It’s a good few days into December now, so time to start thinking about what to make for Christmas dinner. I grew up in the 80s which meant that for our Christmas dinner starter we had to have Prawn Cocktail. Through the more sophisticated 90s this developed into Avocado and Prawns in Marie Rose Sauce and with the turn of the new millenium the menu became Smoked Salmon Salad served with dainty pieces of buttered wholemeal bread, sliced into neat little triangles with the crusts cut off, very posh. The rest of my family still have this.

I however have brought trouble with my fussy ban on animal food stuffs. There is, however a good simple solution, which so far has been universally approved of by all it has been served to – soup. Quick and easy to prepare, not too filling and almost impossible to mess up. You can even make it the day before, so save yourself that little bit of stress on the big day if you’re the kind of person who gets their knickers in a twist at just the thought of preparing what is really just a fancy Sunday dinner.

Mind you, I suppose we do seem to expect an insane amount of side dishes. Any other day it’s meat and two veg. But come 25th December nothing less than an enormous Turkey (must be big enough to feed at least 25 people) and 17 different vegetables (to include at least 4 different types of potato and things you wouldn’t even consider eating any other day of the year) will do. Crazy really. At least it means a good few days supply of interesting sandwiches and bubble and squeak for breakfast, which is never a bad thing.

So here’s a couple of lovely soup recipes for you, both in my opinion good enough to be served up on Christmas Day. The first just a fairly simple broccoli soup. I’d only ever had broccoli and stilton soup before and was worried this would be a little bland without the blue cheese, but it was anything but. Really creamy, despite not having any cream in and a good rich flavour. I’m definitely going to be making it again. But perhaps on the big day I might treat myself and put that blue cheese in, just to make it that bit more special.

The second recipe is an old favorite from the Covent Garden “Soup and Beyond” book. I made this a few times last year and couldn’t wait for the first frost this year meaning that the sweetest, most Chistmas-wintery of all root vegetables – the parsnip – would be at it’s best. What a treat this soup is! Parsnip, leek and lemon, Yum! It’s such a simple recipe, meaning you really taste each of the individual elements, but at the same time they combine to make something unlike any other soup you’ll taste. Sweet and indulgent it’s just one step on the savoury side away from being a desert. Now that’s an idea. You have carrot cake, why not parsnip and lemon cake? Hmm… We just made this soup today for Ann’s lesson and I’m sure she’d agree it really is a brilliant soup.

Simple Broccoli Soup

• 25g butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 head of broccoli, roughly chopped, including stalk
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into smallish cubes
• 1 1/2 pints of vegetable stock, or thereabouts
• A little plain flour
• (A bit of cream or blue cheese for more festive soup)

1. In a large pan melt the butter then add the onion and gently cook for around 15 minutes or so until the onions are soft and just beginning to brown.
2. Add the potatoes, stir round then cover and leave to sweat for 5 minutes.
3. Add just less than a tbsp of plain flour, stir round and leave to cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the broccoli and enough stock to just less than cover the veg, bring to the boil, then turn to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the veg are tender.
5. Puree the soup.
6. You could add some crumbled up blue cheese at this point and heat through until it melts, or just serve as it is, maybe with a fancy swirl of cream if you like.

Santa gets ready to leap into the yummy soup

Parsnip, Leek and Lemon Soup

• 25g butter
• 450g parsnips, peeling and sliced
• 3 leeks, washed, trimmed and sliced
• 1 3/4 pints of vegetable stock
• grated rind and juice of half a lemon
• 1 bay leaf
• 150ml single cream

1. Melt the butter in a large pan, then add the parsnips and leeks. Cover and cook gently for 5 minutes.
2. Add the stock, grated lemon rind and bayleaf.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for around 15 minutes or until the veg are tender.
4. Cool a little, remove the bay leaf, add the lemon juice then puree.
5. Add the cream, then reheat gently if necessary.

If anyone has any other ideas for good Christmassy soups I’d love to hear about them!

More soup recipes

More Christmas recipes