Soup for dieters - Alison Holst's

I have mislaid my copy of AH's soup book and I want to make this soup for myself over winter. Can anyone help please?

Is this it? ?

Alison Holst's Chilli Soup
Keeps 1 week in fridge and freezes well

Saute 1-2 large onions chopped, in 2 t oil 5 mins
Stir in 1 t dried oregano, 2 t ground cumin, 1/2 t dried thyme, 2 t bottled garlic, 1 t bottled ginger, 1-1&1/2 t Thai green curry

Add 4-6 large stalks celery chopped, 1-2 red/green peppers, 1/2 medium cabbage chopped fine

Add 6 cups hot water & simmer 5 minutes

Stir together 1 pkt cream soup, 1 T cornflour, 1 cup cold water

Add to soup, cook till thickened

Add 2 x 400g cans Italian or Mexican tomatoes, 2-3 T tomato paste

Adjust salt & pepper and add 1/4 cup chopped herbs or basil or 1 T pesto

Thats so funny elliehan surely no one adds packet soup to homemade soup, must be a missprint.

Laughing releases endorphins - I'm happy for you, beater59.

But no, it's not a misprint. Page 7 of Alison Holst's Soup Book, Hyndman Publishing 1997, has a recipe called 'Dieter's Delight Soup', with 1 packet of Cream of Chicken Soup in it.

But wait, there's more!

Alison adds a comment: "Somewhat to my surprise, I found that the ready-prepared chopped or pureed garlic and ginger in jars gave the soup a stronger, better flavour than the fresh product. I suggest you use them. "

Now, that should elicit a good belly-laugh from you ;

elliehen - your blood's worth bottling -Thanks- that's the one, although I will probably swap the packet soup fpr homemade, skimmed chicken stock with a bit of cornflour then I know exactly what's in it.

I remember the Maggi soup surprised me when i first read it too beaker.

I just can't class packet soup as cooking sorry don't get me wrong I use them for convienience when on hunting trips for instance a nice mug od Maggi cup-a-soup really warms the cockles when coming into camp late after an evening hunt. But to publish a recipe using it as an "ingredient" is just a bit tooo much. Tonight we had chicken soup for dinner it contained 5 chicken carcases, several carrots a couple of carrots half a Kamokamo a clove of garlic some spices of various types a big handfull of fresh herbs from the garden some butternut 3 grated beetroots fresh from the garden some mushrooms and other spare leftover veges from the fridge not a packet of anything in there it took 2 days to prepare and tasted delicious and I have enough for 2 dinners and maybe a lunch as well for the whole Whanau.

Your words are wasted here... Alison probably doesn't bother with this blog. Why not take it up with her via her publisher?