Starters/Snacks Sweet Potato Soup

Serves : 4

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4cm ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and roughly chopped
2 leeks, roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
200g barley, rinsed and drained (you could use Merchant Gourmet cooked lentils/quinoa/red rice and quinoa/tinned lentils – just decrease the cooking time to 20 minutes and the vegetable stock to 1 litre)
1.5 litre low salt vegetable stock
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
4 slices sourdough bread

Calories column

Fat column

Saturates column

Sugars column

Salt column

Calories
485 per serving
25% %GDA

Fat
6g per serving
9% %GDA

Saturates
2g per serving
10% %GDA

Sugars
15g per serving
17% %GDA

Salt
1.60g per serving
27% %GDA

Heat a large saute pan or medium saucepan until medium hot, add the oil and onion and sweat for 5 minutes until softened.
Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and fry for 1 minute before adding the leeks and cooking for another minute.
Add the carrots, sweet potato and barley and mix well then pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables and tender and the barley cooked.
Using a stick blender, blitz the soup until just thickened then season with salt and black pepper. Alternatively, decant a quarter of the soup into a food blender, loosen the top and blitz until nearly smooth then return to the pan with the remaining soup and stir well. Add the parsley and stir once more.
Heat a griddle pan until hot and griddle the bread on both sides until just charred and hot through.
Serve the soup with the charred bread alongside.