Spencer Metzger’s Winter vegetable soup
The Ritz premier sous chef Spencer Metzger gave Share A Meal his recipe for a lovely, colourful, fresh-tasting winter vegetable soup with pearl barley, served with fresh herbs and parmesan. Just the thing to help support our immune systems with its array of vitamins and minerals, as well as warming and comforting mind and body.
Winner of the 2019 Roux Scholarship, Spencer supports Share A Meal because ‘Sharing food is what brings people together,’ he says. ‘Whether it’s a simple soup or a complicated dish, the principle is the same: everyone enjoys food and everyone can share. The Share A Meal campaign is such a great way to support people during these tough times.’
The recipe looks long but it’s a very simple series of steps.NB You will need a big pan for this.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2 turnips
1 swede
half a small celeriac
4 medium-sized carrots
2 medium-sized potatoes
4 sticks celery
1 leek, trimmed, white/pale green parts only
2 large onions
3 cloves garlic
2 corn on the cob, fresh
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
80g pearl barley, pre-soaked for 2 hours
2-2.5 litres chicken stock, fresh, cube or stock pot
2-2.5 litres vegetable stock, made from the trimmings, or cube or stock pot
1 bouquet garni with thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and parsley stalks tied with a string so you can remove it after cooking
Worcestershire sauce
For the vegetable stock, if making
1 bay leaf
a handful of parsley stalks
To serve
chives and parsley, finely chopped
parmesan, finely grated
Method
1. Wash all the vegetables and peel them. Put the peelings on one side if you want to prepare stock from them.
2. Peel and finely dice the onions and garlic; put in a bowl.
3. With a sharp knife, chop the turnips, swede, celeriac and carrots into 1 cm x 1 cm dice, being as precise as possible.
4. Dice the potatoes as above, and keep in cold water to avoid them going brown.
5. Slice the celery and leek into ½ cm rounds.
6. Slice off the corn niblets using a sharp knife and working down the corn (easiest if you stand it upright on your chopping board). Keep them in a separate bowl as they go in last.
7. Put the olive oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan on a moderate heat and add the onions and garlic; soften for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure they don’t brown.
8. Meanwhile, make the vegetable stock, if you wish: put all the trimmings in a pan, cover with cold water, add a small handful of salt, 1 bay leaf and a handful of parsley stalks. Bring to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes, then cool. Once it’s cool, drain through a fine sieve and measure the amount you need.
9. Add the leeks to the pan with the onions and garlic, season with salt and cook for a further 5 minutes.
10. Add the celeriac, swede, turnip and celery and cook gently for about 10 minutes, stirring all the time.
11. Add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, then add the pre-soaked pearly barley.
12. Cover the vegetables with the two stocks. Don’t tip the whole lot in at once, as you may need less or more, depending on the amount of vegetables. You may need to top up during the cooking process, as the barley absorbs a lot of liquid.
13. Bring the soup gently to the boil, add the bouquet garni and simmer gently for 40-60 minutes until the vegetables and barley are cooked through. Then add the corn and simmer for another 10 minutes.
14. To eat immediately check the seasoning, add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce. Ladle into bowls and scatter on the chopped parsley and chives and the grated parmesan. Hand round buttered crusty bread to sop it up.
Tip You can also keep the soup in the fridge for 48 hours or freeze in plastic containers.