Well I bought a bag of wild rocket for an Italian recipe. A couple of days later, I found a bag in another shop that looked a lot better. So I did the recipe (spaghetti with prawns, chilli, lemon and rocket, since you ask), then had all this rocket left over. So I made some rocket soup. All it took was an onion, some potatoes, a couple of veg stock cubes and the rocket, blitzed. It was a lightweight soup but very nice at lunchtime with a bit of crusty sourdough.

Jamie Oliver came on the telly the other night making a fish pie that had frozen spinach in the recipe. I couldn't find frozen spinach so I bought a big bag of fresh. Then, two days later, I found frozen spinach in a different supermarket. So I had this bag of spinach going begging. I hate waste, so I found a recipe for spinach and lentil soup. You start with a classic soffritto of carrot, celery and onion, softened up for half an hour in olive oil (extra virgin at all times, please...). Once softened, I added 140g green lentils and three pints of weak veg stock. After half an hour I threw in the spinach, about 250g. After a few minutes I blitzed the lot and checked the seasoning. The recipe sez to serve it with a good swirl of cream and a sprinkling of crispy bacon on top. I haven't got that far yet, but the basic soup tastes great and I'll probably freeze it tomorrow as we're replete with stuff still to eat up (a good position to be be in). I have a big pan of finished chicken stock from the Sunday roast but I'm saving that for my signature roast chicken and bacon risotto on Saturday night. I wonder whether I'll get my just reward... ;-)