Alice says: “A velvet-smooth, creamy vegan soup with crisp chilli kale. The kale is to round off the soup, roasted in the oven and placed in the middle of each bowl. Keep the extra cooled kale crisps in an airtight container to eat later.”

Serves 4

Makes about 1.5l 

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the soup:

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 small brown onions, trimmed and halved, with skins left on
• 550g cauliflower florets and stalk (1 small, trimmed head)
• 1½ tsp coriander seeds
• 1½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• 3 whole garlic cloves, skins on
• 950ml vegetable stock
• 450g cooked chickpeas, drained (about 2 × 400g tins, drained, if using tinned)
• a squeeze of lemon juice (1–2 tbsp)
• sea salt and freshly ground
• black pepper

For the chilli kale crisp topping:

• 100g kale, trimmed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Chilli oil, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C fan (190°C/375°F/gas 5).

Put 1½ tablespoons of the olive oil (if you’re measuring – a generous glug is fine if you’re not into that) at one end of a large roasting tin. Sit the onions on top of the oil, cut-sides down and bunched up together. Cover with a sheet of kitchen foil, tucking in around the edges, and roast for 40 minutes until the onions have begun to soften and turn golden underneath.

Meanwhile, toss the cauliflower florets with another 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and chilli flakes in a large bowl, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Remove the foil from the onions and spread the cauliflower mixture out in the roasting tin in a single layer. Return to the oven for 25 minutes.

Add the whole garlic cloves and flip the vegetables over, including the onions. Cook for a final 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft and golden.

Leave until cool enough to peel the onions and the garlic, then transfer everything but these peelings to a large saucepan. Add the stock and chickpeas and bring to the boil over a low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables and chickpeas are totally soft.

Meanwhile, make the chilli kale crisps to top the soup while the oven is hot. Tear the kale into bite-sized pieces, then toss with the olive oil, chilli flakes and paprika. Season with salt and pepper. 

Spread the kale out in a large roasting tin, making sure it is in a single layer with space between the leaves. Bake for 6–8 minutes, shuffling halfway, until crisp and just beginning to brown. Do note that this time can vary slightly according to how delicate or tough your kale leaves are so keep an eye for the first shuffle after 2 minutes and expect to add a few minutes in total for very tough kale leaves. Set aside to cool in the pan. The kale will continue to crisp up further.

When the soup is ready, using a high-speed, upright blender for the best texture, blitz half the soup at a time, transferring the first batch back to the saucepan once velvety smooth. 

Repeat with the remaining soup, then gently warm through over a low heat until piping hot. (You can also blend in the pan using a hand-held blender – it just won’t be quite as velveteen.) Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning as needed. A squeeze of lemon juice will perk the flavours up.

Serve the soup in warmed bowls, topped with crisp kale and a dash of chilli oil.

Alice says: “Every cook needs a warming and hearty bean soup in their repertoire. This is the only one you need.

“This ultimate Tuscan-inspired soup has a slow-cooked base of sweet vegetables and garlic, borlotti beans and chickpeas, tomato, plenty of kale, bread to soak up the soup and fresh pesto to finish each bowl. As would be expected, the flavours and textures intensify and settle when the recipe is made ahead and reheated. Anoint each bowl with your best olive oil when eating.

“In developing the soup, trying to hit on the perfect texture, I decided to soak and long-simmer dried borlotti beans for the deepest flavour and to retain their shape. The chickpeas, however, need to break down a little to add body. Cooking them from scratch is quite a bit of work so you’ll see these are tinned. You could soak dried ones instead and simmer them separately, draining when tender and adding about 300g to the soup where the tinned are stirred in. 

“A final note on vegetarian parmesan rinds: save these when you get to the end of a wedge of cheese and keep in the freezer. They add extra umami to simmering soups and risottos and are simply removed at the end of cooking once they’ve done their job.”

Serves 4 generously

Preparation time: 30 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Cooking time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 400g tin of plum tomatoes
• 150g cavolo nero, trimmed and thickly shredded
• 100g dried borlotti beans, soaked in plenty of cool water for 8–12 hours
• 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
• 2 fresh or dried bay leaves
• 1 small vegetarian parmesan rind (optional) 
• a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, stalks finely sliced, leaves chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

• 4 thick slices of stale sourdough or ciabatta bread
• 4 tbsp any fresh, ready-made pesto
• the best extra virgin olive oil you have

Method

Put 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large, sturdy, heatproof casserole (Dutch oven) or saucepan and place over a low heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, for about 7 minutes until it begins to soften. Add the chopped carrots, celery and leeks along with half the garlic and the chilli flakes and continue to cook for 5 minutes. 

