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      Celeriac soup with hazelnuts and crispy sage

      Celeriac is an under-used star. I love it and champion it in my kitchen. Sometimes it’s simply roasted with salt and pepper, other times it’s smashed with lemon and thyme or just eaten raw, finely sliced in a remoulade.

      Here it’s the centrepiece of a comforting soup. Apples are the perfect foil for adding sweetness, while the butter beans bring creaminess, so no need for cream or crème fraîche here. The soup can be eaten simply as it is, but have a go at the brown butter – it amps it up and makes this soup a real winner. If you haven’t made brown butter before, it’s got a deep nutty flavour which melds with the crispy sage and toasted hazelnuts to send this soup to a different dimension.

      Celeriac is a bit of a beast to look at. But looks are not everything – beneath the gnarly, knobbly exterior lies a creamy white flesh with a sweet, nutty, super-savoury flavour. It packs some serious health benefits. It’s high in fibre, potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6. Peel your celeriac thickly to get rid of any green tinges around the edge and any muddy leftovers.

      SERVES 6

      olive oil

      1 leek, washed, trimmed and finely sliced

      1 celeriac, washed, peeled and roughly chopped

      4 apples (Cox’s are my choice), cored and roughly chopped

      a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked

      1.5 litres vegetable stock

      1 × 400g tin of butter beans, drained

      sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

      TO SERVE

      a handful of hazelnuts

      100g butter

      a few sprigs of fresh sage, leaves picked

      Heat a splash of oil in a large pan, then add the leek and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet. Add the celeriac, apples and thyme and cook for 2–3 minutes, then add the stock and butter beans and season well. Simmer over a low heat for 20–30 minutes, until the celeriac is tender, then remove from the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smooth.

      Toast the hazelnuts in a frying pan until golden brown then remove from the pan and put to one side. Add the butter to the pan and once it is hot add the sage and fry until it is crispy and the butter is light brown. Keep the heat low for this last bit and take the pan off as soon as you see the butter turn brown, as it can burn really quickly.

      Ladle into bowls and top with the sage and hazelnut brown butter.

      Lemony lentil and crispy kale soup

      I love this simple soup, which is somewhere between a dhal and a soup – it reminds me of the curry that is served in southern India with dosas. This soup is cleansing and clean, thanks to being spiked with turmeric and a lot of lemon. It’s what I crave if I’ve over-indulged or been around food too long (an occupational hazard – a very nice one). I serve this with a kitchari.

      Turmeric is a favourite spice of mine. If I am feeling off-colour I stir a teaspoon into hot water and sip it as a reviving tonic. I love the vibrant, deep saffron-gold colour, the clean, sharp, savoury acid note and the hard-to-put-your-finger-on flavour. It’s a real star on the health front, as it is an anti-inflammatory and has anti-carcinogenic properties. What a spice.

      SERVES 4–6

      a splash of olive or rapeseed oil

      1 leek, washed, trimmed and finely sliced

      1 teaspoon ground turmeric

      2 teaspoons ground cumin

      2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

      juice of 2–3 lemons

      250g split red lentils

      1 veg stock cube, or 1 tablespoon veg stock powder

      4 handfuls of kale (or other greens), washed, trimmed and shredded

      TO SERVE (OPTIONAL)

      yoghurt, stirred with a little sea salt

      Get a large pan on the heat. Add a little oil and turn the heat to medium. Add the leek and fry for a few minutes, until it has softened and smells sweet, then add the spices and fry for another couple of minutes. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon and stir around to lift all the spices from the bottom of the pan.

      Next, add the lentils, 1.5 litres of water and the stock cube or powder and allow to bubble away for 20–35 minutes, until the lentils are cooked and the soup has thickened.

      Turn off the heat and, if you like, you can blitz the whole lot to a thin dhal consistency, then squeeze in the juice of the remaining 2 lemons, tasting as you go to make sure it doesn’t get too lemony. It may seem like a lot, but you really want the lemony tang to come through.

      Just before you’re ready to serve, sauté the kale in a little olive oil until it slightly softens but begins to crisp at the edges.

      Ladle into bowls and top with the salted yoghurt and the crispy kale.

      White

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