mammy's home made soup

This soup is one my mother makes all the time, and for years I didn’t realise it was her special recipe. Recently various relatives and friends asked me how she makes it so tasty and I realised there was actually a little trick to it! Her special ingredient is butter. My mother always makes this soup with potato and leeks but my favourite is with red pepper, which is what I did today. Any veg goes really, apart from the basics. These quantities make four servings.

For this one I used:

• 1 potato
• 2 onions
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper

You also need:

• Butter (not sure what amount, but a nice big chunk…add whatever you think yourself)
• Salt and pepper
• One vegetable stock cube
• 2 pints of water.
• And a blender (hand held)

Peel and chop the potatoes and onions. Melt the butter in a saucepan and when melted, throw in the potatoes and onions. Don’t have the heat too high, you don’t want the potatoes and onions to fry, you just want them to sweat in the butter to absorb all the buttery flavour. Make sure they are well covered in butter, add in LOTS of salt and pepper and mix around. Then, with the heat low, cover the veg with some paper kitchen towel and let it all sweat in the butter for about ten minutes. Stir it every now and then. (Ha! I was about to write ‘stirring occasionally’ there, and then realised I sound like a cookbook. We couldn’t have that!)



While this is cooking up, chop the other vegetables. And boil a kettle of water. When the water is boiled pour about two pints into a jug and mix in a vegetable stock cube. When the pototoes and onions have sweat in the butter for ten minutes, throw in all the other veg and mix around. Then pour in the veggie stock. You don’t need to bring it to the boil, but let the whole thing simmer for about fifteen minutes. After it has simmered, take the blender to it. I used a hand held one to liquidise the whole thing. I left it on the heat for another five minutes after that. Divide into bowls and serve with some cream poured in, and a little more black pepper dashed on top.

 

Mammy’s verdict:
"Hmmm. Nice with the red pepper, but I do prefer the leek soup myself. Not quite as flavourful as mine, maybe sweat it in the butter for a bit longer, and add another onion. Could do with a bit more salt and pepper as well."

(note: I adjusted the recipe above to take account of her comments)