Based on the tip given to me, I have been drying the runts of home grown silver beet/chard etc; these are the final leaves after a summer of large leaves but all nutritious even though diminished in size.

A large bunch of slightly chopped home-grown self-seeding flat leaf parsley, stems and all.

Plus three medium sized purchased brown onions sliced.

I dried them for around 12 hours overnight.

Next morning the ingredients were shrivelled and crackling dry.

I mixed and lightly crushed the crumbly bits into a large bowl, seasoned the mixture with ground black pepper and rock salt, then spiced it up with smoked paprika (purchased not made myself).

I wasn’t sure which piece of equipment to use for the powdering of these ingredients. I started with a coffee grinder but that was laborious. When I added the ingredients into the food processor, within seconds I had a blitzed mix. The onions stayed as tiny pieces but the chard and parsley reduced to powder.

After all that effort, I gained a mix only about 2-3cm high in a jar.

The result is ready for me to make easy ‘cups of soup’ when I need something simple for a meal.  A spoonful or two of the mix into a mug, add boiling water, stir and there will be a tasty wholesome meal!

In future I will add a small portion of besan flour to the mix to create a slightly thicker soup; this will also add much needed protein into the meal.