When the children were young, they had free run of the kitchen sink filled with water and some washing up liquid. Into this ‘silly soup’ went all sorts of trimmings, peelings, odds and ends from whatever vegetable and fruit was being prepared for the next meal. Standing on kitchen chairs, the children would stir this soup with wooden spoons. It kept them happy and out of trouble for considerable periods of time.
This soup is not Silly Soup but Stone Soup. There are many versions of the children’s story Stone Soup, but the one I have in my head has been simplified to its bare bones. Essentially it is about a man placing a stone into a pot of water and saying he would make the most delicious soup with just these two ingredients.
Let me go back a step. The man is hungry and no one he approaches will give him any attention, time or food. He picks up a stone, puts it into a pot with water, and places it on an open fire. The onlookers are intrigued. After a few stirs the man says that the soup would taste even better if it had an onion in it. Someone produces an onion, which is chopped and added to the pot.
The stone soup, says the man, would be delicious as it is but (but!) if a carrot were added, the taste would be elevated further. Another villager offers a carrot.
Telling this story would be an excellent exercise in embellishing the taste of the soup with superlative adjectives. Shall we say that with added vegetables and meat, the stone soup would be: delicious, delectable, scrumptious, mouthwatering and exquisite.
In turn, each villager brings something to add to the stone soup. At the end, when they partake of the soup, everyone declares that it is truly the best soup they have ever tasted, and all made from a stone and some water!
I thought of this story as I wanted to make some soup for lunch and all I had were a few odd vegetables, but nothing that was obvious as a backbone to any soup I have made previously. There were some courgettes, onion, garlic, spinach stems and Swiss chard stalks. Then I thought if I added a handful of herbs from the garden and some miso paste the soup would begin to taste of something. I did not have any cream cheese (Boursin garlic + herb is best) which would have been a good addition.
I wrote down the weight of the vegetables I used but subsequently misplaced the sheet of paper. I think the soup will be different the next time round because it is in the nature of Stone Soup that anything and everything (except, really, there is no stone) can go into the pot.
As for the method of cooking: start off with frying the onion and garlic, then add the chopped vegetables one by one starting with the firmest vegetable first. I decided to only use green vegetables and to blend the soup. It is perfectly fine to make a chunky unblended soup, in which case all manner of vegetables of whatever colour can be used.
To serve, some focaccia, baguette or sliced sourdough and salted cultured butter is all you need.
