Blue and Green Soup with Gluten Free Cheese Scones

Blue and Green Soup

1 head broccoli chopped

2 Romaine lettuces, chopped

The stalky ends of a bulb of fennel chopped

1 large onion chopped

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 litre of vegetable stock

200ml milk

30g of Danish Blue cheese crumbled

 Put the oil in the pan at a medium heat, add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes until soft.  Add the chopped broccoli.

The fennel,

and the chopped lettuce

and stir to coat with the oil and onion.  Add the stock, I use Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon but you can use any stock.

Season and cook until the vegetables are soft.  Take off the heat for about 10 minutes and then blitz with a stick blender or in a liquidiser.  Add the milk and the Blue Cheese to taste and blitz again.

While the soup was cooking, I thought I'd make something nice to have with them.  I had bought some gluten free ingredients for the guest who was expected last weekend but was unable to come. So I thought I would 'use them up' making some scones.

I turned to my standard scone recipe from Mary Berry's Fast Cakes, it's never failed me yet, even when I change the ingredients as much as I have here!

Gluten Free Special Scones
225g White self-raising Gluten and Wheat Free flour
1 level tsp gluten free baking powder
50g Pure Sunflower dairy free margarine
1/2 tsp Coleman's mustard powder
50g grated cheese
1 egg
milk or natural yogurt

Heat the oven to 220C and lightly grease a baking sheet
Put the flour and baking powder in a bowl and add the margarine, rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the mustard powder and the grated cheese.

 Crack the egg into a jug, lightly beat it and then make up to 150ml with milk or yogurt. Stir the egg mixture into the flour and mix to a soft dough.

Turn onto a lightly floured table and pat out to about 1.25 (1/2 inch) thickness.
Cut into rounds, I made my big as we were having them as 'rolls' with our soup.  Place spaced out on the baking sheet and brush the tops with milk or yogurt and sprinkle with a little more cheese.

I'm showing you this so you can see how thick they are cut.

Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how big you made them)  until they are pale golden brown.  Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.

 Not only was the soup good, although dominated by the broccoli and blue cheese flavours, but the scones were excellent.  A little more chewy in texture than the wheat flour ones, but definitely good and a very acceptable substitute.  They could also be adapted to be dairy free by using substitutes for the milk/yogurt and cheese.