Quick winter minestrone

Soups are currently top of my menu as the weather gets chillier and I crave something substantial, warming and comforting. Soup generally ticks all those boxes for me and this minestrone is especially hearty as well as very simple to make.

Best of all, you can get it into a bowl inside 30 minutes. The other huge bonus is that you probably have most of the ingredients in the larder already.

As usual, prep everything first. This makes two generous bowlfuls and I reckon it tastes as good if not better for reheating next day.

What you need: 
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small packet of lardons (optional)
1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 small (half-size tin) haricot beans
A handful of small pasta (baby macaroni or orzo)
A generous handful of greens, finely shredded
Pinch of mixed dried herbs

What to do:
Heat a glug of olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium hob and sauté the onion until it starts to soften. Add the lardons if using and fry until the fat starts to run off. Don't brown them or let the onions start to caramelise. Add the carrot, stir through for half a minute then pour in the stock, the tomatoes, the beans and the pasta. Season to taste and add the herbs.

Bring the pan to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the greens and simmer for another 5 minutes until the pasta is cooked to al dente. Dish up!

Cook's tips: 
Although minestrone is a chunky soup, the greens do need to be finely shredded - I aim to cut them as thin as Chinese "seaweed", which is actually made from cabbage, because they need to cook quickly. Most greens work well - spring greens, kale, cavolo nero and savoy cabbage all suit minestrone.

You can throw pretty much any veg into a minestrone as it's a seasonal soup that makes the most of what's available. If you don't have carrots to hand, use a parsnip, turnip or some celeriac. Use whatever beans you have to hand in the store cupboard - borlotti, cannelini and pinto, for example.

The basis of minestrone is vegetarian - any meat (or meat stock) is entirely optional. Bacon definitely suits this best if you want meat because of the depth of flavour it brings - use snipped-up rashers if you don't have lardons, or some chopped leftover ham or gammon.

You can finish the soup in the bowl with a teaspoon of pesto swirled through if you like (not my personal preference as I find it too overpowering) or a little grated parmesan or pecorino.

South-east Asia in a bag

The #foodiepenpals “club” never ceases to thrill, surprise and amaze me – although I cook for one day to day, food for me is also about sharing and that’s where #foodiepenpals just keeps delivering. I love putting a parcel together every month for the recipient I’ve been matched with and there’s also the anticipation of getting one in return from yet someone else.

There was extra excitement in store this month, as my parcel not only arrived hand-delivered but was also entirely homemade. Lex, aka LadyNom1, was passing through my neighbourhood so she dropped by for tea and a natter, while handing over this exotic-looking bag.

Lex writes the LadyNom blog and runs a supper club called Nomsensical in Altrincham, just south of Manchester. There are several supper clubs in my city although I’ve yet to attend one. We had a chat about these and she encouraged me to sign up for her next one. I then told Lex about Manchester’s legendary GastroClub, which she’d never tried yet. It’s currently on hold but hopefully she’ll book when it gets going again.

After she left, I dived into Lex’s bag of goodies, which contained four jars of handmade fresh dips and pastes from south-east Asia. She certainly knows her stuff, having travelled extensively in the region and cooked professionally there so these were all as authentic as can be. She’d very thoughtfully made up each jar in one-person portions for me – Cambodian amok curry paste, a Laotian spice paste for fish and noodles, a Vietnamese dipping sauce and a Thai curry paste.

She’d also included six (six!) pages of info about her travels and the food, plus a recipe for each item, also thoughtfully in one-person portions. Most of my repertoire is pan-European so I was delighted to receive such a fabulous parcel and couldn’t wait to get cracking in the kitchen.

I chose to cook the Cambodian amok first – you’ll have to ask Lex for the recipe, but it’s a mix of chicken and spinach or beet leaves steamed in coconut milk and her spice paste, which is based on coriander. For true authenticity, you’re supposed to wrap it in a banana leaf but I used her suggested method of steaming it in a bowl over a pan of boiling water instead. It was fragrant and warming, the perfect supper for a chilly, drizzle evening.

Sweet potato bubble and squeak

Bubble and squeak is the classic way to use up leftover mash and greens, usually from the Sunday lunch. The greens are most likely to be sprouts these days, the one green veg I really hate although I'll eat any other sort of cabbage. If you have one of the two basic ingredients hanging around cooked, it's worth making up the other half to mix up a panful of bubble squeak. I often find I have some braised kale left over as a prepacked bag contains around two portions. I rarely eat mash as a side dish - it seems a lot of work for one portion - but if you have plans to make fish cakes or gnocchi, then double up and make enough for this too. I find about 60% sweet potato and 40% greens is about the right proportion.

The flavour of the sweet potato marries well with the greens, while the added spring onion and garlic will cook during the frying and add extra notes. The colour is also appealing as bubble and squeak made with potato can look a bit grey.

This goes well with almost any kind of meat and makes a meal on its own too. Don't drown it in Bisto as it will overpower the sweet potato.

What you need: 
Sweet potato
1 spring onion
1 small clove of garlic
Seasoning
Leftover greens
Butter

What to do: 
Make the mash - peel the sweet potato, cut into chunks and boil until tender. Drain well. Slice the spring onion very finely and crush the garlic. Mash the sweet potato with a small knob of butter and then add the spring onion and garlic. Season to taste. Mix the mash and greens together in a bowl so the cabbage is well distributed.

Heat some butter in a frying pan over a high flame until it starts to foam but before it starts to turn brown. Tip in the bubble and squeak mixture, flatten it into a cake and turn the heat down a notch. Let it fry gently for about 10 minutes until it has formed a firm crust underneath. Flip and cook the other side for another 10 minutes.

Cook's tips: 
The pan is important. Use a frying pan with a very heavy base and a non-stick surface, for the best results.

Don't have the heat too high or it'll burn before the inside is thoroughly heated.

To flip the bubble and squeak, slide it cooked side down onto a plate, turn the frying pan upside down over the plate then flick your wrist and turn it all back on itself. The cake should now be cooked side up. It's a tricky technique that requires speed and confidence. Do it over the hob so that if it does go wrong, it won't be all over the floor. Use a pair of oven gloves to protect your hands and arms.

Sweet potato is a lot less starchy than potato so it makes a sloppier mash. Drain it very well, pop the pan back over the heat briefly to dry it out and don't add any milk to the mash - a small knob of butter is plenty.