Roast eggplant soup and Snoods

I have almost worn out my favourite snood in this chilly weather. If I could somehow permanently attach the snood to my neck, I would. It’s glorious.

When it’s not festooned around my neck, it drapes itself over my knees at work. It makes me look like a nanna, but my knees are so damn warm that I don’t even mind. The days that I leave the snood at home, I feel like a part of me is missing. My décolletage, exposed, catches the frosty weather and longs for the snood.

I really love my snood.

Not too long ago, my family used to have another sausage dog (Norman’s girlfriend!) who we called snood as a nickname. Given the opportunity, she was also happy to be worn; any crook, lap or spare shoulder, she was there.

This soup is much like a snood – comforting, warm and so satisfying! It’s smooth and creamy because of the sheer amount of eggplant in the soup, and it has a warmth to it because of the cumin and paprika.

Roast eggplant soup

• 600g eggplant, diced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 1 brown onion, quartered
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 4 tbsp oil
• ½ tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground paprika

Preheat your oven to 230°C and lightly grease a baking tray. Slice up all of your vegies.

Pop your prepared eggplant, pepper, onion into your baking tray and season them with salt and pepper. Slide them into the oven. Once they’re in the oven, put your potatoes in a pot of water on a medium heat for 30 minutes, or until they’re soft. Take them off the heat and drain off the water, but reserve one cup of the water to make your stock.

After 35 minutes , check on your vegies in the oven. They should be soft, but not completely mushy. They should also be nicely browned.

Grab them from the oven and set them to one side to cool.

Make your stock up using the potato water that you reserved.

Grab your warm vegies and blitz them in your blender until they’re smooth, adding the stock as you go to achieve a good consistency. I use ½ – ¾ of a cup of the stock, but add as much as you need to get your soup to the right thickness.

Serve with some cream swirled in and paprika sprinkled over the top. Serve with beautiful thick toast.