Chicken and root vegetable soup

This turned curiously solid in the fridge (to much merriment) but was authentically soupy by the time we'd reheated it for tea.

You'll need:

chicken stock, preferably with some nice largeish pieces of chicken in it
half a turnip (you can tell it's winter at the moment)
a couple of sticks of celery
an onion, sliced
a potato or two, chopped
a carrot or two, ditto
a handful of pearl barley
lots of black pepper and dried thyme

Sweat the onion and celery gently in a pan for 5 minutes with a little olive oil. Once the onion's softened, add the potato, carrot and turnip, and swish about for a minute or two. Pour in the stock, add the pearl barley, and season with thyme and black pepper. Leave on the hob for however long you've got - you need at least half an hour or so until the turnip and potato has cooked right through.

I stuck this in the blender, but that's just because I much prefer drinking soup to eating it.