I only realised after I had started making this soup that my blender was on the blink, so I ended up having to use a potato ricer, hence the slightly lumpy appearance of the soup in this photo.
Ingredients
4 small leeks (or 2 large ones)
olive oil or butter
750g Jerusalem artichokes
500g potatoes
2 tart apples
1 litre of vegetable stock
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Slice the leeks and simmer gently in a large pan in some olive oil or butter.
- Peel and dice the artichokes and potatoes, and add to the pan. Add the hot vegetable stock.
- Peel, core and dice the apples and add to the pan. Cook for 30 minutes or so, until the artichoke and potato is done.
- Allow to cool a bit, then blend until smooth. Add the thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.
Kitchen safety
One of the reasons why most kids' cookbooks are so bad is because you aren't allowed to let kids chop things or handle anything hot. As a result, cookbooks for children are stuffed full of recipes for cakes and biscuits (with mum or dad dealing with the oven), and the odd bit of exotic sandwich making and pizza decoration tacked on at the end. All so that in 10 years' time we can complain that our kids are obese and don't know how to cook. Far better to hand your kids a razor sharp knife and a boiling hot kettle and let them get on with it ...
