How to make Paul Mescal’s favourite dish from childhood — broccoli, onion and potato soup
Mescal recommends pairing your soup with O’Donnell's brown bread and Kerrygold butter.
Everyone’s favoruite Maynooth man Paul Mescal recently shared some insight into his top culinary delights and his most loved dish from childhood.
The Irish actor and Normal People star was recently a guest on the UK-based Off Menu podcast with Ed Gamble and James Acaster. The podcast sees guests select their favourite starter, main course, side dish, dessert and drink and the Oscar-nominated actor included Kerrygold butter, brown bread, and his mammy’s soup among his top food choices of all-time.
The soup is broccoli, potato and onion. “I would eat buckets of it,” he told the podcast hosts.
And to go along with that soup? It would have to be O’Donnell's brown bread and of course, Kerrygold butter.
“I probably wouldn't even use a spoon. I would just be spooning it off with the bread,” he added.
If you’d like to try mammy Mescal’s soup for yourself, the team at HelloFresh Ireland have put together four tips for the perfect broccoli, onion and potato soup.
According to Hannah Duxbury, mastering your own winter soup is essential. “There’s not much more comforting than an Irish soup or stew when it’s already dark before tea time," she said.
Picking the right potatoes in order to avoid them getting mushy is key and waxy potatoes are best as they have less starch in them. You can also cut your potatoes into evenly sized-chunks to ensure they are not undercooked. If you’d like them a bit softer, you can even cut them a bit smaller and soak them in cold water for five minutes before cooking. If you’re slow cooking, simply add your potatoes into the soup about 2 hours in so they don’t soften too much and turn to mush.
The thickness is important for this dish. To get it just right, add a tablespoon or two of arrowroot powder, depending on how thick you want your stew or soup. Arrowroot is more efficient for thickening than other starches and it is flavourless too which gives more room for your ingredients to shine through.
One clove of garlic is enough to add a bit of depth to the dish. You don't want the garlic to overpower the broth, and doing this will help pull the flavours together rather than a flavour that is supposed to cut through. Not to mention garlic adds various nutritional benefits and is an antioxidant-rich food.
Finally, just one tbsp of real extra virgin olive oil is a great way to guarantee an added quality of flavour to your broth. Olive oil also has many positive health benefits and is packed with healthy monounsaturated fats.
