Vegetable chorba

Method

1. Chop the onion, carrots, celeriac and pepper into small dice. Cut the potatoes and courgette a little larger and keep them aside.
2. Warm half the oil in a large pan and soften the onion, carrot, celeriac and pepper over a gentle heat for about eight minutes, without letting them colour.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook them down for two or three minutes, then pour in the water, add the potatoes and salt lightly. Simmer for fifteen minutes.
4. Add the courgette and cook for five minutes more, no longer. It should still have some resistance when the chorba reaches the table.
5. Make the zaprška: heat the rest of the oil in a small pan, stir in the flour and cook it to the colour of pale honey. Take the pan off the heat before the paprika goes in, because on the flame it burns in seconds and turns the whole pot bitter.
6. Loosen the roux with a ladleful of the hot soup, whisk it smooth and stir it back into the pan. Simmer for another ten minutes so the flour loses its raw taste.
7. Off the heat, add the lemon juice and the chopped parsley and check the salt. The lemon is what makes it a chorba rather than a soup.