Carrot and lentil soup

It's been raining for what seems like a year so I need to stock up my freezer with a selection of soups for lunch at work. While the best soups always contain cheese (cauliflower/broccoli and blue cheese, leek and potato with cheddar), lentils can turn an essentially dull vegetable soup into a satisfying meal, while still being healthy.

I was feeling lazy when I made this soup, and couldn't be bothered to dry roast and crush any fresh spices so I used pre-ground spices instead. The result was disappointing, until I upped the quantity used considerably. 

 

Carrot and lentil soup ingredients

• 3 large carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
• 1/2 swede or a turnip
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric 
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon asafoetida
• 1 teaspoon sambal oelek or other chilli sauce
• 2 JOTs fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
• I teaspooon fresh ginger paste
• 150g red lentils, rinsed
• 2 teaspoons Swiss bouillon stock powder
• Rind of 1 orange
• Plenty salt and black pepper
• About 1 litre water 

 

How to make carrot and lentil soup

1. Heat a little rapeseed oil in a large pan till hot.
2. Add the chopped onion and celery and fry till soft and golden.
3. Add the grated carrot and ginger, and cook for about 5 minutes over a low heat.
4. Add the spices, approx 1 litre cold water and the lentils.
5. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer.
6. Add some boiling water to the Swiss bouillon stock powder and mix till dissolved and you have a watery liquid then pour this in the pan. 
7. Add the grated orange zest and ginger paste. 
8. Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool slightly before tasting and adding seasoning. 

Homemade coleslaw that comes with a warning

Homemade coleslaw is a doddle, the only effort required is chopping and grating. You can use whatever raw root vegetables you fancy  - swede and celeriac work well - so long as you include some form of cabbage and a little onion. The pear goes well with blue cheese, but grated apple is also good.

Coleslaw ingredients

• 1/8 red or white cabbage
• 1 very small red onion or 1/2  tennis ball sized red onion
• 1/2 raw grated parsnip
• 1/2 raw grated courgette
• 1/2 raw grated carrot
• 1 tablespoon mayo
• 1 tablespoon yoghurt
• 1/2 very ripe pear, grated
• about 1 tablespoon blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 teaspoon English mustard
• About a dessertspoon poppy seeds 

How to make coleslaw

1. Lightly toast the poppy seeds in a small frying pan then leave to cool.
2. Mix together the yoghurt, mayonaise and mustard in a large bowl.
3. Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage.
4. Cut down either side of the tough stem and discard this too.
5. Shred the remaining cabbage leaves finely. 
6. Finely chop the onion
7. Add to the dressing along with the other raw vegetables and the pear.
8. Gently mix together so that everything is coated with the dressing.
9. Scatter over the poppy seeds and crumbled cheese and fold gently to combine.

Homemade coleslaw: a warning

Do not make too much! You will not eat it. Then you will feel guilty about throwing it away.

Carrot and cardamon soup

Soup 2 of my soup frenzy Sunday, and another adaptation from the New Covent Garden's Soup and Beyond book.

I'm surprised the recipe included a teaspoon of sugar, which I omitted, as it is still very sweet for my liking. It took a bit of tweaking to produce a little sharpness - I added lime lime leaves and tamarind.  

I also added some red lentils to make this soup more substantial for lunch, so you don't need any bread with it.  

Purple carrots, disappointingly orange on the inside

On a whim I bought some purple carrots which I used for this soup - maybe they are sweeter than orange ones? Apparently back in the day all carrots used to be purple, till William of Orange made them all orange. Sounds like a QI not true alert to me.

Carrot, lentil and cardamon soup ingredients

• About 3 medium or 2 large carrot
• I large onion
• I clove garlic
• 1/2 litre vegetable stock
• 50g red lentils, rinsed
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• About 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• Seeds from 8 cardamon pods
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
• 1 tablespoon chopped lime leaves

  How to make carrot, lentil and cardamon soup

1. Chop the onion finely.
2. Add a little rapeseed or olive oil to a pan to warm.
3. Add the onion and cover with a lid to sweat for about 5 minutes.
4. Grate the carrot and add to the onion.
5. Crush the garlic and add to the pan.
6. Fry for a few minutes till the carrot starts to reduce and you can smell the garlic.
7. Add the stock and coconut milk and lentils.
8. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer.
9. Add the cardamon seeds, lime leaves and tamarind paste.
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Simmer for about 30 minutes. 
12. Add the lemon before serving. 

 

Carrot, cardamon and lentil soup which looks like any other soup

Crunchy salad

Crunchy salad

Tonight I made teriyaki salmon with rice and a crunchy salad from the very few fresh vegetables I had lying around in my fridge. I wanted a tangy dressing to go with it, but since I didn't even have a lime I made this dressing out of store cupboard ingredients. While it didn't have the same zinginess that fresh herbs and lime would give, I think it worked really well.

Ginger and sesame salad dressing ingredients

• 1cm piece root ginger, grated to a pulp, which will give you about 1 teaspoon ginger pulp
• 3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon hot chilli blend (from a tube)
• 1 teaspoon coriander blend (from a tube)
• 1 tablespoon plum seasoning
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice 
• A few drops light soy sauce

How to make ginger and sesame dressing

• Grate the ginger finely. You wll end up with about 1 teaspoon grated ginger pulp.
• Add all the ingredients to a screw-cap jar and shake vigorously to combine.

I hate chopping chillies so always have one of those tubes of chilli blend and jars of chilli sauce in the fridge. While some recipes really do need fresh chillies, if you just want a little kick of heat, these work surprisingly well. 

Coriander blend in a tube, however, really is a last resort, and nothing like the fresh stuff. But its a handy thing to have in the fridge for coriander-related emergencies. 

