Celeriac soup

This received an enthusiastic welcome - you said it was even better than lentil and carrot, your current favourite. It's dead easy to make, once you've got past the peeling of the celeriac (always a bit of a pain).

Makes enough for 3. You'll need:

1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
vegetable or chicken stock
1 medium celeriac, peeled and chopped into chunks
salt and black pepper
a drizzle of olive oil

First of all, fry the onion in a little olive oil until it turns translucent. Add the celeriac, and then the stock (I must have put in a pint or so - you need enough to cover all the celeriac, and then it really depends how thick you like your soup after that).

Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the celeriac is tender. Blitz everything with a handblender (or shove in the food processor) - you should get a beautifully smooth, silky soup. Add salt and pepper to taste, and dilute with water/milk/cream if it's too thick.

Eat with lots of crusty bread. Your dad decided he quite liked his with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

Spring greens soup with feta

I adapted this one from a lovely recipe in Olive. It's very green, and goes well with some freshly baked dough balls. It's also a good way of using up the parsley mountain, which is threatening to take over the front garden.

Makes enough for 3. You'll need:

an onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
a small spring cabbage (or spring greens), shredded
a couple of spring onions, chopped into large chunks
a large bunch of parsley, scissored into small strips
half a pack of feta cheese, chopped into smallish pieces
chicken or vegetable stock - enough to cover the cabbage
lots of black pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil (or whatever there is to hand - I ended up using some bacon fat that was left over after cooking your tea - it gave it a lovely flavour). Once they've softened, tip them into your soup pot.

Add the cabbage, parsley, spring onions and stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes until the cabbage is tender. Decant into bowls, sprinkle the feta over the top, and douse with lots of black pepper.

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.

Leek and potato soup

Good when it's freezing cold. The temperature gauge on the car said -1.5 degrees C this morning, so I think that qualifies.

You'll need:

some leeks (I used three fairly skinny ones), sliced into rings
four or five small potatoes (or however many are starting to sprout in the cupboard and need to be used up), peeled and chopped up small
lots of black pepper, thyme and a little salt
stock - I had some vegetable stock in the freezer, but chicken would be even better

Fry the leeks in a little olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan for a few minutes until they've started to soften. Add the diced potatoes, and swish about for a couple of minutes. Pour in the stock (or hot water and a little vegetable bouillon powder), and chuck in lots of pepper and thyme. Add a little salt.

Bring to the boil, and then simmer for ages, until the potatoes are tender (I left mine on for about 45 minutes). Blend, and then add a little milk or cream. You could also add a few crispy bits of bacon on the top for maximum mmmmmm factor.

Roast pumpkin soup

We ate this for lunch today, after a hard morning's work reading fairytales in the library. You particularly like the Princess and the Pea, the Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty at the moment.

You'll need:

some pumpkin (I used the last third of a particularly large one)
an onion, finely chopped
chicken stock, preferably with a few bits of chicken in
lots of salt and black pepper
olive oil

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. Peel the pumpkin, and cut into large chunks. Place in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, and then roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the pumpkin's soft (you don't want it to burn or go too brown).

Fry the onion in a little olive oil until it's translucent. Add the roasted pumpkin, and the chicken stock. Simmer for 10 minutes or so, blend (I use a handblender as you can just swish it about in the pan), and then season with lots of salt and black pepper.

If you're feeling really fancy, you could swirl a little cream or creme fraiche into the soup before you serve it. I never remember to have any in the fridge, so never get round to that bit.

Pumpkin soup

Well what else do you do with the inside of the jack o' lantern?


You'll need:

everything you can possibly scrape out of the pumpkin (except the seeds and the stringy bit in the middle)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or an inch or so of finely grated fresh ginger)
an onion, finely sliced
salt and black pepper
vegetable or chicken stock (when in doubt use some bouillon powder)
a little coconut cream

Fry the onion in a little olive oil, together with the ginger and turmeric, until it's translucent. Add the pumpkin (chopped into small pieces), and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the stock, salt and pepper, bring to the boil, and then simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Either shove in a blender, or use a hand blender, to make it all nice and smooth. Swirl in a little coconut cream on the top. Eat with lots of fresh bread rolls and cream cheese, preferably under the verandah at the Alnwick Garden in the sunshine.

Tomato and lentil soup

Lentil recipes we have known and loved, number 9,476.

You'll need:

an onion, finely sliced
a clove of garlic
half a mugful of lentils
some vegetable stock (I saved some sweetcorn cooking water)
a tin of tomatoes
half a teaspoon of cumin seeds and coriander seeds
salt and black pepper

Fry the onion and garlic, together with the cumin and coriander in a little olive oil, until the onion has gone transclucent. Add the vegetable stock (I must have added about a mugful), and the lentils. Leave simmering away for 10 minutes or so. Chuck in the tomatoes, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Season to taste with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

Puree with the hand blender, taking care not to cover the kitchen. You could add a little creme fraiche to it, I guess, but that's fancy talk.

Pea (and everything else) soup

Another of the 'let's see what's in the fridge' recipes that's excellent for lunch.

You'll need:

some chicken stock (I had some lurking in the freezer because I'm like that, but to be honest a stock cube of some description would be equally good, dissolved in some hot water)
veg! I used some frozen peas, some celery and an onion
a couple of potatoes (don't on any account use sweet potatoes...it makes for a horribly sweet soup if you mix them with peas...)

Peel the potatoes, and then chop them (and all the veg). Stick the onion/celery and any other similar type things in your pan, with a little olive oil, and fry them until they've softened. Add the potatoes and stock, bring to the boil, and simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Add your peas, and cook for another five minutes or so.

Stick in the blender (or use one of those magic wand/blender things) to make it all smooth. Chuck in a teaspoon of creme fraiche or a dribble of cream if you're feeling in need of a bit of luxury. Some tiny pieces of crispy pancetta or bacon would probably also go down well.

Carrot and lentil soup

It feels like the middle of autumn at the moment, so I made soup for lunch from some chicken stock that was lurking at the back of the freezer.

Makes enough for three or four:

one onion
a couple of sticks of celery
some chicken stock (or failing that, a stock cube/vegetable bouillon powder)
a couple of handfuls of lentils (red are good for this, as they go nice and sludgy)
four or five carrots

Chop up the onion and celery and fry together in a little olive oil until they are softened. Add the carrots (chopped), the lentils, and the chicken stock. Depending on how concentrated your stock is, you may need to add some more water - you want about a litre of liquid.

Season with salt and black pepper. You could add some cumin to this, but I've never really found it enhances it much.