White bean and Celery soup

Every now and then I get the urge to make some particular thing. Today it was something pure, delicate and white. A brief look in the pantry and fridge revealed a small collection of white things - a tin of cannellini beans, some ground almonds, celery, garlic and white onions. Oh, and some white bread. And the result? A white bean and celery soup. I did not use everything I had found and the soup was not even very white, but it was delicious . . . .

- In a tablespoon or two of olive oil, gently fry a peeled and chopped onion, a couple of clove of garlic, two or three sticks of celery and a sage leaf.
- Once they are soft and translucent add in a can of cannellini beans, drained and washed. Stir around and cook for a further minute or two.
- Pour in a glass of white wine, I used Sauvignon Blanc. Bring the heat up and boil until the liquid has nearly all evaporated.
- Add in a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock, reduce the heat and simmer until the celery is soft, say fifteen or twenty minutes.
- Take out the sage leaf and blend the soup smooth.
- Reheat, adding more stock if it is too thick and some salt and a little lemon juice if you think it needs it.

I served mine just as it was, with just a sprinkling of ground black pepper. Oh and some of that white bread as well of course.

Tomato, Bean and Spinach soup

A pure soup for when you need clarity in your life.

This soup uses a base prepared first and then used to cook the additional flavourings so you could easily prepare a large batch of the base and freeze some to use later.

- Peel and roughly chop up half an onion and peel a clove of garlic.
- Pop in a pan with some oil and cook gently until the onion is soft and translucently honey coloured.
- Add in some tomatoes, a tin of plum tomatoes or half a dozen fresh ones chopped up. The soup will be strained through a seive so don't worry about the skin or seeds - put it all in.
- Add a pint of half strength vegetable stock and simmer gently until the tomatoes are broken down and soft, about twenty minutes.
- Put a sieve over a bowl, pour the soup in and rub it through with a wooden spoon to separate out the lumpy bits. Squash the garlic against the sieve and push it through as well.

If you have made lots, this is the point to freeze some for later.

- Pop the soup back in a pan along with a tin of beans (I used cannellini)that you have rinsed under the cold tap and warm gently .

Fresh would be nice but they are best soaked overnight and not being that organized I generally use canned, just be sure to rinse off that strange gooey water that they come in. Canned beans are very delicate of course and will easily break up if you boil the soup too fiercely so bring them up to heat very gently and only cook long enough to warm them through.

Last thing to go in is the spinach, their are two ways to do this. You could add it straight to the soup to cook but this will risk breaking up the beans so I usually cook it separately and put some in the bowls and pour the soup over to serve. It does not have to be spinach of course, any vegetable would do - celery, cabbage, broccoli even. These take longer to cook so add them at the same time as the beans and serve the soup as soon as they are just cooked. But spinach it was this time so . . .

- Rinse the spinach under the cold tap to wash of the grit then drain and put into a warm saucepan with just the water left sticking to it. Stir around a bit while it steams until it wilts, this only takes seconds.
- Put some spinach in the bottom of each bowl, ladle over the soup and serve with some plain bread.

Chicken, Spinach and Bean soup

Sunday 8.59pm

Inspired I think by our new rustic wall cabinet I decided to make a more down to earth simple soup. This was the result. Now with only a few ingredients the quality of the stock will be important, so here is where a home made stock really comes into it's own. Vegetable or chicken would work fine, I used chicken made from the roast chicken carcass that the chicken for the soup came from.

- Start with a base made from a small onion, two cloves of garlic and a stick or two of celery, all chopped quite finely and cooked gently in some olive oil until soft and transparent but not coloured.

- You'll need a handfull of chicken later, I used left over roast chicken but if you start with a raw chicken breast then bring your stock to the boil now and pop in the chicken to cook -about ten minutes.

- Once the base is ready add in a tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.

- Stir them around so they mix with the base, but gently because tinned beans are quite delicate and you don't want them to break up.

- Add in the stock - a pint and a quarter, and bring to a gentle boil. Again you don't want to boil too fiercely or the beans will turn to mush.

- Cook gently for fifteen to twenty minutes then add a handfull of cooked chicken and continue cooking for ten minutes or so until it is heated through.

- Check the seasoning, it may need a little salt. Some black pepper is always a good idea and finally a squeeze of lemon juice.

Spinach, especially baby spinach takes very little cooking so just tear up a few leaves, put them into the soup bowls and ladle the soup over. It will cook in the heat from the soup.

This soup has quite a simple taste so some bread with rosemary on top goes well along with some grated parmesan if you like.