Summer courgette, pea & basil soup with cheese & olive scone tray-bake

As I was at home for the afternoon, I thought it would be a good idea to try out some new foods on the children for lunch and decided to let them get involved with the cooking which always seems to make them more interested in trying out the end results.

Although small boy has had the soup before the two girls have not so I decided to give it a go with this courgette, pea & basil soup. I had left it too late to start making bread to go with it, but thought that savoury scones would be a quick to make alternative and children love to get stuck in to a bowl full of flour and butter so that would keep them busy for half an hour too!

The recipe for the scone tray bake comes from Mary Berry’s “Ultimate cake book”. I have adapted it slightly as I found the amount of milk used made the scone mix too loose. I also decided not to add extra grated Parmesan as a topping as there is quite a lot of cheese in the scone mix.

I cooked the mix in a Brownie tin which worked very well, but any rectangular tin or baking dish would do. I happen to love olives so this recipe really appealed to me, but they could be substituted with sun blush tomatoes or just leave them out entirely.

This soup has all the flavours of summer and is incredibly fresh and fragrant because of the basil. It would freeze very well if you wanted to make an extra batch or split it up into single portions to have as a great standby lunch. I had some pancetta in the fridge so I cooked it until crispy and used it as a garnish which added a nice, salty tang to it.

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Summer pea & basil soup with cheese & olive scones

A simple summer soup with fresh light flavours

Course Appetizer, Lunch, Soup

Cuisine British

Keyword summer pea & basil soup

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4

Author Laura Scott

Ingredients

• 5 spring onions roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 courgettes roughly chopped
• 250 g frozen peas
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• 1/2 packet fresh basil chopped

For the scones:)

• 450 g self raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 100 g mature cheddar
• 50 g pitted olives chopped
• 2 eggs
• 200 ml milk

For the garnish:)

• 4 slices Parma ham fried until crisp

Instructions

1. Put the butter and oil in a saucepan  then add the spring onions and courgettes

2. Fry for a couple of minutes before adding the stock powder and boiling water

3. Simmer for ten minutes, then add the peas and cook for five more minutes

4.  Turn the heat off then add the basil
5.  Blitz the soup and add a splash of single cream for richness if you wish

For the scones:)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees

2. Line a baking tray with baking parchment

3.  Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and work it together until it has a breadcrumb - like consistency

4.  Add the paprika, cheddar and chopped olives

5. Measure the milk into a jug then add the eggs and whisk together. Pour the milk and egg mix into the dry ingredients and combine

6. Gently combine the dough, then place it onto a floured work surface and roll it into a round shape

7. Brush with milk and bake for 30 minutes