Roast Potato Consommé

It’s not your ordinary leftover soup. This is my new love for leftover roast potatoes. Not that we have many in the house but if you manage to reserve a few, it’s worth trying.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I made a roast dinner.

In our house roast dinners aren’t really roast dinners without crispy, fluffy, roasted potatoes. It’s a meal with very little fat I simply toss peeled spuds (Irish colloquialism for potatoes) in a tablespoon of sunflower oil and then pour the lot onto a tray lined with tin foil, then on into the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for an hour.  The potatoes are best cut in knobbly, misshapen lumps, about the size of half my closed hand (I have small hands by the way). This allows the most amount of their surface to crisp and crunch under your teeth when you bite in.

It turned out that I had made too many roasties. Normally the following day they would end up in the pan with some leftover vegetables to make “bubble and squeak” but I fancied something far more virtuous and good for me.

Pour the cold (or hot) roasted potatoes into a wide, heavy bottomed saucepan with a lid. Literally just about cover them with hot water and bring to a very slow simmer for 1 hour. Stir them around every so often and they will go to mush but don’t worry about that. Don’t mash the simmering roast potatoes too much though.  You’ll want to season your consommé (clear soup), so taste as you go and season with salt and pepper.  At the start it will taste like hot water but after an hour the flavour will intensify.

Strain the entire mixture through a muslin cloth into a jug before pouring into your soup bowl. This will not make loads, if you’re lucky you’ll get enough to share with someone you really like, or you could just have the seconds all to yourself.  There are ways of clarifying this soup even further such as cooking with a “raft” on top or adding Agar-Agar but this is a family kitchen so this will do me grand thank you very much!

I added some freshly cut raw scallion (spring onion) and finely shredded carrot for some texture.

Full of flavour, no guilty calories (or very few at least) and a soup that is to be savoured.