Savoury Rhubarb Soup

I know what you are thinking. Rhubarb soup? Savoury rhubarb soup? Never heard of that before. Sounds intriguing. Could be tasty. Could be unpleasant. Could be a toxic coupling of sour fruit and salty meaty water. Must get some rhubarb and give it a go. Well that’s what I thought anyway. Besides, the recipe was in Colin Spencer’s ‘Vegetable Book’ which in the past has always proved to be great source of unusual yet tasty recipes.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Skill level: easy

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Trim the rhubarb and cut into rough 1″ chunks.

Place in a heavy-based saucepan and pour over the stock.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, by which time the rhubarb should be cooked. Allow to cool a little.

Thoroughly liquidise with a hand blender – you want to pulverise all the stringy bits.

Return to the heat and add some sugar and tobasco to taste. You want to get balance between sweet/sour/salty/heat. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve with a spoonful of natural yoghurt.

*Colin Spencer expressly states that this recipe requires a rich meat stock, ideally made from game. Being a non-meat eater I flagrantly disobeyed this instruction and used a light (but good) powdered vegetable stock instead.

Verdict: Well I never, this was actually quite good. Unusual, but good. It’s sour yet slightly sweet, salty as a soup should be, and has a slight kick from the Tabasco. Having said that, I think this would have been greatly improved if I’d used the prescribed meaty stock.

Drink: A selection of Meantime ales.

Entertainment: Finished off the first ‘The Shield’ DVD.