A Trio of Soups

It’s been getting colder here (-2°C - that’s 28°F to our lovely New York readers), so my thoughts have turned to hearty warming soups and staying in curled up on the sofa as much as possible. This morning before I headed off to work I rummaged around in the freezer and found two portions of salmon and prawn chowder, so Missy B and I tucked into that for dinner. Delicious!! I’ve written about this one before on my Battenburgbelle blog - I love this soup and I put the recipe on the blog a while ago. What I didn’t say that time was that one of the things that’s so great about many soups is that you can so easily tweak the recipes, depending on what ingredients you have available. This time, I didn’t have any fresh corn on the cob, so I used tinned corn and I switched crème fraiche for double cream. Because, frankly, I’m not nipping out to buy missing ingredients in this weather - and they both turned out to be perfectly valid substitutions.

This got me thinking about other soups I know and love and a session flicking through some other old blog posts unearthed a couple more that are very much in season here in the UK right now. This post from a couple of winters ago includes a wonderful recipe for beetroot soup that I often use and absolutely adore - it is so quick and easy to make... Check it out here! Looking at the picture of the maroons glacés has got me drooling too - I can’t believe I forgot to make any of these at Christmas this year.

Finally in my trio of soups, I have to offer you this recipe that takes me by surprise with its loveliness each time I make it. I know some people are a little alarmed by celeriac and unsure what to do with it, but once you’ve got over that, it’s easy to deal with (vigorous peeling is basically all that’s required). Do try this celeriac soup - although in this weather, I suggest a large bowl rather than a tiny teacup!