Add the plum tomatoes and cavolo nero and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring frequently until the vegetables are soft and sweet and the tomatoes have begun to break down.

Add the drained, soaked borlotti beans, the tinned chickpeas, bay leaves and parmesan rind (if using). Now pour in enough water to just cover the vegetables and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat so that the soup putters very gently for 1 hour 30 minutes–2 hours until the beans are completely soft. 

Remove about a quarter of the soup mixture and mash or blend until smooth-ish. Return it to the pan to thicken the soup.

In a separate, small pan, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over a low heat and sauté the remaining garlic, along with the parsley stalks and leaves, for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Tip into the soup pan and stir in well. Remove the soup from the heat and leave to cool. Cover the pan and leave in the fridge for 12–24 hours for the flavours to develop.

When ready to eat, warm the uncovered soup through thoroughly over a low heat, stirring now and then. Add a little water if it seems too thick (remember this isn’t a dainty soup) and season to taste. Sit a slice of bread in the bottom of each soup bowl and ladle the soup over. Finish with a spoonful of pesto and a drizzle of your best extra virgin olive oil.

Alice says: “Roasting vegetables as a soup base is a trick I can’t resist. You’ll find it used several times throughout this book and with good reason: not only does turning the oven on suit soup season, it is the easiest way I know to concentrate and caramelise the natural sugars in sweet vegetables and fruits such as onions, garlic, pumpkins and peppers. It would take such care and time to attain the same depth of flavour on a stovetop. Moreover, skins, peels and stalks can be quickly removed after cooking, keeping chopping time to a minimum. 

“To achieve a velvet-smooth texture, blend the vegetables thoroughly and choose a dense-fleshed pumpkin or winter squash, such as crown prince, kabocha or golden butternut.”

Serves 4

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 4½ tbsp olive oil
• 2 red onions, halved, skins left on
• 800g dense-fleshed pumpkin or winter squash, deseeded and sliced into 4cm thick wedges
• 2 red peppers, left whole
• 2 red chillies, left whole
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 3–4 tiny thumbs of fresh turmeric, unpeeled
• 350ml hot vegetable stock
• 30 sage leaves
• 4 tsp sunflower seeds
• a large pinch of hot smoked paprika
• 4 thick diagonal slices of sourdough baguette
• 60g gruyère, finely grated
• extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle (optional)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C/400°F/gas 6).

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the base of a large roasting tin, placing the halved onions in it, cut-sides down. Toss the pumpkin or squash slices and the whole red peppers in a further 2 tablespoons of oil and add to the pan, spacing out in a single layer. Roast for 30 minutes, then add the whole red chillies and unpeeled garlic and turmeric pieces, turning the squash and peppers over at the same time. Roast for about 20 minutes more until the vegetables are soft and slightly charred.

Cover the vegetables with kitchen foil or a baking sheet and leave to cool for 10 minutes. They will create steam and soften further. 

Peel the skins from the peppers and discard their stalks and seeds. Remove the stalks from the chillies, along with the skins if they pull away easily, plus the skins from the garlic cloves and halved onions. Scoop the flesh from the pumpkin or squash with a spoon to remove the skins. Don’t be overly concerned about doing a perfect job here.

Transfer the peeled vegetables and any juices in the pan to a blender with the hot vegetable stock and blend until buttery-smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then transfer to a saucepan and reheat gently over a low heat, stirring. This is meant to be a very thick soup but do add a little more stock or water if the consistency isn’t to your liking.

While the soup is heating, pour 1 tablespoon of oil into a large frying pan set over a low–medium heat and add two-thirds of the sage leaves. Fry for about 2–3 minutes until frazzled but not overly browned, turning the heat down if they crisp up too quickly. Tip onto a plate lined with paper towels and set aside.

Put a further ½ tablespoon of oil, the sunflower seeds and paprika in the same frying pan. Set over a medium heat and toast, stirring often, for a couple of minutes until the seeds turn golden.

Season with salt and pepper, tip onto the plate with the sage leaves and set aside.

Preheat the grill to medium–high and toast the bread slices on a baking sheet for about 3 minutes until lightly browned on top.

Flip the slices over. Finely slice the remaining sage leaves and combine with the grated gruyère. Divide between the bread slices.

Season with black pepper, then grill for about 4 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

Divide the hot soup between warmed serving bowls and immediately top with the cheese toasts, scattering with the crisp sage leaves and smoky sunflower seeds. Add a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and a twist of black pepper to finish, if liked.

Repertoire: The Best Vegetarian Recipes to Build a Modern Cook’s Collection by Alice Hart (£27, OH Editions) is out now