It has been a week full of surprises. Having finally set up this blog, I am finding that there is so much I want to tell everyone about simple living. As this week saw freezing temperatures, I decided that pots of warming, homemade soup had to be the answer. As I was waiting for my Riverford box on Thursday ( we have one in the winter when our vegetable supply is a little depleated or as I discovered, the leeks were frozen solid in the ground), I had to be very inventive. Still I had one onion and four slightly dubious looking carrots. Once everything had been peeled and chopped I browned them off in a tablespoon of olive oil. I then added a can of drained butter beans. (Very good for protein. As an alternative you can always use one large potato, peeled and cubed.) To all of this I added 750mls of stock made with a stockcube. Covered the pan and brought to the boil. In fact I used my pressure cooker. Once hissing I let it carry on for 10 minutes. After that I used one of those whizzy, blender things. What a lovely soup. It kept me going at lunchtimes for three days! And was very yummy! Also much cheaper to make than buying one of those boxed soups which do not seem to last very long.
Actually the pressure cooker is also a brilliant item. You use far less power, probably about half in fact and when you cook veggies in them they appear to retain their taste and colour. Happy simple cooking.