We don't want Christmas decorations!

Yesterday I made my monthly appearance to the shops in the centre of town. You must know that where we live it feels like a real village community despite being only 15minutes walk from the main market square of Cambridge. Shops are local (the photo above was taken in the organic UrbanLarder) and don't belong to big chains (I am ignoring the newly opened Tesco, for me that doesn't even exist), people are friendly and recognise you so will say hello and smile. This heaven is called Romsey Town.

Well my decision to have only monthly visits to Cambridge is a clever one. But I wish I had stretched it to two months..... Christmas decorations are out already!! On 26th October. I couldn't believe it. This year they haven't even waited for Halloween ...one switches from beach barbeque sets with colourful Pimms' glasses to fake snowy peaks and made-in-China baubles. I find it slightly worrying.

I find Autumn colours so inspiring... I'm sure we could fill our shopping windows with leaves, pumpkins, and mushrooms (without turning the shop into a garden centre). As I said before, I will never ever again buy strawberries in January and my kitchen will be filled up with seasonal smells. So today I made the Autumnal soup par excellence.

Autumnal soup with Ricotta

100g butternut squash (or pumpkin);

100g parsnip;

50 celeriac;

half onion;

1l vegetable stock;

100g ricotta;

1tsp chopped thyme and rosemary (each);

100g kale;

1 tsp soy sauce

1. Make the soup. Peel all the vegetables and chop them small so that they cook quickly.

2. Chop the onion very finely. In a pan (the size depends on the amount of soup you want to make) cook the chopped onion in a couple of spoons of oil until golden. Add the herbs and toss well. Add a tsp of salt.

3. Make the stock and pour it onto the cooked onion. Let it babble for a minute. Add the vegetables and close the pan with the lid.

4. When the vegetables are cooked, blitz to make it smooth (to the horror of my husband who calls this a "baby-meal").

5. In a separate pan, warm a table spoon of oil and when it's hot (you can tell when the oil starts babbling - I wouldn't suggest to stick your finger in it!), drop the kale all at once so that it sizzles quickly. I love this sound! Let it crinkle for a minute, add a splash of soy sauce. Remember that soy sauce is quite salty so you won't need to add extra salt to the kale.

6. Spoon some of the soup into a bowl and add the ricotta and incorporate it with a spoon. I also added a few leaves of basil as I still have some persevering plants on my window sill.

7. Add the sizzle kale on top of the soup.

As always, I'm too greedy and never remember to take a photo before I start tucking into my dish! So you might notice bits of soup already on the sides of the bowl....I think I also exaggerated with the kale on top of the soup....

The weather is still good enough to enjoy lunch in the garden. The leaves on our patio are still hanging on there but I feel not for long. The colours are great though. There are even some enduring flowers which kept me company while I was devouring my soup...

A very green soup

Last night I was zapping around (is this the right word? mmm....probably not) the iplayer programs - it's true, we STILL don't have a telly (so what?) - and bumped into GUESS WHO?? Nigella, of course! Or maybe it was my subconscious that drove me towards her kitchen...

I cannot hide my horror at her inspired spaghetti with Marmite....blargh!! And once again she came back with a science-fiction story that Italians recycle the oil/sauce from their Sunday roast to dress their pasta on Monday. I think there must have been some cheeky Italian who took the real piss out of her. NON E' VERO!

And does she really have a fur apron? Well if so, I guess that's just fine....but I suspect there is somebody there who tells her to be provoking and open wide her black eyes at the camera while she ravages her larder, which is probably the size of my living room. Mhmm..

Well, at least I had a nice and healthy soup just before that. It was all a bit green to confess, but if it is your green day then you'll be ok. The original recipe (thank you Ilva for it!) wanted shrimps which I didn't have and couldn't be bother to go to Coop in the rain. So if you want to try it with the shrimps, do and let me know. I added basmati rice on the side.

Leek and Spinach Soup

Makes 2

One medium (length-wise) leek;

3-4 handful of fresh spinach;

a knob of butter;

1 tbsp oil;

200ml vegetable stock;

200ml fresh single cream;

1 bay leaf;

50ml milk.

1. Cut the leek in medium rings and cook them in a deep pan with some butter and a spoon of oil until tender.

2. Make the vegetable stock and pour it onto the leeks. Let simmer for a couple of minutes. Then add the cream and the bay leaf, and simmer for another few minutes.

3. Remove the bay leaf (if you leave in the cream for too long it starts tasting very terrible as it is quite strong), and add the milk to make it creamier.

4. Blitz everything and if necessary pass it through a colander to make it smoother. Add salt to taste and a touch of pepper.

5. Make separately the basmati rice. For 200g rice you need enough water to cover plus a finger above the level. Add to it a couple of knobs of butter, a tsp of salt, few leaves of jasmine tea, a cardamom and a starred anise.

6. Add the spinach to the soup which will only take a minute to wilt with the heat.

7. Pour the soup in the bowl adding in small quantities the rice which has been served separately. The rice functions as a form of bread.

Very filling and warming! The photo was taken half way eating it as I had forgotten. It's not great but just wanted to show you how fantastically green it is!