Another great family pleaser.
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
2 celery sticks
2 large potatoes
Pick 2 cans from:
- sweetcorn,
- mixed beans,
- chickpeas,
- peas
(whatever you have handy. I like corn in this dish for the colour.)
250ml (roughly) of dairy, cashew, or oat cream (last two are vegan)
Have a kettle of recently boiled (i.e. hot!) water to hand
Finely dice your onion. Take your favourite soup pot - I recommend tall side for using an immersion blender - and add the onions and enough cold water to well cover them and bring to the boil. You could add a pinch of salt at this stage.
Chop the carrot and celery into small chunks and add them in with the onion. Just cover the veg with hot water and put a lid on the pot. Boil for a few minutes until the carrot is soft.
Peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks - whatever size you like yourself. Drain and rinse your sweetcorn / beans / peas. Add them and the potato into the pot. Add enough hot water to cover, along with a pinch of salt, and put the lid back on. Reduce the heat to a simmer and leave for about 15 minutes.
Note: you could use frozen peas, but I would wait until the potatoes are cooked before adding them. You can also add in any other veg you feel like - bell peppers are good for colour and flavour, and I love using up the end of a bag of spinach in this.
Once the potatoes are cooked and fork tender, take the soup off the heat. You can deploy the immersion blender to purée some or all of the soup. If you purée it all, you do get a nice thick and smooth soup. If you do half, you get plenty of chunks of veg and enough thickening. If you are using oat cream, you may not need to do it at all, at the oats are quite starchy and will thicken the soup.
Now, stir in the cream of choice (including no cream if you want). With the oat cream, as it thickens, you may want to thin out the soup with hot water.
Add salt to taste - this means you should actually taste the soup before and after to see if the seasoning is right!
Serve with some pepper and herbs. Also good with plant-based bacon bits!