Lorraine Pascale - Lorraine Pascale’s Fast, Fresh and Easy Food

+ While the soup is cooking, place a small frying pan on a high heat. Once hot, add the bacon (or pancetta) lardons and fry for 3–4 minutes, stirring from time to time, until crisp and golden. Spoon onto kitchen paper to drain, and set aside.

+ Using a stick blender, carefully blitz the now-cooked soup until really smooth. A jug blender does the trick also; just be careful to blend in a couple of batches.

+ Taste the soup, adding more salt and pepper if you think it needs it (but allowing for the saltiness of the bacon) and then ladle into four serving bowls. Swirl a little cream on top of each, if using, snip the chives over and finally scatter with the cooked lardons to serve.

Thai chicken soup with coconut milk & ginger

A smoother-than-velvet Thai-style soup with an orchestra of flavours going on inside. If you can get your hands on fresh kaffir lime leaves that would be great; the dried ones can be found in the herbs and spices section in the supermarket, or use frozen.

Time from start to finish: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Equipment: Large pan or wok

Vegetable oil

1 lemongrass stalk

2 garlic cloves

5cm piece of fresh ginger

Large handful of fresh coriander

3 kaffir lime leaves (fresh, frozen or dried)

2 × 400ml tins of coconut milk

300ml good-quality chicken stock (fresh is best to use here)

1 red chilli

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 bunch of spring onions

2 limes

2–3 tbsp fish sauce

1–2 tsp caster sugar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

+ Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan or wok on a medium heat.

+ Trim the lemongrass stalk and discard any tough outer leaves before finely chopping the white bit (discard the green bit as it can be quite bitter). Peel and finely chop the garlic and then peel the ginger and cut it into thin slivers. Chop the stalks off the coriander (in one go) and then finely slice them (keeping the coriander leaves aside for later).

+ Carefully toss them all in the hot oil with the kaffir lime leaves and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, being careful that nothing catches and burns.

+ Next add the coconut milk and stock and leave to come to the boil.

+ Meanwhile, halve the chilli lengthways and then finely slice it, leaving the seeds in if you like it quite fiery. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add both ingredients to the now-boiled soup. Reduce the heat a little and leave it to bubble away for about 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

+ Finely slice the spring onions (both the green and the white bits), juice the limes and roughly chop half of the reserved coriander leaves. Add these once the chicken is cooked and then leave to simmer for a final minute. Finally, add enough fish sauce and sugar to taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

+ Ladle into four serving bowls, scatter the remaining coriander leaves over and serve.

Hot-and-sour king prawn soup

A light, lucid soup with fragrant Asian flavours and succulent blushing prawns. Definitely one for a packed lunch.

Time from start to finish: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Equipment: Medium pan with lid

500ml good-quality fish or chicken stock (fresh is best to use here)

1–2 red chillies (depending on how hot you like them)

1 lemongrass stalk

Small handful of fresh coriander

2 kaffir lime leaves (fresh, frozen or dried)

3 tbsp fish sauce

12 sustainably caught raw king prawns, shell off

2 limes

1–2 tsp caster sugar

+ Pour the stock into a medium pan on a high heat and cover with the lid (so it heats up more quickly).

+ Meanwhile, slice, deseed and finely chop the chillies, finely slice the lemongrass (the white bit only) and coriander stalks (reserving the leaves).

+ Once the stock has come to the boil, add them to the pan along with the kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce and cover again with the lid. Turn the heat down a little and leave to simmer for 4–5 minutes.

+ Add the prawns and continue to simmer for another minute or so until the prawns turn pink.

+ Then finish with the coriander leaves, juice of the limes and sugar to taste.

+ Ladle into two serving bowls and serve.

Red pepper, tomato & basil gazpacho with salt & pepper croutons

Every summer I book myself and the family on Britain’s favourite orange airline and head south to Spain. Circling high above Barcelona’s La Rambla, which leads down to the sparkling sapphire blue surf, I know that very soon I will be among the bustling throng of beautiful bronzed bodies, sipping on a bubbling cava, dipping hunks of just-cooked bread in hot sizzling oil full of garlicky prawns and diving my spoon into a perfect bowl of that intensely flavoured, cooling Spanish soup.

Time from start to finish: 15 minutes

Chilling time: 30 minutes in the freezer (or 1 hour in the fridge)

Serves: 4–6

Equipment: Blender or food processor, large jug, baking tray

Gazpacho

1kg ripe vine-ripened tomatoes

2 red peppers

1 garlic clove

½ bag of fresh basil

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 tsp sherry vinegar

A few shakes of Tabasco sauce

Pinch of sugar

5cm piece of cucumber

Handful of ice cubes

Croutons

1 ciabatta roll (about 90g)

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

+ Preheat the oven to 200°C, (fan 180°C), 400°F, Gas Mark 6.

+ Roughly chop the tomatoes, halve and deseed the peppers, snapping them into a few pieces, and peel the garlic. Pick the leaves from the basil stalks, reserve a small handful for garnish and put the rest in a blender or food processor with the tomatoes, peppers and garlic. Then add the oil, sherry vinegar, Tabasco, sugar and some salt and pepper and blitz until as smooth as possible.

+ Taste, adding a little more Tabasco or seasoning if you think it needs it. Pour into a large jug, cover with cling film and put in the freezer for 30 minutes (or the fridge for 1 hour) to cool right down.

+ Cut the ciabatta up into bite-sized cubes, scatter them on a baking tray, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for about 6 minutes.

+ Meanwhile, cut the cucumber into little cubes and set these aside.

+ Remove the croutons from the oven once they are crisp and golden and set aside until ready to serve.

+ When ready to serve, divide the soup between the serving bowls. Sprinkle the cucumber over, pop a few ice cubes in each one, scatter the croutons and reserved basil on top and drizzle with a little oil.

Broccoli & blue cheese soup with chive mascarpone & warm garlic bread

Roquefort is the cheese to go for if you like this super-strong, or you can keep it British with some good old Stilton. Either way, I really like the combination of a blue cheese with some broccoli – definitely one of my top 10 favourite flavour combos. A lovely filling winter soup.

Time from start to finish: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

Equipment: Large pan with lid, 2 small bowls, baking tray, blender

Soup

Vegetable oil

1 large leek

1 large potato

900ml good-quality chicken stock (fresh is best to use here)

1 whole head of broccoli

150g strong blue cheese, such as

Stilton or Roquefort