Soups & stock

Rub sweet potatoes with oil and roast in the oven, skin on, for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before peeling off skin and putting flesh in to 1 litre of boiling vegetable stock.

Add half can of coconut cream, sweet chilli sauce and blend together with a mixer. Garnish with remaining coconut cream.

TIP: Garnish your soup with chopped celery leaves from the heart of the celery….it will freshen it up.

Add chopped potatoes and the leek to vegetable stock and bring to boil. When potatoes have softened, blend soup together with a handheld mixer or in blender. Crisp bacon rashes under a grill and use these to garnish the soup. Serves 4

Heat butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add sliced onions and fry until brown. Add bacon hock and 3 litres of all purpose stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1½ hours. Remove bacon hock and set aside. Add 500g split green peas to soup and simmer for 2 hours or until peas have dissolved and soup thickened. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove meat from hock, coarsely chop and add to soup. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with crusty bread. Serves 4.

TIP: Soak green peas overnight, strain and add to soup in the first step with bacon hock. This will shorten cooking time, as the soup will thicken faster.

Fill a large pot with 2/3 water. Add to this any combination of roughly chopped onion, leek, carrot and celery to fill the pot. Add a bay leaf and 1 teaspoon of peppercorns. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Strain liquid of all vegetables and allow it to cool.

TIP: Use this stock as a base for any soups.