Hugh's Beetroot & Cumin Soup with Stilton & Leek Tart

By Chris

Main Ingedients:

• Beetroot and Cumin
• Vegetable Stock
• Leeks and Stilton
• Double Cream
• Eggs and Pastry

So for my first Veggie Lent, I thought I'd go ambitious - I've never cooked a quiche from scratch and I've only ever cooked with beetroot once before. Admittedly, I did cheat and use pre-rolled pastry, but it was still quite a faff and took two hours from start to finish.

For the soup, I fried onions, garlic, oil and butter, then chucked in some cumin seeds and a massive 750g of chopped beetroot. The whole mixture was simmered for 30 minutes and then blended with my trusty hand-blender, before being served with spiced yoghurt.

The quiche was more of a challenge, especially when I realised that I knew nothing about blind baking and had no idea what baking beans were (they're kinda like magic beans, right?). In the end, I used rice and greaseproof paper to weigh down the pastry for the blind baking, but not enough to stop it from swelling up to an alarming size.

Nonetheless, I stabbed the quiche bubble and mashed it down, making it ready for the yummy filling. Three leeks were chopped up roughly and sweated down with some butter and black pepper.

To this I added 100g of Stilton, two eggs, two egg yolks and an artery-stopping 300ml of double cream. The whole concoction came out rather nicely after 30 minutes at 170 degrees. 

This was served with a green salad (natch) and mashed sweet potatoes. All in all, a challenge that was worth the effort, and I didn't even miss the meat all that much! And I'm starting to see another reason for going veggie - at £2.07 per person, this was easily the cheapest meal we've made so far.

Best for... A springtime dinner which is half wintery and half summery.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says...A surprisingly subtle and eggy tart beautifully complemented by the tangy mash. And the soup was lovely too!