Clear Vegetable Soup with Quails’ Eggs

Name: Clear Vegetable Soup with Quails’ Eggs
Yield: Serves 4-6
Ingredients: 1 rounded teaspoon whole coriander seeds, crushed; 2 onions, unpeeled; 2 Little Gem lettuces or 1 dense-hearted lettuce, sliced very thinly crosswise; 4 cardamom pods, crushed; 2 sticks celery, chopped roughly; 12 quails’ eggs; 5 cm (2 in) piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly; 3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves; 4 tablespoons lemon juice; 8 tomatoes, chopped roughly; 250 g (8 oz) carrots, chopped roughly; Salt and black pepper; 1 egg white, lightly whisked; 1.8 litres (3 pints) water

Preparation info

Serves
4-6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Cook's Companion

By Josceline Dimbleby

Published 1991

About

The broth in this soup, which has a slightly Eastern flavour, can be made ahead and then reheated with the quails’ eggs and thin ribbons of lettuce dropped in to poach at the very last moment.

Ingredients

2 onions, unpeeled
250 g (8 oz) carrots, chopped roughly

Soup
Gluten-free
Vegetarian

Method

Put the onions, carrots, tomatoes, celery, ginger and water in a saucepan with some salt and pepper. Add the crushed coriander seeds, cardamom pods and egg white and stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer very gently for 1½ hours without stirring. Remove from the heat, skim off as much scum from the surface as you can with a large metal spoon, then stir in th