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

My new student is flying! Last week we made this amazing roast vegetable lasagne. I’d never made a roast vegetable lasagne so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but all went to plan and it was very tasty indeed. I’m a little worried I could be out of a job soon though, apart from putting together the recipe and a bit of advice on making sure the cheese sauce was smooth, she did the whole thing. Gonna have to do something really tricky next time or I’ll be out!

It could probably do with a bit more cheese, there wasn’t quite enough saved for over the top, I like it  when you get a nice crispy cheesy topping. It still got 8 out of 10 Andy points, so a potential 9 I recon with this adjustment.

Roast Vegetable Lasagne

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 red onion, cut into chunks and separated
• 1 aubergine, cut in half and sliced
• 3 courgettes, sliced
• 1 red and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 15 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes, chopped
• 2tsp paprika
• 3 tbsp oregano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 lasagne sheets
• 8oz cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 oz butter
• 2 oz plain flour
• 1 pt milk
• nutmeg

1. Pre-heat oven to 190°C, Gas Mark 6. Put onions and vegetables in roasting dish, splash with olive oil, S+P bake for 20 minutes, until beginning to brown on edges. May need to do in two separate dishes as quite a lot of veg.
2. Put cooked veg in a big pan, add the tomatoes, paprika, oregano, garlic, S+P and bring to the boil. Turn to simmer and leave for 10 minutes or so while you are making the cheese sauce.
3. For the cheese sauce. Melt the butter, then stir in the flour and cook for 1 min.
4. Gradually stir in the milk, just a little at first to break the flour mix.
5. As thickens add ¾ of the cheese, and stir through until all the cheese melts. Do not allow to boil.
6. Place alternate layers of vegetables, cheese sauce and pasta sheets in an oven proof dish, finishing with a layer of pasta then cheese sauce. Grate over some nutmeg and a sprinkle of black pepper. Top with cheese and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown.

One worrying thing Laura mentioned, apparently she was scared to cook for us! It seems we (well Andy) has got himself a reputation for rating meals, and she was worried her her meal would be judged. Hope this isn’t putting other people off cooking for us! I promise we’re not like some evil restaurant critics, coming round on the pretense of wanting to see much missed friends, then harshly judging your hospitality. Besides Andy gave the meal 8 out of 10, so you had nothing to worry about… erm.

Anyway, given the clear success of the lessons I’m feeling more confident with my new student, who I like to call Erm (still can’t quite bring myself to call Andy’s parents by their first names, it makes me cringe! What’s wrong with me? Sure they’ll find this hilarious anyway).

So for Erm’s first lesson she’d said she’d like to make some dips and nice salad, so we made a quick hummous, tzatsiki, a mixed green salad with balsamic dressing and a nutty roast vegetable bulgar wheat salad. It’s all turned out brilliant! I was especially impressed with the bulgar wheat salad, which is delicious, and thought I should share the recipe. Also the quick hummous is a pretty handy alternative to my other recipe, which although works out much cheaper takes a lot more time and preparation.

Nutty Roast Vegetable Bulgar Wheat Salad

• 1/4 of a medium sized squash, peeled and chopped into smallish chunks
• 1/2 a red pepper, chopped into 6
• 1/2 a yellow pepper chopped into 6
• a small handful of sultanas
• 10 almonds, sliced
• olive oil
• 200g bulgar wheat
• sweet chili sauce
• 50g wensleydale (or other white cheese) cut into smallish cubes
• S+P

1. Pour enough boiling water over the bulgar wheat just to cover and then put a plate over the dish to trap the steam. Keep checking while cooking the veg etc to see if it needs a bit more water.
2. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6. Put the squash in a roasting dish with some olive oil, sweet chili sauce to taste and sprinkle over the almonds. Put in the oven for 15 minutes, then add the peppers and cook for a further 15 minutes.
3. Stir the roasted veg, sultanas and cheese into the bulgar wheat (which should be ready by now), and add more olive oil if required, and season.

Quick Hummous

• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 tsp tahini
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 glove of garlic
• pinch of salt

1. Put all the ingredients on a blender and blend until smooth. You may need to add a little water, more lemon juice or stock if the mix is too dry.

So from 6.30pm the race for the title of Mr or Mrs Pancake 2008 was on. With a point for every pancake that was finished and a price of an old wooden spoon from our drawer there was a lot to play for. The atmosphere was tense.

A variety of fillings were on offer, the traditional lemon and sugar, maple syrup, ice cream, bananas, nutella, and a few savoury options, cheese, hummous, salad, cream cheese, mushrooms and my favourite, salad cream. Mmm. The clever ones with an eye on the spoon trophy went for simpler fillings, just a squeeze of syrup maybe, while others aiming for quality rather than quantity went for a fuller savoury pancake.

After only a few minutes Kat made the mistake of declaring she was going to win, while at the same time going for some mighty combinations of fillings. After the 8th her game was up and she had to go for a walk. To be sick in the neighbours hedge no doubt. Only kidding, she would never do that.

Carl decided savoury pancakes were the way forward and enjoyed some fine looking combinations of the various fillings. He soon found himself full, satisfied, but out of the competition.

John made up some excuse about being allergic to dairy products and was spotted eating pork pies by the piano.

By 7.40 it was all over. All that was to be done was for referee and official pancake counter Steph to add up the scores. A total of 58 pancakes were consumed, averaging nearly one per minute. Wow.

