Brain food in a bowl

THE OLDER I get, the more books I receive as Christmas presents – and they’re not just ones with recipes in them. Reading lends itself to eating big bowls of hot food, which you can chase down with cheese and hunks of bread. And this time of year is also good for watching a better class of television. No more the torturous clang of the X Factor or the addictive business thrashing that is The Apprentice. Instead, this is the month I am usually subjected to slightly more high-brow television, including University Challenge which is exactly what it says.

My husband, who is a dedicated Crosaire man, so you’ll know what I’m up against, prides himself on being able to answer plenty of the questions Jeremy Paxman barks at the contestants, while I stare blankly at the screen wondering whether I put too much garlic in yesterday’s dinner.

However, I have found that occasionally shouting out the name of a famous king of England (usually the fellow who liked to have his wives decapitated), or the name of some Impressionist can mean I get a correct answer now and then.

It is also advisable to chance your arm on the mathematical questions, and shout out “minus one” to any convoluted equation that goes something like this: “What is x if x is equal to the higher power on non root square something’s to the power of pi?” I would say you have a 50/50 chance of either one or minus one being the correct answer, though I often chance 0 just to mix it up a bit.

The fact that it’s completely by chance is, I’m afraid, entirely irrelevant. It’s a system and it works as far as I’m concerned, a little like cooking a recipe you’ve never tried before. There’s always a good chance that it’ll take a few goes before you really nail it, but if you give it a go, you may be on to a winner.

Accordingly, I’ve given up feeling ashamed of how bad I am when it comes to answering these obscure questions, and focus instead on serving something to eat during this class of an ordeal.

The celery and leek soup was a really lovely winter soup and was delicious with toast topped with blue cheese. The lentil soup was a good veggie one, but I ended up adding some diced bacon to it one day to give it some more oomph and transform it into a one-pot wonder.

They both made good suppers and were perfect to while away time on the couch, while I shouted out Henry VIII, Renoir, or minus one.

Celery and leek soup

Serves 4

6 large stalks of celery (about 400g)

2 leeks, finely chopped

50g butter

2 large potatoes, peeled and diced

2 bay leaves

Bunch of thyme

Salt and pepper

1 litre vegetable stock

150ml cream

100g blue cheese (optional)

Drizzle olive oil

Sweat the celery and leeks in the butter, but do not allow them to colour, so keep the heat low and take your time. After about five to seven minutes, add the potatoes, bay leaves, thyme, seasoning and the stock. Bring up to the boil and then simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Whizz in a blender or, if you want to be fancy, pass it through a sieve.

Return to the saucepan, add the cream and heat up. You can add the blue cheese to taste or else sprinkle it on top of the soup when it is hot, or just add some chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil, and serve with blue cheese on toast.

Spiced lentil soup with sweet onions

Serves 6-8

Good glug olive oil

2 onions, peeled and finely diced

2 sticks celery, finely diced

6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

Pinch dried chilli flakes (optional)

280g red lentils, rinsed

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1.2 litres vegetable stock

Garnish

Good glug olive oil

6 smoked streaky rashers, finely diced (optional)

2 onions, peeled and sliced

2 tsp caster sugar

Bunch coriander, roughly chopped

Heat the olive oil in a big, heavy-based saucepan and sweat the onions, celery and garlic till they are soft but not coloured (about seven minutes). It’s sometimes easier to do this with a lid on as the steam drips back into the saucepan and stops the vegetables drying out and therefore colouring. Add the spices, chilli and lentils. Cook and stir for a few minutes so the lentils get well coated in the spices. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the lentils are tender, which can take about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the garnish. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, and fry the bacon until it is starting to brown and crisp up. At this stage, you can remove the bacon and drain it on kitchen paper. Wipe out the frying pan, heat up a bit more olive oil and fry the onions until they are starting to brown and then add the caster sugar. Keep the heat up and then add the drained bacon. When this is browned, sweet and tasty, you can then check the seasoning on the soup, bearing in mind you’re going to add some sweet, salty garnish.

Serve the soup with spoonful of the garnish on top and some chopped coriander. Feel free to make this vegetarian and leave out the bacon, in which case just season the onions up a little with some salt and plenty of black pepper.

See also itsa.ie

Domini recommends: Beet It beetroot juice from James White (available in Superquinn) is very tolerable and meant to be incredibly good for you. A nice way to ease yourself into the spirit of winter health kicks and detoxing without going full throttle. Just yet.