Today I had a couple of sweet potatoes starting to look like they needed using up and nothing in mind for lunch so thought I’d knock up a soup. I’ve had people tell me they think soups are intimidating, but really it’s not much more than whatever you have to hand that vaguely works together cooked together and blitzed with stock. Today I used:
2 average sized sweet potatoes
1 white potato
1.5 shallots (one of them was starting to go a bit soft so trimmed a bit)
1 garlic clove
Vegetable stock
Vegetable oil
Salt

And this equipment:
Roasting tray
Saucepan
Chopping board
Knife
Stick blender
Peeler

Because I had a bit of time on my hands I decided to fancy things up a bit by roasting the sweet potatoes first, so I popped a roasting tray in the oven with some vegetable oil to heat at about 200c as I was wanting to get a good bit of caramelisation going. They’d continue cooking later so didn’t have to worry about much more than getting a good bit of colour on them. Then I peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes into rough 2cm chunks, made sure they were coated in the hot oil and popped in the oven for about 20 – 30 min. How long it takes to just get the corners start to turn darker will depend on how small you chopped them.

With that in hand, I peeled and roughly chopped the shallots (they’re going to get blended so don’t stress about how fine they are or anything) then peeled and sliced the garlic as finely as I could without risking my fingertips. The last bit of knife work was then carried out on the white potato, which I was including just to bulk it out a bit. With some oil hot in a saucepan big enough for all those ingredients, I chucked in the shallot first to soften then the white potato and garlic to sweat off a for a few minutes. By this point my sweet potatoes were how I wanted them so they went in too, making sure to get any bits from the roasting tray that had caught slightly as they’re full of flavour. The stock cube I found in the back of the cupboard (yes I know I should make my own stock) suggested dissolving in 500ml of water, but I didn’t think I’d need that much so used about 400ml to make it a touch peppier.

With the veg cooked, I topped it up with the stock to simmer for a few minutes. You’re looking for the point when you can comfortably push a blunt knife through any of the chunks but before it all turns to mush. I generally go about a centimetre over the top of the veg, but if you go conservative you can always top up with a bit more after blitzing it. All that’s left is to turn it into a liquid by whatever means you have. I use a stick blender, which generally leaves me with a fetching splatter effect. Any kind of blender, multitool or chopper that seals well will do though. There’s no need to chuck money at anything too specific. That all took about 35 minutes end to end, without needing anything constant attention, and was a delicious healthy lunch for 2 with some Bluebird Bakery bread on the side and a bit of parmesan grated over it for a chuckle.

The point of all this is that there’s really no need to get hung up on weights and measures when you’re just knocking together a quick lunch. There’s no secret or magic and while it’s fair to say there’s a bit of judgement to learn, you’re unlikely to produce something that isn’t perfectly tasty. Yes times are undeniably grim but we still need to eat and more than ever we’re compelled to find joy in small things and cooking is the perfect vehicle for that.

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I received three cheese to play about with: Hebridean Blue, Summerfields Alpine and Brie with Black Pepper. As one would expect from Love Cheese, they were all superb to sample, my only frustration being that I needed to resist temptation and leave enough of each to cook with! I was eager to come up with a few ideas that, while not wilfully odd, were a little more left wing than just melting cheese onto something. While that’s generally good advice for life, I wanted to let the cheeses speak for themselves and maintain their personalities. I thought I’d have a go at one recipe per cheese, my favourite ending up being the Alpine soup so that’s the one you can consider my entry for the Love Cheese challenge!

Summerfields Alpine Soup
This cheese came from the Botton Creamery not too far from York. I’ve sampled their cheeses a few times and they’ve always been superb. This was a nutty alpine style cheese that made me think of a long lost recipe for “Alpine soup” I used to enjoy. A little research took me right back to it and gave me the approximation of a recipe to follow. I used:

A chunk of good butter for frying
1 finely chopped large onion
2 diced large carrots
1 finely chopped leek
500ml good vegetable stock
A pint of milk
2 small potatoes, peeled and grated
A couple of balls of frozen spinach
Around 200g Summerfields Alpine cheese, grated
150ml double cream
Salt & pepper

In a large pan I melted the butter and softened the onion for a few minutes before adding the carrot and leek and letting them sweat for about 7 or 8 minutes (how finely you chop the veg will affect how long it needs). I then added the stock and let it come to a simmer before adding the milk and grated potato, covering it and letting it simmer for about 25 minutes. I then popped in the frozen balls of spinach and, after that had defrosted and distributed itself through the pan, added the cheese. After the cheese had melted I popped in the cream and seasoned to taste before serving with bread. As I’d made sure to use gluten free stock, this was suitable for my coeliac mother too (substituting the bread for gluten free of course!) who agreed it was delicious.

Black Pepper Brie Scones
The black pepper in this brie from Godminster cheese was thankfully not strong enough to overpower the cheese itself, as is so often the risk when adding a strong flavour to a cheese. I thought that the pepper would make a really interesting way to season some scones so looked up a few generic scone recipes and resolved to add cheese. The first batch also included a load of berries and were less successful, so I’ll refrain from sharing the pictures on here.

250g plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
Good pinch of salt
75g cubed, cold butter
120ml milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
120g diced Black Pepper Brie

I mixed together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt before massaging through the cubes of butter until I had large breadcrumb sized bits ready to add the egg and milk to. I’d combined the egg and milk prior to adding to the mixture as advised by a couple of recipes, but I’ve not had the time to check the advantage this approach adds. After mixing that lot into a dough, I added the pieces of brie and formed into patties to pop into the oven. This is what came out!

Hebridean Blue
I’ve visited the Isle of Mull and tried cheeses from there, but this is my first encounter with this blue, which impressed me greatly. I wanted to soften the flavours in this hard cheese without destroying them so I decided that a soufflé would be a good approach. While a soufflé looked like the right vehicle to convey this cheese, it’s not something I’ve attempted before or was willing to sacrifice precious cheese to practising. With that in mind, I took a pragmatic approach and used this recipe as a guide. https://fromagehomage.co.uk/2015/02/03/twice-baked-hebridean-blue-souffles/
I opted to serve the soufflés from the ramekins they took their first bake in, rather than taking them out and turning them, and was pleased with the results. In fact, there’s one left in the fridge!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my cheesy ideas for the Love Cheese challenge. I’ll be contemplating further adventures while I give that leftover soufflé its second bake.

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