Remember, remember the 5th of November.
I may lament about the scaled down UK Halloween and lack of trick or treaters (we only had two this year – they left with loads of sweeties) compared to my rural Canadian upbringing, but do you know what? Bonfire night totally makes up for it.
I hadn’t even heard of Bonfire Night, celebrated here in the UK each 5th of November, until I moved to the UK. Perhaps my Canadian history lessons were lacking (or perhaps I didn’t pay attention quite as much as I should have). Bonfire Night is held in the UK to celebrate the failed attempts of Guy Fawkes to blow up the House of Lords in 1605.
There’s something wonderfully primal about a community gathering together around a giant, roaring fire. The first time I attended the Bonfire Night celebrations here in my rural village I didn’t know a soul. I’d only just moved to the village and I was very heavily pregnant with my second child. A complete stranger handed me a polystyrene cup of hot reestit mutton soup and someone else had a tray of salt beef bannocks and was also handing out sparklers to all the children. It was truly heartwarming.
Throughout the year the villagers pile their unwanted wood and other flammables on the bonfire site, so by the time November comes around it’s a pretty huge pile of fuel. There’s a collection box in the village shop for the fireworks fund and on the Saturday nearest Guy Fawkes night (weather permitting) a flare is set off to announce the beginning of the festivities.
We all gather (at a safe distance) around the bonfire pile as it is lit, and you can feel the heat of the flames from quite a distance away. As a village we mingle, chat and share stories.
Sometimes I really do love where I live.
After the bonfire reaches its peak the men of the village set off the fireworks to a mass oooh-ing and ahh-ing from the villagers (and, if you’re my youngest son, an abject screaming freak-out ensues and someone has to take him home. Maybe this year now that he’s a bit older one of us parents will get to stay for the whole event!).
You certainly warm up by the bonfire, and as soon as you leave its warm embrace to go home you’re absolutely freezing. Warming food is required. A nip or two will work, of course, but you want something that’s going to warm up your core. Not just hot soup – I mean hot spicy soup!
Would you believe I actually dreamt about this soup the night before I made it? Neeps (or swedes – these are not turnips!) are usually chopped up and cooked in beef stews in my house, or boiled with an equal quantity of carrots before draining, mashing with plenty of butter and freshly grated nutmeg, and served with a roast chicken dinner.
Neeps have been making a regular appearance in my veg box lately and we’ve not had any stews or roast chicken dinners to serve them with, so they’ve been gathering in the fridge. Something needed to be done with them. I dreamt about neep soup the night before. Soup it was going to be!
I found this recipe for turnip and carrot soup, upped the spices, replaced the turnip with neeps and changed a few other bits and here you have one seriously heart-warming soup (quite literally – the ginger content of this soup makes your skin warm up from the inside!). Just the sort of thing you need after you’ve been standing outside in the cold for an hour or so.
I topped my soup with some shop bought crispy fried onions I found for sale at the village shop. You could go through the bother of making your own, but at just over £1 for a whole tub of onions I thought that was a rather good bargain, and you can keep sprinkling the onions over the top of the soup as you eat your way through it. You’ll understand if you are a crispy fried onion fan like me.
Curried Neep & Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 large onion coarsely chopped
- 2 tsp black mustard seeds
- 1 tsp whole coriander seeds
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger root use less if you prefer a milder soup
- 500 grams neeps final peeled and cubed weight
- 450 grams carrots final peeled and cubed weight
- 2 pints vegetable stock I used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon
- 1 tsp smoked sea salt
- 1/2 lemon juice only
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- crispy fried onions to serve
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Instructions
- Heat oil in a large soup pan over a medium-high heat.
- Gently saute the onion until it begins to soften, about five minutes.
- Stir in the black mustard seeds, coriander seeds and curry powder. Cook for one minute and add the ginger, smoked sea salt and cubed vegetables. Stir well to coat.
- Pour over the vegetable stock, pop the lid half on and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so, until the vegetables are tender.
- Squeeze in the lemon juice, remove from heat and blend the soup with a hand blender until smooth. Season well with freshly ground black pepper.
