I made a very nice mushroom and spinach soup yesterday which tasted great today. I used about 2 1/2 pints of not too strong chicken stock (home-made).

I fried four chopped banana shallots in butter along with a finely-chopped medium potato. After a few minutes I crumbled in about 400g chestnut mushrooms and added a slug of sherry, the zest of a lemon and a handful of fresh parsley. Once the mushrooms were well softened I added the hot stock, brought it to a simmer and left it for about 15 minutes.

After that I added a whole 200g bag of ready-washed baby spinach, left that to wilt for a few minutes then whizzed the whole lot, leaving it a bit rubbly rather than too smooth. The seasoning was a bit trial and error but I got there in the end. The aim was to have a hearty soup that we could drink from a big mug. It was lovely and we have enough left for two more lunchtimes. A lot of mushroom soup recipes call for cream or milk, but we both felt that the soup was delicious without that. You could easily leave out the sherry.