From a fishermen’s chowder to a very good tomato, on a budget.

The first properly cold week of the year is the moment to make soup in quantity. A big pan on Sunday will feed you through to Wednesday, it freezes well, and the cost per bowl is lower than almost anything else you can cook. Here are five soups for the week ahead, each serving four, none costing more than about six pounds for the whole pot at current prices.

Monday and Tuesday: the reliable two

Start with a very good tomato soup, the kind that tastes of the tin in the best possible way. Soften 2 sliced onions and 3 crushed garlic cloves in 3 tablespoons of olive oil for fifteen minutes over a low heat, without colouring. Add 2 tins of plum tomatoes, 500ml of vegetable stock, a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of chilli flakes. Simmer for twenty minutes, then blend until smooth and stir in 50g of butter off the heat. The butter is what makes it. Serve with toast rubbed with garlic.

On Tuesday, make a leek and potato soup with the outer leaves you would otherwise throw away. Wash and slice 3 large leeks and cook them gently in a knob of butter for ten minutes. Add 600g of peeled, diced floury potatoes and 1.2 litres of chicken or vegetable stock. Simmer for twenty-five minutes until the potato collapses. Blend half the pan and leave the rest chunky, then season well with salt, white pepper and a little nutmeg.

Midweek: the fishermen’s chowder

This is the soup they make on the quay at Port Selwyn when the boats come in, and it is worth the short extra effort. You will need:

  • 100g smoked streaky bacon, chopped
  • 1 onion and 2 celery sticks, diced
  • 400g waxy potatoes, cut into small cubes
  • 500ml fish stock and 400ml whole milk
  • 400g mixed white fish and smoked haddock, skinned and cut into chunks
  • A tin of sweetcorn, drained, and a handful of chopped parsley

Fry the bacon until it releases its fat, then add the onion and celery and cook for eight minutes. Add the potatoes, stock and milk, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for fifteen minutes. Slide in the fish and sweetcorn and poach for five minutes more, without stirring too much, so the fish stays in large flakes. Finish with the parsley and plenty of black pepper.

“The rule is never let the milk boil, and never put the fish in until the potatoes are done. Everything else is up to you and whatever came in that morning,” said Moira Kettleby, who has run the chowder stall beside the harbour master’s office for twenty-two years.

The last two, for the weekend

On Thursday, a spiced red lentil soup costs almost nothing. Fry an onion with a tablespoon each of grated ginger and ground cumin, add 250g of rinsed red lentils, a tin of chopped tomatoes and 1 litre of stock, and simmer for twenty-five minutes. Squeeze in a lime before serving and top with yoghurt.

Finish the week with a hearty bean and cabbage broth that improves overnight. Cook a diced carrot, onion and celery stick in olive oil, add 2 tins of drained cannellini beans, a sprig of rosemary and 1.2 litres of stock, then simmer for twenty minutes. Add half a shredded savoy cabbage for the last ten. Ladle it over a thick slice of stale bread in each bowl and grate over hard cheese.

A final tip for the whole week: keep a bag in the freezer for onion ends, carrot peelings, parsley stalks and parmesan rinds. When it is full, cover the contents with water, simmer for an hour and strain. You will have free stock for next week’s soups, and the season is only just beginning.