Store cupboard basics

So this is my first Coronial Cooking Recipe!

Couldn’t be anything other than veggie soup really!  You can really use whatever veggies you have for soup – I tend to use the ones that look as though they might not last much longer unless used up.  If you are short on butter, then by all means use a couple of table spoons of vegetable oil.  If you don’t have chicken bouillon powder, then you could add a couple of chicken stock cubes or if you would prefer a vegetarian version, vegetable stock/bouillon.  Stock tends to have more than enough salt in it so I don’t add any to this kind of dish.

I’ve just had a big bowl for lunch and now have another four large portions ready to be frozen.  As I’m now trying to diet and am not entirely convinced that bread is actually helping my cause, I just had the soup with a couple of carrot batons to dip and crunch on.

Ingredients

2 x medium sized carrots

1 x big fat leek

1 x large brown onion

2 x baking sized Maris Piper potatoes

2 x parsnips

1/2 swede

50g butter

1litre water

1 tablespoon (heaped) chicken bouillon powder

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Method

• Chop the hairy end off the leek and then slice it vertically in half.  Holding the freshly chopped end firmly rinse the leek under running water so that any grit runs down to the darker end.  Chop off any scraggly inedible looking dark bits from the end then chop the remaining leek into one inch chunks.
• Peel and slice the rest of the vegetables into half inch cubes.
• Melt the butter in a large pan.
• Add the onion and leek and let them soften for five minutes
• Add the remaining vegetables together with the chicken bouillon powder, the pepper and the water (I added the water from the kettle I had just boiled).
• Bring the whole lot to a rolling simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
• Test the carrot and potato to check they are soft and if not continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
• Once the carrots and potatoes have cooked, use a stick blender to puree the soup or transfer it carefully to a food processor or blender jug.
• Serve with perhaps a blob of creme fraiche or sour cream.