Revision Food

This last week has been crazy - even more so than normal. Zosia and I have both had exams, and there's also been a load of elections (I'm now the Vice President for Media Society and the Lifestyle Editor for our uni newspaper The Orbital. Woo!), and I LOST A HUGE WAD OF MY NOTES. Literally: everything I've written from the end of January up to the end of the Spring term. So all together it's been very stressy and just a little bit frantic.

CUE COOKING.

A few weeks ago I picked up the Sainsbury's magazine (totally not because it had Nigel Slater, Mary Berry and Jamie Oliver all on the front cover) and discovered the wonder that it is. And inside they had a lovely recipe for a carrot and tarragon soup with hazelnuts that I really wanted to try - though of course, being me, I couldn't just follow a recipe. So here's my version:

Ingredients:
- 50g butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 sticks celery, chopped
- 1kg carrots
- 1 eating apple, peeled, cored and chopped
- 1.2L veg stock
- 100g blanched hazelnuts
- 1tbsp chopped tarragon (plus extra for garnish)
- olive oil, to drizzle

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Melt the butter in a stock pot/really big pan and stir in the onion, garlic and celery. Cook for about 10 minutes. In the mean time, toast the hazelnuts in the oven for 8-10 mins or until golden.
2. Stir in the carrots, and cook for a further 10 minutes, then throw in the apple, tarragon, vegetable stock and some seasoning and bring to a boil. Simmer, partly covered (if you don't have a lid grab some tin foil), for 30-40 minutes.
3. Leave to cool for 5 mins or so, then blend. Ladle into bowls then drizzle over a swirl of olive oil before chopping up your hazelnuts and the rest of the tarragon and adding those too. Voila! Simple.