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Broccoli & blue cheese soup with chive mascarpone & warm garlic bread

Roquefort is the cheese to go for if you like this super-strong, or you can keep it British with some good old Stilton. Either way, I really like the combination of a blue cheese with some broccoli – definitely one of my top 10 favourite flavour combos. A lovely filling winter soup.

Time from start to finish: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

Equipment: Large pan with lid, 2 small bowls, baking tray, blender

Soup

Vegetable oil

1 large leek

1 large potato

900ml good-quality chicken stock (fresh is best to use here)

1 whole head of broccoli

150g strong blue cheese, such as

Stilton or Roquefort

Accompaniments

3 garlic cloves

Small handful of fresh chives

50g softened butter

1 French baguette

6 tbsp mascarpone

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

+ Put a drizzle of oil into a large pan over a medium heat and while this heats up, top and tail the leek, discarding most of the dark green bit. Then slit it lengthways, discard the hard outer leaves and wash under the cold tap. Finely slice and add to the pan, then give them a stir and leave to cook for about 10 minutes.

+ Meanwhile, prepare the garlic butter. Peel and finely chop the garlic and finely chop the chives. Put all of the garlic and half of the chives into a small bowl with the softened butter and some salt and pepper. Mix and set aside.

+ Returning to the soup, peel and chop the potato into 1cm cubes and add to the softened leeks, along with the chicken stock. Turn up the heat and put the lid on to help bring it up to the boil quickly.

+ Once this is boiling remove the lid, reduce the heat a little and leave to simmer away for 10 minutes or so.

+ Preheat the oven to 180°C, (fan 160°C), 350°F, Gas Mark 4 for the garlic bread.

+ Roughly chop the broccoli (including the stalk) and add to the soup for the last 5 minutes or so.

+ Now, divide the baguette into three even-sized pieces and split each one in half as if you were making a sandwich. Pop the bread, cut side up, on a baking tray and put in the oven for 5 minutes. (I have to really keep an eye on it as I sometimes don’t remember that it is in there!)

+ Meanwhile, put the remaining chives in a small bowl with the mascarpone. Season with salt and pepper and stir together once (otherwise it might go grainy), then set aside.

+ Remove the toasted bread from the oven, slather the cut sides with the garlic butter and return it to the oven for a further 4–5 minutes.

+ Once the soup is ready, check the potatoes and broccoli are cooked through and remove from the heat. Carefully blend the soup until smooth. Crumble in the blue cheese, give the soup another quick blitz and then season to taste.

+ Divide the soup between six serving bowls. Add a dollop of the chive mascarpone to each. Remove the garlic bread from the oven and serve a piece with each one.