Following on from yesterday’s foodie theme, I would like to discuss my one great love during the winter months: soup.

Soup and winter go together like single women and cats (yeah I’ve been waiting to use that one for a while). Nothing beats a warm bowl of thick soup for dinner on a really cold night. And of course there’s nothing better than making your own soup in a slow cooker - putting it on in the morning before work then coming home to have the whole house smelling like soup.

However if you’re stuck for time (or like me you are going through a ten-year non-cooking spell) and want to pick something up from the supermarket instead please, please don’t head for the powdered soups - you have to try the Pitango range, which lives in the fridge section.

Although they’re more expensive than the soups you find on the shelves they are organic, taste a lot fresher and don’t arrive in your house as a powder which to me is just wrong on so many levels.

I am currently having a love affair with the Indian vegetable soup (it’s also very low in fat) but also like the Tuscany ribollita flavour (it’s like a really chunky minestrone). The pumpkin soup and carrot, chilli and coriander soups are also good.

Pitango also does a range of risottos and curries which I am yet to try, as well as a line of porridges (organic blueberry, cream and vanilla sounds pretty drool-worthy).

Pitango soups are available in most major supermarkets as well as specialty health food retailers.

By Caroline Warnes