Pea and Mint Soup

Pea and Mint Soup

We had this soup together with the goats’ cheese, onion and potato bread with thyme and it was a great combo. This is a Jamie Oliver recipe from Ministry of Food (His best book in my opinion!).

Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tblsp olive oil
2 chicken and 2 vegetable stock cubes
800g frozen peas
A small bunch of fresh mint
Sea salt and frechly ground balck pepper
Optional: 300g cooked ham

1. Grate the carrots, slice the celery, chop the onions and slice the garlic.
2. Put this in a saucepan on medium heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
3. Cook for about 10 minutes until the carrots have softened and the onion is lightly golden.
4. Add 1.8 litres of boiling water to the stock cubes. Stirr the cubes until they have dissolved and add to the vegetables.
5. Add the peas, stir and bring to the boil. Allow to boil for 10 minutes.
6. Once the peas have softened, remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper and add the mint leaves.
7. Liquidise the soup until smooth.
8. If you are using ham, chop it and add it to the soup.
9. Serve hot or cold with a squirt of lemon juice.

Goats' Cheese, Spring Onion and Potato Bread with Thyme

Goats' Cheese, Spring Onion and Potato Bread with Thyme

I made this today and it is yummy! This is a Delia Smith recipe from her How to Cook - Book 1.

Ingredients:
110g goats’ cheese
4 spring onions, finely sliced
1 red potato (weighing about 175g)
1 rounded tsp chopped thyme leaves, plus some extra to sprinkle on top of the loaf
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp salt (As the goats’ cheese is so salty, I would not add any additional salt)
A generous pinch of cayenne pepper
1 large egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 heaped tsp grain mustard

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.
2. Sift the flour, salt (if you want) and the cayenne pepper into a big mixing bowl. Hold the sieve high to give the flour a good airing.
3. Peel the potato and grate it straight into the flour.
4. Add the spring onions, chopped thyme and the cheese and mix.
5. Beat the egg, milk and mustard. Add to the flour mixture and mix until it is a rough dough.
6. Put on a baking sheet in either a round or oval shape. Dust with a little flour and the extra thyme.
7. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Serve warm.

As I mentioned before, this loaf is seriously YUM. However it is quite small and if I were to serve it to guests, I would definitely do double quantaties. 2 of us ate the whole loaf for lunch.

For a delicious alternative, substitute the goats’ cheese, spring onions and tyme for feta cheese, a quarter of a red onion (finely chopped) and rosemary, respectively.