Warm up with Blazing Salads' Moroccan Minestrone!

Oh baby, it’s cold outside... There’s no better way to warm up than with a rich, home made soup, full of natural goodness (and it makes great Monday lunch too!). Lorraine Fitzmaurice and her family have been serving their lovely food in the Blazing Salads deli for years, and now she kindly shares some of her favourite recipes in her new cookbook, Blazing Salads 2. Good Food Every Day. Try Lorraine’s Moroccan Minestrone and imagine that winter is finally over...

This soup was adapted from the classic Italian minestrone. Most one-pot dishes can be given a makeover by simply changing the herbs and spices – be adventurous!

serves 6

Ingredients

extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 inch piece ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
200 g passata (sieved tomatoes)
1 bay leaf
2 sticks celery, sliced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 medium courgette, diced
sea salt
1 handful wholemeal spelt penne or fusilli
2 tbsp chickpeas, cooked
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped

Method
1 Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot. Sauté the onion for 2 minutes, add the garlic and ginger and sauté for a further 1 minute. Add the cumin and turmeric to the pot and sauté for 1 minute more. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, passata, celery, carrots, courgette and the bay leaf and a good pinch of sea salt. Pour in 1 litre water, cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Add 1 handful of pasta and cook for a further 10 minutes. Stir in the chickpeas, fresh coriander and fresh parsley. Check the seasoning.

TIP : Use any wholemeal pasta in this recipe, just remember that wholemeal wheat pasta takes longer to cook than wholemeal spelt pasta.

TIP : Serve with toasted fingers of sourdough bread spread with tapenade – so good.

This & other recipes from Dublin’s legendary deli are now available in ’Blazing Salads 2. Good Food Every Day’ cookbook by Lorraine Fitzmaurice: hardback (bit.ly/13ViKjm) & as an eBook (www.amzn.to/WMvk4x).