As autumn settles in, and the days grow colder, soup is deliciously warming, and easy and fast to make. It is also the archetypal thrift cookery.

If you decide that you can afford a treat at the weekend and have a bird or a joint, never throw away the bones.

Put them all in a pot with a grind of pepper, a chopped carrot, an onion, a stick of celery, some bay leaves and just enough water to cover.

Simmer for a few hours and there you have the life and soul of a soup. If you are vegetarian or haven’t had a roast, use my recipe.

Pumpkin is not only a delicious change from all the summer vegetables, but it is gloriously cheap (a 1.25kg pumpkin costs £1.75, and the recipe below works out at about £1 per serving).

There are endless ways to cook a pumpkin; you can roast it with garlic, cook it in .risotto, fry it with sage, eat it with spaghetti or sautéed mushrooms, or even make a tart for pudding.

This soup is fast and delicious. It improves over time and lasted in my fridge for five days before it was finally demolished. Although I adore it with this spicy mint oil that originates from Iran, we also eat the soup with crumbled blue cheese, chopped-up toasted hazelnuts and slices of garlic toast.

You eat it any which way you want and I hope it warms you up as much as it does me.

Nutritionists verdict

Pumkins get their orange colour from a host of carotenes, including beta and alpha carotenes, which have antioxident powers and are thought by researchers who have studied them in laboratory settingsto give possible protection against some cancers.

One hearty bowl of this soup has only 300 calories and 24g of fat, just 4g of which is saturated, which raises cholestrol.

It is great for the fibre and provides some bone-building calcium providing 145mg of the 700mg needed daily by women. One bowl gives two servings of your recommended five fruit and vegetables a day.

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