Category: Recipes

You will find quick and easy, made-from-scratch recipes made from seasonal ingredients. There are some healthy recipes and quite a few treat recipes too. I cook the food that I love so this is not a comprehensive guide to cookery.

My focus is on Baking (particularly Cakes, Muffins and Biscuits and Cookies), Desserts (particularly Ice Cream, Meringue, Roulades and Sweet Tarts), Soups, Salads, Simple Suppers (particularly Pasta and Savoury Tarts) plus a few Snacks, Sauces and Preserves. I also have a few Drink recipes with a particular focus on home-made Gin. These are the kind of goodies that you might get a great local independent cafe or coffee shop – perhaps minus the gin!

All of these dishes are aimed at those who either have basic cooking skills or, like me, just don’t have the time to spend hours in the kitchen but want to produce something tasty and delicious.

Asparagus and Pea Soup with Chervil

Asparagus and Pea Soup with Chervil

This Asparagus and Pea Soup is an easy and versatile spring or summer recipe. It can be served either hot or cold and works well as a light lunch or supper or as a first course at a dinner party.

I make lots of soups in autumn and winter – a home-made vegetable soup is one of my favourite lunches – but not so many in spring and summer. However, I have a few soups in my repertoire, like this Asparagus and Pea Soup (and also my Leek and Potato Soup with Fresh Chives) which are just as good, or better, eaten cold rather than hot. This is fantastic in a typical English summer, with variable weather, as you don’t know when you are making the soup whether you will need warming up with a piping hot bowl or cooling down!

In praise of fresh herbs

I use chervil, which has a delicate aniseed flavour, in this soup. It is one of my favourite summer herbs and is very easy to grow and will flourish in your garden or in a pot on your window-ledge. If you don’t grow it yourself, it may be hard to source and dill, which also has an aniseed flavour, or parsley or chives are good substitutes. A sprinkle of fresh herbs are a brilliant way of enhancing both the flavour and the look of a home-made soup.

Other easy vegetarian soup recipes

I have lots of easy, vegetarian soup recipes. If you like this Tomato Soup, you might like some of the others. All my soups are vegetarian and all can be made vegan by substituting animal fats, such as butter, for vegetable fats. Some of them are pretty simple such as Tomato Soup, Fennel Soup, Jerusalem Artichoke Soup or Sweetcorn Chowder and showcase a single vegetable. Others combine vegetables which have complimentary flavours such as Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup, Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato Soup, Celeriac and Apple Soup, Mushroom and Chestnut Soup, Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup or Leek and Potato Soup. A few have more unusual combinations of flavours such as Beetroot Soup with Coconut or Butternut and Peanut Butter Soup. Nettle Soup uses foraged ingredients. I also have a few chilled soup recipes, which are fantastic cold in the summer, but can also be served warm such as Asparagus and Pea.

Other asparagus recipes

If you love asparagus, you might also like my Asparagus and Herb Cheese Tart and my Asparagus Quiche.

Recipe for Asparagus and Pea Soup with Chervil

Asparagus and Pea Soup with Chervil

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Author: Tastebotanical
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 15
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: for 6 people 1x
Category: Soup
Cuisine: English

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Description

Delicious and versatile, as it can be eaten hot or cold, this Asparagus and Pea Soup, enhanced with fresh Chervil, is perfect for a light lunch or as a first course at a summer dinner party.

