Vegetable Soup With Cheesy Croutons

Autumn is just around the corner and after a lovely summer there's now a decided nip in the air. Time to curl up with a big bowl of warming soup! Here's a lovely recipe from BBC Good Food made with autumn vegetables. The cheesy croutons are well worth the effort but this soup is delicious on its own if you are short of time.

Vegetable Soup With Cheesy Croutons

1 leek, chopped quite small
2 carrots, chopped quite small
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 potato, chopped quite small
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
½ tsp sugar
410g can chickpea, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 x 400g cans chopped Italian tomato
425ml/¾ pint vegetable stock
For the toasts
8 slices of baguette, cut on the diagonal
1 garlic clove, cut in half
50g edam, finely grated

Put the vegetables into a large saucepan with the garlic, rosemary, stock and sugar. Season well, stir, bring to a simmer and cover. Cook gently for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender.

Preheat the grill to high. Whizz the tomatoes in a food processor or blender until smooth, then tip into the vegetables with the chickpeas and parsley. Gently heat through, stirring now and then.

For the toasts: rub both sides of the bread with the garlic. Grill on one side until golden, turn the bread over, cover with edam and grill until it’s bubbling. Serve at once with the piping hot soup.


If you want to make the creation of soup even easier, take a look at these soup-makers. Here's a 1-litre version, plenty for two or three people  and this one is a family size 1.6 litre. Happy soup-making!


Take a look at these websites for more kitchen information and pictures:
Country Kitchens
Kitchen Gallery
Kitchen Talk

We can email you every time the website is updated. All you have to do is pop your email address in the 'follow by email' link in the panel on the right.