Spicy Chard Soup

While the Food Network magazine may be pretty meat-centred, sometimes they come up with some pretty decent vegetable soups. I've made this Spicy Chard Soup a few times, usually when I have a few nights eating dinner alone - I now understand the idea of a soup topped with yogurt and hard-boiled eggs isn't everyone's cup of tea. But it is mine. So there.

I'll admit the idea of washing and chopping an entire bunch of swiss chard isn't my idea of fun, but it's worth it. And unlike kale, where the stems just get thrown away, the chard stems are chopped along with the leaves and cooked in the soup too. Less waste! After all that work, the first step is to toast whole cumin and caraway seeds. I do the lazy route and just keep them whole, while the recipe wants you to grind them up yourself.

First in the pot are the onions, as usual, as well as the chard stems, as they need a few extra minutes. Then comes the fun part - adding in harissa (a spicy red chili paste, mine is from Tunisia), tomato paste, four (or more) garlic cloves and the spices. Vegetarian soups often need a lot of flavour boosting, and tomato paste is a common ingredient. Just be sure not to burn it (which clearly I've done before). After that it's pretty easy, as all soups should be - add in the chard leaves, stock, water, and let it cook. Finish with some lemon juice.

The toppings are the best - quartered hard-boiled eggs, a dollop of Greek yogurt (or whatever you have - I usually have 1%) and a drizzle of olive oil over the top. Don't skimp - they make it extra fabulous.