The Seat Swap Soup

Ingredients

• 2 liters vegetable broth
• 3 large carrots
• 2 leeks
• 1 onion
• 2 celery stalks
• 8 eggs
• 8 small vine tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• parsley for garnish

Method

1. Cut carrots, leeks, onion, and celery into large pieces.
2. Heat olive oil in a soup pot and sauté the onion, leek, and celery for 3 minutes.
3. Add carrot, bay leaf, and broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 25 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, hard-boil the eggs (8 minutes), cool in cold water, and peel.
5. Halve the tomatoes.
6. Remove the bay leaf from the soup. Roughly puree with a stick blender, leaving some texture.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Slice 1 carrot into thin rounds. Blanch briefly in boiling water.
9. Pour the soup into deep bowls.
10. Arrange 2 halved eggs and 2 halved tomatoes per bowl in a semicircle, alternating, as parliament seats.
11. Place a carrot slice on one egg as the 'new chairman'.
12. Garnish with parsley.

Serving notes

• Serve strictly: seats in a neat semicircle, with the carrot slice as the standout chairman.
• Present the bowls as a formal gathering.