Summer soup

Now, this may seem like a bad idea - hot soup in summer, but this week has been distinctly autumnal. I was browsing a River Cafe cookbook in a library the other day and saw (and tried to memorise) a recipe for pea, potato and broad bean soup. I have a bit of an aversion to broad beans, and they keep coming in my organic box, so I have had to be inventive. I actually don't mind them at all if they are out of their bitter little skins, so bean eating is time consuming. I made up this soup from memory - fried onions and garlic, added chopped new potatoes and when nearly cooked added broad beans and frozen peas and as much basil as I could manage from my elderly and unloved basil plant. It was very subtle. I think my basil has passed it's useful life. I'll buy some more to reheat this soup with.

The other day I tried a potato salad with tapenade, based on an idea from somewhere of boiled potatoes dipped in tapenade. It wasn't the most successful salad - potatoes need some creamyness to make them into a salad. I'll post the recipe for my favourite potato salad soon. It's fab. I love being able to eat potatoes in the summer. I don't eat them the rest of the year as winter potatoes are too hi GI for my blood sugar to cope with. Cold boiled new potatoes are reasonable.

Got a book from the library to give me some new ideas. Nadine Abensur is probably my favourite cookery writer. Lots of delicious-sounding combinations in this one, which is going to be inspirational. I might even follow a recipe or two - which is almost unheard of for me! In the adding of the links to the above, I have found Nadine's own website, which I am looking forward to exploring.

Tomorrow I am going to my cousin's wedding, so I await with interest to see if the vegetarian option is more edible than the general reputation! A veggie friend promises to serve at her wedding fabulous vegetarian food with the meat eaters getting cold Findus Crispy Pancake after everyone else. Divine! This wedding is in a posh place, so fingers crossed for something delicious - and no doubt wickedly high GI. I have asked for fruit instead of pudding, so it wont be too bad!