Saturday 24 January 2015

Cheap Smallholding Soup And Fruit Soda Bread.



We have been making some fruit soda bread and some leek, onion and parsnip soup this morning.  The soda bread MIX only cost 48 cents and the vegetable soup cost nothing, apart from the fuel in the range and the leccy to liquidize the soup.  Not bad hey?
I think we liquidized the soup too much.  But it filled an hole and I bet it's full of vitamins.  Do you make soup?  What's your favourite?  



20 comments:

  1. Just reminded me that I have not posted my chicken soup recipe yet, Oh yes, I make chicken soup Dave...

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  2. Hi John. Last time I made chicken soup, the wife went into labour with number 2 son. I haven't made any more since!

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    1. Lol, do you think the two events are related? It was tacos that made me go into labour, though being a numpty I thought I had REALLY bad indigestion :)

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    2. Not sure Twiggy. But I felt like I had invented some witch doctor labour making chicken soup. I suppose it was just a coincidence?

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  3. Bargainous, I love soda bread and always have it for breakfast when we're in Ireland. Didn't know it came with fruit in too, even better! I often make soup with leftover veggies or if we have a glut from the allotment use whatever we have too much of, over the last year it's been mainly carrot, pumpkin, parsnip, leek and potato.
    Twiggy

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    1. Yeah the soad bread with fruit was an Odlums bread mix. Dunno if you can get Odlums stuff in Blighty. Soup is great and like you say you can use all the leftover veggies for it. I must have a go tomato soup tomorrow. We bought 12 of them from Aldi today. There veg is always incredibly cheap and great for when you haven't got much left on the veg plot. Thanks!

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  4. Islwyn the village elder couldn't have made soup better

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    1. Hi John. It gives Islwyn (read John's blog if your confused) power to push his trusty wheelbarrow.

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  5. I like the sound of your parsnip soup and will certainly want to try making it myself sometime. I have grown vegetables for years but this is an omission. We are gradually moving in the smallholding direction now we have a bit of land but it seems a bit wimpish compared to your mechanical constructions. I enjoy your blog.

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    1. Hello Philip. I am glad you enjoy the blog - thanks! We do most of our vegetable growing by hand. The plot is now 14 years old and we are thinking it might be getting a bit tired and we should make a new veg plot. I would get the tractor to rotovate or light plough a new area. Thanks!

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  6. Lentil, made with a ham shank done overnight in the slow cooker on low, the meat slides off the bones, and leaves a lot of lovely stock. Chopped onions, carrots, a handful of lentils and any lurking decrepit veg thrown in, just left in slow cooker for a few hours. Don't bother liquidising, sometimes throw the rag-ends of the meat back in as well.

    Been meaning to have a go at the traditional Dutch pea soup, it's so thick a spoon stands up in it.

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    1. Hi Cumbrian.

      Lentil and ham sounds good. Slow cooking is the best way to cook. Let me know how the Dutch pea soup turns out please. We are making some tomato and basil soup today and another loaf of bread. Thanks!

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  7. Chicken and carrot soup is a staple here. I love homemade food and yours looks wonderful and warming. Have asked my other half to do a guest post on my blog about his homebrew, it should be up some time today :o)

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  8. Chicken and carrot soup sounds splendid CT. It was a bit bland yesterday, but you could spice it up I suppose? Look forward to reading your blog about home brewing - thanks!

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    1. I add turmeric to everything- it's a good anti inflammatory as well as being a nice, smokey flavour.

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    2. Thanks for the turmeric advice CT. Didn't know Turmeric was a good anti inflammatory - thanks!

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  9. I make a lot of soup mainly using what ever we have a glut of, still have lots of tomato soup in the freezers, we had so many Toms this year, as for our favourite, that's a hard one, carrot and coriander, leak and potato ,mushroom, tomato, ham and lentil, and the winner is... broccoli and stilton.

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  10. Your soup sounds wonderful, Anne. Never heard of broccoli and Stilton. I like broccoli very much. We always find it difficult to get good English cheeses here. We bought some Wensleydale the other day.

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  11. The first time I had this soup Dave was in a gastro pub in Corfe Castle, near Swanage in Dorset, it was made with my all time favourite cheese, Dorset Blue Viney. This is a wonderful cheese and very hard to find even in Dorset. So I experimented with various blue cheeses, stilton seems to be the widely available blue cheese, in Spain I used to buy a French blue cheese, Roquefort to make the soup with, I don't know if you can buy that here, but any good blue cheese can be used ( except Danish blue, far too harsh) Some excellent recipes on the internet for this type of soup.

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  12. Thanks Anne. I notice that Lidl have a wide range of continental foods these days. Lots of cheeses and hams. Also see that Aldi are selling ten litre shoe boxes (3pk for 7.99) that look perfect for curing bacon. Will check them out. Thanks!

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