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HAPPINESS SOUP

HAPPINESS SOUP

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Serves: 4-6

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  • Express Recipe
  • Gluten Free
  • Nigella Recipe
  • Vegetarian

Forgive the tweeness of the title, but this is a soup of such sunny, mood-enhancing yellowness that it overcomes even the most pervasively innate cynicism. To eat this is to feel cheered; even cooking it gives me a lift. It's incredibly easy to make, but that's not the clincher. This golden broth, rice-thickened and studded with a confetti dice of yellow courgettes and sprightly with lemon is pure joy. You only have to see it to believe it. And not surprisingly in some Middle-Eastern cultures, it is believed, in Claudia Roden's words, that 'eating yellow foods will result in laughter and happiness'. This, then, is a yellow soup to banish the blues.

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Ingredients

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  • 500 grams yellow courgette (2 large)
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 litre chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
  • 100 grams basmati rice
  • Maldon salt
  • pepper
FOREVER SUMMER

As featured in

FOREVER SUMMER

Method

  1. Cut the courgettes - wash them by all means if you want, but don't bother to peel them - into 5mm rings, and then finely dice them. Put them into a pan with the lemon zest and oil, stir to coat, then cook on a gentle heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they've slightly softened.
  2. Stir in the turmeric and pour in the stock and lemon juice and then drop in the rice. And for the stock here, as usual I make up some bouillon concentrate with water; you could use vegetable stock if you prefer, but I love the mellow goldenness you get from chicken.
  3.  Cook, uncovered, for 10-20 minutes, or just until the courgettes and rice are tender. Taste for seasoning.
  4. Leave to cool slightly before serving so that you eat the soup warm rather than hot.

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  • After finally finding Yellow Courgettes i have now made a tried this recipe as i was dying to, and it didn't dissapoint. I did a bit of potching and have added the cheesy tortilla chips (well, made from chapatis) from the Corn Chowder recipe...Good!

    Posted by Diz0702 on 19th May 2011 at 23.34

  • This looks so, so good...a great soup to make for the season between late summer and early autumn. Mmmm...

    Posted by littleredyarn on 20th Aug 2012 at 16.03