Some of the ingredients (not in the right proportions, though!)

It’s the time of year when lots of produce is coming out of the garden. In the past week I have made courgette and carrot soup for the freezer, and moussaka with courgettes rather than aubergines as ways to use some of the abundance. Despite this, I still have five or six courgettes in the fridge and many more growing in the garden, so I thought that I would return to a favourite recipe: Mulligatawny soup. The recipe I use is adapted from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery course, although there is a slightly more ‘modern’ version on her Delia Online website.

I make this with olive oil rather than butter as I am lactose intolerant and I vary the curry powder according to whim (the original recipe recommends Madras curry powder, but I don’t think I’ve ever used it).

3 large onions, chopped
75g butter or oil of your choice
700g courgettes, diced
225g tomatoes, chopped and skinned
I large potato, diced
425ml stock or water
1 dessertspoon Worcester sauce
1 teaspoon curry powder
about 200g cooked rice
salt and pepper

1. Cook the onions in the oil until they are golden brown.
2. Add the potato, courgettes and tomatoes
3. Season, cover and cook over a low heat until soft (20-30 mins)
4.  When cooked, puree the vegetables.
5. Mix the puree, stock/water and cooked rice together with the Worcester sauce and curry powder (to taste) in the saucepan.
6. Reheat and cook for 5 minutes.

I love this recipe because, in a good year, all the vegetables are available from the garden at the same time. Sadly this year, I don’t have any onions, but other than those I think I should manage a good few batches using homegrown produce. We have an organic farm not far away who grow onions, so I will be using those and supporting a local farmer too.

This is a lovely warming soup for the winter, so I will be freezing batches of it for use in the cold and gloomy days of November and December.