Having a bit of an excess of celery in the fridge, I decided to make some soup. Celery and Cashew might sound a bit odd, but it is very tasty. Of course, if you don't like celery (like my husband), you won't like this, but you don't need to love the stuff to enjoy the soup. I now have three lovely portions in the freezer ready for future lunches. All in all, a nice creative couple of hours while VV was asleep.

Sorry there's no photo, but the soup wasn't very photogenic and I missed the ever decreasing window of daylight here in Finland.

I can't reproduce the recipe for the soup here, since it's from a book, but I can tell you the book - New Covent Garden Book of Soups: New, Old and Odd Recipes. I've made a few of the recipes in the past and they've all been very tasty (I highly recommend the Pistou).

EDIT: I read up on copyright law and I *think* I can publish the recipe, so here it is:

Celery and Cashew Nut Soup

Ingredients

• 75g (3oz) butter
• 2 heads of celery, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 150g (5oz) unsalted cashew nuts
• 1.5 litres (2.5 pints) vegetable stock
• To garnish: 50g (2oz) unsalted cashew nuts, chopped, and celery leaves

Directions

1. Melt the butter and cook the celery and garlic gently for 20 minutes in a covered saucepan, without colouring.
2. Grind the nuts finely in a food processor and add to the pan along with the stock.
3. Cover, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
4. Cool a little, then puree in a liquidiser.
5. Pass the soup through a sieve into a clean saucepan.
6. For the garnish, put the cashew nuts into a frying pan over a high heat. Shake frequently until the nuts brown. Cool.
7. Reheat the soup gently and serve garnished with toasted chopped cashew nuts and chopped celery leaves.