Soup's On

 I can't believe it's October. When the hell did that happen? On the upside we have lovely weather. On the downside we're about to be hit with smoky skies again after a couple of weeks of clear, but hopefully not as bad as last time.

The fact that we're moving at a silly pace towards autumn made me want to make soup. First up was roasted tomato and red pepper soup. We haven't been able to grow tomatoes for a few years just because of where we were living, but having the room again, we thought we'd get back to it. Clearly we have to practice a bit more because we have a lot of split tomatoes and some with end rot, but for all that, with a bit of surgery they still taste fine.

Anyway, on with the soup. There is no recipe for this because it's just bunging tomatoes, garlic, some chopped red pepper, chopped red onion, fresh rosemary in a pan with a good glug of olive oil and some salt and pepper and roasting for about 30 minutes

Then put the whole thing in a pot with about a litre of veg or chicken stock and cook for about 10-15 minutes before whizzing it all up. When cool I decant into little pots and freeze so I've got individual lunch-size portions of soup ready to go.

A couple of days after I made this, we had a lot of beets in our garden that needed using. I've said before I'm not a fan of beets, but the husband is and I was looking for a way that I might also find them acceptable. I found a recipe for Roasted Beet and Garlic Soup which seemed to fit the bill.

The recipe called for 3 medium beets, but I had about 8 very small ones. Line a pan with foil and then with kitchen parchment, wrap the beets up with a glug of oil and roast for about an hour until the beets are cooked through. Half way through, parcel up the garlic and roast for half an hour.

Peel then skin off the beets once cooked. Doing this always makes me look like a serial killer!

Thinly slice 1- 1/2 leeks up and sweat in a pot until soft, then add the beets, garlic and some fresh thyme and salt and pepper. Add about a litre of water, bring to boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Do the whizzy thing again until it's all smooth, then add two tablespoons of lemon juice to give a little kick.

It's so hard to photograph soup when it is still in the pot, so this looks a bit like a prop from Sweeny Todd!

Happy Friday all, I hope everyone is doing well.