Turnip and Brown Bread Soup

This has always been one of my favourite soups. It’s a recipe from Michael Smith’s Fine English Cooking, which has some excellent things in it. There is a completeness about this soup that belies its simple components – the humble turnip, onion, bread, stock and nutmeg. A bit like potage bonne femme, in fact, in that the result of mixing these things together is quite surprising. Michael Smith uses a small quantity of olive oil, presumably to stop the butter scorching. I think we can