One of our token Luxembourg dishes is Bouneschlupp – a brothy soup specked with French beans, potatoes and onions. It’s a pretty humble dish, which is sometimes enhanced by adding a few pieces of smoky sausage to it.

In the second episode of Mastercook (a TV cookery competition in which I’m searching for Luxembourg’s most talented home cook), the challenge was to cook a Bouneschlupp with a fusion twist. The contestants did amazingly well, and came up with very interesting flavour combinations (you can watch it here), so I decided to have a go at it too.

To me it had to be an Asian twist! When I was in Thailand, I learnt how to make Tom Yum, one of my favourite soups ever. While preparing this token Thai soup, it suddenly clicked: why not throw a few of these fragrant Thai spices into our Luxembourgish soup?! I also made some fennel meatballs to go with it, and elevate this soup to a proper meal.

I hope fellow Mastercook judge Tony Tintinger would let me go into the next round with my soup…