Souper soup on Saturdays

Each weekend through the winter I make a batch of soup - there has to be enough to do at least 4 portions for us over the weekend, and then ideally enough for me to have for lunches through the week. Whilst soup runs the risk of being an uninspiring lunch, I do enjoy putting different flavours together to stay interested.

The soups I usually make are vegetarian and it's rare I buy 'ingredients' as it were, I'm much more likely to look at waht's leftover in the fridge and then add that to spices, pulses etc to amp up the flavours.

Whilst I've been making soup on and off for years, at the moment my motive is about saving money - buying lunch can work out at about £4-£5 a day, which when you're on a budget, works out at a scary £120 per month. In comparison, taking your home made soup works out at around 50p per portion (if not less).

I've mentioned before that I'm no snob stock wise, bouillon or cubes are both fine by me, I just always watch the salt content if I am using bought stock.

This week I made a spicy carrot soup - I made it a bit quicker to cook by grating the carrots in the food processor (but you could easily do this by hand, or be less demanding and give the soup some time).

Spicy carrot soup

Olive oil
7-8 big carrots, grated
Half a cup of red lentils
1 litre veg stock
1 teaspoon Gran Luchito smoked chilli paste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds

Dry fry the cumin seeds until they start to pop
Put the carrots, lentils, cumin seeds, stock and chilli paste into a big pan and bring to a simmer
Cook for 20 minutes to half an hour
Take off the heat and blitz - I use a handheld stick blender
Serve with crusty bread and butter for dunking

 Other soups I've made:

Lifechanging soup
Tomato and cannelini bean
Chicken soup
Split pea and frankfurter

I'll try and keep updating - this week's concoction is Sweet potato and butternut squash (with a sneaky secret ingredient)

Moving too fast? Slow down

The Last Five Years is one of the first more modern musicals that I grew to love. Jason Robert Brown's music caught my attention immediately, and having not seen it onstage until a few years back, had to ask my friend Claire to put the songs into narrative order for me. Whilst not the prompt for this post, I've embedded Colleen Ballinger singing Summer in Ohio below, just because it's one of my favourite songs and never fails to raise a smile, no matter how miserable the day.

Now where was I? Slowing down. The sheer length of this year's winter. Has it seriously not been the longest ever winter in the history of the world? The sheer length of this year's winter has meant that I feel like I've been eating casseroles for ever. Although at least twice a week I have a tendency to have to skip dinner as I just can't eat after Guides and Brownies - it's too late and I'm too shattered to start cooking. Certainly anything nutritous. I'm quite good at marmite on toast.

Just after Christmas, fuelled by decongestants and paracetamol I bought a slow cooker as my boyfriend wasn't having any of this toast and marmite for dinner business. What we took to doing was putting a casserole or similar in the cooker the night before and then switching it on low as we went out of the door in the morning.

I just thought I'd post about something simple and cheap I've been cooking at least every couple of weeks as Mark likes it, it's dead simple and the flavour improves if you eat it the next day.

Slow cooker Spag Bol

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
4 carrots
350g lean minced beef
1 tin tomatoes
Red wine (fill the tin of tomatoes up with wine)
Tomato puree
250g mushrooms (I say this as a quantity but only because I use half a packet of mushrooms when I cook it)
Oregano
a bay leaf

Spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

Now I have to own up, I might be able to do the chef style onion chopping, but for this and the casseroles I've been cooking, I throw that, the garlic, the peeled carrots and mushrooms in the food processor and blitz them until they're all finely chopped. This all goes straight into the slow cooker. As do the tinned tomatoes, wine, a big blob (such a technical term!) of tomato puree, and of course the mince. I then give everything a stir and switch it on in the morning.

When I get in from Brownies or Guides all we do is cook the pasta in salted boiling water and grate some parmesan (some, when in conjunction with cheese, means lots in my book). Serve in a bowl in front of that week's episode of Glee cwtched up.

Welcome to my Pantry

Well firstly I should say hello, and welcome to my pantry.

I'm sat typing this, my first ever blog, in my pyjamas, drinking coffee while a celeriac and carrot soup is simmering on the hob and making the flat smell fabulous and homely. In front of me is my shopping list for the weekend, as I need to stock up the freezer with some batch cooking for those cold winter evenings when anything apart from sinking into the sofa with a glass of wine seems too much work. As always on the weekends I am embracing my inner domestic goddess and spending my time making casseroles and soups of hearty, healthy ingredients.

Things to cook this weekend:

Celeriac and carrot soup
Spiced apple and pecan cake
Sausage and bean casserole

The soup and casserole are my favourite type of cooking; recipes I've made over and over again, that change each time depending on what I have in cupboards and veg box. The cake is a new favourite of my colleagues in the office, and as I have a friend coming over for tea tomorrow I'm sure it will go down well with cups of tea aplenty. (I'm quite old-fashioned in lots of things, and afternoon tea with cake is one of those institutions I love. Proper leaf tea, cups and saucers, home-made cake, and a warmed pot are all essential ingredients)