Courgette and leek soup

INGREDIENTS:

Soup ingredients:

• 1 large courgette
• 2 leeks
• 1 1/2 stock cubes
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3/4l water
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 large garlic or 1 small tsp garlic powder

Garnish ingredients:

• A handful of cooked chickpeas
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Garlic powder
• Curry powder, or turmeric - all of them go well with the soup and give it a nice twist)
• Soy yoghurt, soy double cream or cashew creme (see recipe here)

METHOD:

Cut the leeks into small rings and then sauté in a pan with some olive oil until they are soft (this is important for the leek to develop it's full flavour). In the meantime finely chop up the courgettes. Add both the fried leek and courgette into a pot with 3/4l boiling water and add the rest of the soup ingredients and cook for about 20 minutes (you might have to add a bit more water). Once cooked, blend with a hand blender, do a taste test and add a bit more salt if necessary.

For the garnish, season a handful of chickpeas with salt, pepper, garlic powder and curry powder and sauté in oil until crisp (you might have to turn down the heat a bit as chickpeas tend to behave like pop corn when fried at high heat and could jump at you).

Serve the soup with the fried chickpeas placed in middle with a some soy yoghurt, soy double cream or cashew creme (find the recipe here) for extra flavour.

Enjoy!

And if you like soups check out my sweet potato and courgette soup with ginger and basil.