Carrot soup

At school, Éowyn often eats carrot soup. Apparently it's her favourite. She keeps on at me to make her some like she's mistaken me for some kind of domestic goddess or something....

Anyway, today, as she's at home due to the teachers being on strike (again) and as she actually helped me with the poo picking (!) I told her we could have carrot soup for lunch. Turns out it's pretty easy really.

Chop an onion or two, fry for 5 mins in oil, peel a decent sized spud (or even better, get a small child to do it for you), chop and add to pan, stick in a spoonful of ground coriander and stir a bit. Then add 5 or 6 peeled (preferably by said small child) and sliced carrots, bit of salt and pepper and a litre or so of chicken or veg stock.

Then leave it to cook til the veg is soft, chuck in a handful of fresh coriander and whizz it all up (small child enjoys this bit but tends to make a mess)

Easy. And very tasty, especially with a few chili flakes added ;-)

Winter warmer....

It must be cold.....I felt compelled to make soup. Well it is cold, -15 C last night.......so I dug out the pumpkin from the freezer my neighbour gave me back in the autumn before south west France became an arctic wasteland.......and made this:

Obviously it wasn't complicated. Chop an onion, fry it in lovely sinful butter for a bit, then add a pint or so of veg or chicken stock (oxo, naturally), a couple of chopped carrots (had to defrost them from the horses' supply in the barn) and some chopped pumpkin. Then leave it to simmer til the veggies are soft, add seasoning of your choice, I used ginger and chilli but nutmeg or cinammon go just as well, bit of salt and pepper and whizz it up til it's smoothish. Naturally I have one of those hand held things you stick straight in the pan to blend it, less washing up afterwards!

Really nice with a bit of fresh baguette.......