1-2-3 Winter soup

One of the joys of cooking is sharing with others. It is a wet, windy and miserable day in the Capital today! Before the rain started we shared a lovely breakfast with family, with lots of fabulous food perfectly cooked on a BBQ (although I turned down the fried Black Pudding but those who like it really like it!) We really enjoy sitting down and eating together in fine Italian tradition. We see it as a great opportunity to catch up on news and family stories and we talk a lot about food  and wine - funny that! I am very hot on making sure the food we eat is good for you, which is probably why I prefer home-made most of the time. My theory is good food does not have to be expensive or hard to do, you just need to plan well and buy in season.

I recently made this soup and it ended up as dinner for us, lunch for a builder and dinner for an artist on a budget and we still had some left over to have for lunch the next day and lots to freeze for a later time. I love the simplicity of the recipe, just lovely fresh sweet vegetables and stock and it's cheap to make! Don't be put off by the much maligned swede, it adds a special flavour to the soup.

I am not sure where I got the recipe from, it might have been from Radio NZ National about 5 years ago.

Recipe

One swede - peeled and grated

2 big chunks of pumpkin - skin off and grated

3 large carrots - peeled and grated

4 sticks of celery - if you like - chopped (this is my addition to the recipe)

1/2 to 3/4 cup yellow split peas - (another personal addition to the recipe)

Vegetable stock or if you prefer chicken stock.

Add about 2 cups of stock to a large pot, add split peas and boil for about 20 minutes until they soften a bit. Add all the grated and chopped vegetables and boil for about 30 - 40 minutes. Keep and eye on it and stir every now and then. It will reduce down and become really thick, add more stock if you need to and check for saltiness, add pepper too. The soup can be whizzed to a finer consistency but I prefer the chunkier style.

Serve hot with buttered hot rolls or toast and forget about the cold outside!