Once winter arrives, it’s a great time for soup. Whether you like pumpkin, vegetable and barley, minestrone, cream of celery, pea and ham or tomato, a bowl of soup is warming and nourishing on a cold winter’s day. Add a chunk of crusty bread and you have a complete meal that’s quick, easy and satisfying.

Every winter or so, the soup diet reappears. One winter, it was part of the infamous "Kickstart Diet" made famous by a television current affairs program. Another winter a few years ago, it was big as the "Cabbage Soup Diet" - the only difference being that the soup contained lots of shredded cabbage.