Soup is amazing.  It can be fancy or simple.  It can be dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion.  You can drink it or you may have to eat it.  It can be taken to work in a ‘soup-only-flask’ for a comforting lunch.  And, best of all (for me!) you can secretly feed children all sorts of nutritious vegetables without them ever knowing about it.  As long as the ingredients are fresh and not overcooked, your soup will be more nutritious than many a meal.

There are so many hundreds or even thousands of soup.  They can range from potato soup to Thai chicken and coconut soup, miso soup to Gaspacho.  The level of nutrition taken from any soup depends on its ingredients, freshness and how long it has been cooking for.

Here is a simple basic vegetable soup can be made so quickly in any kitchen and will be good for a few days lunch, or excellent for freezing.  Simply melt 50g butter in a saucepan.  Add 1 cup chopped onions and 1 cup chopped potatoes and stir them around.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10mins.  Add 3 cups of (1 or more) vegetables of your choice and 5 cups of stock.  Boil until vegetables are just soft e.g. 20 mins.  Liquidise.  Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.  If you want to really impress swirl a bit of whipped or runny cream on top.

There is just a few words of warning about soup…It isn’t the best meal if you have a toddler who insists on feeding himself and just can’t quite yet.  Or, if you have a very sloppy partner who needs a napkin to cover his chest, belly, lap, sleeves, chin, neck and possibly hair…And it definitely isn’t the best meal if you have both of the above (which I do!) combined with a very neat, controlled, uptight mother-in-law who you are trying to impress by showing how civilised and well-mannerly your home and family is!  (Which, thankfully I do not have!)  Another quick word of caution is that Jerusalem Artichoke soup will make you fart therefore it is not recommended for a dinner where you are trying to impress someone you fancy!