Gardener's Soup

The summery weather of the weekend has left us. Now it's overcast and a little windy, much more autumnal, but there are still plenty of vegetables left to harvest in the plot. I made soup.



This is a mixture of red and green lentils, mung beans, pot barley and split green peas. I buy it as ready mix, a sort of slow food convenience package but it's easy to make your own favourite version with what you have in store. Choose pulses and grains that, like these, will cook in about the same time.

For this sort of wholefood soup it really helps if you can put the dried goods to soak for a few hours before starting the cooking, everything is softened and ready to go and the final dish seems more digestible for it. So put a couple of handfuls of mix in some clean water and leave to soak for at least two hours and ideally six.

An hour before you want to eat, start the soaked mix cooking. You can either cook it in its soaking water or do as I do and drain it, replacing the starchy soaking water with fresh. Add a vegetable stock cube and bring it all to a boil. Simmer for twenty minutes while you prepare the vegetables.



Although you can substitute any vegetables you like in this, the selection I chose today worked really well. I had some celeriac, carrot, potato and a small beetroot. The potato is a variety called Shetland Black, a heritage potato which is really floury. It has blue rings inside naturally and isn't going off! I also used a large clove of garlic, finely sliced.

Cut everything into small cubes no bigger than a pea. When your pulses and cereals have cooked for 20 minutes add the vegetables to the pot and bring back to a simmer.

There is no added oil or fat in this recipe and no need for extra seasoning if your stock cube is, as mine was, a bit salty, but taste it to test and add a sprinkle of salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

When the vegetables are cooked, you're ready. Ladle into a soup bowl, get some crusty bread to dip and tuck in.