Cinema snacks: recreating recipes from the silver screen

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Welcome to Bite Club, where we show you how to recreate recipes from the screen so you can bring the telly to your belly and munch your way through the movies alongside your favourite characters. This week, we’re dishing up an unforgettable culinary catastrophe from a cult classic, the Blue Soup from BRIDGET JONE'S DIARY.

Two decades on and Bridget Jones’s Diary remains one of Britain’s most iconic rom-coms. Sure, it's riddled with problematic early-noughties moments, but packed with just enough charm to keep us coming back. With this year’s chart-topping sequel Mad About The Boy proving Bridget can still hold her own after 25 years, now feels like the perfect time to celebrate her most infamous dish.

Bridget’s legendary dinner party menu includes blue soup, omelette, and marmalade. And while all three are worthy of a tribute, it’s the soup, dyed blue by some seemingly innocuous string, that’s been etched into movie food history forever. Our take is a silky, comforting leek and celery soup, it’s what we suspect Bridget was  aiming for before the string incident.

We’re skipping her tied-up bouquet of veg, since we want all that flavour blended in, not just steeped in like a crappy cup of weak tea, and we're offering you a classic blue version, for those who don't eat with their eyes, and a not-so-blue version, if you’re going for flavour over farce. Oh, and don’t worry, we’ve opted for food colouring, not a piece of old string, to achieve that perfect blue hue, because getting food poisoning wasn’t on Bridget’s menu, and it’s not on ours either...

If like Bridget, you have a sneaking suspicion that you are something of a genius in the kitchen, be sure to check out our video for this recipe for all our hints and tips to recreate this recipe at home. To take things further and recreate all her dishes, to host your very own Bridget-inspired dinner party, don’t miss our Paddington inspired marmalade recipe, a perfect homage to Bridget's dessert, and an honorable way to salvage your dignity after serving up a bowl of blue soup.

See you next Bite 💜

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Features in Bridget Jones's Diary at 1 hour and 35 seconds.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

• 1 leek, sliced into half moons  

• 1 onion, diced 

• 1 large or 2 medim potato, cubed

• 3 celery, diced

• 800 ml vegetable stock 

• 200ml milk 

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp dried thyme 

• 1 tbsp butter

TO SERVE :

Bridget's blue version

• A few drops of blue food colouring

  
  

Not-so-blue version

• Creme fraise, to taste

• Chives, finely chopped

• Crispy pancetta, finely chopped

• Croutons

METHOD

Begin by melting the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, add the sliced leek and diced onion. Gently sweat them, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften.

After the leek and onion have cooked for a couple of minutes, add the cubed potato and diced celery to the pan.

Continue cooking the vegetables for about 5 minutes, allowing them to soften slightly.

Then, add the minced garlic and a few sprigs of thyme. Cook for another few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the garlic becomes fragrant.

Pour in the stock and milk, stirring well to combine. Season the mixture generously with freshly ground black pepper and a little salt. Be cautious with the salt, especially if your stock is already salty. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a gentle boil.

Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the soup for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and easily pierced with a fork.

Remove the soup from the heat and blend it until completely smooth using a blender or immersion blender. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.

For an ultra-smooth texture, strain the soup through a fine sieve before serving.

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