Detox Soup

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a wonderful time with family and/or friends.

My friends and I had a great time in Bath and London.  The New Year's Eve fireworks display on the Thames was spectacular!! (notice the two exclamation marks...).  And also in London I spent money I don't have... I immersed myself in consumerist culture and I ate my way through the food and drinks supply of the capital.  Soon, I'll be fat again and will not be able to pay my rent.  But let me tell you, when I end up living on the street, it'll be filled with some nice kitchen furnitures I just purchased.

Today, I decided to stay at home and just relaxing.  I took all the Christmas decorations down and cleaned the place.  And with the soup, no, I am not going on any diet.  I need to get rid of the holiday weight, but not just yet.  I feel like after all the butter I've been eating and the cream I've been drinking, my body needs a little break before I can eat another slice of cake; something to restore the system, like this soup.  However unappetising the name of the soup, it's actually rather delicious.

Detox Soup
Recipe by Stéphane Reynaud
Serves 6


2 aspirin 
1 jog (for 30 minutes, but it's optional)
4 onions 
3 leeks, white part only
1 bunch of celery*
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
snipped chives


At 1 pm, you're finding it hard to wake up, your eyes are puffed up like helium balloons, your mouth is as fresh as sewerage outlet on a night of heavy rain, your head is ringing like a Tibetan gong and your feet are still majestically enrobed in your socks.  The 31st got the better of you, it's up to you to get the better of the 1st.  Two aspirins taken on the go, mouth hosed down Karcher-style, followed up with a jog and a good sweat.  Back at the house: you peel and finely slice the onions, slice the leeks and celery, you gently sauté everything in olive oil, then add 1.5 litre water, cook for 45 minutes, season, top with the chives.  A good shower in the meantime, and a day to clean yourself with soup and raw celery. 


*Serving suggestion: Set aside a little raw celery, it's good to chew after all!