Leek and Potato Soup, with Cumin

A simple winter soup, made with two medium leeks, four carrots, and two peeled potatoes, all roughly chopped. Cook in water in a lidded pan at a low simmer, until all the vegetables are soft. Mash. Cook again for at least twenty minutes, and puree with a hand-blender. 

Add some coriander leaf, a couple of pinches of ground cumin, a pinch of nutmeg, chicken stock, a dash of Tabasco sauce, and some Worcestershire sauce. Cook for another ten minutes, and serve. A real winter warmer!

Leek and Potato Soup, with Cumin

Tomato, Onion and Brocolli Soup

You could make this with a tin of tomatoes or some tomato passata, but I made this dish with a bag of tomatoes bought for a bargain price at Lidl's supermarket. I chopped up about ten medium sized tomatoes, and cooked them in boiling water until they were soft (about twenty minutes or so. An Italian chef would take me to task for not removing the skins first by dipping them in boiling water and peeling them). Then I made the tomatoes into a puree with a hand blender. 

Add chopped onion, and about half of the spears from a head of brocolli, chopped into thin strips. Cook until both the onion and brocolli are soft enough to mash. Mash for one minute. Add shredded basil and a little oregano, plus some vegetable stock. Cook for another twenty to thirty minutes or so. Put freshly ground black pepper in the bottom of the bowl before serving (according to taste). That's it! Utterly delicious, and can be made from scratch in under ninety minutes. 

Tomato, Onion and Brocolli Soup

Vegetable Soup

Made with cubed potatoes, carrot (3), sliced onion (2), sticks of celery (3), plus mushroom stock, a spoonful of tomato puree, and 1 or two chopped vine tomatoes. Dashes of paprika and fenugreek added, and two pinches of basil and parsley, and a small quantity of olive oil or butter. Black pepper to taste.

Vegetable Soup

Faux Borscht with Wheat Free Croutons

Beetroot, shredded tomato, tomato puree, chopped carrot, leek, and potato, a vegetable stock cube and a handful of parsley and a pinch of nutmeg. Plus black pepper.  Bread cubes were fried (slowly) in a little butter

There seems to be some disagreement about exactly what constitutes a borscht. This was not a sour dish, and sourness appears to be part of the definition. Delicious nonetheless! The croutons were wheat free.

 I avoid wheat and barley gluten as much as possible, since regular consumption of it makes me feel unwell (as I starkly discovered in 2003, after a couple of days eating  in airports and railway stations, though looking back the symptoms were starting to show in 1997).  I can also eat bread made with Spelt occasionally, which is an unimproved wheat eaten during the Iron Age

Faux Borscht with Wheat Free Croutons