Souper stars!
Green-fingered pupils put veg to good use in their winning winter warmer
A LOUGHBOROUGH primary school have won a national soup making competition using vegetables they grew themselves.
Booth Wood Primary School in Loughborough, took part in the ‘Souper Soup Soother Competition,’ which was judged by MasterChef finalist, Simon Spooner.
After the first lockdown, class teacher, Miss Knowles, and teaching assistant, Mrs Roper, decided the children needed a project that would unite them and build on their teamwork skills.
The class were new to gardening, but decided to be ambitious and grow tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, rosemary, carrots, kale, and a pumpkin.
This inspired their soup recipe, as they wanted it to be made from homegrown vegetables.
The whole of the Year 3 class worked collaboratively to maintain, harvest, and water the garden on a regular basis.
They made their own potato salad, soup, and the children suggested making a rosemary flavoured bread!
The kids said: “We loved every minute of this competition, especially cooking outside in our forest school.”
Heltwate School in Peterborough were named as the winners in the special educational needs school category.
Both schools were awarded a Winter Warmer Soup Challenge trophy and a prize of £200 for their school, supported by sponsors, Central England Co-operative.
On competition day, the children wanted to stand out from the crowd, so they made their soup over an open fire pit in their school’s forest area.
The children also completed a live Zoom interview and cooking session in the woods.
As a class, they were inspired by their recent history topic, the Stone Age. The children felt that cooking by a fire would simulate what it was like in the palaeolithic period, and wanted to wow the judges, especially Simon.
The kids said: “It was a great experience - we can’t believe we won! This has inspired us to go back to our school garden and grow some more vegetables for the summer.
“We will go on I’m a Celebrity next!”
We loved every minute of this competition, especially cooking outside in our forest school
Booth Wood pupils