broccoli, green bean, sweetcorn and cabbage soup

… running an event production company like The Persuaders can sometimes mean we work on some really unusual events and in some brilliant venues all over the world… from floating a Croatian island down the Thames to having dinner in the sky hanging from a crane above London, it’s never a dull moment… we’re currently in the middle of a really cool but top-secret project for Madame Tussauds, the world famous waxworks museum and it’s been absolutely brilliant because myself and the team have had unparalleled access to the London site.  Just this morning we were up early and on-site waking amongst the models, which can be quite an unnerving experience if truth be told.  The figures are so life-like that you imagine them to suddenly come to life and start talking with you.  It was a lovely experience this morning and all three of us left the building feeling like children again… eyes wide and full of wonder.  It’s quite incredible how experiencing something that you’ve not done since childhood can bring back the most wonderful feelings and memories… I think food has an amazing capacity to do this too… eating something that only your mum can make or going to a restaurant where you first ate a certain food, it’s amazing how powerful a bowl of soup can be!

broccoli, green bean, sweetcorn and cabbage soup
this cold has been lurking for far too long now and other than the fact that it’s really getting me down, the one side-effect that I simply cannot stand is that I have no sense of taste at all… don’t get me wrong, i’ve been trying everything but from curry to cheese on toast it’s all texture and very very little flavour.  It means that i’ve pretty much lost my appetite, which means i’ve had very little passion for cooking and so i’m hoping for everyone’s sake that it will clear up in time for Christmas.  This soup came out of a desperation to eat something green and healthy with a bit of a crunch and bite.  I couldn’t taste much but The Viking tells me it was tasty and it’s packed with goodness so it’s win-win.  I’ve included a little drop of white wine to add some depth and i’ve added the sweetcorn to add sweetness and a little abstract colour.

I like to think of this as the vegetarian version of the Jewish Penicillin chicken soup… it’s so simple and of course doesn’t have the protein but still has the potential for greatness and it most certainly did the trick for me…

butter and olive oil
1 medium onion – finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic – finely crushed
1 glass of white wine
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 x large handful of fresh green beans / fine beans – roughly 200g
4 or 5 stalks of sprouting broccoli – roughly chopped
1/2 savoy cabbage – roughly chopped
1 cup of sweetcorn
4 or 5 whole peppercorns
1 litre good quality vegetable stock

gently heat some olive oil and butter in a large heave-based pan and throw in the onions and allow them to sweat until soft and beginning to turn translucent, then throw in the fresh herbs and garlic, stir and turn up the heat a little, then throw in the green beans and broccoli and stir it all together and let it all sweat for about 3 minutes, then turn up the heat again and pour in a glass of white wine and let this bubble and reduce until nearly gone

throw in the cabbage, stir and then turn the heat down low and place the lid on for 5 minutes

pour in the stock, peppercorns and sweetcorn and let it simmer gently for about 10 minutes at which point you can serve but I always find the soup tastes better when left to go completely cool and then reheated

i’m linking up to No Croutons Required hosted by Jaq from Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen

this is also going over to Shaheen at A2K who hosts the Vegetable Palette link-up which has the theme of Wonderful Greens

i’m also linking to the Extra Veg challenge founded by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy and hosted this month by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary

and finally i’m linking it with the brilliant Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All

eat and of course, enjoy!