Garlic Soup

A delicious soup from Yotem Ottolenghi’s book Plenty. The combination of flavours is outstanding and with all that sulphur rich garlic and onions you feel stronger with every mouthful.

Serves 8 ( I usually double it)

Ingredients

Harissa ( delicious with pretty much everything)
2 red capsicums, cut into large pieces
1/s tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion,chopped
6 garlic cloves,chopped
4 medium hot chillies,chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste ( optional)
4 tbsp lemon juice
1.5 tsp sea salt

Soup
4 brown onions chopped
6 celery stalks chopped
6 tbsp butter or coconut oil
2 tbsp olive oil
50 medium garlic cloves, finely sliced
4 tsp chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp fresh thyme
2 cups white wine
large pinch saffron threads
8 bay leaves
2 litres water
2 tbsp homemade vegetable stock
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp parsley and or coriander

First make the harissa grill the capsicums until blackened put in a bowl covered for 15 mins. Peel and remove seeds.In a large frying pan dry roast the coriander,cumin and caraway until fragrant.Remove and grind to a powder. Heat olive oil in the frying pan and saute the onions until carmelised. Add garlic and chillies and cook until its all smoky.Place all the harissa ingredients in the blender until its a thick paste.

Gently fry the onions and celery in the butter and oil until soft add garlic and cook another 5 minutes.Add ginger,thyme,wine and simmer for a few minutes.Add saffron,bay, water stock and salt. Simmer 10 minutes.Remove bay and add the parsley. Blend until partially blended. Put the soup in bowls and add a tsp harissa and coriander to serve.