Here are the final results:

Mark – a good effort – 5 pancakes
Kat – she went too fast from the start and had to retire early, but a very respectable 8 pancakes
Carl – quality, not quantity – 3 pancakes
Hannah – 3 pancakes and pancake tapas said “it’s not about the competition, it’s about us all being together.” Aww.
Nell – quietly and amazingly managed 10 pancakes!
Matt – a respectable 5
Steph – it seems to be a popular amount – 5 pancakes
Laura – busy flippin – 1 pancake
Leanne – mostly filled only with salad cream – 6
Andy – he just can’t help himself – 11
John – 2 pork pies, salad and one pancake

So the crowned champion and winner of title of Mr Pancake 2008 was Andy. In a post match interview the ever modest contestant said , “The competition was good, but in the end there was only ever going to be one winner”. Runner up Nell said, “What can I say? I f*#*!#g LOVE pancakes!” Don’t we all.

Carl and his Pancake

“That was one too many” Kat

“I’m just soo excited!” Nell

Winner and Super Chef

Making pancake tapas

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY05dunpMl4[/youtube]

But then by the end… super pancake flipping action!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R5FtKq8h94[/youtube]

Anyway, I’d made this copy pie a while ago and decided this would be a good one for Laura’s Lessons. I’ve never seen anyone so excited about making a pie! Crazy. Mind she’s a pretty excitable girl. The pie we made was a bit different from Heidi Pie, we had a few ingredients missing and added a few that weren’t in the original,but the final pie, the “Laura Pike Pie(k)” was as good if not better.

Laura Pike Pie(k)

For the pastry:

• 16oz flour
• 8oz butter
• a bit of water

For the filling:

• Various root veg: a parsnip, 2 sweet potatoes, a couple of carrots, normal potatoes – about 4
• A red onion
• Fresh thyme, about 5 sticks
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Goats cheese 200g
• Olive oil
• Garlic, 4 chunky chunks

1. Peel all the root veg and chop into bite size pieces. Put all except potatoes into a roasting tray, put potatoes in water and boil.
2. Slice the red onion from root to tip and scatter over root veg for roasting, also put in the chunks of garlic, maybe cut in half, the thyme and good swirl of olive oil and pepper. Mix it all around a bit to coat, and put in oven (at about 220) until start to brown (will be about 20 mins or so).
3. While veg are cooking make the pastry. Put the flour in a big mixing bowl, chop the butter into small chunks and rub in with fingertips until the mixture becomes like bread crumbs. Gradually add some water, it will not take much water, I’ve not measured it exactly (surprise), but even for this much pastry it will only take about 8-12 tbsp. I think the idea is to add as little water as possible while being able to roll the pastry out without it falling apart. So just add a few spoons at a time, mix round with a knife first, then work on with hands.
4. Divide the pastry into two, one part should be bigger than the other, to make the base. Roll out the base pastry, measure against the dish you are putting the veg into.I have no idea what size it will be, just look at the veg you’ve prepared and get a dish they will all fit in is usually what I do. Line the dish with the pastry, slide a knife around the edge to neaten, and roll the other piece out for the top.
5. When the potatoes are pretty much cooked and the veg in the oven are browning, take them all out and mix together in the pastry base.
6. Pour some sweet chilli sauce over the veg, just use as much as however spicy you like things, and then get the goats cheese, cut into chunks and spread around the top, push into the veg mix a bit.
7. Lay the other piece of pastry over the top, slice around the edges to neaten and press around the edge with a fork to seal.
8. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BIT: Get the left over pieces of pastry you have sliced from around the pie and use to spell out “Laura”. Attach these to the pie with a little milk. The pie will not cook and will possibly poison you if you miss this stage out.
9. Put in the oven until it is cooked. Will take about 15 minutes.I think. I didn’t time it. It might take a bit longer than that.

Here’s a couple of pictures: Laura with her Pie(k) and the final cooked pie.

I definitely can’t play piano, but I can cook, or at least I can manage to put together a decent meal without setting fire to things or poisoning people. We decided to try and sort out this unbalance of skills by swapping cooking lessons for piano lessons. Woopeeee!

We had our first lesson a few months ago. We made a combination of about 8 different dishes to make a middle eastern style banquet, tabouleh, tzatziki, hummous, fateh, grilled halloumi and a few other things. It was complete chaos. The food turned out lovely, however the kitchen was a big muddle of plates, peelings, pans, spoons, stuff everywhere and a slightly confused, manic Laura and Leanne in the middle trying to pull everything together before our 6 guests arrived. Oops.

I was told to rein it in a little for the next one, “Good idea” I said.

“Something simple like Curry” Laura suggested.

“Cool! We’ll make vegetable samosas, two curries, pilau rice, a side dish and these lovely little…”

“Calm down!”

Eventually Laura managed to convince me to keep it simple and we made a lovely sweet potato, butter bean and coconut curry and some onion bhajis. The onion bhajis were ace! They were dead simple to make too and cost pennies. Laura now wants to start an onion bhaji business.

Here’s the recipe:

• 2 level cups gram flour
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 medium onions, finely sliced – half moon

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Add 1/4 pint of water to make a thick batter. Leave to stand for 5 mins.
2. Pour oil into wok or deep fryer, enough so it will pretty much cover a bhaji when you put it in. Heat it until very hot. You can test the oil is hot enough by dropping one piece of the coated onion mix if it sizzles rapidly it is ready.
3. Take one tablespoon of the mix and drop in carefully, put a couple more the same in, however many will fit in whatever you are cooking them in without touching too much.
4. Fry for about 5 mins until crisp and golden brown, turning over half way through.
5. Scoop out and drain on kitchen paper.
6. Check they are ready by cutting one in half, if they are not cooked properly the batter will still be runny inside, if it is you can just throw it back in and cook for another minute or so.

I love the way they look like crazy little aliens. They are so much nicer fresh from the pan than bought from a shop.

So Laura can now make onion bhajis and I can read basic notes, know the different lengths of notes and where they are on the piano. Expect a performance in a concert hall near you soon.