We have a soup night once a week during the colder months. It's great to prepare for when we get in after swimming, the kids are starving and need something warming straight away.
I usually use a variety of veg so to leek and potato I will add celeriac, Swede or parsnip or all three. Then I always include some beans or lentils to include a bit of protein, so if that's all my children eat they've had a complete meal.
This week I didn't have any white beans in the freezer or an emergency tin so I experimented with shelled hemp seed. I added at the end rather than cooking as they contain essential fats and blitzed with the blender. The seeds made the soup really rich and creamy, with no pesky bits of shell for children to find. I'll definitely be adding hemp seeds again!
Ingredients
1 onion, diced
1 small celeriac, chopped
2-3 leeks, cleaned and sliced
2-3 potatoes, scrubbed (I leave the skins on) and diced
Olive oil
3-4 tbs hemp seeds
Vegetable stock*
Method
In a large pan, fry the onion in a little olive oil till soft
Add the leeks and stir for a few minutes
Add the potatoes and celeriac, cover with water or stock and cook until soft (about 20-30mins). Take off the heat
Sprinkle over the seeds and then blitz with a hand blender until smooth
Season with salt and pepper
*Soup stock
Once I'd peeled or scrubbed the vegetables I put the tougher green parts of the leek, the onion top and tail and the celeriac skin with a couple of bay leaves in a pan with water and simmered for 20 mins. By the time I had diced the root veg and fried the onions and leeks I had a vegetable stock ready. You can, of course, use bouillon, a cube or not bother using stock and just season well.