Recipe Reviews - Lettuce Soup, Fast and Easy Cooking

[JuliaBalbilla]

Recipe Name:  Lettuce Soup

Book Name:  Fast and Easy Cooking p.75

Review:   Needs at least 4 spring onions which needs to be sautéed in the butter before adding the stock.  Would also suggest some garlic.  I cut up my potatoes to 1cm as instructed but took 17 minutes (rather than 12) to cook starting off with cold water.  If your cream or yoghurt has been in the fridge, you may need to heat through to 90 degrees after blending as it cools the soup considerably when added.  Add the full 250g potato rather than 200g or it may be slightly thin.  

This soup is lovely and smooth and has an interesting and pleasing flavour which would be enhanced by sautéing the onions along with some garlic.  Having said that, you may wish to try it was written in the book to start with to suit your own tastes. I like big, strong flavours and whilst the lettuce flavour was very much in evidence I felt that it needed to be slightly more savoury.


Score: 4/5

JB

[Katya]

Thanks for your review JB - I always add peas to my lettuce soup as I find it lifts the flavours and also makes the colour a bit more vibrant.

I think the time taken to cook the potatoes does depend on the type of potato you use - mine do seem to vary.

[JuliaBalbilla]

I noticed that under the recipe it mentions making soup with peas as well.  I shall try that next time.  My potatoes were Wilja - not my first choice :-(

JB

[Cornish Cream]

I noticed that under the recipe it mentions making soup with peas as well.  I shall try that next time.  My potatoes were Wilja - not my first choice :-(

JB

I don't like Wilja potatoes either JB.

[JuliaBalbilla]

I love some of the Heritage potatoes that are gradually finding their way into the supermarkets (notably Waitrose and Sainsbury's) plus I like to have sacks of King Edwards which someone gets for us from a local-ish farm.  Our greengrocer shut down about 2 years and the only shop that sells potatoes where I live is a miniscule Co-op which is pretty naff, so our choice is limited.  Neither I or DH have ever learnt to drive so we tend to do a lot of our food shopping online, but if we just want a bag of potatoes and nothing else we are stuck with the Co-op 

JB

[Cornish Cream]

I love some of the Heritage potatoes that are gradually finding their way into the supermarkets (notably Waitrose and Sainsbury's) plus I like to have sacks of King Edwards which someone gets for us from a local-ish farm.  Our greengrocer shut down about 2 years and the only shop that sells potatoes where I live is a miniscule Co-op which is pretty naff, so our choice is limited.  Neither I or DH have ever learnt to drive so we tend to do a lot of our food shopping online, but if we just want a bag of potatoes and nothing else we are stuck with the Co-op 

JB

I like King Edwards as well JB. I also like Maris Piper but I was told recently by a chef that they need twice as much water to mature into spuds so he wasn't keen on using them.

[JuliaBalbilla]

Gosh, that is news to me re Maris Piper.  I wonder why that is?  I had just assumed that all varieties needed the same amount of water.

JB