Hearty One-Pot Vegetable Soup & Mapari Smoked Venison

“Honestly, a rustic vegetable soup flavoured with these delicious chorizo is my idea of a winter dinner or even lunch for that matter. Increase the quantities in this recipe, heat enough for your needs each time, add some OFPA Silver Medal Mapari Smoked Venison and Chorizo and you are sorted for two or three meals.” Kathy Paterson, Outstanding Food Editor and Cookbook Author.

Serves:  4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely sliced or chopped

2 medium carrots, lightly peeled and diced

2 sticks celery, lightly peeled to remove strings (optional), and diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

400g can chopped tomatoes in juice

1 bay leaf

2 cups chicken stock or use vegetable stock

1 kumara, peeled and diced

50g dried pasta

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1-2 Mapari Smoked Venison and Chorizo, sliced (OFPA Silver Medal 2026)

2 good handfuls of baby spinach leaves

Method

Heat the oil in a pot over low heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until the vegetables have softened, stirring regularly, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.

Add the tomatoes, bay leaf and stock and bring up to a boil, then add in the kumara and pasta. Cover with the lid ever-so-slightly ajar and cook for 10 minutes until the kumara and pasta are cooked through.

As the soup is cooking, remove the thyme leaves from their stalks and set aside.

Add the sliced Mapari Smoked Venison Chorizo slices to the pot to heat through, then add spinach leaves and allow to wilt.  At this stage taste for salt and add if needed, then remove the bay leaf.

Serve in warmed soup bowls, sprinkled with the fresh thyme leaves and pass the pepper.

Outstanding Tips

• Keep vegetables and chorizo to a size that will fit easily on your soup spoon for ease of eating.

• I used a trumpet-shaped pasta but macaroni or other small shells are great.

• Add some drained canned beans to the soup. Stir in at the same time as adding the Mapari chorizo.

• Try adding some store-bought gnocchi rather than the pasta for a change-up.

• Serve soup with freshly grated Parmesan.

• Add extra flavour by dolloping soup with a green herb sauce or pesto.