Potato soup

Potato soup is a favourite of mine. It’s very quick to make, cheap, warming and filling, as well as being excellent cold weather food and delicious with herb bread. Although it’s a simple recipe, it’s full of good things: iron, protein, vitamin B6, potassium, and vitamin C. Potatoes are seriously underrated food. Unfortunately, especially in the tropics, they’re often not the easiest of vegetables to come by, nor the cheapest.   If you want to eat soup in the tropics, however, there are plenty of other recipes about!

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

Serves 2 as a main meal, 4 – 6 as a starter

 

Ingredients

1 onion
1 tbsp olive oil OR 2 tbsp butter
4 potatoes, preferably floury ones
3 cups water
1 cup (vegan) milk
Annie's seasoned salt and (cracked black) pepper
freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

• Dice the onion and put it in a pressure cooker, or saucepan, with the olive oil or butter. Cover and cook for 5 minutes until softened.
• Peel the potatoes, if you want to (I don't usually bother, because I like potato skins) – the soup will look more elegant without the skins – and dice them. Add to the pan and stir for a couple of minutes.
• Pour in the water, bring to the boil and pressure cook for 5 minutes OR cook for a further 20 minutes.
• Mash the potatoes thoroughly, to produce a creamy purée. You’ll still have bits of onion (and maybe potato peel) floating around, but that’s the way it goes in low-tech living. If you have a stick blender, you can combine it all a lot more effectively.
• Add the milk and reheat to nearly boiling. Season with plenty of salt and pepper. Ideally, potato soup should be a creamy-white purée, but I don’t usually peel my potatoes, so don’t mind the ‛bits’ from the salt and pepper.
• Put into bowls and grate nutmeg over each.

Variations:

• If you have any fresh herbs, add them with the milk.
• Dried thyme and/or rosemary are also nice additions, but will detract from a white soup. 
• Mix in some cream just before serving.

Spinach soup

The basic recipe is one of Rose Elliot’s, somewhat altered to suit the realities of the sailing life. Spinach is a great and versatile vegetable, when you can get hold of it. Its close relatives, such as Swiss chard or curly kale, can nearly always be substituted for the Real Thing. Sometimes the stalks are a bit tough – the easiest way to test this is to bite a piece off and see how stringy it is when raw. If they seem too much of a good thing, cut them out and just use the leaves. Not infrequently, spinach is sold in large packs and unless you happen to be somewhere cool, it will not keep for more than two or three days. This soup is a good way to finish off spinach, because as with most soups, more or less of one ingredient does not ruin the overall dish.

 

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 2 as a main meal, 4 – 6 as a starter

 

 Ingredients

 

1 tbsp butter OR olive oil

1 large potato, peeled and chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

A bunch of spinach – about 450 g (1 lb)

4 cups of water

1 tbsp lime or lemon juice

salt and pepper

nutmeg

 

Method: 

• Peel and chop the potato; chop the onion and garlic. 
• Heat the butter or oil in a large pan and add the potato and onion. Cook for about 5 minutes, but don’t let them brown. 
• Meanwhile, coarsely chop the spinach. Throw this into the pan and turn it with the other vegetables. Pour in the water and bring to the boil. 
• Reduce the heat until the mixture is just simmering; cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes. 
• Take out a piece of potato and check that it’s thoroughly cooked. If it’s of a floury type, it should be crumbling away. 
• When the potato is thoroughly softened, mash the soup with a potato masher , until it’s thickened. You will be left with bits of onion and spinach floating around, but that’s all right. If you prefer use a stick blender to purée the soup.
  
• Season carefully with salt and pepper; add a very generous grating of nutmeg and stir in the lime juice before serving. 

Variations: 

• This soup’s character can be completely transformed by adding a 400 g /14 oz tin of tomatoes, 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp coriander. 
• If potatoes are unavailable, a sweet potato could be substituted. 
• Instead of a potato, use one or two plantains and stir in a tbsp of curry powder/paste. 
• Use canned spinach.
  
