Roasted-vegetable soup with herb bread
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1.5 hours
Serves: 6
Ingredients
About 1.5kg of leftover vegetables, such as:
1 yellow-fleshed sweet potato, halved
½ butternut pumpkin
2 large carrots, halved
2 brown onions, peeled and quartered
1 potato, peeled and quartered
2 tomatoes
2 celery sticks
2 broccoli stems
4 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp vegetable stock powder
200ml thickened cream
HERB BREAD
75ml olive oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
75g butter
2 loosely packed cups mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme etc)
1 short baguette (approximately 30cm long)
Salt, to season
METHOD
Heat your oven to 200°C (fan-forced). Place the vegetables onto a lined baking tray, drizzle with most of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for one hour or until tender.
Heat remaining oil in a large saucepan or stockpot. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant.
Scoop the seeds from the pumpkin and discard. Scoop the flesh from the pumpkin and sweet potato (or leave the skins of either or both on if you prefer) into the pot. Add remaining vegetables, turmeric, stock powder and one litre of water and bring to a simmer. After 10 minutes, blend with a stick blender.
Taste and adjust seasoning then blend through 150ml of the cream, reserving the rest to serve.
For the herb bread, heat the olive oil in a small saucepan and fry the garlic until fragrant. Add the butter and herbs and when the butter has melted, blend the mixture until smooth.
Heat your oven to 200°C (fan-forced). Cut the baguette almost completely through at two-to-three-centimetres intervals, just enough of the base to hold it together. Brush the butter mixture liberally into the cuts in the baguette and over the top.
Place the baguette on brown baking paper and scrunch paper around base and side, leaving the top exposed. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until top is browned.
Season soup with pepper and drizzle with remaining cream. Serve with herb bread.
