Potato and Parsley soup with black peppered bread

Saturday 5.45pm

Potato soup, another creamy comforting soup for autumn this one with some parsley for freshness.

- heat some oil hot in a saucepan

- add a couple of rashers of bacon chopped anyold how and turn the heat down (if you are vegetarian of course, just miss out the bacon)

- when it is just sizzling add an onion and three small sticks of celery all chopped

- leave to cook gently until it all smells glorious – a good ten minutes I should think. You - want people to come into the kitchen and ask what you are cooking with a dreamy longing look on their faces.

- Peel and chop three potatoes , add them to the pan and leave for a few more minutes now, stirring to mix and stop it sticking.

- Add a pint and a half of vegetable stock – I used Rapunzel vegetable boullion mixed half strength as usual.

- Once the potatoes are soft, say twenty minutes to half an hour, whiz the lot in a liquidiser

- Bung it back in the pan, check seasoning and add a tablespoon of chopped parsley as you warm it through.

As say, creamy and comforting this one with a hint of onion, celery and bacon for depth. It still needed a bit of a kick though so I made some bread topped with olive oil and lots of crushed black pepper. The pepper seems to take on a lovely lemony tang when cooked with a warmth to match the soup.

Strangely enough after I added the parsley the soup took on a slightly fishy taste which gave me an idea. How about for a dinner party starter – grill some nice firm white fish with salt pepper and butter. Put the soup in some warm shallow bowls and place a fish fillet in the centre with the hot salty peppery butter poured over. Sounds good to me, and I’ll probably have a go one day, but not for Nicola – I cannot really describe the shape of her face when I mentioned this idea but it was not encouraging !

Mind you, she also compared my soup to packet soup as well, and I can see what she means, I think it is the onionyness in the background, but there is nothing wrong with packet soup if that is what you want at the time. Or actually I should say there is probably lots wrong with packet soup but I have still eaten it !