Carrot Soup with Harissa

Dear Friends,


Sorry for the lack of posting.  The lack of sun in the winter after work and bad lighting in our kitchen means I have been taking less than stellar food photos and I have been reluctant to share them.  But I figured at this point my blog is dying a slow painful death, and maybe you're not all food photo snobs and maybe you're just interested in what's being served up for dinner around here lately.


So if that's the case, let me share this little soup recipe with ya... It's from my favorite cookbook, yes yes you guess it, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone!  Ha I need to branch out...

Carrot Soup with Harissa

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
• 3 Tablespoons white rice
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• Salt and pepper
• 7 cups water or Veggie stock

In a soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat and add the onion, carrots, bay leaf, parsley and rice.  Stir frequently, until the onion is soft.  Then add the spices, 1/2 teaspoon salt and some pepper and cook for about 5 more minutes.  Add the stock or water (I just used some stock cubes to be honest), bring to a boil, and simmer for 25 minutes.  

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to the desired consistency.  Seriously if you don't have an immersion blender, get one.  They make pureeing soups a lot less messy and less of a hassle.  

I picked up some store bought Harissa paste, which is a spicy condiment you can find at the grocery store, probably in the ethnic section.  

The addition of Harissa takes the soup from a mediocre soup to the most perfect carrot soup I have ever tasted.  It plays nicely on the sweet flavor of the carrots, while really adding that extra zing to make it sing!  There is certainly something about this sunny little concoction that is helping me fight off these February blues.  The best bit is the soup is freezable, so I highly recommend making as much as possible and freezing it for a quick, easy and healthy week night meal.  Note : this recipe makes 4-6 servings.  

In unfood related news, Heidi has eaten 3 important pairs of shoes in the past 2 weeks and my H20 audio device.  (I highly recommend them for any of you swimmers.) I'll admit I cried two out of the four times I caught her.   In the year that we have had her she has always stuck to only chewing her bones, now she seems to be seeking revenge against me for starting work.  Anyone have any tips?  She is doing this very sneakily while we are home. 

French Onion Soup - A Delightful Kitchen Fail

Friends I am back in the kitchen!  On Saturday I spent the day slaving away over a delicious French Onion Soup, which I saw on Closet Cooking earlier in the week.

It looked so delectable, and we had a plethora of onions from our Riverford Organic vegetable box left over from the week since I don't really cook with onions too frequently.  Let me tell you, this soup was a labor of love - blood, sweat and tears all went into the making of this French classic.

I got to work on Saturday morning cutting up 4 pounds of the things. This is where the blood and tears came into to play - I cut myself and duh onions make you cry.

I didn't want to start the soup making process just then, so I popped them in the fridge for a bit.  When I went back a few hours later, the smell had permeated our entire kitchen.  Nice little foreshadowing of things to come.

The onions take about 2-3 hours to caramelize, and need to be stirred every 15 minutes.  Like I said labor of love right?  By that point our whole house smelled of onions.  I followed Kevin's recipe exactly, (except I replaced beef stock with vegetable stock) and soon I ended up with this....

The crusty french bread, the melted emmental, oh boy, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  It was simply perfect for a crisp fall lazy weekend dinner.  So perfect in fact, I went back for seconds.  Nick on the other hand, was not feeling well, and only ate a tiny bit.

Now you may think the review of this soup should end there, and maybe some of you more sensitive types should stop reading now, but if I were to recommend for you to make this soup I feel like I would be doing you a huge disservice.  Yes I know I said it was good and I went back for seconds and yes that gooey cheese may be calling your name, but don't do it.

You see by 6am the following morning I woke myself up with a thundering case of the French Onion Soup Dutch oven.  When my darling husband awoke to the putrid lingering smell of my onion puffs, he had to immediately remove himself from the same room as me.  I'm not sure even my dog wanted to be around me.

I had many errands to run on Sunday, but my French Onion shame nearly left me housebound.  In the end I decided that the show must go on and I didn't have time to be embarrassed, so I did go out.  One of my tasks was to get a dress to wear to a wedding, and let this be a public apology to the fitting room assistant.  Darling, that je ne sais quoi you smelled, that was me.

What came first, the soup that made the French man smell, or the smelly Frenchmen that the soup was named after?  I may never know.  But I do know that the leftovers of this labor of love were thrown out by my husband who said, "If you love me, you will never make this soup again."

Trust me, je t'aime, baby.

