Softly Softly Catchy Monkey

The arrival of a fresh sprinkling of snow brought a genuine chill to this morning’s hangover which will have been evident for all to see by the look on my face as I pulled back the hotel room curtains this morning. Last night a group of 20 of us went out in Nottingham to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of a school friend who happens to be marrying another school friend. They keep it all pretty local down in Banbury!!!

Anyways, I was a bit apprehensive as the last time I had shared a hotel room with the monkey deposit retention and severe violence were only avoided due to the good nature of the hotelier and the patience of fellow bloggers. In the event everything went to plan, except that my team lost at indoor football and the fact captain collision (my new nickname for the Monkey) ceded his hard earned third place in the team go karting event meaning that our best efforts could only raise us to fourth. So we emerged from the hotel this morning feeling the inevitable effects of not exactly getting nine hours sleep.

Usually my recipes here offer suggestions of what beers to have or contain beers themselves. This one does not. Basically days like today will usually see me eating a more healthy tea than any other time as I look to make last night up to my body and stick out an olive branch to see if it will forgive me. Oh yes, this is my detox soup!!!! Soups are really simple to make and generally contain a lot of stuff that’s really good for you (NB – I am not a scientist and if challenged have absolutely not substantive evidence with which to prove this claim….I will merely look you confidently in the eye and try and baffle you with a load of numbers!!). OK so it takes a while to chop up all the veg and I like to simmer mine for an hour or so but it only needs the occasional stir and a big pot will last days, can be frozen, shared with friends or taken to work for lunch.

I think the basis for every good soup is a couple of onions (today I mixed two small white onions with two small red ones), a good few sticks of celery finely chopped and about four carrots. You will also want a 500ml carton of passata and a litre of veg stock – I use bouillon which is the Rolls Royce of veg stock in my book. After that the only missing component is a good armful of fresh seasonal veg. I wanted a real winter warmer so had

Swede (1 medium)

Parsnip (2 medium – quite a strong taste in soups and stews I find)

Broccoli (2 heads)

Savoy Cabbage (1)

The method is simple, chop up the onions and fry them in the bottom of a big stock pot in a little oil over a low heat. Peel, chop and add all of the other veg, stirring often and ensuring the pot doesn’t get too hot. Throw in the passata and stock, cover and simmer for an hour or until the veg is soft. I like mine all chunky so you can taste to goodness. If you prefer it smooth get the old blitzer out and give it a blitz.

Finally I add some little pasta things called seme di melone which you can’t get in the supermarket but can get at Leeds market. This adds a bit of backbone to the soup. Talking of backbone if you want to spice it up add a couple of red peppers and a pinch of chilli flakes if you prefer it a bit spicy. I also served it with some cheese on toast as you can see which probably pulled a bit of the goodness back!!!!

Winter Soup