Heart warming, toe tingling soup

This damp, dull weather calls for food that soothes the soul and warms the hands. I often forget just how relaxing the act of making soup can be. How quickly the flat fills up with such wonderful earthy smells. And yet, for some reason I tend to shun this ritual - the thought of the time consuming chopping and the missing ingredients tend to feature high on the why not list.

Cold feet, another sleepless night and a general air of dankness led to me yearning for soup to lift the heart. Not to mention a complete lack of desire to walk aimlessly up and down the uninspiring supermarket playing 'guess where they've moved it now' - which really does tire after a while. I wonder whether it's a ploy to keep old minds active and yet all it does is cause confusion and dismay. I struggle to believe that the simple act of moving beans to the next aisle increases sales. Well, it does for the supermarket up the road. I digress.

We had some small squash left from our recent PYO trip, some very sad, very floppy purple carrots from the farmers market a couple of weeks ago, an onion which had secretly rotted at one end (poor produce from same said uninspiring supermarket), some of Mr M's fresh chillies that he's been growing at work and some long forgotten celery in even more of a state than the carrots. I found this recipe, ignored the quantities and the bay leaf. And it is delicious. And the heart has indeed been lifted.