Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

RAB MCNEIL: Back on the soup and bowled over

Rab's been back on the soup again.
Rab's been back on the soup again.

That’s me back on the soup again. And all the better for it.

It’s a good way of getting veg in your diet.

Particularly if your gastric juices dry up when confronted by the sight and smell of a big mound of earthy green stuff on your dinner plate, next to your Quorn sausage roll.

If you’re the sort of sybarite who adds ham, beef or chicken to your soup, you don’t need the industrial amounts so often ingested with meat and two veg.

It’s been 20,00 years of soup

I believe it might make a chap a little slimmer too, particularly if he breathes in and avoids looking in the mirror. Why do mirrors always get it wrong?

According to top brothologists, soup has been simmering away for 20,000 years.

The continuity is comforting, and I like to think of our ancient ancestors being just like us, stirring a big pot of minestrone.

Or, if they didn’t have the ingredients yet for that, some grass and bark, flavoured with gravel and the bone of someone from another tribe.

It’s a winter thing

A fairly primitive fellow myself, I stopped making soup for a couple of years, I think one summer (it’s more of a winter warmer) and, when I took it up again, the results were initially disastrous.

I’m still limited with it but, eventually, you hit on a formula, which is fine if you don’t mind having the same one over and over again.

Lentils are the key to mine. Without them, I can’t get the consistency right.

Lentils are the key to a soup, says Rab.

Not rice, not pasta…

I’m thinking of experimenting with split peas, but can’t summon up the courage.

I’ve tried rice to thicken soup, but it then becomes too, er, ricey.

Pasta goes soggy. Spaghetti certainly doesn’t work, at least not without a bib the size of Wales.

One thing I learned was not to stint on the lentils.

I used to put in a relatively small amount, thinking to make this little bag of pulses last for three or four huge pots. Naw!

You don’t want a watery sea

Get most of it bunged in there. It’s better than using too much ready-made, packet stuff to thicken things up.

Just a couple of cubes in a huge pot usually takes care of the flavouring for me.

You don’t want your soup to be a bunch of solids in a watery sea.

Nor do you want it so thick you need to eat it with a fork and knife.

I’ll be quite candid with you here and confess that some soups I’ve made have gone straight into the bin.

That usually happens when I try adding anything new or different.

Chucking in everything doesn’t work either

I used to just chuck in everything: carrot, onion, mushroom, tatties, cabbage, pie, apples, sausage roll, dishcloth, beard exfoliator.

It didn’t always work, to be honest.

Now I’m more measured, basically carrot, onion and just a very small dollop of anti-dandruff shampoo.

The last magic ingredients

Salt is crucial to a good soup and hard to get right, but you learn to judge it in the end.

Then, if you’re lucky it’ll all turn oot just right, particularly if you leave it a day to settle doon.

After that, you just need a good dod of proper, thick bread to dip in it.

And that’ll be you: bowled over by soup!