It’s great to rummage through the beautiful cookbooks and food magazines  for inspiration and linger over the pictures but sometimes we just want a repertoire of quick, easy, go to, recipes for each season. Soups give great mileage and can be made from autumn through to spring.

The choices of soups seem infinitesimal and many require little effort.  My girls were raised on soups of every description to maximise their plant food intake, along with slow cooked stocks.

Served alone or with warm breads of your choice, soups stretch a long way, can last a couple of days and are inexpensive to make.  All cultures seem to have there own soup recipes, so you can use a wide range of flavours and foods and wide variety of styles of soups or create your own from what you have in the fridge and garden.

Soup draws out the flavour of foods and the smell of a slow simmering stock or soup is hard to beat. So, for those nights when there is not much time and hungry mouths to feed, have some pre prepared stock frozen  in containers in the fridge and this recipe, you won’t be sorry!.

Note to mums and dads: soups, especially pureed or blended are a great way to fill up fussy eaters with a bowl full of goodness.

EASY SUNDAY NIGHT VEGETABLE SOUP

Serves 8 small or 4 large bowls

You need

1 litre chicken stock

1/2 cauliflower, washed and chopped

1/2 large head broccoli, washed and chopped

1/2 butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and diced in large pieces

1 zucchini, washed, ends removed and sliced

2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 brown onion, peeled, halved and diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

50gms good prosciutto chopped

1/2 teaspoon dry chilli seeds

For serving:

3-4 fresh sage leaves per person

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pecorino cheese finely grated, optional

extra olive oil for drizzling

Caution: You may like to leave the chilli out for children

To make:

Follow all the above preparation of the ingredients first.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat in a large heavy based saucepan.

Sauté prosciutto, onion and garlic until light golden colour.

Add diced pumpkin and allow to slightly caramelise for added flavour.

Pour in chicken stock and chilli seeds and bring to a simmer until the pumpkin is soft.

Add zucchini, cauliflower and broccoli. Continue to simmer until these are just cooked. Don’t, overcook and ruin the many volatile nutrients.

Sit the saucepan in the sink and using a stick mixer, blend until smooth. I do this to avoid any splashes that may occur.

Return lid to saucepan.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a fry pan and keep the heat low.

Add the sage leaves and cook gently each side until crisp. They cook very quickly so stay with them until done.

Drain on paper towel.

To serve: ladle soup into bowls, swirl a drizzle of olive oil in each bowl, add sage leaves and pecorino and cracked pepper if you wish.

Bon appetite

X 19seventiesgirl