- Prep time 2 hours (including dough rising time) | Cooking time 20 minutes | makes 2 loaves and four servings of soup
Equipment:
- Large baking tray lined with greaseproof paper
- Large bowl
- Chopping board
- Chopping board or clean bench top for dough
- Saucepan to cook soup
- Blender or stick blender to puree soup
Bread Ingredients:
- 30gms fresh yeast
- 300 ml lukewarm water
- 100 ml olive oil
- 1 tsp honey or sugar
- 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 500-550gms light spelt flour
- 1 tsp course sea salt
- 50gms kalamata olives, coursely chopped
- A handful of roughly chopped walnuts
- Olive oil for brushing
- Optional wild herbs for topping
- Sea salt for sprinkling on top
Pea and Mint Soup Ingredients:
- 1/2 leek
- 1 floury potato (in New Zealand this would be an ilam hardy, agria, fianna, marabel or red rascal)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 500gms frozen peas
- 800 ml of vegetable stock
- 150 ml cream or crème fraîche
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 5 sprigs of fresh mint
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
Instructions for Bread:
- In a large mixing bowl, mix your yeast with the water, honey or sugar and the 100ml of olive oil
- Finely chop the fresh rosemary and thyme and add to the yeast mixture.
- Add the flour, olives, walnuts and 1 tsp of salt to the bowl to combine. Then knead into a smooth and supple dough. For best results use a processor or mixer with the dough handle.
- Once you have a beautifully combined dough, cover the bowl and put in a warm place, letting the dough rise for about 45 minutes. You can either put your feet up with a cup of tea or coffee or start prepping your soup.
- Sprinkle your board or clean bench top lightly with flour, cut the risen dough in half and roll out each piece into an oval of flatbread, approx. 2cm thick. Place the flatbread on your lined baking tray.
- Make diagonal cuts into each flatbread and pull the dough slightly apart to create a leaf like pattern.
- Cover the loaves with a clean tea towel and let them rise again for further 15-20 minutes.
- Pre-heat your oven to 220°C while your dough is rising.
- Gently brush each flatbread with a little olive oil, top with a mixture of wild herbs or some of your left over walnuts, rosemary and thyme, and finish off with a small sprinkling of sea salt.
- Splash as small amount of water in the bottom of your oven to create some steam, and place the baking tray in the centre of the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the bread is golden brown.
- While the bread is cooking, you can start the soup if you haven’t already.
Instructions for Soup:
- Cut your leek down the length middle and give it a thorough wash making sure the water gets between the layers. Put one half back into the fridge and cut the remaining half into fine slices.
- Peel and chop your potato into small cubes.
- Finely chop the garlic.
- Heat the 2 tbsp of olive oil over a low-medium heat and sauté the garlic and the leek until soft.
- Add the frozen peas and diced potatoes and cook for five to ten minutes.
- Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a gentle simmer for 10-12 minutes, until your potato is cooked. .
- Finely chop the fresh mint and add to the soup with the cream or crème fraîche, lemon juice and salt and pepper gently mix through and bring to temperature.
- Put the soup in a blender and puree until creamy, adjusting the seasoning as you go, to suit your taste.
- Garnish with a splash of cream and some mint leaves if you are feeling extra fancy.
RECIPE AGA | FALCON
