Rowing crew consumed food soundly (5)
I believe the answer is:
eight
'rowing crew' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'consumed food soundly' is the wordplay.
'consumed food' becomes 'ate' (I've seen this before).
'soundly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'ate' is a homophone of 'EIGHT'.
(Other definitions for eight that I've seen before include "One less than nineteen across" , "team rowing" , "1,001 - 993" , "No. of stones in cwt." , "Oxford crew, perhaps?" .)