Nourishing lamb bone soup

Well spring is now well and truly here in the UK, but you wouldn’t really know that given the weather at the moment.

The blossoms are out but some days are still pretty windy, rainy and chilly, so I still can’t quite yet depart from consuming the occasional bowl of warming, nourishing soup.

This lamb bone soup is the result of a beautiful leg of lamb we ate at the weekend, with all the trimmings.

Given all the current attention being paid to the nutritional benefits of bone broth, I couldn’t just throw that huge lamb bone and meat leftovers in the bin. It would have been a huge travesty.

Warming winter immunity soup

A delicious, immune-boosting winter soup

There’s really only one sensible thing to do when the weather starts to turn chilly – raid your fridge and your kitchen cupboard, find a big pot and get cooking some soup!

It’s one of the things I really love about winter – pouring over a hot steaming bowl of aromatic liquid chock full of fresh veggies (and some succulent pieces of chicken or fish if that’s your preference).

This recipe is based on ingredients I almost always have in my kitchen (yes, even the cavalo nero has become a staple now that I can regularly find it in my nearby supermarket) and they all have great immune boosting powers.

There was a time when I used to pride myself on my healthy immune system. Winters would come and go and the people around me would be reduced to red-nosed, sneezing wrecks as those pesky winter flu bugs took a hold, while I’d sail through the winter months snivel-free and blissfully unscathed.

Kale and potato broth with chorizo

I seem to have a habit of adding chorizo to soup these days. I do find it a great way to quickly add some flavour and spice to a recipe. There’s always some in my fridge, for occasions such as these.

Soup like this is always better made with a homemade vegetable or chicken stock, but as I was in a hurry (ie, nothing to eat for lunch!) I used an organic stock cube here, and the chorizo (plus a few dried mushrooms) helped to add more depth.

I was going to call this a hearty kale soup, but then I realised it wasn’t. It’s actually lovely and light, yet filling and warming at the same time. It’s more winter broth, than winter soup. And the main ingredients came from my rather unexpected organic veg delivery this week.

Roasted pumpkin soup with parmesan-hemp soldiers

Creamy pumpkin soup made with hemp milk and drizzled with pumpkin oil. Serve with crispy soldiers coated in hemp seeds and parmesan

I know what you’re thinking – not ANOTHER recipe for pumpkin soup. Admittedly, this time of year such recipes are everywhere – but personally, I can never have too much pumpkin. It’s really not a chore. My little boy isn’t yet old enough to know what Halloween is, so all the pumpkins in our house proceed directly to culinary use!

This pumpkin soup recipe has a few unexpected twists and turns. Notably, I’m using super-healthy hemp milk to make it silky smooth and add a delicate hint of nuttiness, and there’s also curry leaves and cumin thrown into the mix.

I still remember an amazing pumpkin soup I tasted a few years back in a cosy little family restaurant in the Austrian Tyrol. It was around this time of year, and the restaurant was a beautiful traditional wooden building, with big comfy cushions scattered on bench seating, low hanging lamps and the warmth of a semi-open kitchen.

Spicy haddock-quinoa chowder

As sad as I am to say farewell to all those lovely summer salads (they just don’t taste quite the same when the weather turns), I’m equally happy to embrace some autumnal offerings – and in the Life and Chai household, that means soup!

This particular recipe has been a favourite for quite some time. It actually seems to cross the bridge between those last few warmish days of summer and the chillier bite of autumn. Its bright colour means it looks like sunshine in a bowl, while the heat of the chorizo and chilli add a warmth that will be most welcome in the months ahead.