Cucumber and Apple Soup

This recipe comes from “The Ballykissangel Cookbook”. Ballykissangel is the fictional Irish village in the popular BBC TV drama series of the same name, that was on air a few years ago. I’m not a big soup fan, but this one sounds really interesting, especially as it can be served hot or cold. The original recipe calls for chicken stock, but then that wouldn’t be very vegetarian (!), so I’ll leave it to you what sort of stock you use. Hot and cold serving suggestions are at the end of the cooking instructions, but either way I think this would be a good alternative to gazpacho. You’ll need to add extra time for chilling if serving this cold.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1  medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1  garlic clove, chopped
• 1⁄2 ounce butter
• 2  large cucumbers, peeled and sliced
• 2  apples, peeled and sliced
• 900  ml  stock
•  salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and gently fry the onion and garlic until softened and translucent.
2. Add the cucumbers, apples and stock and bring to the boil; reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and when cool enough to transfer to a blender or processor, blend until smooth; season to taste.
4. TO SERVE: Serve this soup hot with garlic bread and garnish soup with chives and a little cream; alternatively, chill the soup in the fridge and serve garnished with cucumber slices and natural yogurt.