• Try serving with a dollop of yoghurt – especially if you’ve made the elegant, liquidised version 
  
  

 

Sweet potato/kumara soup

This is a pretty soup, with a West Indian feel to it.  I prefer to make it with orange or yellow sweet potato or kumara.

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 2 for a main course, 4 for a starter 

 

Ingredients 

 

2 large or 1 very large sweet potato/kumara

1 onion

2 tbsp olive oil

2 red peppers

1 litre water

2 tbsp cream of coconut

salt and pepper

lime or lemon juice

Method:

• Peel and dice the sweet potatoes, dice the onion.
• Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and cook the kumara and onion over a medium heat, for about 10 minutes.
• Heat the peppers over a flame until the skins bubble and then peel them. Chop them and add the to the other vegetables and mix well.
• Add the water, bring to the boil and pressure cook for 10 minutes. When the pressure has reduced, mash with a potato masher or stick blender, until the vegetables are reduced to a purée.
• Return to the heat and stir in the cream of coconut. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and add lime or lemon juice.

 Variation:

• Add some chilli if you want a spicier soup.

Cream of tomato soup

Most of us were brought up with Heinz or Campbell’s soups, and their Cream of Tomato Soup is the standard by which all are judged. Fresh tomatoes make lovely soup, but if you are trying to achieve that almost-cloying sweetness of Mr Heinz’s comfort food, it’s best obtained via tins. As this makes the recipe particularly appropriate for voyagers, I include it with some satisfaction.

The following recipe is simplicity itself, and actually pretty wholesome, to boot, especially when served with large hunks of freshly-baked bread.

If you’re feeling particularly wealthy, the milk can be replaced with cream. Take care not to boil the soup once the cream has been added, because, particularly if it’s canned or UHT, it may well separate.

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 2 for a main meal, 4 as a starter

Ingredients

 

1 small onion

1 large knob of butter OR 2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp gram flour

3 cups water

150 ml (5½ oz) tin of tomato purée

1/8 tsp dried, minced garlic

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp dill (weed)

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

• Dice onion and fry gently in the oil or butter.  
• Remove from the heat and stir in the gram flour. Gradually add the water until all the flour is blended; return to the heat.
• Bring to the boil, adding the tin of tomato purée and stirring to mix it in.
• Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and add the basil and dill, honey and salt. If you prefer to leave the honey out, do so, but it’s necessary for the Heinz effect. Add the milk and pepper.
• Simmer, very gently, for about 10 minutes. Ladle into warm bowls.

Cream of vegetable soup

I created this soup in Greenland, where I used dried vegetables rather than the fresh shown in the following recipe. It was a lovely soup with dried; it’s wonderful with fresh. Should you be in my predicament, I give the dried vegetable version below. The resulting soup is thick and rich: ideal for a main course in cold weather.

There are more cans included than I would normally use, but the baked beans are an essential ingredient because their tomato sauce gives a flavour that is otherwise hard to obtain, while sweetcorn adds extra flavour and texture. The recipe makes loads – probably enough for four people, but like most soup, it only improves with keeping, and in the conditions in which you’d be eating it, there’d by no problems about its going off.

I've tagged this as gluten free - but some makes of baked beans might have flour in them.  Check the label.

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

Ingredients

1 leek

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion

1 potato

1 turnip

3 carrots

1/4 cup gram flour

6 cups water OR stock

1 tsp sage

2 tsp parsley

6 juniper berries, crushed

1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorns

2 tsp seasoned salt

200 ml/7 oz can sweetcorn

400 g/14 oz can baked beans

170 ml/6 oz can cream

Method:

• Wash the leek carefully, slitting down the sides of it to ensure that all the grit and soil are removed.
• Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker or large saucepan, over a low heat.
• Dice the leek, onion, potato, turnip and carrots and put them into the pan. Fry gently for five minutes until the vegetables are softened and well coated with oil.
• Stir in the gram flour, mixing well to remove most of the lumps.
• Pour in the water, turn up the heat and bring to the boil.
• Add the sage, parsley, juniper berries and cracked pepper and seasoned salt.
• If you’re using the pressure cooker, bring to pressure and cook for 8 minutes. Otherwise, turn the heat right down and simmer as gently as you can for 45 minutes.
• Add the cans of sweetcorn and baked beans and bring back to boiling point. Simmer for a further 5 minutes or so.
• Gently stir in the cream, mixing thoroughly. Heat until almost boiling and then serve with warm bread.

