A Monday Soup of Leftovers

A Creamy, smoky, cheesy, cabbagey, garlicky soup*

Firstly, a very warm welcome to all my new subscribers, some of whom have arrived via Rachel Roddy’s latest Guardian column. I’m very happy to have you here! If you are new to pressure cooking, I highly recommend you read some of my earlier posts on how to use pressure cookers safely and effectively - they are all free to access. And just in case you didn’t catch my last post, here is a 20% discount to my latest demo, which will be taking place next Saturday at Omved Gardens in Highgate. Follow this link and enter CATHERINE20 at the checkout. My demos are a really useful introduction to pressure cooking, and I am told that those who are much more experienced get a lot out of them too.

And - mea culpa - I totally forgot that I was going to announce a Soup for Good winner last night. It is Catherine Pritchard! Catherine, please get in touch with your address and I will get the book out to you.

I have been running around all over today and had a sick boy at home to feed. So lunch needed to be a quick soup which wasn’t reliant on any type of stock, because I am all out (late to the farmers market on Saturday and the chicken stall was sold out of backs). In this situation I either go for something spicy and build up flavour with a mix of whole and ground spices, or go down a rich, cheesy route, or often I combine the two. Herbs, fresh, dry or frozen are essential to both. I asked my lot for preference and the answer, as expected, was cheese.

The depth of flavour came from 3 sources - firstly, some smoked bacon, secondly, some dried mushrooms which I didn’t bother soaking (not really any need when pressure cooking, unless you want to chop them really finely) and thirdly, I was using up some gouda which had plenty of rind on it, so I trimmed that off and added it to the pot too, just as you would a heel of parmesan. And I only needed a little bit of each - pressure cooking being so good at pushing and disseminating flavour through the liquid. You can also use an either/or approach.

On the vegetable front I was using up a few things carried over from last week, always a necessity by Monday because I always buy so much at the weekend at various farmers markets it is hard to get them all in the fridge and they end up swamping my very limited kitchen counter space. So in that sense this is very much a leftovers soup, and you can substitute any vegetables you like in it. Any root vegetables will work, so will any greens. But if you are using kale or chard, you will only need one cook as you can add them to the soup at the same time as the root vegetables.

When I make this kind of soup, I prep as I go, which speeds it up a lot. So, pressure cooker goes on to heat, I add a little oil, then in goes the bacon, snipped straight into the pot with scissors (a useful tip I picked up from Rosie Sykes). While that browns, I chop and onion, stir that in and leave to cook while I prep the celery, swede and potatoes. It means the bacon is browned and the onion has started to catch by the time all the prep is done. I’ve discussed this way of going about things at demos over the years and find that it is very divisive - some people do it as matter of course, others find it inconceivable that you would start cooking before your prep is done. I mention it here because convention dictates that I don’t write my recipes this way but I do like to nod to it every so often.

One last note - you will see from the photo that the soup looks brothy rather than creamy. That is because the cheese rinds give the soup so much rich flavour that you need very little by way of creme fraiche. You can of course add more if you want to. And as is so often the way with brown food, it tastes so much better than it looks. Adam described it as “epic”.

Leftover Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

2-3 rashers bacon, finely diced (optional, or use any smoked/cured meat)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 stick celery, sliced

150g swede (or any other root vegetable) diced

1 medium potato, diced

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp dried mushrooms, crumbled if you like

A piece of cheese rind (optional)

1 tsp dried thyme or sage, or anything fresh you have

1/4 savoy or green cabbage or any other greens, shredded

1 tbsp creme fraiche or soured cream

1 tsp Dijon mustard

75g cheese, grated

Heat your pressure cooker, then add the olive oil. Add the bacon and when it has crisped and browned, stir in the onion and leave until it has also browned a bit around the edges. Add the celery, swede and potato. Stir for another minute or two, then add the garlic, mushrooms, cheese rind and herbs. Pour over 600ml water and make sure the base of the cooker is completely deglazed. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring up to high pressure and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat. Leave to stand for 5 minutes, then release any remaining pressure. Add the greens, bring up to high pressure and immediately remove from the heat. Leave to drop pressure naturally.

Set over a low heat and stir in the creme fraiche or soured cream, the mustard and half the cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted (make sure you do this on a very low heat, you want the cheese to disintegrate and dissolve, not seize up and go stringy.) Lightly puree if you want to break it up a bit - you can also just use a masher or push the vegetables against the side of the cooker with a spoon.

Serve sprinkled with more cheese.

*Just in case you are wondering why I have gone a bit OTT on the adjectives it is a reaction to reading this piece at the weekend, which I came upon via Kristen Jensen’s Food for Thought. It is not something I often do (although I have succumbed to garlicky and brothy A LOT) but I like it, I find it friendly.* I’m quite surprised because I have a general hatred of words abbreviated to a -y/-ie. Preggy, veggie, barbie (the grill, not the doll, Barbie is acceptable), jimmies, blanky and of course hubby and wifey. Ugh, ugh, ugh. If I have mentioned this before - it is a bugbear - I apologise!

Thank you for reading! This is a free post, so please do share with anyone you think might want a recipe for a rich, yet economical soup!