Cookbook of the week - week 5, part 2

    This is Curly Kale and Almond Soup, simmering away gently for a few minutes before being semi-blended to look like this:

It's another excellent result from Sarah Raven's Food for Friends and Family and a great way to use kale if you feel it's a bit too earnest just as a simple vegetable accompaniment.

    The soup is very quick and simply involves softening red onions, garlic and celery in olive oil, adding a tin of chickpeas and half a litre of vegetable stock, then the roughly chopped kale and 40g of ground almonds. Let this cook for 5 minutes before blending (the recipe suggest puréeing half and combining that with the coarser-textured remainder) and serve with grated Cheddar cheese on top.

    To go with the soup we made Soda Bread with Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds (also from the book) - half and half white and wholemeal flour, the seeds dry-fried for extra nuttiness.

My favourite soda bread remains Nigella's, but this one was very good indeed and along with the soup made a warming and filling lunch on a cold day.