Spicy Marrow & Coconut Soup

It is indeed that time of year where I gnash my teeth and wonder yet again what I am going to do with all those bloody courgettes - particularly as the kids would rather pull out their fingernails than willingly eat them aren't keen. Yet, as every year, we planted the plants, so only have ourselves to blame.

 

While we've managed to mostly keep on top of the crop, a couple of marrows snuck in under the radar. With one, I cooked up a rather potent marrow and apricot chutney, spiced with one of the Husband's fiery chillis, and with the other, a marrow & coconut soup, inspired by a Sarah Raven recipe, laced with harissa and mint, perfect for lunches (although just a shame that the salting of the marrow meant that I didn't get said lunch today till about 2 p.m....

You might suggest that with all the harissa and mint, you can't actually taste much of the marrow in this soup - but I'd hazard that this is not necessarily a bad thing... In fact, when I made this, I started off with half a tablespoon of harissa but frequent tasting dictated the addition of more. Feel free to add less or more as you like.

Spicy Marrow & Coconut Soup

Makes just over 2 litres (that's a lot of lunches)

1.4kg marrow
salt
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 large onion
1 large clove of garlic
1.5 tbsp harissa paste
good handful of mint leaves
1 litre chicken stock
400ml can coconut milk

Peel and de-seed the marrow, and chop into 2 cm cubes.

Put the cubes of marrow into a colander over a bowl or dish, salting the marrow as you go. Leave for at least 30 minutes to drain out at least some of the liquid from the marrow. Rinse the salt off, then tip the marrow out onto a teatowel and pat dry.

Heat the rapeseed oil gently in a large pan. Finely chop the onion and garlic, then sweat in the oil for a few minutes before stirring in the harissa and adding the marrow. Cook for a few more minutes while chop chop up the mint, then chuck the mint in the pan, add half the stock, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes or so.

Whizz up the soup with a hand held blender, taste for seasoning and add salt & pepper as necessary. Add the rest of the stock and the coconut milk, whizz again, taste again and serve, if necessary warming gently beforehand.