Today I have two super quick and easy recipes for you, a starter and a desert – creamy Broccoli and Stilton soup and the always popular Eton Mess. Both courses can be made in advance leaving you lots of time to concentrate on your main, I’m having vegetarian chili served with rice, soured cream and pitta breads tonight – recipe to follow later!
First up the soup. I love cheese; the smellier the better! So I jumped at the chance to incorporate it into my starter. Stilton is a really strong, pungent crumbly cheese and I know it’s not for everyone, but I love it so I’ve added quite a large amount to my soup – feel free to play around with the measurements! That’s what I love abut making soup it’s so easy to adapt the taste by playing about with the veg and seasoning. I always use my heavy duty stock pot for soups as it’s so deep I won’t get burnt from any spatter.
Ingredients –
4 spring onions, 1 potato (grated), 1 knob of butter, 500g broccoli, 1 teaspoon of lazy garlic (Available from ASDA 220g/£1,47 – very handy stuff!), 400ml vegetable stock, 200g Stilton cheese, 100ml single cream & natural yogurt (optional).
1. Cook onions in olive oil over a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add garlic, broccoli and the butter to the pan and heat for a minute of two.
2. Add the stock, potato and season with salt & pepper, bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on.
3. Once broccoli is tender add the cream and crumble the cheese into soup, stir until melted.
4. Blend soup until smooth and garnish with a swirl of natural yogurt.
And for the desert – Eton mess! This is a very simple blend of double cream, strawberries & meringue, I usually pre make a big bowl of this at BBQs for desert. I use a punnet of strawberries and cut these into quarters. I then whisk around 300 ml of double cream until thick and creamy. Fold the cream into the strawberries. I then crush around 4-5 ready made meringue nests into the mixture and again fold in. Then garnish with more strawberries and crushed meringue. Done! You could also puree some strawberries to make a sauce topping.
And there you have it, two ridiculously easy recipes perfect for lazy days!
Do you have any simple lazy recipes for the upcoming crisp Autumn nights?
Leave a comment below!
