Soul Food

I’ve started to make home-made soup once or twice a week. I enjoy sourcing the recipes, buying the ingredients and ceremoniously placing my large stainless-steel soup pot on the hob. We tend to enjoy simple soups such as courgette, lentil and bacon, cauliflower and potato. Soups which don’t require too many ingredients. I enjoy the peeling and the chopping. The satisfaction of crushing a garlic clove, the precision required in finely chopping herbs, slicing carrots, potatoes and courgettes. But the most pleasurable part for me is when the vegetables have been cooked and are simmering away in the stock and the soup is now ready to be liquidized. Watching all the lumps disperse to reveal a smooth, thick, earthy soup is always a joy.

My enjoyment for making soup stems from my childhood. My granny and grandad used to spend Tuesday afternoons grating and chopping vegetables and making a huge big pan of Scotch Broth. I was very fussy as a child and didn’t like lumps so my granny always sieved it for me. It ended up like consommé but I loved it. My grandad always got the job of grating the vegetables- his fingers were always covered in plasters!!!!!

As an adult I now look back and realise that for my granny and grandad, making soup was an act of love. My parents always received a flask on a Tuesday evening and when I married my granny and grandad made a flask for myself and my husband. It was a sad day when they were no longer able to make the soup due to frailty but by then my mum had started to make soup for them.

When I feel overwhelmed with life or just feel a bit down I find that making soup is a restorative act. When my mind is too busy- the whole act of making soup focuses me. The process of chopping, frying, stirring, crushing, liquidizing brings order where there is turmoil. The finished product provides me with such satisfaction because I have produced something good. I have created something delicious and nourishing and I experience a sense of peace. The act of making soup ultimately feeds my soul. For myself making soup is an act of worship. I am using God’s provision to make a meal. I am co-creating with the Creator. As I make soup I remember the gift of my grandparents love. And as I sit down with my husband to enjoy my soup with freshly buttered bread, I sense God’s pleasure- the kind of pleasure my granny and grandad used to get as they watched me enjoy their delicious Scotch Broth- albeit sieved!!!

Louise’s Courgette Soup

Ingredients
6 courgettes,
2 onions
3 garlic cloves
2 medium potatoes
2 pints vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Chop the garlic, onion and courgettes and fry in a pan with some butter or olive oil. Once soft add stock and the two peeled potatoes chopped into halves. Simmer for 20 mins until potatoes are soft. Season, liquidize and enjoy!