To kick-start, a more sustairian way of living, I dragged my family to a local organic veg farm, just a 10-minute cycle ride from our house. Couldn’t actually quite believe we’d never ventured here before. Check it out.
We entered, to be presented with a truly authentic farm shop, stacked with vegetables of all shapes and sizes. The first thing that struck me was the smell. I could actually smell the earthiness of the potatoes, the faint waft of onion & leeks and the rich irony tones of green cabbage and broccoli. This was so far removed from my usual sterile supermarket experience. I’d forgotten how good it was to be able to fill the nostrils with the whiff of the healthy stuff. The owners of this place have been busy since 1987, under ever increasing pressure from the supermarkets who are also starting to cotton on to the fact that ‘organic’ means big business, sadly this place is struggling to keep up.
Get down to your local organic farm shop and give these environmental guardians a hand. In the meantime, using my purchases I knocked up this beautifully rich and spicy squash soup.
- Organic Ingredients:
- Squash: Around 500g
- 1 onion
- 1 leek
- Chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp. Olive oil
- Cayenne Pepper
- 100ml soya cream.
- 30g toasted pine nuts
- 1 spring onion
- 1.5 litres of water
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
- Method:
- Finely chop the onion, leek, garlic & chilli. Add to a large pan (one that you have a lid that actually fits) add the Cayenne Pepper and fry in olive oil until golden brown.
- Chop the squash into large chunks, toss into the pan with the water and bring to the boil. Simmer slowly for around 7 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, add the cream and blitz until smooth. Salt and pepper it up to taste. Scoop into bowls.
- Toast the pine nuts, finely chop the spring onion and sprinkle over the top.
- Add a little more pepper to finish. Ensure you have some chunky organic bread to dunk in.
- Top tip: Leftovers ( if you have any) eat the following day as the spice and chilli will have had time to develop. It tastes even better the second time around!
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