Rhubarb Pea Soup

I needed to get rid of that left over rhubarb from the crumble I made a little while ago.  Rhubarb seems to be largely ignored as an ingredient in savory dishes, which really doesn't make any sense to me considering it looks like a piece of celery.  I wanted to say screw you to the convention of only using rhubarb in desserts, and prove that it is a versatile veggie and can be served up in a healthy way, it can function without its buddy the strawberry and stand happily alongside another vegetable.  Ok, thats enough with the anthropomorphism of vegetables, but this is how rhubarb pea soup was born.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 hunk of butter
• 2 and a half stalks of rhubarb, peeled and chopped
• 1 bag of frozen peas (907 grams was used in this)
• 1 veggie stock cube
• 3 cloves of garlic
• small handful of fresh mint

Place large pot over medium heat.  Melt a knob of butter in the pot and add onion and rhubarb.  Heat until the rhubarb falls apart, it will form a bit of a soft mushy mixture with the onion.  Then add 4 cups of water to the pot, the bag of peas, a veggie stock cube, garlic, and mint.  Simmer until the peas are tender.  About 10 minutes.  

Blend soup with an immersion blender and garnish with fresh mint and pretty flowers.

This is a really tasty spring time dish.  It's still chilly here in England so a little warming soup is welcome, but it has the fresh clean flavors of spring.  The rhubarb adds a little tartness to jazz up an otherwise sweet soup.  

Leek and Potato Soup

Our Riverford organic veggie box was full of leeks this week and I had lots of potatoes  leftover from last week.  I don't know why, but I never really cook with potatoes.  I like eating them, but I guess I always feel like they're not healthy.  But the potatoes have been accumulating so I desperately needed to get rid of them.

I found this simple recipe in Deborah Madison's book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  Gawd, I feel like her PR rep.  Have I made anything not from this book lately?  Well, I really like it!  It's just chock full of simple recipes without a bunch of pretentious ingredients.

This soup is very simple, and clean, but hearty enough for a good winter meal.

Ingredients

• 3 large or 6 medium leeks, white parts only, finely chopped
• 1.5 pounds potatoes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 7 cups of water
• salt

Chop your leeks and set them in a bowl of water.  Meanwhile, quarter your potatoes lengthwise and thinly slice them.  

In a large (really large - we didn't have one big enough so I had to use two) pot melt the butter and then add the leeks and potatoes, cooking covered over low heat for about 10 minutes.  Add 7 cups of water and 1.5 tsp salt to the pot and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are falling apart, about half an hour.  Use a potato masher to break the potatoes apart and give the soup a thicker texture.  

I added a spoonful of capers just for a little extra bite and served with fresh whole wheat bread.  Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup with Fried Sage Leaves

Tonight for dinner I made this delightful fall soup.

Ingredients

• 1 Butternut Squash
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tablespoon chopped sage leaves
• 30 Whole sage leaves
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Veggie stock cube
• 2 pinches hot chili pepper
• 1/3 cup of Parmesan plus extra for garnish 

Chop onions and add these to a large stock pot with 1 tablespoon of butter.  Heat these over medium heat until soft then add tablespoon of chopped sage and heat for about a minute.  Peel and chop butternut squash into chunks and add this to the pot along with 5 cups of water and veggie stock cube.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender - about 20 minutes.

When the squash is tender use an immersion blender to puree it all into a thick soup.

Then add a third of a cup of cheese and your hot chili pepper.  Set the soup over low heat while you fry your sage.  To do this heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat.  When your butter is heated put your sage in and fry it till it crisps up just about a minute or two.  

 

Spoon your soup into bowls, grate a bit of cheese over the top and add 3 or 4 sage leaves.  

This is hearty fall soup for those chilly autumn nights.  It has a sweet nutty flavor and the sage adds a bit of crunch.  Healthy and delicious.  Enjoy!

Home Alone and Eating Soup

Basically this is how I feel right now.  Nick has flown to Africa and left me to fend for myself.  I've never actually been home alone for longer than a few nights.  I've either been with my parents, who then passed me along to various roommates, who passed me to Nick.  Obviously me and Macaulay Caulkin have a lot in common, the least of which is setting lots of booby traps, referring to everyone as "filthy animals" and making gun noises when I hear people walk past the house.

Luckily, unlike Macaulay's lame excuse for a mother, Nick found me a babysitter.  Yep.  He actually got his company to get me to come in and do work.  So I am working.  Yes, you heard right, Kelly is working.  Shocking I know.  So I've been doing data entry all day.  wooo hooo.

"So what'd ya have for dinner last night?"  is probably the all important unanswered question.

Cauliflower Soup!

One head of cauliflower

                           

Cut it up into chunks.

Then throw them in a pot and add just enough water to cover them.  Also add a veggie stock cube, salt and pepper, and generally any other spices you feel like.

                                  

When they're tender use an immersion blender and blend it to a smooth consistency.  You can also use a regular blender but this is much messier.

                                  

How easy was that?  Its a nice creamy soup perfect for fall weather.  And hey all thats in there is pretty much cauliflower and water.  So go ahead and throw a handful of cheese on top and indulge, you filthy animal.