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

Lentil and pumpkin soup

The delicious dahl and pumpkin soup

It's winter and work is busy so I want a good selection of soups in the freezer for easy (and free) lunches. If you make just one type of soup you'll soon get bored and and be put off eating soup for months. Having a variety of soups in the freezer (frozen, of course, in individual tupperware-shaped portions) will stop your heart from sinking when you contemplate a homemade lunch.

Last Sunday I made three different types of soup, giving me about 10 portions in total. I used instant vegetable stock as the base for all of them. I use reduced salt Swiss bouiIllon stock and add my own salt, as I find the normal stuff too salty.
I adapted this dahl-type soup from one in the New Covent Garden Soup and Beyond book.  

There's a long list of ingredients, but they're pretty standard spice rack staples. You can of course use fresh chillies - the recipe suggests 1 red and 1 green one, but I hate getting chilli juice on my fingers, or worse, in my eye, so use Lazy Chilli or  chilli paste from a jar.

Dahl and pumpkin soup ingredients

• 1 small pumpkin
• 1 medium onion
• About 125g red lentils
• About 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 thumb root ginger, grated
• 2 teaspoons lazy chilli
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
• lime juice, to finish, to taste 

Method for making dahl and pumpkin soup

1. Heat about 1 desert spoon of vegetable oil in a pan.
2. Add the onions and fry over a medium heat till a little browned at the edges.
3. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, tumeric, coriander and cumin; fry for about 1 minute.
4. Add the vegetable stock, lentils and pumpkin and bring to the boil.
5. Simmer till the pumpkin is tender and the lentils are cooked. 
6. Mash to your liking with a potato masher. You can liquidise if you prefer, but I like a little texture in my soup. It makes it seem more like a meal and lesslike baby food.
7. Add the coconut milk and tamarind and warm for a minute or two.
8. Add the lime juice after you have removed from the heat and are just about to serve.

I actually wish I had made more of this soup as it is so tasty, and it feels like a real treat having 'curry' for lunch at work. For free.

Asian mushroom soup

Marshroom soup

Today I got a text from my blog chum Mars saying I had inspired her to make vomit soup. Since she is full of cold I thought I’d make up a new slightly less vomit-looking recipe for her with a good kick of ginger and chilli to make her feel better.

Asian-tasting mushroom soup ingredients

• Approx 150g red lentils
  Unlike most pulses, lentils require no pre-cooking soaking or rapid boiling.  
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• I stalk lemon grass, finely shredded, or, in my case today, a squeeze of lemon grass paste (not as good as the real thing but an OK substitute for soup)
• A piece of root ginger, about the size of Jamie Oliver’s thumb*
• 200-250g chestnut mushrooms (I happened to have 127g, yes I actually weighed them). Oriental mushrooms would be good but you would need to reduce the quantity as things like oyster or shiiake mushrooms are expensive.
• Small can coconut milk – Blue Dragon do a 165ml can which is the perfect amount. The tin looks dinky too
• Approx ½ litre or 1 pint chicken stock. Vegetable stock will be fine for this recipe. In fact, non-vegetarians may not even notice the lack of meat since there are so many other strong flavours in here.
• Fish sauce – a large dash
• Coriander leaves and stalks, chopped (if you have the roots from the plants, all the better)
• Mint leaves, chopped
• Lime juice from 1 lime
• Fish sauce, a splash

*Thumb-size is the international measurement for root ginger. Although this recipe isn’t Jamie’s, he frequently uses this measurement so I assume his thumb is the accurate size.

1. Gently fry the shallots and the ginger for a few minutes in some light-flavoured oil, such as groundnut or sunflower.
2. Add the mushrooms and fry until they have started to collapse and release a deep mushroomy smell.They will sizzle like sausages or, if you are vegetarian, like mushrooms. 
3. Add your chicken stock, lemongrass, chilli and rinsed lentils, then bring to the boil.
4. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.  
5. Add a splash of fish sauce and the coconut milk and cook for about 5 minutes. 
6. Turn off the heat and add the lime juice.* 
7. Ladle into serving bowls and sprinkle each with some chopped coriander and mint.

This made enough for 3 portions, ie 3 free lunches.

*Don’t add the lime if you’re going to reheat this soup at work – take half a lime to work with you and squeeze it in after its been reheated.