Soup is great, isn’t it! It’s the perfect way of getting rid of any left over bits in your fridge whilst at the same time give you a realy boost of vitamins and flavour. They can be as gourmet, comforting, zen, healthy (or not) as you choose them to be!

The recipe below came as an idea when I had friends over for a sunday roast and had, as usual, made way too much! I had quite a lot of left over broccoli, green cabbage, cauliflower and peas. As the thought of throwing away this pefectly usable vegetable mix was beyond comprehension, I set about having a think about what I could do with it to turn it into something even tastier!

There are always lots of options with left over veg; bubble and squeak being the most obvious of course. But I decided instead to go for a soup and add the twist of a mild goats’ cheese to go with it to excite the taste buds. If you have loads of leftover cooked veg, this recipe will take you all of about 10 minutes to make. Add on another 10 if you have to steam the veg from scratch – but even so, this is not a time extensive exercise at all and if you love veg and cheese you will thank me for this recipe!!

Ingredients:
Apx 1 kilo of steam cooked veg. (Quantities vary: less veg = less cheese and so on).
150g of mild goats cheese (choose something with a smooth texture and milky flavour; you don’t want too much sourness coming from the cheese)
1 gelly vegetable stock cube made up with 1 ltr of hot water
Freshly ground black pepper
Method:
If you haven’t some left over veg; prepare your veg and steam cook for 10-15 minutes until very tender. Don’t boil the veg otherwise you will lose flavour and it will taste watery.
Meanwhile, boil the kettle and make up the 1 ltr of vegetable stock from the gelly.
When the veg is cooked, place into a blender and give it a quick wizz just to break it down to make room for the other ingredients.
Add in the 1 litre of stock and crumble in the goats cheese.
Blitz under very smooth. If the consistency is too thick, add more water.
Add lots of freshly ground black pepper to your own personal taste.
No need to add extra salt as there will have been plenty during the cooking of the veg and the stock gelly.
If eating immediately, transfer into a pan and heat through til bubbling.
Serve with a garnish of crumbled goats cheese and a parsley leaf.
If freezing, portion off into bags or tubs and allow to cool completely before placing in the freezer. This soup will happily keep in a freezer for a couple of months.
When eating from frozen, take it out of the freezer and place in a fridge to defrost for max 24 hours. Place in a saucepan and heat until boiling. Simmer for a few minutes until piping hot and serve immediately.
…and Enjoy!