Cafe Lula

Sometimes The Book People come to my office. When this happens, I accidentally part with money in return for more cookbooks and then I sneak them home and put them on the bookshelf so that I can claim I’ve had them for ages when Chris asks where they’ve come from. Shh. Don’t tell. What has this got to do with soup? Well, not loads. But I got this wonderful soup book last time The Book People came (don’t you think The Book People sounds kind of sinister? Like The Pod People. They’ve come to take over your… cookbooks! I guess it doesn’t sound that sinister. I do love my cookbooks though. What if they took over my Nigella books?! I am experiencing high levels of confusion right now).

What was I saying? Soup. Soup book. Yes. I have been wanting to make my own soup for ageeeeeeeeeees so when The Book People showed up with New Covent Garden Soup Co: A Soup for Every Day, I had to had to had to buy it. Had to. And then I just had to buy some beautiful Le Creuset soup bowls. And then, whaddaya know, I have soup bowls and a soup cookbook. It’s like fate! Don’t question fate. Just make the soup.

Just a note on the soup. It is AMAZING but it seems to produce stingy portion sizes. The following is what I made for two but I’d probably double it next time I make it. I put it all in one bowl for the photo so what you see up there is how much the following produced!

Tomato and chorizo soup with parmesan

Adapted from New Covent Garden Soup Co: A Soup for Every Day

Serves 2 (or 1 hungry person)

Ingredients:

olive oil, for frying

1 large shallot, chopped

1 small carrot, peeled and diced

60g chopped chorizo

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp sugar

salt and black pepper, to season

200g tinned chopped tomatoes

1/2 tsp tomato puree

pinch dried oregano

1 bay leaf

225ml chicken stock

parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the shallot. Gently fry for 5-10 minutes. Add the carrot and chorizo, frying for a further 10 minutes and stirring every so often. Add the smoked paprika, sugar, salt and black pepper and cook for 5 more minutes. Add all the other ingredients except the parmesan, stir well and then cook gently for 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Serve with grated parmesan on top and some crusty bread. Look out for the pod people.