Variations:

• For the Greenland version, use 1/4 cup of dried onions and 1 cup of mixed dried vegetables instead of the fresh vegetables. Pour 1/2 cup boiling water over the onions and leave them to soak for 30 minutes before adding them to the soup. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the other vegetables and leave them for the same time.
• Extra zing can be added with a tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce, if you use this.
• If you don’t have any cream, mix ½ cup dried milk with ½ cup lukewarm water and add this to the soup.

 

Coconut bread rolls

These coconut dinner rolls are freely adapted from a recipe by Richa Hingle; freely adapted, because the ingredients have been altered to make fewer rolls and to bear in mind that while on boats we can carry all sorts of wonderful dried herbs and spices, we generally can’t just pop along to the local farmers’ market and buy fresh. These rolls, therefore, can be made on board, with the usual ingredients that (curry-loving) sailors have in their lockers.

 

Unlike most of the rolls that I make, these are soft and fluffy (well, relatively speaking), due to the inclusion of coconut milk and, I suspect, the addition of baking powder. I give them a double rising (but only about 20 – 30 minutes each time), starting them before the rest of the meal, when I soak the beans for the curry I have with them, and then making them into little rolls that could rise while I get said curry underway. (If you're not using beans that need soaking, try to remember this extra step!)  They’re supposed to be topped with a delicious tempering, but I felt that was a step too far! The turmeric makes them come out an attractive shade of yellow.

Makes 6 small rolls

Ingredients

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

1 tbsp (coconut) oil

1 cup wholemeal flour, plus more for mixing

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp baking powder

small green chilli finely chopped

1 tbsp shredded coconut

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp ginger, minced or paste

1/2 tbsp hemp seeds or sesame seeds

Method:

• Warm the coconut milk (see Note) then add the oil. If you’re using coconut oil, wait for it to melt and stir it in.
• Add 1/2 the flour and the yeast and mix everything well.
• Now add salt, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne baking powder, chilli, coconut, onion powder, ginger and seeds. Mix thoroughly so that everything is evenly distributed.
• Add the rest of the flour and mix again. Now you will need to start using your hands. Add a little more flour if the mixture is too sticky, but remember that this is a nice, soft dough so you just want to add sufficient that it no longer sticks to your fingers.
• Cover the dough and let it rise for about half an hour.
• Once the dough has risen, turn it onto a board and gently work it into a ball, flouring the board if necessary.
• Divide the dough into half a dozen evenly-sized pieces and then place them in a greased frying pan.
• Cover the frying pan with a lid and let the rolls rise for another quarter of an hour or so.
• Light the cooker, put on the flame tamer and then place the frying pan on the heat. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes. Take the lid off and gently press one of the rolls. If it’s firm, turn them all over and brown the other side for about 5 minutes. It it’s still soft, cook for another 5 minutes and try again.
• Serve warm with dal or curry.

Alternative cooking in an oven

• When you have divided the dough into 6 balls, grease a 230 mm/9 in pie dish really well, or line it with parchment, then place the rolls in the pie dish.
• Brush the top with some warm water.
• Cover the dish it with a tea-towel and let it rise in a warm place, for 15-20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven at this time to Moderate.
• When the oven is the right temperature, bake the rolls for 25 minutes.
• Take the rolls out of the oven, and let them sit in the pie dish for a few minutes, before shaking them out.

Variations:

• You could use a different milk if you wanted to, but then they wouldn’t taste so deliciously of coconut!
• If you ever use white flour, in this case the rolls would probably be an even prettier yellow colour.
• If you’re cooking for other people, who you feel might find this sort of ‛hot’ roll a step too far, leave out the chilli and cayenne.

Notes:

• I use coconut powder for the milk. You can bring this to perfect temperature in the usual way of boiling half of the water and adding it to the rest before mixing in the powder. This will stop it killing the yeast from being too hot, when you add it to the flour.