Dorset Lettuce Soup

Apparently a traditional Dorset recipe is lettuce soup (although the locals we spoke to had never heard of it). It has something to do with Dorset being a good county to grow lettuce and if there is a glut of it they make soup. All I know is I had a couple of little gems in the fridge so thought we could give it a try. Served warm with crusty buttered bread it was actually delicately tasty but served gazpacho cold style the next day was so refreshing I think I prefer it that way.

Ingredients:

2x Little gem lettuces, chopped up
6x Spring onions, sliced
3x Celery sticks, sliced
Mint leaves, a handful
50g Lambs lettuce
1 Litre of vegetable stock
150ml Cream
Rapeseed oil


Method:

1. Sweat of the onion and celery in a bit of oil in a saucepan.
2. Add stock and all lettuce and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add mint then blend with a hand blender.
4. Pour in the cream.
5. Serve up in bowls topped with a bit of lambs lettuce and a drizzle of oil and eat with buttered crusty bread, or chill to eat gazpacho style later, I promise it is refreshing and delicious.

Tip: You can pass the soup through a sieve to remove the bits and make it smoother, however we like it bitty with a bit of texture and crunch.