Serves 6
Knob of butter
1 onion, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
1½ ltr vegetable stock
1 handful of spinach
3-4 handfuls of young nettles, well washed
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Crème fraîche, to serve
Toasted seeds, to serve
1 Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then add the onion, celery, garlic and bay leaves and sweat down for a couple of mins.
2 Add the potatoes and stock and simmer for 30 mins until the potatoes are cooked through.
3 Add the spinach and most of the nettles (saving a handful for deep frying later), then return the soup to the boil and remove from the heat. Allow to cool for a few mins before transferring to a blender. Whizz the soup until smooth, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4 Pour a couple of centimetres of vegetable oil into a small, heavybased saucepan. Heat the oil over a medium heat until a small cube of bread dropped into it turns golden in about 15 secs (about 180C on a cooking thermometer). Deep-fry the reserved nettle leaves until they are dark green and just crisp, being careful to shield your eyes as the hot oil can spit with some ferocity.
5 Drain on kitchen paper, then drop into the soup with a drizzle of crème fraîche and some toasted seeds.
Taken from Giffords Circus Cookbook: Recipes & Stories from a Magical Circus Restaurant by Nell Gifford & Ols Halas (Quadrille). Photography: David Loftus
Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
