Soup

Last year I realised I was becoming old before my time, having developed a love for soup.

Well, as the winter months come rolling in (and we all know how much I LOVE this time of year - walking through Battersea Park last weekend through the leaves I could BARELY contain my excitement!!) it has become soup season once again.

And this year I have taken my love of soup to a new level. This year I have been making it myself!

It is a great way to use up all the rather mushy looking veg in the bottom of the fridge, it is a great snack, and can literally be made en masse.

My favourite (it took a few attempts, including one batch that was so spicy even the Boyfriend turned an interesting shade of purple on trying a spoonful - but have now got it down to a total tasty art) is red pepper and butternut squash.

My rather haphazard recipe is as follows:

1 butternut squash, cubed and peeled.
2 red peppers
1 1/2 pints of veggie stock
1 large onion
Paprika
Chilli flakes (but be careful - overly liberal use resulted in the purple faced and choking boyfriend)

Put it all in the biggest saucepan you can find and boil it all together for about 40mins. Then grab yourself a handy hand-held blender (got one from ASDA for a grand total of £4.87 - works fine thus far) and blitz it until it is smooth (although if your attention span is similar to my own you may lose interest after a bit, and therefore every serving you have is a bit of an adventure - lumps of butternut squash, large chunk of onion, etc).

It is easy to vary this recipe. I have added tomatoes, parsnips, swede, carrots, even mushrooms, all to a rather similar, but equally tasty end.

Serve with a yummy toasted sandwich (might I recommend a homemade egg mayonaise one - another of my newly discovered culinary delights). Either that or a part-baked baguette with sausage and tomato chutney. The perfect winter warmer.

Soup

In recent years soup was always one of those foods I banished from my immediate culinary sphere. It's not that I don't like it, I just always viewed it as a non-meal. As the boyfriend puts it- it's really more a drink.



And yet, after 20-odd years of being soup free (except when you're ill, and obviously Heinz tomato soup is the only possible remedy) I have suddenly embraced my inner pensioner and become soup's biggest fan.




It started in the canteen at work. Doris (wonderful if brisk no-nonsense dinner lady at work. A legend) makes lovely soup. Nothing too fancy - tomato, pea and ham, chicken, the usual, but they come in little pots with the (vital) component of a lid. To prevent spillages. So they are allowed in the studio. And at £1.20 it is a real bargain.



And then my soupping went to a new level. It was one lunchtime, and I was tired (had started work at 4am) and as I was walking home to the tube, I passed a Pret. And their soup of the day was mushroom risotto. And it was also seriously low-calorie (another significant plus for soup). And I went in, and had a cup and OH MY GOD was it delicious.



And then I discovered their other soups, and soon I was branching out to other eateries (EAT being the main one - they do a WONDERFUL tom yum prawn soup with noodles. It is GOOOOOOD) and at home I've been having covent garden soups, and chunky soups and broths, and all sorts, and suddenly I am a fully fledged member of the soup brigade. No longer do I view it as the meal of the toothless, the babies and the pensioners.




No, in this current climate (i.e. freezing) soup is officially the only way forward.