General soup recipe

RAH's general soup recipe (I remember when it was a lieutenant soup...)

Ingredients:

• Cooking oil, onion celery
• 1 onion, finely chopped.
• 2+ sticks celery.
• Lots of other veg and stuff - see below!

Instructions:

This is my basic 'how to do it' recipe for soup. It's a bit like the Irish stew recipe in Three Men in a Boat ... they put in all the leftovers, half a mouldy pork pie, and as far as I remember some strawberry jam a chunk of cheese and a bushel of peas plus a pound of potatoes ... and Montmorency's contribution was a dead rat. My soup recipe does not contain dead rats or meat, but you can put almost anything else in.

* Heat a largish splosh of cooking oil in a saucepan [I use olive oil for flavour and health, but marge, butter, or any vegetable oil would be ok]

* Gently soften a finely chopped onion and a couple of sticks of celery, with their leaves, in the oil. [This is where you imagination has full rein]

* Finely chop or shred a mixture of vegetables and add them to the mess frying in the pan as you prepare them .... I usually make either 'Green' or 'Red' soup.

For the green soup a la bonfire night I used:
half a head of celery, a courgette, a green peper, a pack of fresh runner beans, some swiss chard leaves [or some spinach, frozen is good], a round lettuce, a tin of peas and a tin of french beans.[These are good for thickening the mess of pottage] Do not use broad beans, you can't get rid of the skins and the soup is gritty. Be sparing with spinach and cabbage which both tend to overpower other flavours. Watercress is good.

For red soup you could use:
celery,carrots, red and orange peppers, pumpkin, sweet potato, acorn squash, tinned red kidney beans [with their liquid] a tin or two of tomatoes etc.

* Once you have finished adding the veg, stir it all up and add enough liquid [half white wine and half water] to come only just in sight, about half way up the veg in the pan. Do not add too much liquid or the finished result will be like washing up water. If you haven't got wine [or have drunk it all] use water and a hefty slosh of vinegar or the juice of a lemon for the acid. But wine is definitely tastier. Do not use wine you wouldn't drink! If you don't like it as a drink you won't like it in your food either.

* Throw in a couple of veg stock cubes and a good spoonful of mixed dried herbs plus pepper to taste. Nutmeg is also a good spice to add.

* Bring it all to the boil and simmer gently until the veg are cooked and soft.

* Liquidise the lot. I then put it all through a fine sieve to remove all that healthy fibre and make it taste smooth a creamy. The texture is definitely different if it isn't sieved, and we prefer it smoother. We have a french wind the handle type vegetable sieve, if anyone wants one we are happy to buy a bagful next time we go to France, they are only about 6 or 7 euros.

* Re-heat and enjoy!

* If it goes wrong it is probably because it's too watery ..... just simmer it gently without a lid until it's reduced to a thick and creamy soup ... or else add a tin of veg without the liquid, to thicken it - mushy peas or french beans for green soup, carrots, kidney beans, peas pudding, dahl etc for orange soup.