Tart London: How to make Spanish spiced soup

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison warm up February with a bowl of Spanish spiced soup
3 February 2017

'If Spain was a bit of toast, you might want to cut the crust off,’ someone once said, alluding to the concrete build-up of the Spanish coastline from Barcelona to Cádiz. Inland, however, is a country that has changed surprisingly little, a vast landscape dotted with ravishing towns and villages that rarely see a tourist in summer, let alone at this time of year.

Spanish winters are often colder than you might expect, but one of the joys of visiting now is the Spaniards’ innate understanding of cold weather comfort food, such as this richly fulfilling one-pot wonder: a stewy soup infused — like so much of the Spanish south — with warm, spicy Moroccan flavours.

When the days seem to be getting bleaker and colder and the nights never-ending, this is a favourite mid-week supper for us, giving a gratifying hit of colour and exotic warmth. Pair with a glass of cold white — the two really go hand in hand.

Spanish spiced soup

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

2 chorizo sausages (150g), diced

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 bay leaves

2 tsp of chopped thyme

1 tsp of dried chilli

2 big tomatoes, diced

1 tsp of ground cumin

½ tsp of ground of smoked paprika

1 glass of white wine

900ml of chicken stock

20 saffron strands

Squirt of honey

5 cavolo nero stems, roughly shredded and chopped

Half a courgette, diced thinly

1 tsp of finely chopped tarragon

To garnish

2 tbsp of yoghurt

1 tsp of ground cumin

2 lemons zested, plus juice of half a lemon

Half a red onion, very finely diced

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Method

Put your diced chorizo into a pot with a little olive oil and slowly start to crisp. After a few minutes, add your onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay, thyme and dried chilli. Turn down the heat and cook slowly for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, cumin and paprika, and turn up the heat again for five minutes then pour in the wine and stock, plus the saffron and a small squirt of honey. Bring to a simmer, then cover, reduce the heat and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Leave the cavolo nero, courgette and tarragon until last, then cook in the pot for a further five minutes. Taste for seasoning before serving with the garnish.

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