Recipes: Liquid lunch

SOUPS OF ALL TYPES FORM A major part of how we eat in Scot- land, but people tend to think of soup being a winter staple. I think it's just as good in the summer. We would all like to think that we bask in long, hot summery days, but the reality is different, and a warming soup can be just as necessary during June, July and August as it is in the colder months. So soup that can be served hot or cold is the answer. This rules out gazpacho, unless you are very sure of the weather.

Fruit and veg combine well together in soup as you will see in the pea and apple recipe. Of course, herbs enhance everything. In summer months I use more mint than anything else, and soup-making is no exception. Spices, too, can subtly give a good dimension to the flavour, as the cumin in today's red pepper and courgette recipe does. The curry powder in my version of leek and potato soup also adds bite. When cold, this is more elegantly described as vichyssoise.

PEA, APPLE AND MINT SOUP

SERVES 6

2 onions, each skinned and finely diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1lb/450g frozen peas – I buy petit pois
2 good eating apples, quartered and cored, skin left on and apple quarters chopped
2oz/55g mint, if possible, applemint, thick stalks removed
11/2 pints/850ml stock, either chicken or vegetable stock, or a good substitute such as Marigold stock powder made up with boiling water
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, about 20 grinds of black pepper, a good grating of nutmeg
juice of 1/2 lemon

For garnish:

6 mint leaves, one to float on each serving of soup

Heat the olive oil in a fairly large saucepan and fry the diced onions for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are completely soft. Add the chopped apples and peas to the saucepan (the peas can be either still frozen or thawed). Pour in the stock, and simmer gently for five minutes.

Then add 1oz/28g of the mint, pushing it down in the hot stock among the peas. Cool the soup, liquidise, adding the remaining mint at this stage. If the blades on your blender or food processor are not as sharp as they might be, sieve the soup once liquidised.

Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and lemon juice. Taste, and add more salt if you think it is needed. Keep the soup in a covered container in the fridge until you are ready to serve it, either cold (in which case be sure to take the container out of the fridge and into room temperature half an hour before) or reheat the soup gently – not to boiling point – if the weather dictates the need for hot soup. Put one mint leaf in the middle of each serving.

ROAST RED PEPPER, RED ONION AND COURGETTE SOUP

SERVES 6

2 red onions, each skinned and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 red peppers, each halved, seeds removed and the peppers chopped
4 medium-sized courgettes, ends sliced off and the courgettes sliced 1/2 in/1cm thick (approx)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, bashed in a pestle and mortar or in a small deep bowl using the end of a rolling pin
1 teaspoon salt, about 20 grinds of black pepper
11/2 pints/850ml stock, either chicken or vegetable stock, or a good stock substitute such as Marigold powder made up with boiling water

For garnish:

1 red pepper, halved, seeds removed, and the pepper halves very thinly sliced and fried in
1 scant tablespoon olive oil with a pinch of salt

Start by making the garnish – just heat the tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and fry the thin red pepper sliced over moderate heat, until they are soft. Set aside to cool.

Make the soup by heating the three tablespoons of olive oil in a fairly large saucepan, and fry the chopped red onions for several minutes until they are completely soft. Add the bashed cumin to the contents of the pan and mix in well. Then add the chopped red peppers and sliced courgettes, and mix very thoroughly, so that the vegetables are smeared with the olive oil.

Tip the contents of the pan onto a non-stick baking tray, spreading them in a thin layer over the entire tray. Roast in a hot oven, 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 for 15 minutes, then shuffle the vegetables at the outer parts of the baking tray in to the centre, spread the layer out evenly again, reduce the heat to moderate, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, and continue to roast for a further 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pieces of courgette and the pieces of red pepper are soft. Then tip the roasted vegetables back into the saucepan, add the stock, salt and pepper and simmer gently for about five minutes.

Cool, liquidise till smooth, taste and add more salt if you think it is needed. Store in a covered container in the fridge until required.

Serve, either reheated or cold, with a small tangle of the soft thin red pepper sliced in the centre of each serving.

SLIGHTLY CURRIED LEEK AND POTATO SOUP

Do make sure you that include the celery in the ingredients. It isn't discernible in the soup as being celery, but its flavour makes a difference.

SERVES 6

1 onion, skinned and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 leeks, trimmed of outer leaves and the root ends sliced off, leave about half the green in place, and slice the leeks quite thinly
3 sticks of celery, trimmed at either end, each peeled with a potato peeler to remove the stringy bits, then the celery sliced
1 rounded teaspoon medium strength curry powder
3 medium sized-potatoes (total weight just under 1lb/450g), peeled and diced
11/2 pints/850ml stock, either chicken or vegetable stock, or a good stock substitute such as Marigold powder made up with boiling water
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
about 20 grinds of black pepper
a good grating of nutmeg

For garnish: 1 leek, trimmed top and bottom and of most of the green part. The leek then sliced in half lengthways and sliced into straw-thin strips and then deep-fried in light olive or sunflower oil till crisp and darkly golden in colour. The oil need only be 2in/5cm deep in a saucepan. The crispy leeks are lifted out using a slotted spoon, and put to cool on a double thickness of kitchen paper

To make the soup, heat the olive oil in a fairly large saucepan and fry the chopped onion with the sliced leeks and celery, for five to seven minutes over moderately high heat – though not hot enough to turn the colour of the vegetables as they fry.

Stir from time to time, then stir in the curry powder, cook for a minute before adding the diced peeled potatoes and the stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, half cover the pan and simmer the contents gently for about 10 minutes.

• For details on Claire's three-day residential cookery demonstrations at Kinloch Lodge, tel: [phone] or visit www.claire-macdonald.com