Yesterday was the first of Spring which means it might be time for me to accept that soup season is coming to an end.
I didn’t always love soup.
I thought it was a bit of a pointless dish that should only be wheeled out when you were trying to battle a cold. It was quick, filling, requires minimal chewing and if the temperature is just right then it will feel nice and soothing as it makes its way down your throat.
I am not too sure when my attitude to soup changed.
It was definitely at some point during lockdown where you had snatch at moments of comfort and peace wherever you could and I was coming down with something (that wasn’t COVID) and thought maybe soup would be a good idea.
I pondered for a while what soup I might want and settled on a spicy Keralan chicken one that quickly became my new favourite.
Soon soup became a weekly staple in my life. It would be my Monday lunch. I would scoop it up with bread to start with when it was too hot to just go straight down and then I would leisurely eat the rest as I read my book on my lunch break.
Over time it started creeping into more days and now half my weekdays are fuelled by soup. I eat the same three soups every week. There is a ritual to it. It feels like the perfect reset in the middle of my day. A comfort has been found this autumn/winter as I fully embraced soup season.
But the weather is starting to warm up. My Clueless coat is back out of it’s winter retirement (it’s a yellow and black checked longline coat) and the days are getting brighter. Which means it might be time to wave goodbye to the winter warmer lunches until September.
And I don’t know what to do with myself over it. Partly because there is a rhythm to be found when you hit the same beats every single time you go into a supermarket that makes the whole thing quicker. Partly because soup is so easy. I don’t have to think when I’m having soup for lunch. There are no ingredients to collect. There is no umming and ahhing. There is no being very aware of use before dates and making sure that everything aligns properly so you aren’t left with a surplus of one thing and not enough of the other. I am a lazy person when it comes to food choices, I can’t be bothered with them. It’s why I pretty much eat the same thing week in week out.
I’m trying to cling onto soup season for as long as I can, but its days are numbered and I am going to be a different person without it…
Sophie you have inspired me to batch cook some chowder! I've found the key to soup is finding one I really really like
I too had a sudden love of soup come over me after years of being uninterested. I also think you might be overestimating UK weather- I imagine there will still be some soupable moments between here and September ;)