Week 75 Day 1

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Hearty lentil soup
Serves 4 : Very easy : Quick

Ingredients
1 x 400gm can chopped tomatoes
750mls veg stock
150gm red lentils
150gm potatoes, cut in small cubes
150gm carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 courgettes, chopped
150gm extra fine green beans, chopped
1 Tblsp Patak’s Tikka Masala curry paste

Crusty sesame seed bread

Method
Put everything (except the bread) into a large saucepan.
Stir well and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 25 – 30 minutes.

Warm the bread, if desired, and serve with the soup.

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Colds and ‘flu

… or rather, in my case, bronchitis and sinusitis. For a long time now, I have managed to avoid the annual attack of colds and ‘flu, bronchitis, sinusitis and general upper respiratory tract infections. Not this year! It started back in April. I was so sick that I even went to the doctor. He prescribed antibiotics, sinus tabs and cough mixture. I seemed to improve for about ten days or so, but then it started again. Back to the doctor. More pills and potions. Again, an improvement. For a while.

This time I think I will let it clear itself, unaided by modern medicine. My personal prescription? Vitamin C, zinc and Echinacea drops, lots of liquids and homemade chicken soup. Homemade soup seems to have something extra when compared to the commercial stuff; or maybe it’s just that it contains no preservatives or colourants. What you get is pure goodness. Here’s my recipe.

Start off with 500gm of mixed, chopped soup veg; celery, carrots, green beans, turnip, parsnip, butternut, onion, whatever you have. Plus a good handful of roughly chopped parsley. Garlic and ginger are good, too, if you like them. Stick everything in a 5 – 6 litre saucepan.
Drop in a chicken carcass, if you have one (the bones really make the best stock), and 2 - 3 good handfuls of pearl barley (you can also add the same quantity of lentils and split peas, if you like). Chop and add 200 – 300 gm chicken meat (cooked or raw, doesn’t matter, but no skin or fatty bits).
Pour in sufficient water to cover. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and go put your feet up. You can leave it to do its own thing now, for at least 40 minutes (longer won’t hurt it in the least).

When you think of it, fish out the chicken carcass and any little bones that have separated off.
Blitz the soup a bit, if you like. Add a bit more water if needed. Season lightly, and eat.

With a recipe as delicious as this, why wait to be sick?

Warming Food

I am afraid that winter has come early to the southern hemisphere. As I sit here, I am dressed in a spencer, a lamb’s wool jersey and a tracksuit top plus pantyhose, denims and slippers. And I am cold.
There is nothing like being cold to increase the appetite – especially for starchy foods: mountains of creamy mashed potato and thick slices of hot toast dripping butter! There’s nothing the matter with either potatoes or toast, it’s just what you eat with them (and the amount you eat) that can be a problem.

My favourite food solution to the winter chills is soup, it’s warming and satisfying and oh, so easy to make. I operate on the ‘rusty nail’ principle (remember the children’s story?) Here’s how I go about it.

I pour at least 1 ½ liters of water into a large saucepan and put it on the stove to heat.
Then I toss in 150gms of mixed dried peas, lentils and barley.
And 1 Tblsp of stock powder.

Next comes the ‘what’s in the fridge’ part.
Could be I have:
2 large carrots – scrubbed, topped and tailed, chopped
Celery – 2 stalks, scrubbed and sliced, leaves and all
Turnip – 1 or 2, scrubbed, topped and tailed, chopped
Leeks – 2 - well washed and sliced
Butternut – about ½ peeled and chopped
Green beans – end of the packet, looking a bit sad, topped and tailed and chopped
Courgettes – 3 – 4 topped and tailed and chopped
Aubergine – 1 peeled and chopped
I add these to my simmering pot as I prepare them.

Now, what’s in the store cupboard?
A can of chopped tomatoes with onion
A can of chick peas, cannellini, kidney- or butter beans, mixed beans (1 can, contents rinsed and drained)
Pasta? 1 cup of pasta – shells, alphabet shapes, broken spaghetti – sometimes I use rice.
These are unceremoniously added to the pot.

I check to see if I have enough water in there (add more if necessary), then I cover the pan and while it simmers away for 25 minutes or so, I dig a loaf of crusty bread out of the freezer and put it in the oven to thaw and re-crisp (about 20 mins at 180ºc). And I’ll maybe take the cheese out of the fridge – you get a better flavour when it is not so cold.

Once I’m ready to serve I blitz the soup with my hand blender – just 3 or four times, I’m not trying to puree it, only thicken the stock. Voila - wonderfully tasty, warming, filling, healthy soup.

Do you have a ‘rusty nail’ soup recipe? You can use any or all of the ingredients I’ve listed, and plenty of others. What are your essential soup ingredients?

Minestrone a la Genoa : Wk17/3

Serves 4 : Easy : Quick

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, sliced
2 large carrots, scrubbed and sliced
250gm green beans (I used frozen)
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small cabbage, shredded
350ml tomato juice (I blitz a can of chopped tomatoes)
80gm small pasta shells
1 litre hot vegetable stock

2 x ±350gm cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 small loaf olive Ciabatta

Method
Put all the vegetables into a large saucepan as you prepare them.
Add the stock, tomato juice and pasta shells.
Simmer for 20 minutes, by which time the vegetables and pasta will be al dente.

Add the cannellini beans.
Allow to heat through thoroughly.

Ladle into individual bowls and serve with Ciabatta bread.

A recurrent favourite

Soup: n. usually a savoury liquid dish, made by boiling meat, fish or vegetables etc. in water or stock.

That doesn't sound very appetizing to me, and yet I love soup. I eat/drink it almost daily. Sometimes hot, sometimes cold.

The soup in the photo was today's lunch, and it's really easy to make and freezes well.
Take note, all fellow Weight Watchers, this one is no points.

Butternut and carrot soup - yield for these quantities: 6 - 8 servings (approx 350ml per serve)
Peel and clean 1 medium sized butternut, 4-5 big carrots and 2 onions. (I usually just scrub and top'n'tail the carrots.) Or you can use all butternut or all carrot, just use double quantities of either.
Chop all the veg roughly and put in a large pan with 1 level Tblsp veg/chicken stock powder.
Add enough water to cover (more water = thinner soup).
Cover with a lid and bring to the boil then simmer approx 25 mins until vegetables are very tender. Blitz or liquidize until smooth.
At this point, you can add:
1 - 2 Tblsp of your favourite curry paste (I like Patak's Tikka Masala) OR
1/2 - 1 Tblsp chopped fresh ginger OR
1 -2 Tblsp chopped coriander OR
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange.
Blitz again, adding more water if you want thinner soup.

If you are going to freeze this, don't make it too thin - it gets thinner in the freezer.
When you thaw it, it looks a bit grainy so it helps to give it another blitz.
Serve hot or chilled, with a swirl of fat free natural yoghurt. Or a slice of orange.

Or a sprig of Petroselinum crispum.