Watercress soup and ploughmans lunch

This recipe is my Grandma's and I've been eating it for years! It so easy to make, and pretty cheap to make too! It tastes creamy but doesn't actually have any cream in, so it makes me feel a little healthier which is always nice...

Scott and I had this soup for lunch today, with a sort of ploughman's platter. We are little piggy's I know, but we both both try to make all meal times special and enjoy creating new and old concoctions for breakfast, lunch and tea (and the naughty snacks in between).

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 potato

butter 1oz

1 packet of watercress, (roughly a handful and a half)

milk 1/2 pint

vegetable or chicken stock 1/2 pint

salt& pepper

Optional - Cream to drizzle on top.

Chop the onion and potato. Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the onion until transparent. Add your potato and watercress, milk and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce your heat, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then blend in small batches in a blender/liquidiser. Return to the pan and season to taste.

To serve: You could add a drizzle of cream, but to be honest, it's already delicious and creamy enough.

I don't think I really need to explain this one, but the basics are that a ploughman's is a yummy lunch time dish with fresh bread and butter, a selection of cheeses and chutneys, with a little salad. I added some salami and ham because I was being greedy in Morrison's and couldn't resist them. Just cut everything into your desired sizes and display them prettily on a plate, and that's it!We had herby onion ciabatta, and a poppy seed roll which was really and fresh.

I don't usually round the corners of my pictures, but I thought I'd give it a go to see how they looked. What do you think?

Here were just a few cheeses that I picked up on the way home from college. The Brie was lovely, very mild which is how I like it, and the red Leicester was good too. I wasn't keen one the Green waxy one though, as the texture was a bit fatty, and the herby onion flavour wasn't very strong, so it just tasted a bit like plain cheddar. The snowdonia Cheese version however is amazing, but just a little out of my price limit for a Wednesday lunchtime!  But overall, a lovely lunch :)