Although it is another gloriously sunny day, and I've been out in the garden cutting the grass and generally trying to tidy up, there is that certain nip in the air when you're out of the sun that made me want to make some soup for lunch.
I sometimes follow soup recipes - especially from my thrifted copy of the 'Covent Garden Soup Book' (50p from the local charity shop a few years ago), and really like the roasted parsnip and parmesan soup and the pumpkin soup recipes from it. Mostly though I make soup in order to use up various bits and bobs of veggies that are lurking in the fridge. Today's soup consisted of half an onion which was left over from the other day, half a cauliflower from earlier in the week, a handful of salad potatoes which I knew wouldn't get used up otherwise and a few small carrots. I cooked the whole lot up with a few teaspoons of Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon, blitzed it with my hand held blender and it was mighty tasty for lunch with a cranberry jelly and jarlsberg cheese wrap. The cranberry jelly had been lurking in the fridge for weeks and as there was a tiny bit of furry mouldy stuff on the edge of the jar I thought it best to use up what was left in the wrap - even though it was an extremely generous portion I ended up with.
The soup I made should provide 3 or 4 portions of tasty goodness for very little cost. I genuinely do prefer homemade soup to any of the fancily-packaged sachets or tetrapaks of 'designer soup' that cost anything up to £2.00 per portion. One soup you just can't make as well though is tomato soup. I did try it once and it was a huge amount of effort for something that was thin and nasty and tasted nothing like Heinz. Yup, you just can't beat Heinz Cream of Tomato for 'boughten' soup.
LOL, I had to laugh as I was reading this while eating Hienz tomato soup!! What a coincidence!
I make home made soup too although it usually ends up as a broth its that thick. But you are totally right, home made soup is the best (excepting heinz tomato soup of course).
Posted by: sharie | 09/26/2008 at 02:37 PM
We usually have a pot of soup on the go from autumn to spring - we work at home and it makes a good lunch.
Curiously enough, I made a pot of duck soup last night - here it is ... http://www.reactivecooking.com/archives/280
Posted by: mac jordan | 09/26/2008 at 05:27 PM
I'm with you on the soup, frugal, yummy and healthy!
Posted by: Frugal Trenches | 09/27/2008 at 12:36 PM
I've been making soup in the past week or so too. You're right, it's that autumnal nip in air. My last one was celery and really tasty with home-made bread.
Posted by: wendy | 09/28/2008 at 03:13 PM
Hi Elizabeth, it's been a while, I've been catching up with your blog, lots of interesting things to read from you as always. Hope all is well, the weather's so nice this week I've managed to go to the boot sale two weeks in a row too. I like your scarves, I dream of getting my sewing machine out too but work just gets in the way. I'll just have to admire everyone else's work for now.
Gill x
Posted by: Gill | 09/28/2008 at 11:11 PM