Hearty Vegetable Soup

There's nothing that quite beats a bowl of homemade vegetable soup in the winter time. Perfect if you're feeling a bit under the weather at the moment or if you just fancy a nice hot bowl to cozy up on the sofa with.

Ingredients:

• Four carrots
• Two potatoes
• One onion
• Two pieces of bacon
• One OXO cube  

You don't have to stick to what I have used. This recipe make around four bowls, so you can definitely use double the amount of ingredients I have selected to create more. Or you could even use totally different types of vegetables. It's up to you!

One you have washed, peeled, cut and chopped (oh and cried a little over the onions!) you're ready to start cooking!  

Add 3 tablespoons of oil into a good sized pan and add some chopped up pieces of bacon. Once the bacon starts to crisp add in the onions and carrots, give them a stir and place a lid on the pan. Leave to cook for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next stir in the potato pieces and replace the pan lid. Make up 750ml of stock, i've opted for the beef OXO cube, but you can use whichever stock cube you wish. Pour the hot stock over the vegetables and stir in well. Turn the heat down gently and leave the soup to simmer for around 15-20 minutes.

Once the vegetables are tender you can then take the pan off the heat. Scoop the mix into a blender, and blend until the smooth. I tend to do blend about five spoonfuls of the mixture at a time, simply because my blender scares the hell out of me! Once you have blended all of the mixture, season with salt and pepper, grab a bowl and enjoy!