FOREWORD

After 25 years of publishing poetry I never thought 'come the day' I would publish (on the Internet) a book of soup recipes. ''Why now?'' I hear you screech.

Once upon a time there was a small meditation group and at the end of our meditation I would produce a soup (always vegetable though sometimes with cheese or yoghurt) together with hunks of wholemeal or granary bread. The spiritual life has a hunger all its own but very often produces hunger on a more mundane level.

I try and make a different soup every week. The soup was so successful that out of this ritual came the cry for recipes and: ''Why don't you write a book on soup making?'' So here it is.

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Although I mention sea salt, please use whatever salt you prefer. In the THREE BEAN SWEET AND SOUR soup I mention monosodium glutamate. I know this can produce side effects in some people i.e. headaches, migraine and trembling. In fact, since I had a brain tumour removed, which has made me epileptic, I dare not eat it as it can bring on a 'fit'. Amazing what a mere wheat protein can, or will, do; just leave it out of the recipe, it's still a bloody good soup.

For those of you who are vegan there is much here for you to enjoy.

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