and take it in turns- it’s a great workout!

Step eight- Prove dough

Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Put in warm place – ideally would be next to an open fire but if that’s not possible, on top of the stove when the oven is on or even a radiator. Leave until the dough has doubled in side. (This took me about an hour.)

Step nine- Back onto surface and make dough balls and place into tin

Place your dough back onto your flour covered surface. Roll out 12 small rough evenly sized dough balls. Place the dough balls together onto greased baking tin (use leftover butter to grease). Pinch the dough balls so they connect together.

Step ten – Place into oven

Bake the bread until a crispy golden brown (this took me about 45 minutes.)

Step twelve- Sprinkle cheese

Take the bread out and sprinkle your cheese on top

Step thirteen – Back into oven to brown

Put your bread back into oven until it turns a golden brown.

Tear, share and enjoy!

 

This is what the final dish looks like.

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post- it was a bit different and I hope to do something like this again soon. Comment below if you have tried this recipe or have your own version.

Talk soon!

Jazz x