FROM THE VEG BOX

New Year, new you. So we decided that we'd be all ethical and good and eat more veg. So, on recommendation from James and Charlotte, we opted for the Able & Cole large veg box, twice monthly. Turns out its reasonably economical. And there's no packaging, they pick up the box and they're very nice on the phone to boot.

I've decided to regale you with recipes from my veg box, and this is the first this I made.

Laura's veg box curried parsnip soup.

1 large onion, roughly chopped

1kg parsnips, roughly chopped into small cubes

2tbsp olive oil

3 sprigs or so, of fresh thyme

3tbsp honey

4 tbsp mild curry powder

1.5 litres chicken stock

200ml double cream (naughty!)

bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, or coriander to serve

So, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. In a roasting tin toss the onion and parsnips with the oil, thyme, honey and curry powder. I used mild curry powder as I'm a wimp, but feel free to spice things up with more potent blend. Pop into the oven for about 30mins until all the parsnip is cooked through and very soft.

When this is nearly done, get your stock into a large pan, along with the cream and bring to a simmer. Add the roasted parsnip and onion, being sure to pick out the thyme stalks. Simmer these in the stock and cream for about 10 mins. At this point, if you like, you can add a ladle full of the stock into the roasting tin, placed over the heat, to get all the lovely roasted flavour from the bottom of the pan, and add this to the soup. Remove the pan from the heat, and with a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth. If using a hand blender, be patient, it might take a wee while, but it's worth it for non-lumpy soup. If the soup is a little thick at this point, add some more stock to get a smoother finish. You don't want it to have the consistency of baby food, because that's gross.

Lovely, serve it with snipped flat leaf parsley or coriander and little toasted nan breads.