I like to think of myself as pretty thrifty and like nothing more than making the most out of my shopping budget.

I usually try and buy unpackaged veg to avoid waste but its getting increasingly harder to do as Im time poor and rely far to heavily on supermarket shopping.  This week has been a case in point. When shopping it was cheaper for me to buy pre packaged vegetables which left me with too many sweet potatoes, carrots and Broccoli. I hate throwing things away and whilst these weren’t plate ready there was nothing wrong with these veggies.

Ive taken to starting Sunday mornings by using these leftover veg to make lentil and leftover soup.  These aren’t leftovers in the traditional sense – none of this has been cooked before but these are veggies that we all consistently have in the fridge or cupboard that would otherwise be thrown away. This recipe is also brilliant because as its all veggie so lasts for ages in the fridge but literally takes no time or effort at all to make!!

Ingredients

• A couple of onions (I had red in the onion box)
• A couple of carrots
• The centre of a wilted celery (we all have them!!)
• Veg stock (I used marigold Swiss veg stock and water)
• Dried Lentils – I had green but red or yellow would do fine as long as they don’t need pre-soaking)
• Squirt of garlic paste (or a clove of garlic mashed)
• Herbs (i got a couple of bay leaves, some thyme and Marjoram from the garden)
• Your leftover veggies- These must contain some potatoes in some form to thicken this soup

Method

Chop your onions, carrots and celery then soften in a little oil with the garlic paste in a heavy bottomed pan for about 10 minutes

Meanwhile raid your fridge and veg rack for your leftover veggies – Try and mix up green and root veggies and leeks are genius in this

Dice all your veggies into similar sizes then add to the pot with some herbs. Stir then pop on the lid and steam for 5 minutes.

Add enough stock to cover the veggies by 2 cms then bring to the boil, simmering for 10 minutes when it gets there.

Add in a handful of lentils and continue simmering for a further 20 minutes or until everything is tender

Take out a pint of the mixture (mostly lentils if you can) then blitz the rest with a sick blender.

Return the reserved soup to the pan then stir and serve with crusty bread