Westmoreland Soup.

Put in soup pot some very plain stock, or water will do quite well.  Add 1 lb. lentils, 1/2 lb. onions, small carrot, piece of turnip, and a stick or two of celery, all chopped small, also a teacupful tomatoes.  Boil slowly for two hours, pass through a sieve and return to soup pot.  Melt a dessert-spoonful butter and stir slowly into it twice as much flour, add gradually a gill of milk.  When quite smooth add to soup and stir till it boils.

This is a very good soup and might be preferred by some without straining the vegetables.  The lentils might be boiled separately and put through a sieve before adding.

The foregoing are all varieties of White Soup and these could be extended indefinitely; but as such variations will suggest themselves to everyone, it is not necessary to take up space here.  I might just mention that a most delicious

Cauliflower Soup

can be made by adding a nice young cauliflower, all green removed, cut in tiny sprigs, and boiled separately to the quantity required of Plain White Soup.  The water in which boiled should be added also.

White Haricot Soup

is made by substituting haricot or butter beans for the cauliflower.  These should be slowly cooked till tender and passed through a sieve or masher.

Celery Soup.

For this use a large well-blanched head of celery.  Either chop small when cooked, or pass through sieve before adding to White Soup.

Asparagus Soup.

Take a bunch tender asparagus.  Set aside the tops.  Blanch stalks in salted boiling water for a minute or two, then drain and simmer till tender in a little milk and water.  Pulp through sieve and add to White Soup when boiling.  Cook the tops separately in salted boiling water.  Drain and add to soup in tureen.  Tinned asparagus makes very good soup.  It requires little or no cooking, only to be made quite hot.  Pulp stalks and put in tops whole.

Clear Soups.

It is unnecessary to give every recipe in detail for these also, if a rich clear stock has been prepared according the directions, page 11.  These of course may be varied according to taste or convenience, and all the ingredients specified are by no means indispensable.  Some may be left out and others added as they are at hand or in season.  When celery is not to be had celery seed or celery salt gives a good flavour.  A hasty stock may be contrived at anytime with chopped onions, shred carrot, and some lentils—­green or yellow or both.  The vegetables should be lightly fried in a little butter, the lentils scalded or washed well, and all boiled together for an hour or even less with the required quantity of water.  Strain without any pressure.  Then a still more hasty stock can be had with any of the excellent “Extracts” which are on the market.  Their flavour will be appreciated by all, and the fact that they are manufactured from pure, wholesome cereals—­barley, chiefly, I believe—­should go a long way to commend them to those who have no favour for the uric acid products of “Animal” Extracts.