Providing something hot to eat is the hardest challenge, and although flasks of soup provide scope for spillage and mess, I feel they are worth the risk. This soup – my all-time most requested – has the bonus, too, of being so simple to make, you can do it while you stumble about the kitchen at breakfast.

While you can make it with pesto from a jar, the difference when you use the “fresh” stuff in a tub that you find in chiller cabinets in the supermarkets is astonishing.

I think soups taste better made in a blender rather than a food processor, and it’s best to use a blender which has a central plug in the lid that you can remove to stop pressure building up – which, in turn, prevents you getting soup all over you or your walls. That would not be a good start to the day.

Makes enough for 2 hearty bowls

750ml water

375g frozen peas

2 spring onions, trimmed but whole

1 tsp Maldon salt or ½ tsp table salt

½ tsp lime juice

4 x 15ml tbsp fresh pesto (from a tub, not a jar)

1 The quickest way to proceed is to fill a kettle first and put it on to boil. When it has boiled, measure the amount you need into a pan and put on the hob to come back to the boil. Fill a Thermos with the remaining hot water.

2 Add the frozen peas, spring onions, salt and lime juice to the pan and let everything bubble together for 7 minutes.

3 Discard the spring onions and blitz the peas and their liquid with the pesto in a blender.

4 Empty the Thermos flask that you’ve left filled with hot water and then pour in the soup, making sure you screw the top on securely.

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