Top soups for winter

The Long Johns are on and it's starting to get cold so I thought I would dig out some soup recipes that I have made over the years. Homemade soups are great for not only getting a lot of vegetables in, but mixed with some good carbohydrates, they can make a complete meal for you or your family. They are a million times better than the ones you buy from the supermarket as you can control what you put in them and you can also tweak the flavour to suit your taste.

Have a go at some of these and let me know of any tweaks you made to suit your taste.

Pea, mint and bacon soup.

- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- a small knob of butter
- 1/2 onion
- 4 bacon rashers
- 1 garlic clove
-150g of frozen peas
- 150-250 ml of vegetable stock (depending on taste)
-1-2 handfuls of chopped mint (depending on taste)

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onions and butter and fry gently so they aren't coloured.

Add the bacon and cook until it goes golden. Add the garlic at the end but be careful not to burn it. It will make the soup taste rancid.

Add the peas, vegetable stock. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes (add the mint at this point) until the peas can be easily squashed.

Blitz the whole lot and add more water if you want it more runny. Also add pepper to taste.

If you want more pea taste, just boil a few more peas and add them to it. Next time use the larger quantity stated in the recipe.

Enjoy, there are more to come!