Soup!

 

My old neighbour who moved a long time ago to another part of the town and now has a bungalow also has green fingers. When I visited her not so long back she gave me a herb growing in a pot and told me what it was.

A few days ago I decided I would make carrot and coriander soup from scratch and began.

When it was time to add the coriander I went outside to the patio and there was the pot I’d been given. I wasn’t sure if it was coriander, though I was certain that this is what my old neighbour had called it.

I had a vague sense of unease and feeling that coriander shouldn’t be a small stout looking plant with stumpy leaves. I had thought that coriander was a more delicate plant with slender stems and a sunny hat of swaying green leaves. I had bought a fresh coriander plant from the supermarket before and it had looked nothing like this. I wondered if it was a different form of coriander, perhaps the fore-runner of the more svelte variety found in the supermarket, an older version.

Despite these misgivings I harvested a handful of leaves and cast them into the soup and put it through the whizzer.

The result was a most delicious soup, not quite the taste I’d expected.

A friend called around yesterday and I showed her the pot containing the stumpy herb and asked her if she knew what it was. With barely a glance she said the name, which I instantly knew to be correct and also the name that my neighbour had used.

Oregano!

I’d made carrot and oregano soup and my friend could not be persuaded to try it.

O-ri-gan-o = four syllables.

Co-ri-an-der = four syllables.

Go-ing-craz-y = four syllables

Feel-such-a-fool = four syllables

I guess I now have these two herbs, oregano and coriander, stored on the same mal-functioning brain cell!

Still, carrot and oregano soup… delicious!