CREAM OF TOMATO & VEG

There are six vegetables plus (of course) one fruit in this soup and it really does taste very nice.

Ingredients:

• 6 Potatoes (cubed)
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 1 Leeks (sliced)
• 1 Celery (sliced)
• 2 Parsnips (cubed)
• 2 Carrots (sliced)
• 2 Stock Cubes
• 200ml Chopped Tomatoes (small can)
• 75ml Double Cream

While you're preparing the veg, have a kettle of water coming to the boil for the stock. Place your sliced leeks and finely chopped onions into a large pan with three tablespoons of butter or oil and cook on a low heat for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring regularly until softened but not browned. Then add all the other veg and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Pour your boiling water from the kettle into a measuring jug containing the 2 stock-cubes. One and a half pints will be enough. Stir to dissolve the cubes and then pour it all into the pan. Bring the pan to boil then reduce to allow the soup to simmer for 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Stir occasionally and make sure it's simmering and not boiling!

Note: Personally, I prefer to cook carrots on their own and for a little longer than the rest of the veg. They seem to take longer to cook than everything else.

When ready, extract most of the veg with slotted-spoon but not the potatoes! Transfer the contents of the pan to a blending machine and blend to purée the soup. I actually used a hand-blender in the pan itself. If you choose this method, just be careful not to scald yourself!  If required, add some cornflour or thickening granules. Then stir in 75ml of double cream before returning the extracted vegetables to the soup. Heat for another 5 minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper.

I served this soup with some freshly baked baguettes and Welsh Butter. The "Ready To Bake" baguettes were especially nice and are available from Tesco. It was a simple case of dampening the surface slightly with water and baking in the center of a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Mmmmmmm.