With today being a cooler day, bringing gusts of wind that sprayed rain sideways, I decided soup for supper was needed to ease the melancholy. Especially since I also had fridge full of leftovers and two containers of chicken stock that needed to be used up.

I normally prefer to cook with a recipe.  Even if I am making a pizza dough for the gazillionth time, I still feel better with the cookbook open just to make sure I don’t screw it up. But for the soup tonight, I decided to wing it and just throw in what I thought made sense. So through the fridge I went – Quer durch den Kühlschrank.

While melting some butter in a big pot, I cut up some onions and threw them in with the melted butter. I then peeled a few potatoes and added those to the sautéed onions. In the crisper I found 3 carrots that were rather floppy – perfect companions for the soup – so I peeled and cut them into slices and in they went. I also found some pancetta, and even though I don’t eat pork much anymore, I decided it would add a nice smoky edge to the soup. I then added a few bulbs of crushed garlic.

While everything in the pot was softening up and getting to know each other, Little T came into the kitchen and asked if he could add something to the soup too. Surprised by his interest in cooking, I said sure! When he grabbed a bottle of hot sauce, I had to gently suggest that maybe it wouldn’t make the soup taste too good (not for his taste buds anyway). Same for the jar of chocolate spread he grabbed next. But when he held up a small bottle of walnut oil, I thought, why not! So in that went too before the chicken stock.

After a good workout at the gym while Little T did karate class, we were greeted home by the smell of the soup upon entering the front door. I pureed it, checked the seasoning, and added in the remainder of a yogurt container to give it a creamy texture. After pouring it into a bowl, I sprinkled on some seeds I collected in the last week from the bottom of the bags containing our morning breakfast buns. I ate my soup with a spoon, while Little T slurped his with a straw.

It was the perfect way to end a Monday. Well, according to Little T it would have been perfect. With the chocolate.