Granny’s Vegetable Soup

My Great Grandmother has been making this soup since my mother was a child. Its been adapted and changed slightly but still has the same delicious comforting feeling.

Granny’s Vegetable Soup

1 leek

1 clove of garlic

2 celery sticks

3 carrots

1 turnip peeled

1 parsnip peeled

1 potato

1 tin of four-bean mix

500g pumpkin or butternut

1 tin diced tomatoes

2 cubes of chicken stock

200g bacon or chicken sausages or other slow cooking meats

Boiling water

Salt and pepper to taste

1.     Thoroughly wash leek, then chop it and put it in a deep pot (I use a pressure cooker) to cook until they have softened slightly, then crush garlic into the pot.

2.     Chop celery and carrots roughly but not too large and add them to the pot on a low heat.

3.     Grate your turnip and parsnip (they are best grated because their flavours can be overpowering in large chunks). Then add them to the same pot.

4.     Roughly chop your potato and butternut, as large or small as you like and add it to the pot. (Remember the larger they are the longer they take to cook)

5.     Then add four bean mix (including the juices), tin of diced tomatoes, chicken stock cubes, and your chosen meat. Now add your boiling water, the water should cover all the vegetables in the pot but come ¾ of the way up the pot. Be careful not to overfill it if you are using a pressure cooker.

6.     Give the pot a stir and then place the lid on. In a pressure cooker the soup will take around 15-20 minutes and a further 5 minutes to cool before you can safely open the lid. In a normal pot it will take around 45 minutes, but that depends on your vegetable size, so simply cook until the vegetables are soft. Season to taste.

7.     It’s yummy with grated cheese on tip and buttered bread on the side. Store it in the fridge in an airtight container and enjoy throughout the week.

During winter we keep a constant supply in the fridge because it’s a perfect winter lunch and is packed with healthy vitamins, it’s a very balanced meal. If you are vegetarian then leave the meat out, it’ll still taste great.