Got the sniffles? Get some Spicy Soup on the go!

Feeling right sorry for myself the past couple of days. I'm all bunged up with the cold and had to call in sick for two shifts at placement - I bet you I missed something exciting too! Poor James has been off too due to his ankle - finally got him to go to the Minor Injuries unit yesterday (what a polava, the car ran out of fuel and everything!), but apparently it is going to take 4-6 weeks for it to heal properly. The thing he is most sad about is that he can't play bike polo for all that time.

On the upside I got my broken phone swapped for a sparkling new one :) Also James has found a buyer for his car (it's actually the guy he bought it off of in the first place) and he is coming up on Friday to get it. Exciting but it's sad to see The Bitch go. I thought we would get one last trip in it before it moved on to it's next owner.

As I have been feeling so sorry for myself, all I have done is spend countless hours staring at people's blogs looking for inspiration (despite the fact I could be getting on with three projects already started and not to mention two essays I should be working on) and sleeping. I finally decided my need for soup was so great I got out of my snot-filled den and shuffled over to the kitchen and fired up the hob. This is an awesome recipe for Spicy Carrot Soup from the amazing book The Soup Bible - Debra Mayhew. So far all (bar the borscht - but then maybe that is just not for me) of the soups I have tried, I have loved. I recommend this book to all home made soup fans out there!

In the ingredients it states it serves 6 but I reduced it so much that it gave James and I a massive bowel each and that was it! Should give me a nice shot of vitamins to help rid me of the snots! 

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 675g carrots, sliced
• 5ml of ground coriander, ground cumin and hot chilli powder
• 900ml veg stock

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and carrots and cook gently for five mins until soft. Add the spices and stir for a further min continuing to stir.
2. Pour in the veg stock, bring to the boil then simmer gently for 45 mins until carrots are tender.
3. Once cooked, cool soup and purée.
4. Re-heat and serve with warm bread (or in my case a garlic banquette yum) 

Here's hoping it burns away the sniffles!

Kirst xx