Bouillabaisse of Spring Vegetables and Eggs

Name: Bouillabaisse of Spring Vegetables and Eggs
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: 1.5 litres (2½ pints) water or vegetable stock; pepper; 4 or 6 free-range eggs; 1.5 litres (2½ pints) water or vegetable stock; sprig each of parsley, thyme and sage or rosemary, tied together; sprig each of parsley, thyme and sage or rosemary, tied together; salt; good pinch of saffron; 4 or 6 slices bread; 2 leeks, trimmed and sliced; 2 tomatoes, halved, seeded and chopped; 75 mls (3 oz) extra-virgin olive oil; sprig each of parsley, thyme and sage or rosemary, tied together; sprig each of parsley, thyme and sage or rosemary, tied together; 2 small onions, peeled and diced; 4 garlic cloves, new season’s if possible, and peeled and crushed; 6 waxy potatoes, scrubbed and diced; 1 medium fennel bulb, diced

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Modern Classics

By Frances Bissell

Published 2000

About

This makes a light meal in a soup bowl; you can vary the vegetables according to the season, but the soup is particularly good with primeurs, or the first of the spring vegetables.

Ingredients

2 leeks, trimmed and sliced
2 small onions, peeled and diced
4 garlic cloves, new season’s if possible, and peeled and crush

Supper
Spring
Soup
Vegetarian

Method

In a large saucepan, gently fry all the vegetables in the olive oil for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the herbs, saffron and a little seasoning, together with the water. Boil for 30 to 40 minutes, the boiling of the oil and water being the bouillabaisse of the title, then lower the heat to barely simmering, and poach the eggs in the soup for 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast the bread, and put one sli