Jenny's Soup

To save money on food bills - and to regulate my weight - we have soup every day, I make about once a week and freeze in small amounts.

All stock from cooking vegetables is kept as is any veg/salad not eaten at any meal.  The day after there is some, it's either incorporated into 'today's' soup or made into a batch for the freezer.  David knows that any veg not eaten at a meal 'will go into the soup!'.

My General Soup is something like this:

• onion, carrot as much as you like, plus garlic.
• some greens, some swede, parsnip (not too much of these)
• any other veg, such as peppers, leeks, the middle of the cauli which no-one wants to eat, outer leaves, lettuce, other salad (I even put in some coleslaw last week and it was lovely), courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes/tomato puree.

First fry onions (and garlic) add other vegetables and stock, a bay leaf (but remove before you whizz the soup) possibly some lentils or a handful of porridge oats and cook.  I often add one or two stock cubes, also miso/herbs near the end of the cooking. Thyme's also lovely, as are basil with tomato and tarragon with leeks.

(A pressure cooker is great as it saves time.)

(Also chicken/ham stock are very nice, especially a few bits of meat for the onmivores)

Then whizz, either in the liquidiser or blender, although now I use a hand blender. Much less washing up, although it is important not to spray the whole of the kitchen in soup!

Then either eat that day or freeze - it's useful to take to work in a flask - or if you want to eat it in the evening, get it out of the freezer in the morning and it's defrosted by the time you get home.

• last week the soup had courgettes and peppers in and lots of tomato, so I added a teaspoon of pesto and a teaspoon of peanut butter - and it was lovely!
• Another time there was some cauliflower cheese left over and that was great too.
• Soup can be served with cheese/croutons or other garnish.