Cookbook Review: Great Homemade Soups: A Cook's Collection

I was recently sent a copy of "Great Home Soups" by Paul Gayler to review.   Paul is an Executive Chef at the prestigious Lanesborough Hotel in London and this new comprehensive collection of more than 100 soup recipes offers lots of ideas and inspiration to help you create the perfect soup., whether that be just for a quick lunch at home or if you want something a little bit more special for entertaining.

I'm quite into soups at the moment since I got my new soup maker earlier this year so I was interested to see what this book had to offer. The book was split into several sections, starting with an "all about" section which actually offered up some really good ideas. I'm quite basic with my soups and believe it or not I had never actually thought of using left over pitta bread, naan or even poppadums as a garnish instead of just normal croutons. Definitely some food for the thought.

The main recipes were then divided into Natural broths and consommés, smooth and creamy, hearty and wholesome, traditional favourites, wild and exotic and finally, chilled.

The recipes seem quite long, which may seem a little daunting at first, however they are easy to follow with good, clear instructions. There are good colour photographs for the majority of recipes. Some of the recipes may seem a little over-fussy for day-to-day, for example, if I were just making soup for a family lunch I would probably not bother with garnishes, however these of course are easy to take out of the recipe.

The recipes that stood out for me as ones I'd like to try are;

• Cauliflower soup with brie toasties
• Roasted pepper and aubergine soup
• Carrot, pineapple and ginger soup
• Jamaican pepper pot soup
• Soupe a l'oignon gratinee

So watch this space, as you may see some of these appear on this very blog!

On the whole this is a really good book with some big name contributors like Tom Kerridge and Antonio Carluccio.

Great Homemade Soups is published by Jacqui Small LLP is available to purchase now with an RRP of £25.00.