and so it begins

winter soups 2012

I love winter foods.

cabbage, dried parsley, (homegrown and dried from two years ago), parsnip, celery, carrots, potato, turnip, leeks and garlic in the middle.

I'm going to use the big chopper today. I prefer the smaller one, but it's getting a little blunt.

I've had this carton of Chicken Style stock (it's vegetarian) in my cupboard for over a year (use by date is next November), so I've decided to use it for today's soup. I don't want the flavour too strong, so I'll add one and a half or two litres of water to it.

while that is gently heating up, I'll put that chopper to work.

Leeks first, they're sweeter than onions, so better in a light stock such as vegetable or chicken.
I'd use onions for a beef soup or a casserole.

Then carrots. Tip them into the simmering stock with the leeks.
Stir it up, then keep chopping.

Turnips to the left of me, parsnips to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle for you.
(minor variation of that song by whatshisname)
A little garlic in front.
Add these to the pot, then let it simmer a while before adding the potatoes and cabbage.

Potatoes and cabbage both cook faster than the other ingredients, that's why they're added once the carrots etc have softened. The darker flecks you see floating in the soup is the parsley.

The pot yielded eight serves, here are seven of them cooling off before being capped and frozen.

The eighth serve?  It was yummy, thanks very much.