When I was little I loved the story of stone soup. It goes like this:

A stranger was walking through a village, where the villagers locked the doors and windows. He smiled and asked why they were so frightened, as he was only looking for a warm bed and a place to stay for the night. The villagers told him he should move on, because they were starving and had no food to offer. The stranger brought out a stone and an iron cauldron from his cloak (because that's what everyone keeps in their walking cloaks, right?) and said 'No worries, I was going to make stone soup anyway'. He lit the fire and heated the water, and with a flourish brought out the stone, kept in a silk bag. Intrigued, the villagers came out of their homes, where hunger had got the better of them.

'Hmmmm....' the stranger said, tasting and sniffing the broth. 'Delicious so far, but gee, with a little bit of cabbage - now that would be hard to beat!' One of the villagers ran and got a half cabbage where they were hiding it under the bed (I made that bit up) and the stranger smiled and threw it in the pot (did he chop it first? not according to my memory of this story). Tasting it again, he shouted: 'Wonderful! But you know, once I tasted a stone soup with ONION in it and it was perfect!'. One of the villager ran to get an onion from his left gumboot where he'd hidden it from his children. 'Wowsers!' said the stranger. 'But do you know what would make it even better? Some fennel bulbs...' and on it went, until he had the most delicious stone soup anyone had EVER tasted. The elders offered him a great deal of steem for the stone, but he refused to sell it, and travelled on the next day.

This story is really about magic happens when community works together. I love it so much and always think about the power of stone soup. But I also think of it as a story of resourcefulness and making do when the cupboard is bare!

Today's stone soup is a bare cupboard soup, and used up the last of the vegies in the fridge as well as squirrelled some vegies out of the winter garden.

Step 1

Put on a sweet reggae tune and dance around the kitchen. I like 'Simmer Down' because it's appropriate for simmering soup.

Step 2

See what vegies you have and gather them together. For today's stone soup, I used:

10 small potatoes
1 zucchini
2 fennel bulbs
A few sprigs of parsley
4 big silverbeet leaves
Stock to taste

Cover the vegetables with water and simmer down.

Step 3

Blend the vegetables until nice and smooth and creamy. Return to the pot and reheat gently. Sprinkle a garnish over the top - I used black sesame seeds for the first bowl, and the second bowl had nigella seeds which are my favourite. Plus some pepper and parmesan cheese and extra parsley and some pepitas - I was hungry, alright?

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