Busy Bees Sensational Soups Recipe Cookbook Challenge

Busy Bees Sensational Soups Recipe Cookbook Challenge

I was recently challenged to try a recipe from the cookbook Busy Bees Sensational Soups. It’s a little book filled with soup recipes that the dedicated and talented chefs at Busy Bees have created. The book is the result of a competition where the chefs got to share their creativity and expertise in making recipes and cooking foods to inspire children to eat a healthy, nutritious and balanced diet.

I love trying new recipes and I’m quite a big fan of a hearty soup so was excited to see what I could choose from. There’s a nice little collection of recipes for soups and breads that you can make to go with them in the book.

I chose the Roast Carrot and Cauliflower Soup as it sounded the best for my taste and dietary needs. It’s an exotic soup with vegetables roasted in olive oil and garlic, then cooked a bit longer with vegetable stock, pepper, curry, lime juice and creamy coconut milk. You blitz the soup with a hand blender to achieve a smooth texture.

The soup was delicious and even my husband who doesn’t really like eating soup said it was nice! A nice mix of spicy and creamy. We had the soup with soft, cheese topped rolls with butter and cheese but the book suggests making a Beetroot Bread which sounds very tasty. I used to bake bread a lot before having kids but now I struggle to fit it in.

I came up with a good way to use the leftover soup! I fried sliced onions and garlic in oil, then added a couple of small ladles of the soup, a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and a dash of soy sauce to create a saucy texture. Then I added some Udon noodles and some peas and cooked through. This made a delicious stir-fry full of flavour and hidden vegetables in the sauce too. Plus — no waste and a fresh meal idea for the next day.

“We started Busy Bees because we wanted to provide exciting, innovative care for our children, in an environment that presented plentiful opportunities for play, interaction and development, simply because we wanted them to have the best possible start in life.”

— Marg Randles, Managing Director and Co-founder

There are Busy Bees nurseries all over the country including Tunbridge Wells Child Care that has a Montessori Pre-School too. They are the UK’s largest childcare nursery provider, with 329 children’s nurseries nationwide with an amazing Ofsted result. 98% of their nurseries have been rated ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’ by Ofsted, for providing rich learning opportunities in unique and exciting environments.

We were provided with a copy of the book, a lunch box and money to cover the costs of ingredients in exchange for this post. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.