I used plum seasoning (not sauce) to give a sharpness to the dressing. If you don't have any (and I suspect you won't, as I'm not entirely sure why I do) then use extra lemon juice, or, even better, lime juice. 

You don't have to use rapeseed oil either, but if you use olive oil use a light one that doesn't have a strong flavour. The sesame oil, however, is essential. 

Ingredients for crunchy salad

• 3 water chestnuts
• 2 spring onions
• a 5cm piece carrot
• a 5cm piece cucumber
• 1/4 iceberg lettuce
• 1/2 teaspoon each of white and black sesame seeds (or just use 1/2 teaspoon 1 type if that's what you have) 

How to make crunchy salad 

1. Slice each water chestnut into about 5 or 6 slices.
2. Slice the spring onions into 5cm lengths. Split each piece horizontally into thin slithers.
3. Slice the cucumber and carrot into thin strips (julienne).
4. Shred the lettuce into thin slices, about the same length as the rest of the vegetables.
5. Mix all the vegetables together in a bowl. 
6. Add a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and toss to coat the vegetables.
7. Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan over a low heat.
   If you are using white sesame seeds, they will turn golden brown so you know when they are done. If you are only using black seeds, just keep moving them around in the pan for about 2 minutes; they will start to smell toasted when they are done. In either case, do not attempt to multitask - you need to watch them all the time or they will burn. 
8. Scatter the seeds over the salad.

 

 

 

 

 

Soup - lunch for free

I almost always make and take my lunch to work, so when I don’t I’m shocked at the price that people pay for a salad or a bowl of soup. That’s why I consider lunch made at home to be ‘free’. If you tried it for a week you could save yourself £25.

The inspiration for starting this blog came after a veggie single mum friend asked me for some meat and fish recipes to cook for her daughter. Although I rarely get home before 7, the odd fish finger sandwich aside, I always have a homemade meal. So I thought I would share my ideas, tips and shortcuts for creating quick, tasty and inexpensive meals.

My friends think I am a great cook but I am not – I’m just capable of following instructions. Admittedly I sometimes ignore those instructions and make things up myself.

The recipes will be written in easy to follow steps and include explanations where I think they are needed. I will unashamedly rely heavily on recipes developed by others, adapting them as I see fit.

The contents of my freezer, my friend

Today I took an inventory of my freezer and was ashamed at how disgusting the top drawer was.

There are strict rules about what goes in the middle and bottom drawers of my freezer but the top drawer is full of items such as half-melted ice cream, pine nuts, coffee beans and random objects that have since lost their identifiable purpose.

Throwing out the crap and cleaning the drawer was strangely satisfying and put me in the mood for making soup.

Split pea soup

I love soup. It is the perfect delicious nutritious solution to clearing out your vegetable rack and making free lunch.

However my soups do have a tendency to end up all the same. I need to expand my soup repertoire and introduce different ingredients.

My standard soups are generally based on some combination of the following vegetables:

Basic soup vegetables

• Onion
• Carrot
• Leek
• Celery

The vegetables are gently sweated until soft in a little oil.

Olive oil does not need to be extra virgin for cooking, though my mum always uses extra virgin which she buys from Lidl. I have recently started using rapeseed oil, which is produced in the UK. It has an earthy, apply taste – if Somerset was a taste, it would be rapeseed oil.

Then I add either:

Liquid for soup

• Stock, vegetable or chicken, or
• Water with Parmesan rind (thank you, Nigel Slater). I store these in my friend the freezer.

and add one of the following to thicken:

Thickening agents for soup

• Lentils
• Chickpeas
• Split peas
• Pearl barley

Potatoes can also be used, but I tend to reserve this exclusively for leek and potato soup which is possibly the easiest and most satisfying soup to make of all. My brother showed me how to make leek and potato soup after he was taught at primary school.

I add spices and herbs depending on what other ingredients I use. Here are some guides

• Coriander goes well with carrot or parsnip
• Cumin goes well with chickpeas
• Chilli goes well with pumpkin and squash
• Thyme goes well with mushrooms

Today I used the following:

Split pea soup ingredients 

• 1 large onion
• 2 sticks of past its best celery
• 2 carrots
• Stock made from boiling a gammon joint in water with a sliced onion, carrot and celery stick, bay leaf, peppercorns and rosemary sprig
• Split peas, rinsed and soaked overnight in cold water, drained, and rinsed again in cold water. This means you need to plan ahead the day before you want to make the soup but it takes no effort at all. Dried split peas are very cheap and make a good thickening agent. They are a good source of roughage.

How to make split pea soup

1. Fry the onion in a large pan while you chop the celery into small pieces.
2. Add the celery to the pan and sweat – this means you cover the pan with a lid while the vegetables cook slowly in the oil till soft.
3. Grate the carrot then add that to the pan, cooking till soft.
4. Add the stock and the split peas.
5. Season with pepper only. Don’t add salt – the peas will be tough and you will fart.
6. Bring to the boil.
7. Boil rapidly for 10 minutes
8. Reduce the heat and simmer till the peas are cooked.
   This could take 30 minutes or longer, depending on how long the peas have been in your cupboard.
9.  When the peas are cooked, turn off the heat. 
10. Leave to cool.
11. Liquidize in a blender or use a hand-held blender to puree.
    I like to leave some texture in the soup but make it however you like.

Notes on split pea soup

I suspect that my split pea soup is too salty because I had to cook the split peas for so long in gammon stock, thus concentrating the salinity of the stock.

O says the soup looks like sick. It does. I pureed the soup in response to this comment and it now looks like pureed sick. However it is yummy tasty and will provide me with five free lunches at work.