Sunday 24 January 2010

Fridge-bottom soup

This sounds pretty horrid but actually it's how I use up all the ends of last week's vegetables and make lunch for the week. It's a lot nicer than sandwiches and particularly in cold weather, a welcome change.

Obviously the vegetables will change week by week but the basic premise is: everything you've got left over, plus some stock and tomatoes, plus lentils and whatever flavouring you fancy.

Today's soup consists of:

3 rashers of leftover smoked bacon
1 onion
1 sad leek
1 red pepper
1 head of celery that was looking a bit floppy
half a bag of grated carrot
1 slightly bashed courgette
half a pack of mushrooms (about six)
Garlic, plenty
small carton of passata
chicken stock
Italian herb seasoning
salt and black pepper
a bay leaf
about 300g red lentils

It's the same basic process as usual: crisp up the bacon, sweat off the onions, celery and carrots for a few minutes, add the garlic, allow it to cook in for a few more minutes, and then add all the chopped veg, pop the lid on and leave them for about ten minutes or so to get a bit tender.

Then add the passata, herbs, seasoning and bay leaf, give it five minutes and then the lentils, followed by the stock. Stick the lid on and leave it to do its thing for about half an hour, with periodic stirring - and you're done.



See, it doesn't look nearly as grim as it sounds!

PS - DON'T FORGET TO FISH OUT THE BAY LEAF!

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