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butter bean and leek soup with thyme

There’s something very satisfying about making this warming, comforting winter soup. If you want to speed the process up, use canned beans instead of dried.

serves 4

250g/9oz/1¹/₄ cups dried butter or lima beans or 2 x 425g/15oz cans

2 leeks, sliced

1 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

¹/₂ tsp dried thyme

¹/₂ tsp curry powder

salt and freshly ground black pepper

juice of 1 lemon

1–2tbsp chopped fresh parsley, to serve

Put the beans into a large pan with enough water to cover them by about 5cm/2 in. Bring to the boil, boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and leave to stand for 1 hour.

Add the leeks, onion, garlic, thyme and curry powder. Bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then reduce and simmer gently, covered, until the beans are very tender – 1–1¹/₂ hours. Purée the soup in a food processor or blender. Put the purée back in the pan. If it is very thick, add a little water to get it to the consistency you like. Reheat gently and add salt, freshly ground black pepper and enough of the lemon juice to bring out the flavour. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.