Another soup from the “River Cottage Veg” cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
This is apparently a soup inspired by Porotos Granados, a traditional Chilean squash and bean stew. I’m taking Hugh’s word for it…
What worked and what didn’t:
Obviously, we don’t know what a Porotos Granados is supposed to taste like, but it surprised us how full of flavor this rather straightforward soup was.
It basically is sautéed onion, garlic, sweet paprika and fresh oregano with 1 bay leaf added to the stock. The rest of the flavor therefore comes from the vegetables: butternut squash, kidney beans, haricots verts, and sweetcorn. Even with canned beans – I used white kidney beans/flageolets – and corn (yes, we took some shortcuts there), the soup still was very tasty.
The only downside was that the soup had an oily film, but that can quickly be resolved by only using 1 tablespoon of oil (instead of 2) when starting to sweat off the onions.
The soup also proved to be multifunctional. For the kids, we used a slotted spoon to get all the veggies out of the soup and into their fusilli. Added a couple of spoons of the soup and a shaving of parmesan and the kids didn’t have any complaints about their veg packed meal.
Recipe accuracy:
The recipe serves 6. It was easy to follow and to prepare. The soup can be on the table within 30 minutes.
Suggested tweaks:
To make it more stew-like, you can cut the quantity of the stock from 1 liter / 4 cups to 750ml / 3 cups.
Verdict: 7/10; The soup was nice, but not sure if it will be made again.
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