A Celebration of Soup by Lindsey Bareham

If, in 2007, you had started a blog called: “Pebble Soup”, then you should expect to be showered with “soup-presents.” When I dreamt about Christmas, invariably the same nightmare came up: a vision of the big guy in red throwing colourful ladles at me. I almost put a sign on the door saying: Dear Father Christmas, do not bother, I have been naughty all year -long.
On the fateful night, I frisked all my presents to make sure that there wasn’t any thing “soup-shaped.” To my amazement, only two presents where food-related, moreover only one dedicated to soups. Oh noooo, isn’t anybody reading my blog?
A Celebration of Soup (Cookery Library) is indeed a great present, a classic, a must-have book. With recipes full of E … not the additive E, no, no, no, I am talking about the E for Exciting, Entertaining, Educating. You opened the book to a citation of Lewis Carroll’s: beautiful sooooouuuup, and, from the start you feel confident that you are in good hands here: tips, a troubleshooting guide, tricks of the trade, and more. Everything is covered, from which equipment to have, to what to drink with your soup. Handy notes head the recipes which come from top chefs worldwide, restaurants to cookery writers and anonymous, all sprinkled with the author’s innovation. It was shortlisted for the most cerebral of the foodie award over a decade ago (André Simon’s) and when you get to the bibliography, you understand why: it is extremely well documented.
Ah I forgot to say this book contain no pictures, but in this case, it is not a disappointment, plus when was the last time your own dish looked like the glossy picture on display?
I know that it is not true but when you look at the index, which by the way indicates v for vegetarian and f for fish, it feels like ALL the soups in the world are there for me to try. So I did, made a start with a quick soup: sopa de panela.


CHICKPEA SOUP with MINT and GARLIC



Serves 4:



2 x 400g/ 14 oz cans chickpea, 2 fat cloves of garlic roughly chopped, 6 tps olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves and 2 tbsp of parsley, all leaves finely chopped.
Drain the liquid from the chickpea can into a measuring jug and make up the amount to 900ml/ 1 and 1/2 pints. Purée the liquid with the chickpeas, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice and season to tast with salt and pepper.

Turn into a pan and stir in most of the mint and parsley. Heat through, taste and adjust the seasoning.
Serve garnished with the rest of the mint and parsley and, if liked, a swirl of olive oil, and triangular croutons (for which you also get the recipe too) and lemon wedges on the side.

4 comments:

Cyndi said...

Mint and garlic, and chickpeas - definitely a Mediterranean influence on this recipe. Thanks for participating in my event!

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

You are so right, definitly influenced by the Mediterraneen diet, chick peas are rich in calcium therefore perfect for the winter blues.
If you intend to purchase Lindsey's book could you do it by double clicking on the link in my blog, I am an amazon associate thanks.

Anonymous said...

Very good article, well written and very thought out.

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

Thank you Ms Ano, always a pleasure to hear that my posts make a good read, join me on followers and spread the word.
xx

si

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