What I eat and when has always been well influenced by seasonal produce. Obviously, personal choice is a large factor in this, but I have always been a firm believer in listening to your body and it will tell you what it needs. Our lives these days are so busy, hectic and cluttered with stuff and things to do that sometimes we don’t always give ourselves the time to listen to our bodies and to recognise that it will tell you if its running low on something, whether it be hydration, sugars, protein, essential vitamins and nutrients. Most of us recognise cravings but don’t pay too much attention to them unless they involve instant sugary hits or comforting mouthfulls of chocolate, sweets, maybe a glass of wine. But, often times, we need much more than just these instant hits of sugar and comfort.

In April last year, I went on a wild food foraging course, and I think it was then that I really clicked that the seasons are always in tune with what our bodies naturally need at that moment in time.  In the spring time, many of the wild foods you can forage for are absolutely jam packed with vitamin c.  Why is this?  Because its springtime and we are coming out of a long dark winter where, historically before the days of year round grown produce, our bodies will have long spent its reserves of vitamin c provided by the harvests of summer fruits etc, so this is what the body craves.  Similarly, as we face into winter time, we should be stocking our bodies up full with essential vitamins and minerals that will help to stave off nasty winter bugs and to keep ourselves strong through the winter.  Is it any wonder then that at this time of year, dark green leafy vegetable are so abundant?  Packed full with zinc, iodine and of course iron as well as vitamin c, b and loads of other really good and essential nutrients, we should not only be eating as much chard, beet, spinach, kale etc as we possibly can, but it is also a great idea to preserve the goodness as much as possible too.

A great way to do this is by batch making soups and freezing them to be pulled out in a time of a big vegetably vitaminy need!  You can make the base of this soup in big batches, portion off and freeze down.  When you are ready to eat some, just roast off some squash (any kind will do, and squash keep so well over the winter so it makes sense to team up with it) for a tasty, healthy and nutritious soup.  Adding in some general all round ‘do you good’ flavours such a ginger, chili and garllic and this really is a Be Well feast for your body! This soup needs little cooking, which is important if we are to preserve as much of the goodness from the plants as possible.

Ingredients (makes about 2 litres of soup):

For the green soup base:

• 1 large white onion
• 2 large sticks of celery
• Thumb sized piece of ginger (don’t even bother to peel it)
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 2 leeks
• 4 generous handfuls (or as much as you want) of a mixture of Kale, Chard and Beetroot tops
• 1 litre of vegetable stock
• Large handful of fresh parsley and thyme.
• 1/2 tsp of dried chilli flakes
• Lots of freshly cracked black pepper
• Sea salt to taste (remember the stock will be salty, so be light handed when seasoning at the end)
• Half a golden squash (or any type of squash, including butternut), peeled, deseeded, cubed and roasted in rapeseed oil salt and pepper.

Method:

• You can either hand chop everything or if you prefer to use a food processor then just deal with the onion, garlic, ginger, leeks and celery first.
• Heat 1 tbsp of rapeseed oil in a pan, and slowly cook the above ingredients until soft.
• Then add in the rough chopped greens.  Combine everything together in the pan and cook until just wilting.
• If you are eating this now, heat the oven to 180 degs celsius and place the squash on a lined baking tray and toss with rapeseed oil, salt and pepper.
• Place in the oven and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes until cooked through, and slightly golden.
• Add into the veg pan the parsley and thyme, chilli flakes and pepper.  Cook for another couple of minutes.
• Prepare your stock (either home made, or you can use a gelly veg stock and make it up to 1 litre with boiling hot water).
• When ready, place the green veg mix into a blender.  Add the veg stock and blitz thoroughly.
• This soup will not go completely smooth, but that’s OK, texture is a good thing!
• Pour the soup back into the pan and gently heat through again.
• Check for seasoning and adjust as required.
• Serve up a portion of the soup in a warmed bowl, and place the roasted squash pieces in the centre.
• If freezing, portion up the rest as required in well marked soup bags, seal and wait to cool down completely before placing flat into your deep freeze.

And…..Enjoy!