In general, the bigger the courgette (zucchine) the more bitterness it holds. So you better choose smaller ones. Add a few drops of creme fraiche, Greek yogurt, sour cream, or creme fraiche that has been thinned with a little milk. The Parsnip, Apple & Elderflower was first to be tried. Weird. But nice. Very nice, in fact. It’s something that would be great at a picnic or BBQ. Add the coconut milk and use a hand blender or a regular blender to puree the soup until it is as smooth as silk. (Removing half of the jalapeo before puréeing will make it less spicy.)

Add enough of creamy brie cheese to your soup for a rich and delicious flavour. If you do not like the slightly bitter taste or the brie’s rind, remove it before adding to the soup. Cut your tomatoes into small pieces and set them aside. Oil should be heated in a medium pot on medium to high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft and the garlic smells good. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and keep cooking, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes have mostly broken down.To enhance the soup's taste, roast the vegetables by halving the onions, tomatoes, and peppers, then laying them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over them and bake in an oven preheated to 200°C (gas mark 6) for 60 minutes, flipping the onions and peppers halfway through. Afterwards, remove the skin from the roasted peppers and tomatoes. Start by roasting your courgettes whole in a hot oven until they are soft and slightly charred. This will add great flavour to your soup. Rinse the courgettes, remove the top and bottom, then chop roughly into rings. (If you’re not going to blend your soup then you might want to take a little more care over this bit, but as I blitz it all then I don’t worry too much about the size.) Add to the pan. I’m using my usual Portmeirion casserole but you can use any large pan. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil with the garlic and herbs. when it's hot, add the other vegetables. cook for a few minutes, stirring every now and then, until the vegetables start to soften. Put these vegetables on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven until they are soft. I spent about 40 minutes doing it.

Tonight, it’s courgette and Brie, a recipe which I originally found in my Covent Garden soup book but as usual am too lazy busy to follow exactly so have adapted to my throw-it-all-in-the-pot style. Improv cooking at it’s best! Fancy having a go yourself? Like the leek and potato soup I showed you a couple of weeks ago, there’s not a lot to it. Hayley’s heartwarming soup recipe will serve up to four people and takes around an hour to make. Hayley discovered this yummy recipe when she bought a Halloween pumpkin and wasn’t sure what to do with it. For an extra treat she advises topping with crumbled stilton and crispy bacon before serving. Ingredients Slater finishes his soup with toasted cumin seeds, olive oil and microgreens, Tovey tops his with chopped parsley and serves croutons on the side, and Singh-Watson gives a whole list of garnish suggestions that, in addition to some of the above, includes toasted almonds, orange flower water, walnut, hazelnut and sesame oil and “one heaped teaspoon of ground mixed Moroccan spices, such as caraway and cumin with a little hot chilli”. If you’re short of time, or would just prefer to use that time otherwise (ie, eating the soup), you could easily just sprinkle chopped fresh coriander on top. My bright, green coriander puree is not just for show, however – dissolved in oil, the flavour of the herb is richer, and more intense, than my teenage self could ever dream of. New Covent Garden Soup Co. have celebrated this year’s summer by bringing out a great new range of soups. But, even better than that, they invited me to come and try them.

Ingredients

The cheese adds a special touch to this soup, which makes it go from an everyday soup to a festive soup.Served with crispy, homemade croutons and a dash of sour cream, this light soup becomes a highlight. Tips for a good result This yummy recipe for four people takes just 10 minutes to prepare and a further 20 minutes to cook. When speaking to Lucy about her recipe, she advised adding big floating cheese-topped croutons to the soup when serving. Ingredients To make the basil puree, pound the basil leaves with salt in a pestle and mortar until they are smooth. Add the olive oil and vinegar and stir well. Put a heaping teaspoon of the puree on top of the soup and eat it with bread and other things. It's delicious!