Soups

Soup is a simple,  healthy, and delicious way to use up vegetables and it's a great meal to have on a cold winter's day. I feel that soup is largely overlooked and greatly underrated. 

I usually start my soups the same way with the following base:

A dash of olive oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 carrot, peeled and diced (optional)

1 large potato, peeled and diced

2 litres of stock 

Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the onion in some oil in a medium sized pan until it's golden brown. Add the carrot and fry for a few more minutes. Add the potato and fry, stirring to prevent it sticking, then add the stock and bring the soup to the boil. When the carrot and potato are cooked through, blend until smooth with a stick blender. 

You can add a lot of other spices and vegetables  to this base for flavours and depending on what's in season.  A favourite of mine is to add cooked beans, (white beans, kidney beans, butter beans etc) and shredded cabbage or kale after the base has been blended, or for a nice spring soup I'll add nettles, leeks and water cress, boil for a few minutes and blend after.