Mixed Vegetable Soup

I apologise for being a bit absent this week, I've been really poorly and haven't really been able to cook/eat/write much. But I'm feeling better and have some things to show you now!

Soups are amazing. It wasn't until last year that I really understood how delicious a mixture of good veggies and some spices could be. Most of the soups I make are vegan too (I don't go for creamy soups really) and so this makes something great to post!

Soup is such a simple meal to make and is so versatile, they freeze beautifully, are cheap to make, full of goodness and easy to make in bulk. This one in particular was really easy as I just combined a load of vegetables together with some vegetable stock, salt and pepper and allowed it to simmer until all the vegetables were tender and then blended it. Stick blenders are a godsend when making soup. They're easy to use, clean up more easily than traditional blenders and can be used in the pan the soup was cooked in.

Ingredients (to taste - use what you like, leave out what you don't!)
1 onion
1-2 cloves crushed garlic
2 sticks of celery
1 courgette
1 sweet potato
A chunk of swede
1 carrot
Olive oil
Passata
Vegetable stock cube
Salt and Pepper
Dried mixed herbs


Method
Chop all your vegetables up into medium sized chunks. It doesn't have to be beautiful as it'll all get blended up later.
Sweat the onion off in the oil with the garlic until softened slightly.
Add all the reast of the vegetables and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
Pour over the passata and herbs and allow to simmer.
Crumble in the stock cube followed by enough boiling water to just cover the vegetables.
Put a lid on the pan and allow to simmer on a medium heat until the vegetables are tender.
Blend the soup to a consistency of your liking (add mroe water if you want it smoother) and season to taste. Enjoy piping hot with crusty bread.