On November 12th, Twickenham Farmers' Market celebrated its 5th anniversary and Talk of the Table was invited to do a cooking demonstration to help celebrate.  I cooked a fantastic vegetarian soup that could be made almost entirely of food bought at the farmers' market.  I also showed  people how easy it is to make your own stock.  The soup recipe as well as the stock recipe are below as well as a couple of pictures from the day.  Try this soup, you won't be sorry!

  Andrea’s Farmers’ Market Soup with Goat Cheese Croutons

 45 ml olive oil

150 grams coarsely chopped onion

150 grams peeled, cored and coarsely chopped Cox apples

150 grams peeled and coarsely chopped turnip

150 grams peeled and chopped butternut squash (seeds discarded)

150 grams coarsely chopped carrot

150 grams peeled, chopped sweet potato

1.25 litres vegetable (or chicken) stock

60 ml maple syrup (or to taste)

Cayenne pepper to taste

1 small whole-grain baguette

75 grams goat cheese

chopped fresh chives to serve

 Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add apple, turnip, squash, carrot, and sweet potato; season with salt, then sauté 5 minutes. Add stock, bring to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add syrup, then cayenne pepper to taste. Cool slightly.

 (At this point you can either leave the vegetables whole or puree the soup with a handheld mixer, food processor or blender.)

 For toast toppers, cut 6 slices of bread and toast them. Spread some goat cheese on top of each slices and sprinkle with chives. Pour soup into bowls.  Float toast on top.

Basic Vegetable Stock

I think vegetable stock is a fast solution to the problem of time-consuming stock making.  You can make a simple boiled stock with fantastic body that will suit some of your favourite soup recipes or make a roasted stock in recipes that require a more robust stock such as risottos and other meaty dishes.  This recipe is only a rough guide.  You can use a variety of vegetables to make stock and I often use what happens to be in my fridge at the time with the exception of bitter vegetables like greens and cabbage.  If you are making this stock to use with a fish soup, I highly recommend putting a chopped up fennel bulb in it.  It will make the stock sweet and fragrant, a perfect match for fish or shellfish.

12 ounces leeks (2-3) trimmed, thinly sliced, and washed in several changes of water

1 ¼ pounds celeriac (1 large), peeled, quartered, and coarsely chopped

8 ounces carrots, peeled and sliced

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup coarsely chopped mushrooms  (4-5 mushrooms)

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

4 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

4 litres cold water

kosher salt (optional)

 In a large pot, combine all the ingredients except the salt and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce to a simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced to 2 liters, about 1 hour.

Strain the stock through a sieve over a large bowl, pressing on the vegetables with a wooden spoon to extract all the liquid.  Discard the vegetables.  Use as is or return the stock to the pot and boil until it has reduced to the desired strength.  Season the stock lightly with salt if desired.

This stock can be refrigerated, covered, for about 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Roasted Vegetable Stock: 

You can make a darker, richer, more flavourful stock by roasting the vegetables above with the oil for 50 minutes in a 200 degree oven.  After roasting them, take them out of the oven and put them in a stock pot with enough water to cover (about 2 litres) and simmer for an hour… Put the roasting pan over two hobs on the cooker and add 150 ml of white wine and scrape off all the brown bits in the pan to get those fantastic juices.  Add this to the pot of simmering vegies.  Strain the stock as above and use in risottos and other recipes which call for chicken stock and more robust stocks.  It is very strong and full-bodied.)