Antonia's Super Power Soup

In looking for a nice creamy veggie soup that would tick a lot of boxes, I thought I'd just go for it with some of my all time favourite veg, super spices and a few other ingredients to make the Ultimate Autumn Soup. And this is it. It's packed with phyto-nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that your immune system will devour. You can't really go wrong. Feel free to play with the ingredients - and then consume greedily knowing your body is in prime position to absorb absolutely all of it to full advantage.

Making of the veg stock is optional - but if you can, just tip the peelings, stalks, odds and ends into a pan of boiling water as you prep them. They boil up really quickly and release a lot of lovely alkalising minerals (around 30 mins) so it's a waste to umm.... actually waste them. In any case, you'll need about 600 mls at least of stock, so it's worth thinking about.

Ingredients:

4 tbls of Olive Oil

1 heaped tsp of butter

500 - 600 ml of veggie stock

1 leek, finely chopped

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1- 2 celery sticks, chopped

1 medium potato - white or sweet - diced

3 cauliflower florets, roughly chopped

3 broccoli florets, roughly chopped

1 small apple, diced

1 cup of chickpeas, or 1.2 cup of red lentils

3 spring onions, chopped

1/2 tsp curry powder

4 garlic cloves, crushed

3" fresh ginger, peeled & chopped

3" fresh turmeric, if available or 1tsp of dried

1 fresh chilli - your choice - or 2/3 tsp chilis flakes

1 handful of fresh chopped herbs - parsley, basil, oregano etc

1 tsp of seaweed flakes - optional

1 tsp nutritional flakes, optional

1 handful of fresh herbs

Method:

For the stock:

It doesn't take long to make a mineral rich veggie stock using your veg peelings etc. Better still, if you can gather them over a few days, you can get the pot bubbling as you prep this delicious soup. Almost every thing can go in - but I stopped short of ALL the cauliflower wastage in case it over-cooked and turned a bit sulphuric. Basically add all your veggies peelings to a large pan of water and bubble away for about 30 minutes. Of course, you can use a stock cube - veggie, mushroom or otherwise and water alone will be fine. Perhaps a combination is best?

For the soup:

1. Prep ALL of the veg and make the stock - about 600 ml

2. Warm up the olive oil and butter in a large sauce pan

3. Start adding handfuls of the veggies - starting with the leeks, onion and garlic

4. Keeping adding and stiring until all the veg is in and the heat is up.

5. Add the lentils or chickpeas

6. Gently add the stock and season with 1 tsp of black pepper and 1/2 a tsp of salt

7. Leave to simmer for 25 - 30 mins

8. Then leave to cool in the same pan

9. Blend with a stick blender

10. If you like, add a dollop of cream or creme fraiche and add more black pepper

11. Garnish with toasted seeds and a few fresh herbs, such as parsley

DELICIOUS@!@!@@