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Bean Sprout and Herb Soup

A light soup, finished with a herb sauce. With a supply of fresh chicken stock, brewed from the bones after the roast (see here), this broth can be made in about 5 minutes. I have used mung bean sprouts, which are popular in Southeast Asian cooking. It is easy to buy fresh ones, but I have a three-tier clear plastic seed ‘sprouter’, known to the family as the ‘farm’, in which the beans grow to a useable sprout within a week or so. Mung beans have very little flavour when raw but take on a delicate, fresh, beany taste as soon as they land in the pan.

Serves 2

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 spring onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 handfuls of mung bean sprouts and seed sprouts (any kind)

225g/8oz canned or cooked lentils, drained of any liquid

600ml/1 pint chicken stock

sea salt

For the sauce:

leaves from 3 sprigs of parsley, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chopped chives

4 basil leaves, torn

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or other mature cheese, such as Twineham Grange or pecorino)

1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted in a dry frying pan until golden

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Heat the oil in a pan, add the spring onions and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, until soft and translucent but not browned. Add the sprouts, lentils and stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 1 minute and then remove from the heat. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Mix the sauce ingredients together, breaking up the pine nuts as much as possible with the back of a wooden spoon. Spoon the sauce over the soup once it is ladled into bowls.