This easy to make vegan soup is utterly delicious and way more than the sum of its parts. In terms of nurturing wellbeing, this is our vegan version of chicken soup. The lovely leafy flavour of the watercress, lifted by the yuzu, combines very nicely indeed with the richness of the basmati. It is extraordinary how such a small amount of rice can thicken so much soup. Making the konbu stock takes 70 minutes. When pressed for time, we have two get arounds for this. Firstly, we make double the amount (2 litres) and freeze half for next time. The other one is to soak it the konbu in cold water for 45 minutes and not boil it. We've also made this with 100% konbu stock (having forgotten to buy the veg stock ingredients) and it works beautifully

Vegan dashi

1 x 15cm square piece of konbu seaweed

1 litre water

The rest

2 tbspns olive oil

20g vegan butter

50g basmati rice, rinsed in water

1 bunch spring onions whites, finely chopped (approx 8)

200g leeks, trimmed, split and finely sliced

250g watercress, leaves and stalks separated, stalks finely chopped

300mls nage

Salt and pepper

Light soy sauce

Yuzu or lemon juice

• Put the konbu in a pan with 1 litre of water and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Then bring to a boil, and simmer gently for 20 mins - set a timer for this
• When your timer beeps, put the rinsed rice in a bowl, cover with water, and leave to soak. Continue to simmer the konbu for a further 20 minutes -set a timer again
• When your timer beeps again, turn off the konbu saucepan, take out and discard the seaweed. Rinse the rice under a cold tap, drain well,
• In a large pan or wok, then get the olive oil and butter heating over a medium heat. Add the rice to the olive oil and butter, along with the spring onions, leeks and watercress stalks. Sweat for 5 mins, making sure the leeks and spring onions cook till soft, but nothing, including the rice, browns. Then add the nage and the dashi, bring to a bubble and simmer gently for another 5 mins with the lid on.
• Add the watercress leaves, and continue to simmer very gently until they’re well wilted, 2 or 3 mins
• Remove from the heat, allow to cool for a few minutes, then whizz till it’s ultra smooth in a blender. Season with salt, soy sauce and a little dash of yuzu/lemon juice to lift the flavour of the leaves. Serve with lovely bread and butter