I make a lot of cakes. Pastries, slices, anything baked really. I even have a site called Sophie Likes Cake. You can probably guess that because of this I would also consume a lot of cake. In an attempt to counteract my calorific hobby, I also go to the gym. A lot. I also tend to eat a lot of vegetable soup.
This soup I call “skinny soup”. It is filling, warming, full of flavour but not full of calories. As it requires some pretty cheap vegetables and some budget tins of tomatoes, it is also skinny on the old bank balance, which is currently sitting at about $11.
Most Sundays I will cook up a nice big pot of this soup and take jars of it with me each day for lunch. You could add in a tin of lentils, barley or even pasta to hearten it up. I don’t ’cause, you know, carbs.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- splash of cooking oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 carrots, diced
- 350g pumpkin, skinned and cubed
- 3 stalks of celery, diced
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground chilli
- 3 OXO vegetable stock cubes (chicken will also work)
- 600ml hot water
- 2 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- salt to taste
- freshly chopped coriander leaves to stir through at the end
Method
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan, sauté the onion until translucent, then add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute.
- Tip in the carrot, pumpkin and celery and leave to fry for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Tip in the spices and stir to coat the vegetables. Fry for another two minutes to release the flavour.
- Dissolve the vegetable stock cubes in the water and pour this into the saucepan along with the tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Simmer the soup for around half an hour until all the vegetables have softened. Add salt to taste. Stir through the chopped coriander and serve.