Fennel Soup with Black Olive Oil from Sweet Paul

“Recently there has been something of a vegetable boom. It started in the fifties with Elizabeth David, who championed vegetables in their own right, not just as adjuncts to meat.”

I concur with Jane Grigson’s sentiments in the introduction to the first edition of her Vegetable Book in 1978.

The Vegetable Book has travelled the world with me. When we lived in France, I shopped different local markets on a daily rotation, picking up fresh vegetables, knowing that culinary inspiration lay only a page turn away.

The Vegetable Book is packed full recipes and photographs are replaced with hand drawn ink illustrations of each vegetable, leaving space for a little history. I love her Fennel À La Niçoise salad and went in search of a soup using similar ingredients. I came across the deliciously simple, elegant and stylish Sweet Paul Magazine where I picked up and adapted Carrot and Fennel Soup with Black Olive Oil.

The fennel gives it a hint of aniseed, the sweet potato sweetens and thickens it and the black olive oil the perfect salty accompaniment.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time:  8 hours LOW or 4 hours HIGH

Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 cup / 1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 cup / 1 medium leek, roughly chopped

½ cup / 1 medium carrot, roughly chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped

1 large head of fennel, roughly chopped (reserve a few fronds)

1 tbsp / 2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp fennel seeds

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

3 cups vegetable broth

1 cup 2% milk (or whatever milk you prefer) / or unsweetened almond milk

Black Olive Oil

½ cup dry black olives, pitted (Moroccan variety work best)

3 tbsp olive oil

Put all the ingredients into your slow cooker insert. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4.

In a small blender, add the pitted olives and olive oil. Blend until you have a rough paste.

Once the soup has cooked, blend using an immersion blender.

Serve the soup with a teaspoon of the black olive oil and a sprinkle of the fennel fronds.

Zen Moment

“Everyday holds the possibility of a miracle.”
― Elizabeth David