Soup made with garlic and love... and pumpkin scones too...

"This kind of unflashy peasant soup does - there are no two ways about it - rather resemble dishwater, but it is delicious dishwater. Besides, it's exactly this sort of home food, the food that belongs in the kitchen, that I love and need" Nigella Lawson in Kitchen, recipes from the heart of the home.

Don't you just love the title of this recipe? I do.
It's amazing what you can create with so little ingredients and delicious too. I mean this soup is just chicken stock with a healthy amount of garlic (1 bulb), a tablespoon of thyme, one leek, a couple of potatoes, a whole lotta love and some chopped parsley to serve. That's it.

As mentioned above, this is not the prettiest soup, but it doesn't matter because its taste blinds you, just like love. 

These savoury pumpkin scones are great accompaniment for the soup; and they're so easy to make. The pumpkin is from a tin and no kneading. The sweetness of the pumpkin is well balanced by the saltiness of the Parmesan and Worcestershire sauce, and also a little heat from the chilli oil. Like all scones, I prefer them when they're warm and served with generous smearing of soft butter. Nigella suggests cream cheese for these ones.

Pumpkin Scones
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
Makes 12

175 g canned pumpkin purée
50 g grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1/2 teaspoon pouring salt
good grinding white pepper
2 teaspoon chilli oil
250 g plain flour, plus more for dusting work surface
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
a little milk to glaze

1 x baking sheet
1 x 5 cm scone/cookie cutter

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Put the pumpkin purée, Parmesan, egg, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and chilli oil in a bowl. Beat well to mix.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Fold this into the pumpkin mixture and work it to form a dough.

Flour your work surface, then tip the dough out of the bowl and pat down with your hands to make a slab about 5 cm thick. There's no need to roll it.

Cut the dough into scones using a round 5 cm cutter that you have first dipped in flour. Place the scones on a baking sheet, about 3 cm apart. Re-form the dough so that you can keep cutting out rounds.

Brush the top with a little milk and then bake for 15 minutes. Once out of the oven, let cool a little and they're best when still warm.