As part of my planning before I visit a place I like to research what the traditional foods are. As I was going to be spending Easter in Dorset I did my usual research and discovered that I needed to look out for Dorset Apple Cake, Dorset Blue Vinny cheese, Dorset Knobs and lettuce soup.
The Dorset Blue Vinny cheese I found in a deli and got some made up into a sandwich. It’s a hard, crumbly white cheese with blue veins and a rind. It’s more similar to Stilton in texture and taste rather than blue cheeses like dolcelatte and gorgonzola.
I got a bag of Dorset Knobs in a health food shop in Swanage. These are tiny bread rolls that have been triple baked so they are hard and keep for ages. The company that makes them only bakes them twice a year so they can be quite hard to find. I haven’t tried mine yet so can’t comment on them.
Dorset Apple Cake I found in a couple of places. It’s a crumbly, but wet, spiced cake with chunks of apple in the bottom (I guess they sink when it’s baking). It was similar to the Dutch Apple Cake I’ve had and was delicious.
The lettuce soup however, completely eluded me. Not only did I not see it on any menus or in any delis, it seemed no-one had heard of it. Even waiters in restaurants who said they’d lived in Dorset all their lives.
The soup supposedly arose as a tradition as Dorset, and particularly the Bournemouth area, was a good place to grow cabbages and other leafy vegetables such as lettuce. As lettuce doesn’t keep long once it’s been picked, making soup was a good way of getting rid of a glut or of using up leaves that were getting past their best.
As I couldn’t get my lettuce soup in Dorset I decided to have a go at making my own when I got home.
I found quite a few recipes online and they were all quite different. The only thing they had in common was lettuce and even then they differed on the types. As this soup was originally a way of using up leftovers or gluts then it makes sense that there’s no fixed way of making it.
Some of the recipes included celery and/or potatoes. They also had different herbs like chives, parsley, dill, mint or coriander. Some had cream or milk and one had an egg yolk whisked in towards the end of cooking.
I took the recipes as a kind of overview and put together my own version. No doubt if I make it again (which I certainly will), then it will be different.
Here’s how I made my version of Dorset lettuce soup.
Ingredients
This made 3 good sized portions (it would easily do 4 as a starter)
- 1 medium brown onion
- a slug of sunflower oil
- a teaspoon of crushed garlic from a jar
- Dried parsley and dill
- 1 stick of celery
- a chunk of iceberg lettuce
- about half a romaine (cos) lettuce
- a good handful of rocket
- a couple of handfuls of mixed baby leaf salad
- Stock powder
- Boiling water
- Single cream
Method
Chop the onion and fry in the oil until it starts to go soft. Add the garlic and chopped celery. Continue to cook on a low heat until the celery is starting to cook through then add all the salad leaves. I had to add them in batches and wait for a batch to cook down before adding the next lot.
Cook until all the leaves are wilted then add the stock powder (you could use a stock cube) and the dried herbs. I only used dried herbs because the herbs in my garden haven’t resurfaced yet. I’m sure fresh herbs would be nicer. Then cover with boiling water and let it simmer until the celery and stalks of the romaine lettuce are really soft.
Blend and add more water if necessary to get it to the consistency you want. Finally swirl through a little single cream. This gives it a more attractive colour as well as adding to the taste.
The images I’ve seen of lettuce soup have ranged in colour from sludgy green to neon green. I wanted something in between that looked enticing to eat but didn’t look as though I’d have a nuclear glow afterwards. I think I got it right partly because of the cream but also because I used a lot of light coloured lettuce (iceberg and romaine) and only a few purple and dark green leaves from the bag of mixed baby leaf salad.
The soup was surprisingly tasty! Who’d have thought boiled lettuce could actually taste good? I bought the different lettuces specially to make the soup, but now I’ve tried it I’ll make it in future as way of just using whatever limp lettuce I’ve got in my fridge.
I had my first bowl of Dorset lettuce soup hot straight from the pan. The following day, after it had been chilling in the fridge overnight, I tried it as a chilled summer soup and I think that might have been even nicer.
So, are you ready to give lettuce soup a go? I’d love to know what you think of it and what your tweaks are. Share your thoughts and your tips in the comments below.
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