Sunny today

and unusually for me I was up at the crack of dawn, well nearly, and two hours earlier than is my custom. And then instead of sitting hunched over a coffee until I'd caught up with myself I made soup.



Why soup when all this week it's been raining and today the sun came out? And soup before breakfast? Search me, it's not even like it's stunning to photograph. But it is delicious.

Tomato Soup:
1 leek
4 (about 300g) very ripe tomatoes
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
Olive oil.

The ingredients for this are not fixed. I had a leek, I don't know why, they're barely in season but it needed eating up. Leeks are great in soups providing body with their gentle flavour but they're not often available when the main glut of tomatoes makes its show. Later in the year use all fresh tomatoes, a couple of shallots and a fluffy potato for thickening instead.

Slice the leek finely and melt down in some olive oil, you don't need much. Then add the roughly chopped fresh tomatoes and the canned ones. Add a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer until every thing is fully cooked and softened, then use an immersion blender to smooth it all out. If you prefer you can run it through your mouli-legumes. Add a wine glass or two of water to get the thickness you prefer and reheat gently.

There really isn't anything more to it than that. You might add some basil or black pepper, I prefer to keep the colour as cleanly red as possible. Serve with toast. Be comforted.

I had soup for breakfast and again for lunch. This evening was another salad from the garden with new potatoes and an avocado, again because it had to be eaten or binned! I can't wait for some different vegetables to start cropping.