Potato, onion and cheese soup

I made this yesterday for a quick early lunch and it was really good.  Using the tin of spuds made it easy and quick as they were already cooked.
It is frugal (made four portions) and vegetarian.
I used Thermione but have shown the usual method as well.


Ingredients:
a good knob of butter
one smallish carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
a few bits of celery, chopped and de-stringed, if necessary
two white onions, peeled and chopped
a can of value potatoes, I used Morrisons Savers, 540g, drained.
some vegetable stock (I used about 10 mls marigold bouillon powder)
a squeeze of garlic puree
a good grating of nutmeg
a pinch of mustard powder (not too much)
a good pinch mixed herbs
some black pepper
some good flavoured cheese, finely grated, plus more for serving.
milk


Method
Melt the butter in a pan, add the carrot, celery and onion and saute very gently for about ten minutes, ensuring they don't catch.
Add the potatoes, stock powder, garlic puree, nutmeg, herbs, mustard powder and black pepper and enough boiling water to make a litre in total.
Bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes or so until everything is soft.

Zizz to a smooth and thick paste, then add milk to slacken to desired consistency.

Add some flavoursome grated cheese - a strong cheddar maybe, or some hard Italian cheese (ensure it is vegetarian-friendly).  Stir well.  Check seasonings and adjust if necessary.  I didn't add salt as the stock powder and the cheese are both salty.

Serve with more grated cheese, some croutons, maybe a dollop of cream, creme fraiche or yogurt and another grating of nutmeg, as preferred.  I left the croutons and had a bread roll for dunking.


And in the Thermomix
Place the prepared carrot, celery and onion in ther bowl and pulse briefly.  Add the butter and pulse again.  Saute on 100m speed 2 for 10 mins
Add the potatoes and all the seasoningds as above with enough boiling water to reach the 1 litre mark.

Cook on 100, reverse speed 3 for ten minutes.

Pulse briefly until it reaches the consistency you want.  It is quite thick at this point.  It didn't take long as I wanted a little bit of 'texture' rather than a completely smooth soup.

Add milk to slacken.  Add some grated cheese as above.  Mix and reheat to 100/ speed 2.  Check seasonings and adjust if necessary.  Serve as above.

Really filling, warming and tasty.

Variations:
It would be nice with some bacon or made with a good chicken stock and shreds of left over ham or chicken added, but it wouldn't then be vegetarian, obviously!