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Creamed Broccoli Soup

When very lightly cooked until it is just tender and still grass green, then blitzed with stock and finished with a lemon-scented cream, broccoli soup is a heavenly way to eat what can be a tedious vegetable. The key to giving this soup a light, fresh spring vegetable flavour is in timing the cooking perfectly, and gentle reheating.

Serves 4–6

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 white onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, sliced

1 litre/1¾ pints chicken or vegetable stock

2-3 whole broccoli heads, weighing approximately 700g/1lb 9oz, separated into spears

4 tablespoons double cream

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

4-6 tablespoons double cream withgrated zest of ½ lemon or Greek-style yoghurt

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook over a medium heat for a few minutes, until soft and translucent but not browned. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute, then add the broccoli. Simmer until the stalks are just tender when pierced with a knife – they should still have some ‘bite’. Remove from the heat immediately and transfer to a bowl so the soup cools a little faster. Liquidise the soup with the cream until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.

To serve, mix the cream with the lemon zest. Just before you eat, reheat the soup gently, then serve straight away with a spoonful of the lemon cream, or yoghurt, in every bowl.