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Linda's recipes

Avocado and Dill Soup

From Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 51.

A cold avocado soup, flavoured with sour cream and dill.

I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical about this soup, but quickly changed my mind once it was on my plate. It is lovely cooling and creamy and can be served as a light lunch with some fresh bread and a salad. Also a great starter for a dinner party.

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Delicious Watercress Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 55.

A hot and creamy watercress soup with potatoes and cream.

Watercress was one of the ingredients I had not tried before starting this cooking project. And I must say I really enjoy its fresh and sharp taste when used in salads. This soup boils the watercress with the potatoes and purees both at the end of the cooking time.
Even though the soup tasted pleasant, boiling altered the taste of the watercress and made it taste almost like leeks. I would have preferred keeping some of the distinct watercress taste- maybe by adding it at the last minute before blending and then serving immediately? Will try this out.

Vegan: Use plant-based milk and cream and mit the egg yolks (or add 100-200g of silken tofu before you blend the soup).

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Cream of Tomato Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 53

A creamy tomato soup with lots of tomatoes, celery, onion, and a milky béchamel sauce, finished with a little double cream.

I was curious about this soup as I had heard that this was a favourite of Linda’s. Yesterday, I got some great-looking tomatoes and decided that the time had come to try out this recipe. The veg and tomatoes are slowly simmered and then sieved too make a smooth paste. This paste is then mixed with a creamy béchamel (using one pint of milk) and finished with a couple of spoonfuls of double cream.
I did like the smoothness of the soup, but would have preferred to have even more tomato flavour. Next time, I think I will try adding some tomato paste and maybe a can of chopped tomatoes to the soup. I would also omit the béchamel sauce and just use a little plant-based cream to serve. I did try using plant-based milk but still thought the milky taste to be too dominant.

Gluten-Free: Use gluten-free flour, e.g. rice flour.

Vegan: Use plant-based milk and cream.

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Linda's recipes

Avocado and Green Chilli Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 51

A creamy cold soup made of avocado and milk, flavooured with sherry.

This is a very special and smooth soup that is great for summer parties. I would recommend using fresh chillies instead of tinned. The sherry I used had a slightly bitter taste, which I did not like in the soup. Maybe I have to try with a better sherry next time or omit it.

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Bisque of Mushroom

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 52

A creamy soup with an intense mushroom flavour and nice texture. It can be served as a starter or with bread and a salad as a light lunch. Serves 6-8 as a starter and 4 as a main course.

I reduced the butter to 25g for the white sauce and 15g for the mushrooms, and took 100g of cream.

Vegan: Both milk and cream can be substituted for plant-based alternatives. I used oat milk and oat cream and the taste was very balanced. The non-vegans at the table did not notice they were not eating dairy and enjoyed the soup very much.

Gluten-Free: For best results, use rice flour.

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Sweetcorn Noodle Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 58

An unusual combination of fresh sweetcorn, noodle and egg – and really delicious and quick to make. A new family favourite!

If you do not have fresh sweetcorn, try to use frozen and not tinned. The frozen sweetcorn tastes nearly as good as the fresh sweetcorn and does not have this “tinned” flavour.

Gluten-free: Make sure the noodles you use are gluten-free. I find it best here to use noodles that do not have a strong taste of their own, as do noodles made from beans, chickpeas or lentils. Rice or corn noodles work really well (not surprising, given that it is a sweetcorn soup 🙂 ).

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Bortsch Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p.52

A beetroot soup with a truly stunning colour! It combines the very earthy flavours of potato and beetroot with a sour note of lemon and sour cream. I tried it both hot and cold and give it credits for being very different to other soups and for its vibrant colour. However, it will most likely not become one of the recipes I will use very often.
We had a severe storm here in Hamburg during the last two days, and it has been pouring down with rain most of the day. I would have loved to take a picture of this soup but due to a lack of daylight decided not to try. I find that natural light works best for my food photograpy.

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Cream of Celery Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 53

A soup made of celery, milk and cream.

This is one of those recipes I would not have tried if I had not decided to cook all the recipes from this book. But it gave me a pleasant surprise- this soup is creamy and delicious and the celery, despite being the main ingredient, is not too dominant.
I loved the soup and will definitely make it again soon. My daughter could not get enough of it and finished all leftovers from our lunch at dinner time 🙂

I did reduce the amount of cream to 100ml but found that the soup was still incredibly creamy and just lovely.

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Parsley, Celery and Green Pea Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 57

A soup made from dried split green peas, onion, celery and carrots. It is a lovely soup for a cold winter day and is easy to make (it takes long to simmer but will not give you any work during this time).

I thought that this soup was a little too plain; adding 3 tsp. of mild mustard to the soup shortly before serving rounds off the taste really well and gives an intersting flavour.

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Turnip, Carrot and Split-Pea Soup

From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 58

A great winter soup! It uses only few ingredients but has a balanced taste. The recipe makes 4 big plates of soup- but we thought that there could have been more for the four of us. So I would suggest doubling the quantity when serving the soup as a main course for four hungry people.