Rustic Cream Of Vegetable Broth

To comfort & sustain you on those blustery Autumnal days as the leaves fall to the ground in a rich tapestry of color & snow falling Winter evenings..

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   Well, first of all, lets start preparing our market vegetables and put your favourite cd on, I love to listen to Irish traditional music playing while I bake or cook, it creates a wonderful atmosphere in my kitchen, a Hooley!

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   Wash and peel the potatoes and cut into halve and then quarters and place them in a saucepan of cold water. Fill the saucepan until you cover your potatoes. Add a little olive oil and milk and a dash of ground rosemary and just leave it there for the moment.

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   Next we wash and de-seed our lovely big red bell pepper and we don't want the seeds, so slice the pepper into large chunks, set aside for the moment.

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   Take your carrots, peel, wash and slice them into medium pieces. Take a saucepan and fill with water so it covers the carrots and now add your red pepper to that, a dash of olive oil.

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   Now you turn the hob on for both the potatoes and the carrots & red pepper to a medium heat, I usually use number five and set your timer for 25 minutes.

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   Okay, the next step now as you tidy up as you go along is to peel that large onion and cut into large pieces and put it in the food processor.

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   Next we add our wonderful selection of herbs and spices, a little at a time as we go along, we continue to taste and using our own taste buds decide if we want more of one particular herb or spice.

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   Add the olive oil and here's the fun part, set the blitzer to rock and roll! What we're looking for is a semi-pureed spiced onion base. This is what forms the base of our broth, the foundations of where it all begins!

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   After the 25 minutes have elapsed, your potatoes should be tender, so let's strain them and add some milk and butter and let's prepare our creamed potatoes. Now when your potato is nice and creamy, leave it aside for the moment.

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    Now we can also switch off our hob and strain the carrot and red bell peppers. Let's add these to the processor and begin blitzing again. You'll find that the broth will change to a gorgeous Autumnal rust colour, a direct result of the natural colour in the carrot and red pepper.

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    Now it's time to also add the creamed potato to the processor and blitz that up until it is all combined and very creamy indeed. This forms the base for our broth.

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    While all that blitzing is going on, we crumble the oxo cubes into our measuring jug and dissolve them in boiling water to make our lovely stock.

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    Take a large pot and pour in the stock and give it a little stir around. Turn off your processor and be very careful lifting out the centre blade (it's sharp!) and cast that aside gently.

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    Now, take your time and pour the contents of your broth into the pot where you have your stock and using two table forks, one in each hand apply the next technique! Start blending the broth with the stock until it forms your soup.

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    In the meantime, you can now start to pre-heat your oven to 180oC and remove your breads from their packaging. If they are not frozen, they will bake for 12 minutes, otherwise leave them in the oven for about 14 minutes.

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    Soon as soon as it's time to put your bread in the oven to bake, this is when you switch your hob back on to number five and gently bring this gorgeous Autumnal broth to the boil and take it off the heat and keep stirring and tasting and this is when you decide if you want a little more black pepper or a twinkling more garlic, the choice is yours!

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    A minute before your bread is ready, have your plate and soup bowl at the ready and prepare to plate up within the next few minutes!

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    The oven timer is now letting you know that your bread is ready, so be careful removing it from the oven and place on the side of your plate. Place your bowl in the centre and I usually serve about 4 ladles of broth per person.

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    Decorate your broth with croutons (freshly baked or shop bought!) Shake over some more salt & black pepper and sweet paprika, parsley and sit down and enjoy!