Me and Aimee decided to make some soup and bread the other day, which was really nice and it's actually the first time I've ever made soup. I've always liked it, but I didn't realise how easy it is.
We cheated with the bread and used a ready-made mix for it.
We've been looking up recipes because while €1.75 for the mix isn't bad, we'd actually be able to make it way cheaper if we just bought all of the ingredients. In the long run, we could make more, and after about five loaves, we would just about break even compared to buying the mix.
I greased up the baking tray with some real butter, I didn't need much to give it some nice coverage.
I used a small piece of grease-proof paper, and that worked out well to get some good coverage without the fear of scratching the tray.
All I had to do then was put the mix in the tray and flatten it down a bit so it covered it nicely.
All I had to add to the mix was 350ml of buttermilk.
The smell of it was really strong, but after a while of baking the bread took on a much nicer smell.
After 35 minutes in the oven it was raised and ready to come out.
All I had to do was let it sit and cool down for 20 minutes while we started peeling the veg.
After preparing all of the veg we chopped it up and put it in a pot to boil.
We had broccoli, potato, carrot, onion, leek, garlic and some herbs.
When it was finished boiling up we blended it and mixed in some cream to thicken it a bit.
For presentation Aimee added a small bit of cream to each bowl, bar Kaleb's and it was really nice.
I like a thick soup, so next time I'd add less water to the pot to thicken it up a bit, and I'd also potentially not blend it as much, to keep some nice chunks.
Aimee doesn't really like chunks, so opted to blitz it smoothly. I couldn't fault it, it was just as nice as any soup I've had out and about.
We had enough for dinner, lunch the following day and even froze some for Kaleb.
Nice thick slices of bread alongside the soup really added to it.
We were all stuffed afterwards and had plenty left over.
We'll be making some other soups from here on, and will certainly experiment with different kinds and consistencies.
