BBC Radio Northampton lunch challenge: Day one - Parsnip, celeriac and garlic soup

Parsnip, celeriac and garlic soup

Day one of the #ShelfWars lunch challenge from BBC Radio Northampton (see my last blog!) has got off to a great start!

I used some #SOS parsnips (reduced from £1.69 to 29p), celeriac (reduced from £1.40 to 21p) and a lime (reduced from £1.29 to 25p for a bag of five) to make a somewhat experimental soup for next to nothing.

Here's how I made it:
1) Dice an onion and soften it in a pan with a glug of olive oil.
2) Peel and roughly chop some parsnips and a whole celeriac along with a few cloves of garlic to your taste.
3) Add the chopped parsnips, celeriac and garlic to the onion and soften for a few minutes.
4) Add approx one litre of vegetable stock to the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the veg are soft.
5) Blitz up with a hand blender and add black pepper and salt to taste.
6) For a zingy kick squeeze in the juice of a fresh lime and serve.

I had this with the lime juice and Mr Kate had it without - both tasted great but I did like the zing that the lime added. It might sound like an odd addition but I really enjoyed it! The soup was silky smooth too - very pleasant indeed!

The soup cost approx 80p to make when I added in the non-shelf garlic, onion and glug of olive oil, and there was enough for four servings. 20p a serving!

I added a reduced sesame seed roll for 6p from the freezer (reduced from 70p to 38p for a pack of six) and a pot of reduced fresh pineapple and mango reduced from £1.30 to 29p to complete my lunch.

So, day one of the lunch challenge and a grand total of 55p for a two-course lunch packed with several of my five a day fruit and veg portions! Healthy and bargainous!

Beat that BBC Radio Northampton! ;-)