A warming soup

If, like me, you're ill with the sniffles, chances are you'll be wanting some nice hot soup. But which soup to make? Well, this is a good source of recipes - I'm particularly taken with Ainsley Harriott's Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach soup, and not just because of my unhealthy obsession with Ainsley Harriott. Times are, though, I've leafed through that book and been faced with a whole load of recipes I don't have the ingredients for, and a whole world of worry.

Soup can be simpler and the following recipe is as simple as it gets, yet wonderfully hearty and spicy. Any of the root vegetables can be substituted for whatever you happen to have in and you can probably do the same with the spices, so if you haven't got enough ingredients to have a stab at it, it's probably high time you got yourself down the grocers anyway.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 potato
1 white beetroot
1 carrot
Olive oil
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp dried chili flakes
Boiling/hot water
2 tsp bouillon powder (or vegetable stock cube)
Lemon juice
Salt

• Heat a generous slug of oil in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion and garlic until the onion is soft.
• Peel the veg and cut into 1cm cubes. Add to the saucepan with the spices and continue to fry for a few minutes.
• Add the bouillon powder and cover with enough water for the vegetables to start to float. Simmer until the toughest of the veg are cooked (the carrot, in this instance).
• Remove from the heat and have at it with a hand blender until you achieve the consistency you require (I like to stop just short of smooth, so that tiny chunks of veg still remain). Add more water or simmer longer depending on the consistency you'd like.
• Add salt and a few generous dashes of lemon juice (the lemon really rounds it off; try it before and after). Stir. Serve!

Soupy twist.

Soft white rolls

The breadmaker is often viewed as one of the most-purchased and least-subsequently-utilised items in the modern kitchen, along with the pasta machine and the prawn pudding broiler, but I wouldn't be without one. The household breadmaker belongs to my housemate, K, but the day she finally loses her patience and ups sticks, it's high on my list of essential purchases. I can't remember the last time I bought bread in a shop. Generally I just bung in the ingredients and put it on the basic loaf setting, and bingo, a few hours later there's a hot tasty loaf o' crusty bread with a paddle in the middle, simple.

I've never yet got round to making proper, non-cheaty bread solely by hand, but I came a step closer recently with the recipe for soft white rolls included in the breadmaker's manual, because you just use it to make the dough which it's then your responsibility to do something with. Crivens!

You put in the following ingredients, all together, water first, yeast last. If you weren't using a breadmaker I imagine you could achieve the same effect by mixing it all together in a bowl and then, erm, doing something. Looking at the manual, the breadmaker kneads it three times and lets it rise at 30°C and 38°C in the two gaps, so I'd do that if I were you.

Water (tepid)                  1¼ cups
Skimmed milk powder     1 tbsp
Butter (melted)                2 tbsp
Sugar                              2 tbsp
Salt                                 1½ tsp
Strong white bread flour  3¼ cups
Fast action yeast             1½ tsp

When the dough's ready, you can knead it and shape it into six rolls, but it will stick to you like a limpet so sort out the other stuff you'll need first otherwise you'll get dough all over the Goddamned kitchen.

• Oven on, 190°C
• Greased baking tray
• Floured surface for kneading
• Full flour shaker or open bag of flour (add a fair bit at will while kneading, so dough becomes less sticky)
• Non-sharp spatula or similar implement(s) for scraping your hands
• A sink half full of hot soapy water
• Your biggest and most impressive knife (for dividing up the dough).

Once divided, they go on the baking tray, as far apart as you can to allow for expansion, and then cover for 20-25 minutes (with a damp teatowel, foil, a newspaper etc. If using a newspaper, try and get one you've bought yourself rather than one you found lying around on the bus, because hygiene is important). Then into the oven it all goes, for 15-20 minutes. And there you have it. They look and taste much as you'd expect, that is, if you were expecting them to be tasty.