My vegetable delivery came before I had finished all the root veg in the last box. However, the weather turned cold at more or less the same time, so I made some warming leftover soup.

• Ingredients: a small bunch of baby carrots, one largish raw beetroot, one leek, a cupful of leftover potato curry, a slice of stale crusty bread, fresh coriander, pepper, salt. 15g butter or olive oil.

• Method: Wash and cut up all the vegetables, peeling the ones that need it. Sauté them in the butter or oil over a medium low heat. When everything is mixed together and the leeks are pretty well cooked, add the bread, chopped up, and the cup of potato curry. Then fill the pan with enough water just to cover everything, adding the coriander stalks and half the leaves. If you don’t have any leftover potato curry, just add vegetable stock instead. This soup isn’t supposed to taste the same every time you make it.

When it seems to be cooked, blend until smooth. My stick blender is over 40 years old and started to make a chugging noise so I stopped a bit before the end. Serve garnished with coriander leaves and if you want to go non vegan, a smidgeon of sour cream/crème fraîche. Very nice by itself, with croutons or something on toast.

Something on toast

I’m pretty sure there is an episode of As Time Goes By where the Judy Dench character tempts the Geoffrey Palmer character with ‘Well, it will have to be something on toast’. Traditionally this would have meant a supper dish involving a tin of pilchards, sardines, cheese, or Shipham’s paste.

Fortunately, I can offer here a beautiful smoked mackerel from the legendary Steve Hatt fishmongers. Along with some hot toast, butter and pepper it makes a perfect anytime meal. Leftover mackerel can be mixed with crème fraîche or cream cheese to make an easy fish pâté.