Charlotte Pike

Food & Drink Expert

Lunch

Chorizo, Butterbean and Cabbage Soup

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This wasn’t ever going to be a post here, but last Sunday, I made this soup for a quick lunch on a bitterly cold day, and sent out a Tweet saying how underrated cabbage is. I had bought a lovely local Savoy cabbage for just pence that week. 

Many of you agreed and asked me for this recipe, and so here it is. I often make soups like this for a quick and nourishing lunch in the depths of winter. And when you’re out shopping next and see a lovely fresh cabbage, pick it up and give it a go.

Chorizo, Butterbean and Cabbage Soup

This is a truly delicious winter soup that really is quick and easy to make. It’d be excellent made with bacon, too.

The trick, I think, with the cabbage, is to put it in at the very last minute and stir so it just softens. I wouldn’t put the lid back on once it is in the pan. This means that it will just soften, but retain its bite and colour. 

Serves 4

Ingredients 

1 tbsp good olive oil

2 large brown onions, peeled and chopped

1 hoop of cured chorizo (around 200g), peeled and cut into 1cm cubes

Sea and black pepper, plus a pinch of sugar (optional)

1 x 400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed

1 x 400g tin good chopped tomatoes

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock

½ Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced and tough stalks removed

Fresh parsley, chopped, to serve (optional)

Method

Take a large, lidded saucepan, and add the oil and onions. Over a medium heat, gently cook the onions until they soften slightly. This should take 5-10 minutes, at least.

Add the chorizo and season, and continue to fry for another 5-10 minutes, until the fat starts to render from the chorizo.

Next, add the butter beans and tomatoes and stir well, followed by the stock. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, until the flavours have had the chance to come together. Taste and check the tomato tastes sweet and flavourful, and not too acidic and raw. It may need another 10 minutes if so. Now, add the sliced cabbage. Stir well and gently simmer for another three minutes or so, until it has just softened. Taste, check the cabbage is cooked to your liking and the soup is adequately seasoned. Serve immediately.

Courgette Fritters

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These delicious fritters are wonderfully simple to make, and are a great use or larger courgettes, which, in my view, do not look as appealing or have the delicate flavour of the first, young courgettes of the season. Chickpea or gram flour has a lovely flavour, but use plain white flour if you don’t have it to hand. This recipe is very versatile, so feel free to try different cheeses and herbs.

Courgette Fritters

Charlotte Pike

These delicious fritters are wonderfully simple to make, and are a great use or larger courgettes, which, in my view, do not look as appealing or have the delicate flavour of the first, young courgettes of the season. Chickpea or gram flour has a lovely flavour, but use plain white flour if you don’t have it to hand. This recipe is very versatile, so feel free to try different cheeses and herbs.

Serves 4 as a starter, lunch or light supper

Ingredients

3 large courgettes, grated coarsely

4 spring onions, very thinly sliced

200g feta, crumbled into small pieces

3 large eggs, beaten

150g gram flour

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

2 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves

Sea salt and black pepper

2-4 tbsp olive or sunflower oil, for frying

1-2 lemons, cut into wedges

 

Method

It really doesn’t take long to prepare and cook these fritters, so start by doing all the prep, and cooking them just before you want to eat them, so they’re at their freshest.

Start by putting the courgettes, spring onions and feta into a large mixing bowl. Stir together gently. Add the beaten eggs, flour and chopped herbs and season well with salt and pepper. Stir until the ingredients are evenly combined and the flour has been incorporated. The mixture will look a little lumpy, but don’t worry.

Pour half the oil into a large non-stick frying pan and heat over a medium-high heat.

When the oil is hot, spoon in the mixture, one large tablespoon at a time. The fritters may take one to two minutes to become richly browned and slightly crisp underneath, and then they can be flipped over, using a spatula. Once they are turned over, press each fritter slightly, to flatten and encourage the centre to cook through. Once firm and righly browned on each side, remove and place on kitchen paper to blot. Repeat until the mixture is used up. You should end up with 15-20 fritters, depending on size.

Serve fresh from the pan, but keep them warm in the oven on a baking tray if you need to.

Serve with lemon wedges, and maybe a tomato and herb salad. If the fritters aren’t all eaten up, you can keep them in the fridge and eat them cold or reheat in the oven later.

Gazpacho

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Gazpacho

Gazpacho is one of the highlights of summer cooking and eating, for me. Chilled soups are some of my favourite things to eat on hot days, and gazpacho is probably my favourite of all. I first learnt how to make gazpacho when I lived in Madrid. The summer was seriously hot, well into the mid 40s, and this was pretty much all I fancied for my evening meal. Gazpacho is eaten very widely in Spain, and in every deli or supermarket, you’ll see cartons of gazpacho for sale in the chiller.

We ate this every day a few weeks ago, during the heatwave here in the U.K., and it reminded me just why I love it so much. It is perfect for those evenings when it almost feels too hot to bother cooking and eating. It’s cooling, refreshing, nourishing, with such lively and exciting flavours.

This really is a soup to make in the peak of summer, when the ingredients are at their best. Quite simply, it won’t taste the same if you try it at any other time. The flavour of properly ripe tomatoes really make gazpacho sing. Good bread is essential, for body and texture.

For the best results, make this gazpacho in a blender or liquidiser, rather than a food processor, for the smoothest result. When it’s really hot, I often make this in the Nutribullet, meaning there is even less equipment to clear up afterwards. Olive oil and parsley make a wonderful topping, but chopped vegetables are quite traditional.

Gazpacho 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

½ large cucumber, peeled, roughly chopped

1 large yellow pepper, de-seeded, roughly chopped

1 large red pepper, de-seeded, roughly chopped

6 large, perfectly ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 banana shallots, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

100g best quality bread, such as sourdough

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp Sherry vinegar

Sea salt

 

Method

Blend most of the cucumber, peppers, tomatoes and shallots to a rough purée in a food processor, reserving a couple of chunks of each vegetable for the garnish.

Add the garlic, bread, olive oil and sherry vinegar to the food processor and blend again until smooth, or to a more textured consistency if desired. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Transfer the soup to a jug, cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes, or until cold.

Cut the reserved vegetables into small cubes. When ready to serve, pour the gazpacho into bowls and garnish with the vegetables.