If you enjoy cooking, then there’s no doubt that markets, butchers’, greengrocers’ & supermarkets are places of great promise. There’s a huge joy in deliberating what to buy next, and what wonders you can cook up with a ready supply of ingredients. But if you’re anything like me, the frequent food-shopping trips will inevitably leave you thinking “now what I am going to do with all this…?” At some time we all experience the situation where our larder is bigger than our stomachs!

A well run kitchen is one where left-overs are both planned for & managed; the low-carb kitchen is no different! Wastage of food is to be abhorred and never tolerated. It’s not only a waste of money, but also squanders environmental resources & is a slap in the face to those who live their lives without (are you getting the message that I don’t like wastage?).

To combat this, soup has always been the cook’s best friend! So many little bits of ‘this and that’ can go into the saucepan, in what can truly be a rags to riches exercise. The high vegetable content makes it incredibly nutritious; definitely a staunch contributor to your 5 a day! Another benefit of soup is that is freezes well and is great for lunches at work when time is short.

Anything puréed is not normally the best format for diabetics, as the cell structure is broken down prior to digesting the food. Carbohydrate is therefore released into the blood-stream far more rapidly as it doesn’t need to be processed further by the body. Thankfully, this recipe shouldn’t present that problem. The contents are extremely low in carbs, plus the addition of cheese serves to slow the absorption of what little glucose there is (fat slows down the body’s metabolism of carbohydrate).

This particular recipe is not only nutritious and delicious; it also posed the perfect solution to my ever-mounting pile of vegetables! I had a small bowl of cauliflower-rice that wasn’t enough to stretch to two portions, plus a small wedge of celeriac that was going nowhere on its own!  Any surplus vegetables would work wonderfully here, including spinach, broccoli (stalks too!), peas, rocket, watercress, courgette and mushrooms. About the only common vegetables which don’t make good soup are peppers, beans and aubergine.

Take a medium onion and roughly dice. Place a deep casserole onto the hob, with butter and a little oil, then add the onion. Chop your celery and celeriac and stir them in. If you’re using fresh cauliflower, slice into chunks and add this too (I used left-over cauliflower-rice, so put this in at the end because it was already cooked). Don’t allow the vegetables to burn, as this will muddy the taste.

Once the onions start to turn translucent, pour on water so that the vegetables are well submerged. Don’t go overboard on the water – it’s easy to add more, but sacrifices taste if you end up drowning them. Crumble in a couple of stock-cubes & dried herbs, then place the lid on the pan and simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft enough to collapse when pressed against the side of the pan with the back of a wooden spoon.

Finely dice your blue-cheese, then sprinkle this in (quantity to taste). Stir around, so that the cheese begins to melt, then go in with a stick-blender until smooth. Pour in a splosh of cream, then taste to check for seasoning.

Ladle into bowls and eat whilst piping hot. Just the thing for a cold, wintry evening!

Thanks for reading and bon ap!

Adam.