I love a good soup and especially when it uses all your bits lying in the fridge, and ends up tasty and yummy!
We all end up with an odd range of ‘leftovers’ from making previous recipes and do not want to end up filling the food waste bin! Do you often wonder why you bought that head of celery when you only wanted one stick for that bolognaise recipe or whatever. Do you try and chop it up and put it into several dishes until the family get a bit fed up?….. a head of celery goes a long way!
The flavour of celery can be perfect for soups but quite strong, but with this recipe adding the roasted red pepper tones it down and gives it a tasty flavour and a good colour.
You can add any spices you have to use up in your store-cupboard or any of those spice pastes we all seem to end up with in our fridge door. A teaspoon of ground coriander adds a spicy, warm citrus flavour or add some Moroccan spices to give robust and slightly warm flavours.
Stilton, cheddar or parmesan can be added as another variation, either sprinkled over the top to serve or adding after blending and stirred in, or top with some pesto croutons
Celery and Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- Celery chopped - about 8 sticks
- Red pepper x1
- Bits of lettuce chopped - use up any salad leaves or green leaves
- Spring onion chopped - about 4
- Cream or milk
- Salt & pepper
- Lemon juice
- Optional extras -
- Stilton
- Cheddar cheese
- Herbs - Parsley, basil, coriander
- Chilli flakes
- Spice it up with 1 tsp of any spices in your store cupboard
Instructions
- Place the celery, lettuce and spring onion into a large pan and cover with water just halfway.
- Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes until tender.
- Halve the red pepper and place on a tray in a hot oven 200C / Gas 6. Roast for 20 minutes until softened. Peel off as much skin as possible.
- Chop and add to the saucepan. Add about 150ml milk or milk and cream mixed.
- Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Blitz until smooth. Add about 1 tsp lemon juice and season to taste.
- At this point you can add any extras or simple sprinkle them on top when serving.
- Serve hot with a chunk of crusty bread or with croutons.
