Celery Vegetable Soup

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 25 g butter
• 1 whole head of celery, sliced
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 large leek, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 vegetable stock cubes
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced into 0 . 5cm cubes
• 1 large courgette, diced
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
• boiling water
• 1 teaspoon tabasco sauce (optional)
• 200 ml double cream (optional)
• 1 large handful fresh parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste

Recipe

• 1 melt the butter in a large pan. add the celery, onion, leek and garlic and cook until sizzling.
• 2 reduce the heat to very low and cover. allow to sweat for ten minutes, or until the vegetables are translucent, stirring occasionally.
• 3 add the stock cubes and boiling water until the veg is just covered. cover again and increase heat. bring to the boil and cook until the veg is soft.
• 4 blend with a hand blender, and season to taste. add the tabasco if using.
• 5 add the potatoes and carrots and continue to boil. if it looks too thick, add some more boiling water. the potatoes will thicken it slightly.
• 6 cook until the potatoes are cooked through then stir in the courgette, frozen peas and cream. bring back to a gentle boil until the veg are cooked to your liking. adjust seasoning as necessary (the potatoes and cream will neutralise the salt so you may need more).
• 7 stir the fresh parsley through and serve with some fresh crusty bread.