Soup number one - mixed veg.

Large onion. Fry in large Saucepan1 in slices.

4 dried apricots in fat with onions.

salt.

peanuts - about 2 teaspoon.

Stir ocasionally.

2 tomatoes. Not fit to keep any longer.

3 small courgettes - Mrs. Goldsmith`s organic ones.

5 madium potatoes.

2 tired apples - cut away any bits that are too rough.

I egg.

wholewheat flour - desertspoon.

Chuck it all in with some water and bring to the boil. Cook until soft. Mash in pan with potato masher. Serve hot.

soup number two - fish and chip soup.

1 Large onion and 1 clove garlic. Lard.

fry

knob fresh ginger

2 portions fish and chips - we orderd too much last night - cod and plaice.

1 leek

1 carrot

chopped purple sage

sea salt - interesting touch with fish

1 tablespoon cornflour.

(The cornflour is used as a thickener)

1 1/2 pints water.

Boil till satisfactory. Grated cheese on top when served.

Soup number three - potato and parsnip.

Pots and parsnips in even proportions

A few grapes.

Fry them in good quantity marg

Small quantity mixed herbs.

Salt.

Fry it all up

Water to cover after part frying.

Serve the veg as veg.

Serve the liquid as an extremely delicious soup/gravy/drink.

Goes very well with roilmops - and equally well with baked beans.

Soup number four - red cabbage, carrot and bread.

2 large carrots

1 slice of red cabbage

2 slice of granary melt bread - too old to eat as bread.

Thick Vegetable oil

1 heaped dessertspoonful wholewheat flour.

Sea salt

Mixed herbs

One leek

Fry the cabbage in vegetable oil until you are bored with doing it. Throw in flour and stir. Add water and salt, making a rue ( this is a kind of heavy thick paste that rolls about the frying pan, and seems to result from frying flour and then adding a tiny quantity of water to it, and finally when enough water has been added it goes liquid Properly), then other ingredients sliced.

Stir a bit

Top up with water - till about 2 litres.

Cook till softish

use potato masher, or, if you have One use blender to make it into thick cream Coup.

Back in pan, heat again adding chopped leek. Cook till leeks soft, but Preferably not Soggy.

Serve with bread and butter or nice cakes. The blended version is Particularly good, because the chopped leeks are added after, giving the element of surprise.

Soup no 5 - a bit of everything.

Small onion

large garlic Clove

9' Iceberg lettuce

2 big potatoes

salt

2 boiled beatroot

2 small bits fennel

water

slice of apple

5 small mushrooms

Boil, stir, add fennel.

Soup no 6 - another bit of everything type soup.

Some potatoes

Fat

Fennel (quate a lot>

6 large mushroom

salt

2 cubic inches apple

Fry. Add water. Mash. Add some more mushroom chopped small if you have some. Serve without waiting for the second lot of mushrooms to cook properly

Soup no. 7 - fruit salad soup.

This might be better described and served as a dessert.

Any dried fruit boiled in the minimum possible amount of water to make Syruppy gravy with fruit in it.

Add chopped fresh fruit and stir

Add yoghurt and water

mash the lot, but not very thoroughly. Serve cold

Soup no 8. Sag aloo, rice and fish soup.

portion sag aloo that is made with cayenne pepper

portion rice

water that fish has been cooked in

mushroom

onion

flour to stiffen the lot. Boil it up. Mash a bit. Serve.

We had this one so thick it was more or less a stew, and very delicious.

Soup no. 9 - Cabbage and mushroom soup with other stuff.

Small cabbage Medium onion

2 tablespns. hard vegetable oil

ten sultanas

two small mushrooms

Salt

2 tspns flour Water.

Fry everything except the water. Put in enough water to almost cover, and put the lid on. Boil lightly till Just tender. Makes enough for 5 or 6 decent servings.

We followed this with bread and honey, but quite why I don' t know.

Soup no 10 - popcorn and red cabbage soup.

Dessertepoonful dried maze.

Tiny red cabbage about 2" diameter.

Two medium size potatoes.

Vegetable oil, water, salt.

Ultra easy. Fry the dried maze in the oil in a pan with the lid on. Amazingly, it starts to explode, which is why you have the lid on and how you get popcorn. Shake it occasionally to make sure the unpopped bits reach the bottom of the pan and thus get popped. Add the potatoes and red cabbage cut small, some water, and some salt. Boil it all until you can squash any item in the mixture with a fork. If you have a blender, liquify most of it and then pour it back in with the unblended remainder - or blend the lot, which is slightly less entertaining to eat..

That's all. It's bright purple and delicious.

Soup no 11 - onion potato and celery with egg mayonnaise.

Clove garlic medium onion

2 medium potatoes

handfull of Bombay Mix

Small tin of celery in brine Salt

Fat

Water

One sandwich worth of chopped hard-boiled egg with mayonaise and chopped onion.

This more or less follows my standard procedure. Fry the garlic, onions, potatoes and Bombay Mix. Add the tin of celery and brine, and a little salt. Cook til soupy. Then chuck in the egg myonnaise. Smash it all up a bit and serve.

The small pieces of egg and uncooked onion are something special, whilst the mayonnaise just merges into the whole flavour.

You will percieve that little care has been taken to be exact in anything. It doesn't matter. Almost anything will do, and it is more a question of what doesn't work, which is surprisingly little. The things I have found not to work (from the point of view of my own palette, which is probably different from yours, so if you fancy trying any why not have a go?) are:

Fennel and fish, Thyme and fish, too much fruit (particularly if it is dried) in a veg soup - and probably too much veg in a fruit soup - but some people might disagree - (and) excessive amounts of salt, yeast extract, soy sauce and the like in almost anything.

I suspect such combinations as chocolate and leeks won't work, although you never know without trying, and I haven't yet.