- Serve warm with plenty of crispy onions.
Notes
Linking up with No Croutons Required, the vegetarian soup and salad challenge co-hosted by Jacqueline over at Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa at Lisa’s Kitchen.
OTHER WARMING SOUPS YOU MIGHT LIKE
Quick & Easy Butternut Squash and Chestnut Soup by Sarah
Dutch Split Pea Soup by Jeanne
Carrot, Leek & Mustard Seed Soup by Jacqueline
Moong Bean Dahl by Urvashi
Roasted Tomato, Red Pepper & Chorizo Soup by Camilla
Spicy Red Pepper & Sweet Paprika Soup by Jan
Quick Courgette & Blue Cheese Soup and Pete’s Home Made Cream of Tomato by Kavita
Onion Cider & Double Cheddar Soup by Laura
Spooky Carrot Soup by Jo
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Spiced Apple Muffins
I’m not keen on neeps but I’d definitely give this recipe a try.
One of the best things about colder months of the year is enjoying lots and lots of home made soups
Looks lovely
This soup will definatley warm the cockles of your heart
Didn’t know what neeps were. Such a warming recipe for cold winter nights.
this looks and sounds absolutely delicious! <3
Perfect for this weather and so easy to follow !
what a lovely soup- a great winter warmer and some of my favourite ingredients
Looks like perfect Burn’s Night fare.
This looks & sounds delicious
I came for a competition – 10 minutes later I have this soup bubbling away (had to make some minor alts to the spices used) – thanks for the soupspiration!
Great recipe for this time of year.
Never mind Bommie Night (as we call it) – I’m going to try this tonight! Neeps is Scottish I think – I call them turnips 🙂
This looks wonderful, must put the ingredients on my shopping list.
Sounds delicious. Never heard of neeps before – we call them swedes.
I’m in the USA and have never heard what I call a turnip as being called a neep! But..nonetheless…I love neeps! Such an undervalued vegetable in American cuisine! This soup sounds wonderful!
Added this to my favourites! I have been in the process of eating a different soup each day – to try to get more vegetables into Luke and I!
This sounds amazing! Perfect for the cold weather.
Love this soup with al those warming spices and fabulous photos – thank you for including my soup in post;-)
I’m seriously loving this soup! The photos are amazing and now I want SOUP – like now!
This looks like a fantastic warming recipe
What a gorgeous bowl of soup. I can just imagine how warming this was. Thanks for sharing with NCR.
Oh WOW that looks good! Bonfire night is great, isn’t it? There certainly is something about standing around a roaring fire with your community sharing food that teminds you what the early inhabitants of these islands must have felt like. Glorious soup (and I’m a sucker for crispy onions too!)
Mmmmm crispy onions are fabulous on soup… I got a packet the other day and scattered them all over my salad… probably a bit too enthusiastically!
Making this for lunch today. I’m nithered.
Absolutely spot on for Bonfire Night – I think this would go down tremendously well. Gorgeous!
I haven’t yet bought any swede his year but I love it in soup so will remember to buy some. I love how you have spiced your soup up. something I always do myself. What would we do without spice!
Wow… this looks so tasty. Making me hungry now!
Glad you clarified what neep was…. Never heard of it. While I have heard of swede before, we call them rutabagas.
This sounds really scrumptous! I loved curried soup! Funny thing about Bonfire Night is that I don’t think it’s as popular as it ised to be. Perhaps in villages it’s still celebrated but not in cities or large towns – Halloween seems to have taken its place in the popularity stakes. That’s sad as Bonfire is so very British, it’s part of our history, our heritage. You are incredibly lucky to be living somewhere that celebrates it – with such a bang! Tx http://www.faceupbeauty.com
This looks and sounds amazing! Although I have to admit I’ve never heard a swede being called a “neep” before, until I got to the recipe I wondered what weird and wonderful ingredient you’d used in your soup! I love bonfire night. Sadly I’ll be working this evening, but I’m sure we will more than make up for it at a neighbourhood party this Friday!
Neep is what folk in Scotland call swedes. I should maybe write that in the post in case anyone else hasn’t heard of it before! 🙂