Ingredients: Serves 4
50g/2 oz butter or veg oil if vegan 3 leeks, sliced 450g/1 lb carrots, chopped 15ml/1 tbs ground coriander 1.2 litres/ 2 pints chicken stock or vegetable stock if vegetarian/vegan 150ml/1/4 pint greek-style yogurt (optional) salt and pepper
Method 1. Chop the leeks and carrots.
2. Over a medium heat melt the butter/heat the oil in a large pan. Add the leeks and carrots and stir well. You are aiming to soften the veg not brown them. Cover and cook for 10 minutes stirring ocassionally until the veg begin to soften.
3. Stir in the ground coriander and cook for about a minute. Note Coriander seeds can be bought whole, but need grinding in a pestle and motar, however they can be bought already ground.
4. Pour in the stock. I use 2 knorr stock pots made up with boiling water. They come in chicken or vegetable. The better the stock, the nicer the soup. They work out at about 25p each. Add some seasoning and taste. Don’t add too much salt as the stock already contains some.
5. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 20 mins until the veg are tender. Note You can eat it at this point without doing anything further.
6. If you want the soup smooth use a hand blender in the pan and blend until smooth or cool slightly and add to a food processor and blend.
7. If using the yogurt add 30ml/2tbs of it to the blended soup, stir it in and check the seasoning. Reheat but do not boil. Ladle the soup into bowls and put a spoonful of the remaining yogurt into the centre of each.
Works very well with homemade easy spicy bread.