A multi-season soup

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. Well, except this year I did. I resolved to make a large batch of soup most weekends, which I would then religiously take to work for my lunches the following week, and certainly not buy any more vastly overpriced, fattening, panini-type things.

The reason I don't make New Year's Resolutions is that I've hardly ever known anyone to actually stick to the things. January has always struck me as a bad time to go trying to make big life changes, just when the weather is telling you to hide indoors, drink lots of strong wine and eat lots of chocolate. But soup... ah yes, soup is for January. And February, as it turned out. I got as far as March before the weather improved sufficiently to slow me down. One of the last batches I cooked before I turned veggie for Lent (and therefore couldn't eat it) was the following, adapted from a Nigel Slater recipe in his Kitchen Diaries. His version (available here for you sorry folk who don't own the book) was more main-coursey, so I did the following.

The parmesan rinds are non-essential but fabulous. Whenever you finish a piece of parmesan, stick it in the freezer and save it for soups like this. The best results will also come if you use some kind of animal fat (so, the stuff you drain off when frying duck breasts or roasting a joint, or buy some lard in a supermarket), but olive oil would do just fine.


A Herb and Barley Broth

100g barley
2 tbs of some kind of fat, preferably animal (I used some duck fat I had hanging around)
1 carrot
2 leeks
3 stalks celery
2 onions
4 cloves garlic
1/2 glass sherry
1 litre chicken stock (or 500ml and 500ml water, or all veggie stock, etc!)
4 or so bay leaves
handful thyme
parmesan rinds, if you have some hanging around
handful parsley

First you need to cook your barley, as the rest of the soup doesn't need too long. The packet on mine suggested 1 hour to an hour and a half, and I think the shorter time is about right - you want it to keep some bite when it goes into the soup. Nigel says it'll be done in 20 mins, but I think that's wildly optimistic.

Meanwhile, chop the carrot, celery and leek into little cubes, and slice the onions thinly from root to tip (so they make little crescents, most still joined at the root). Heat your fat in a big saucepan or casserole, and then saute the veg over a gentle heat, stirring often, until softened but not browned. Slice the garlic thinly, add to the pan, and saute for another couple of minutes.

Once the barley is cooked, tip it into the pan, then add the sherry and simmer until you don't get a whack of alcohol when you inhale the steam. Then add the stock, thyme, bay leaves, and parmesan rinds if available, and bring to a gentle simmer. Pop on a lid, and simmer for half an hour or so. Chop the parsley roughly, and stir in.


A more summery dinner

Two portions of the above have now sat in my fridge for the whole of Lent, tempting but out of bounds thanks to the duck fat and chicken stock. It's now really too warm to have soup at lunchtime, so I thought I'd have one for dinner, but on its own it was a little restrained, so I thought I'd add some fresh veggies. It would have worked well with peas, beans, or maybe some purple sprouting broccoli, but (perhaps predictably, at the moment) I went for some asparagus - about six or seven spears, each cut into three bite-size lengths, and simmered in the soup for seven minutes or so, until tender. I dished it up and grated over a generous amount of parmesan for good measure.

One portion of the soup remains in the freezer. Suggestions for what to do with it warmly welcomed!