2 bunches of leeks, 1-1/2 pints of milk, 1 oz. of butter, 1 lb. of potatoes, pepper and salt to taste, and the juice of a lemon. Cut off the coarse part of the green ends of the leeks, and cut the leeks lengthways, so as to be able to brush out the grit. Wash the leeks well, and see no grit remains, then cut them in short pieces. Peel, wash, and cut up the potatoes, then cook both vegetables with 2 pints of water. When the vegetables are quite tender, rub them through a sieve. Return the mixture to the saucepan, add the butter, milk, and seasoning, and boil the soup up again. Before serving add the lemon juice; serve with sippets of toast.
2 oz. of breadcrumbs, 6 oz. of boiled and grated potatoes, 1 gill of milk, 2 eggs, some Allinson fine wheatmeal 1/4 teaspoonful of nutmeg, 3 finely chopped onions, 2 handfuls of spinach, 1 handful of parsley, 1 ditto of lettuce, all chopped fine. Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk, add the potatoes, eggs well beaten, all the vegetables and seasoning; mix sufficient of the wheatmeal with the rest to make the mixture into a fairly firm paste, form this into balls, drop these in boiling clear soup or water (according to requirements), and boil them for 5 to 10 minutes.
3 oz. of rice, 4 oz. of grated cheese, a breakfastcupful of tomato juice, 1 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Boil the rice till tender in 2-1/2 pints of water, with the butter and seasoning. When quite soft, add the tomato juice and the cheese; stir until the soup boils and the cheese is dissolved, and serve. If too much of the water has boiled away, add a little more.
2 cocoanuts grated, 2 blades of mace, 1 saltspoonful of cinnamon, 3 pints of water, the juice of a lemon, 2 eggs, 1 oz. of Allinson fine wheatmeal, pepper and salt to taste. Boil the cocoanut in the water, adding the mace, cinnamon, and seasoning. Let it cook gently for an hour; strain the mixture through a sieve and then return the soup to the saucepan. Make a paste of the eggs, wheatmeal, and lemon juice, add it to the soup and let it boil up before serving; let it simmer for 5 minutes, and serve with a little plain boiled rice.
1 medium-sized marrow, 1 onion, 1/2 oz. of finely chopped parsley, 2 tablespoonfuls of Allinson fine wheatmeal, 1 pint of milk, 1 quart of water, 1/2 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Remove the pips from the marrow, cut it into pieces, chop up fine the onions, and cook the vegetables for 20 minutes, adding the butter, pepper, and salt. Rub through a sieve, return the soup to the saucepan, rub the fine wheatmeal smooth with the milk, add this to the soup, allow it to simmer for 5 minutes, and add the parsley before serving.
Take half a dozen or more fine large leeks, and after trimming off the green part, throw them into boiling water for five minutes, then drain them off and dry them. Cut them into pieces about half an inch long, and stew them gently in a little butter till they are tender. Add three pints of milk, and let two bay-leaves boil in the milk, flavour with pepper and salt, and add a suspicion of grated nutmeg. Thicken the soup with a little white roux and take the crust of a French roll. Cut this up into small pieces or rings. The rings can be made by simply scooping out the crumb, and cutting the roll across. When the leeks have boiled in the milk till they are quite tender, pour the soup over the crusts placed at the bottom of the soup-tureen. Some cooks add blanched parsley. Of course, cream would be a great improvement.
4 good-sized carrots, 1 small head of celery, 1 fair-sized onion, 1 turnip, 3 oz. of breadcrumbs, 1-1/2 oz. of butter, 1 blade of mace, pepper and salt to taste. Scrape and wash the vegetables, and cut them up small; set them over the fire with 3 pints of water, the butter, bread, and mace. Let all boil together, until the vegetables are quite tender, and then rub them through a sieve. Return the mixture to the saucepan, season with pepper and salt, and if too thick add water to the soup, which should be as thick as cream, boil the soup up, and serve.
It is very important in making all green vegetable soups that they should be of a green colour, such as the one above mentioned--green-pea soup, &c., and that we get a good colour, and this is only to be obtained by means of spinach extract. Spinach extract can be made at home, but it will be found to be far more economical to have a small bottle of green vegetable colouring always in the house. These bottles can be obtained from all grocers at the cost of about tenpence or one shilling each. Such a very small quantity goes such a long way that one bottle would probably last a family of six persons twelve months. As we have said, it can be made at home, but the process, though not difficult, is troublesome. It is made as follows:--A quantity of spinach has, after being thoroughly washed, to be pounded in a mortar until it becomes a pulp. This pulp is then placed in a very strong, coarse cloth, and the cloth is twisted till the juice of the spinach is squeezed out through the cloth. The amount of force required is very considerable and is almost beyond the power of ordinary women cooks. This juice must now be placed in a small enamelled saucepan, and must be heated till it becomes thick and pulpy, when it can be put by for use. It will probably be found cheaper to buy spinach extract than to make it, as manual labour cannot compete with machinery.
Milk soup, as it is sometimes called in Germany, very much resembles English custard. It is made by putting a quart of milk on the fire and thickening it with two yolks of eggs and a little flour, and sweetening it with sugar. The soup is flavoured with either vanilla, lemon, laurel leaves, pounded almonds, cinnamon, chocolate, &c. As a soup, however, it is not suited to the English palate.
Just as in ordinary white soup the secret of success is to have some strongly reduced stock, so in vegetarian white soup it is essential that we should have a small quantity of liquid strongly impregnated with the flavour of vegetables. For this purpose, place an onion, the white part of a head of celery, and a slice of turnip in a stew-pan with a little butter, and fry them till they are tender without becoming brown. Now add sufficient water to enable you to boil them, and let the water boil away till very little is left. Now rub this through a wire sieve and add it to a quart of milk in which a couple of bay-leaves have been boiled. Thicken the soup with a little white roux, add a suspicion of nutmeg, and also, if possible, a little cream. Flavour with pepper and salt. Serve fried or toasted bread with the soup.
