Simple supper - Smoked Haddock and Autumn Vegetable Soup

I know there may seem to be a bit of a fish and broth/soup theme going on recently. But on the evenings when you come home exhausted or you are about to dash off Christmas tree shopping  and want something that's fast, you can't beat a clear soup like this.

It's tasty, nutritious and quick. The hardest thing to do is to wash and chop up a few ingredients and because the fish is cooked in the broth, there's only one pot and a couple of dishes to wash up...perfect...

For my Smoked Haddock and Autumn Vegetable Soup for two people you will need:

• A large fillet of sustainably sourced undyed traditional smoked haddock
• Greens eg Swiss chard, spinach or beetroot greens. 
• A small piece of ginger, finely sliced
• One clove of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• One small sliced chili pepper, mild rather than hot
• One small parsnip, peeled and sliced
• One small carrot, peeled and sliced
• Frozen peas
• 400ml of vegetable or fish stock

Method:

1. Heat up the stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
2. Wash and prepare all the vegetables, removing any hard stalks from the greens.
3. Skin the fish if necessary and cut into mouth sized pieces.
4. Pop all the root vegetables including the ginger and garlic along with the chilli into the stock and cook until just tender.
5. Add the fish, greens and if using frozen peas add at this point. If fresh ones at stage 4. Cook until the fish is ready...this will only take minutes, so avoid over cooking. 
6. Serve up while hot.

I didn't add any seasoning at all to this soup as the smoked fish is salty and the stock was seasoned, but you may want to check and adjust just before dishing up.

This is a lovely warming soup.  The ginger and garlic bring mild heat, whilst the slightly aniseed flavour of the parsnips along with the gentle  sweetness of the carrots and peas work together so well. Add the depth of flavour introduced by the leaves and the smokiness from the fish and you have a real winner.

I wasn't sure if the parsnips would work here because they have strong unusual flavour, but they did and I will definitely make this again...

...and we were even in time to get the  tree...

...did I say 'one pot'!...