Ingredients

Scale

1 onion
2 large potatoes
50 g (2 oz) butter
250 g (8 oz) fresh asparagus
2 teaspoons of vegetable bouillon or stock powder
500 ml (1 pint) water
175 g (6 oz) frozen peas (defrosted)
A little milk to thin the soup – around 250 ml (Half a pint)
A bunch of chervil (or parsley or dill)
A little double cream to serve

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Instructions

Peel and chop the onion and the potatoes and put the pieces in a large pan with the butter. Fry gently for about 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened.
Remove the ends of the asparagus stems as these can be woody and difficult to eat. The best way of doing this is to simply bend the stem and it will snap at the right point.
Once you have removed the woody ends from the asparagus, cut the tip off each spear and set aside. Then chop the stalks into 1 cm sections.
Add the pieces of chopped asparagus stalk to the pan with the onion and potato pieces. Add 500 ml of water and 2 teaspoons of vegetable bouillon or stock powder.
Simmer for around 15 minutes until all the vegetables are cooked.
Then add the frozen peas and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Put the soup into a blender (or use a hand blender) and process until smooth.
Return the soup to the large pan. Add sufficient milk to thin the soup to the desired consistency – you may either want a thicker, chunkier soup or a thinner one.
If you plan to serve the soup hot, put the reserved asparagus tips into the soup and they will cook in it while it is reheated. If you plan to serve the soup cold, it is best to steam the asparagus tips separately for 5 minutes and then add them to the soup just before serving.
Serve topped with chopped chervil, or alternatively parsley, and a swirl of cream.

Notes

This soup is very versatile and can be served either hot or cold.

Rhubarb Crumble Cake

Easy Rhubarb Crumble Cake

This Rhubarb Crumble Cake is extremely easy to make – it is basically a simple loaf cake – but has the addition of a crumble topping. This adds a sweet crunchy layer which goes brilliantly with the moist rhubarb-flavoured cake.

I will make a couple of loaf cakes each week for my family to eat. They get sliced up and included in lunch boxes and provide my husband with a mid-morning post-dog-walk snack. I have a number of regular favourites but I am also always looking for new recipes. This recipe for Rhubarb Crumble Cake was inspired by my love of Rhubarb Crumble and by a seasonal over-supply of rhubarb from the rhubarb plant in my garden which seems to get larger every year.

In praise of rhubarb

I have learned to love rhubarb in recent years. It is a great, versatile ingredient. Even if you do not have space to grow-your-own, it is very cheap when it is in season. However, it is also very easy to grow if you have a bit of space in your garden. You literally have to do nothing to it once it is established. It is a perennial plant which produces stalks from late February on into the summer. All you need to do is just cut off the stalks when you need them. It also freezes very easily. Simply cut off the stalks, wash them, cut them into 2 cm lengths and put in a bag in the freezer until you want to use them.

What you need to know about Rhubarb Crumble Cake

It is an extremely easy cake to make. It is a basic loaf cake recipe so it cooks in under an hour and doesn’t require any icing or other decoration.
The key, as with all rhubarb recipes, is to make sure that you use the right quantity of sugar to obtain a good sweet-sour taste. You do not want a sour cake. Cooking the rhubarb with sugar before adding it to the cake means that you can taste it and, if necessary, add a bit more sugar if it is too sour.
It will keep for several days, wrapped in foil, in a cake tin.
It is easy to freeze so you could make two cakes and freeze one of them. If you want to freeze it, just allow it to cool completely after it comes out of the oven then put it in a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer. When you want to eat it, allow it to defrost completely at room temperature.
You can make it without the crumble topping. It is still a great cake.
It is pretty versatile and I have been known to serve it for dessert, with cream, custard or ice cream, when I have had unexpected guests.

What else can you make with rhubarb?

I use rhubarb in all kinds of dishes. In addition to Rhubarb Crumble Cake, I also make lots of other rhubarb recipes including, Rhubarb Crumble, Rhubarb Gin, Rhubarb Fool, Rhubarb Compote, Rhubarb Roulade, Rhubarb and Rose Ice Cream, Rhubarb Jam and Rhubarb Curd.

Other loaf cake recipes

I am a big cheerleader for loaf cakes. They are quick, easy, versatile and do not require any extra icing or decoration (unless you want to do it). If you want a basic everyday cake, look no further than a loaf cake. They are also a great base for experimenting with flavours which is a big reason for me to love them! Here are some of my favourites.