Curried Vegetable Soup - a lovely winter warmer

We decided, quite recently, to try and have a vegetarian night every so often.  Not so often as weekly, but fairly regularly all the same.  When a vegetarian recipe strikes me as being right for our tastes - that sort of thing.

So, when I saw the recipe for this Curried Vegetable Soup as I was looking for a main course soup, I didn't immediately consider whether to put some chicken in it!

Any vegetarian recipe has to have some kind of "oomph!" for me to consider it for the family.  We are all such confirmed meat eaters that some of the lighter bites that seem to be on offer as vegetarian fare just aren't man enough for us.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of point in having dinner, then finding the menfolk scouring the kitchen cupboards for something to eat just half an hour later.  Seems a poor use of resources, to me!

This is one of the reasons why some of the salad recipes just aren't any good for us.  I'd have to put a whacking great jacket potato with it, just to stop the snacking that would go on later in the evening.  Not that there's anything wrong with a jacket potato per se, it's just that it would probably kill the delicacy of a tender young salad with scallops, for instance.

Yes, we're definitely in the market for manly, hearty vegetarian food.

Food like this Curried Vegetable Soup, for instance.  With its use of butternut squash, carrots and celeriac, you have all your vegetable goodness along with protein from the lentils, warm curry spices to keep the palate interested and lovely coconut milk to give the impression of dairy creaminess.  I also used some of the lovely vegetable stock powder from Essential Cuisine, as their stocks are not only beautifully flavoured but low in salt, too.

I was surprised, when it came to making the soup, that the instructions didn't start with "put the onion pieces into the pan".  For once, especially where a recipe involving curry spices is concerned, there is no onion involved!  It makes a pleasant change.

Now hubby is a man who very definitely - in the ordinary course of events - does not like lentils.  However, this is one of the very few ways in which he will accept red lentils - much like cauliflower.  In this instance, the lentils just melt away as they cook and give the soup some great substance.  With the final go round from the blender, even though I kept some of the vegetables back for added texture, he was perfectly happy to accept lentils.

There's just something about curry spices and red lentils that go so well.  They really are a match made in heaven - and I was pretty sure I'd get away with using them.

I served the soup with some ready made flatbreads from our local Asda.  These flatbreads are "Coronation" flavour, so think Coronation Chicken.  They have some gentle curry flavours, along with coconut and sultanas - and are just perfect for dipping into this soup.

To be honest, I think just about anything (except maybe a marshmallow - euk!) would be great to eat alongside this soup.  You could go down the Indian route and serve onion bhajees, or hunks of warm crusty farmhouse bread and butter for the more traditional route.  Either way, I know the cockles of your heart will be thoroughly warmed.  You can't ask for more than that!

CURRIED VEGETABLE SOUP   (serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and diced small
200g carrots, peeled and diced small
a quarter of a celeriac, peeled and diced small
1 tbsp curry powder
half a tsp turmeric
100g red lentils
700ml vegetable stock (I used Essential Cuisine Vegetable Stock powder)
400ml tin coconut milk
a handful of green peas, defrosted if frozen
2-3 sprigs of fresh coriander, chopped plus some for garnish.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the squash, carrots and celeriac.  Cook until the vegetables are beginning to brown and soften a little, then stir in the curry powder and cook for 1 minute more.

2.  Add the turmeric, lentils, stock and coconut milk and bring up to a low boil.

3.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are cooked.

4.  Remove a few ladlefuls of the vegetables to a jug.  Add the chopped coriander to the remainder of the soup and using a hand blender, blitz the soup to your preferred consistency.  Add the vegetables back in and include the peas.

5.  Bring back up to heat and continue to simmer until the peas are cooked - around 2-3 minutes.

Serve.

Printable version

Slow Cooked Pork with Celeriac and Orange

I seem, purely by chance, to have come up with a selection of dishes that have either divided the audience or just plain old repelled them.  Well, all except for me, that is.  I've liked and enjoyed the majority!

One such is the Slow Cooked Pork with Celeriac and Orange, which I found on the BBC's Good Food website and is by Barney Desmazery.

This is a simple dish, to be eaten with crusty bread.  The problem with it - from the chaps' point of view, was two-fold.

Firstly (and I agree with them, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of it) was that it had too much orange.  The zest from an entire orange goes in (and I'm glad I didn't zest the entire orange - I left out its top and tail) plus orange juice.  If I were to do this one again (which I won't, because of the chaps' reactions), I'd just put two or three strips of orange zest into the mix.  I've reflected that in the recipe - but if you like orange, then go ahead and put more.

Secondly (and this was just hubby's preference), if a dish has a gravy or sauce or broth that's thinner than double cream consistency, then he doesn't want to know.  As this dish's broth is very much just that - a broth - he didn't like it.  In fact, I believe it was dubbed "pond water".  *sigh*  I liked it - but then I'm quite happy with broth-like gravies and sauces, so long as they're full of flavour.  Which this one was - but it was largely orange!

I loved the texture of the leek, the sweetness of the carrots and the flavour of the celeriac.  The pork had a tendency to be a tiny bit dry though, which I put down to my conversion from an oven-baked dish to a slow cooker dish, in that I just plain old cooked it a bit too long.  I've reflected that aspect in the recipe, too - so you shouldn't have any problem with that now.

As I'm watching my intake of carbohydrates, I didn't indulge in the accompanying bread and have to say that I didn't miss it.  If you felt that the dish was a little light on vegetables, you could easily add mushroom, parsnip, peas or shredded cabbage (at the last minute, with the peas and cabbage!) without compromising the flavours at all.

SLOW COOKED PORK WITH CELERIAC & ORANGE  (serves 3)
 
Ingredients :

2-3 leeks (depending on size) washed & trimmed, each cut into 5 pieces
a handful of Chantenay carrots top & tailed, or 2 carrots peeled and cut to match the size of the leeks
2 tbsp olive oil
600g boneless pork (I used pork loin steaks) cut into decent sized pieces
1 small celeriac, peeled and diced into large chunks
1 garlic clove, chopped
150ml dry white wine
150ml chicken stock
juice of 1 orange
3 strips of orange zest, cut with a peeler
2 tsp soy sauce
a large sprig of rosemary.

Method :

1.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil and once it's hot add the pork and leave it to brown.

2.  Once the pork has browned, using a slotted spoon, decant it into the slow cooker and turn it on to low.

3.  Add the leeks, carrots and celeriac to the frying pan (you may need to do this in batches, in which case add a little more oil) and cook until they start to show browning.  Add each batch to the slow cooker.

4.  Add the garlic to the last batch of vegetables and cook for a minute or so, then add it to the slow cooker.

5.  Into the frying pan, to deglaze it and make the most of the lovely flavours, add the wine, stock, orange juice, orange zest, and soy sauce.  Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 minutes.

6.  Then season with salt & pepper, add the rosemary sprig and decant into the slow cooker.

7.  Give the contents of the slow cooker a stir to settle everything in together, then replace the lid and cook on high for 3 hours.

Serve with crusty bread, for mopping up the lovely juices.

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Spring vegetable chowder with ham - swerving the failed Gnocchi

You'll recall from the earlier Menu Plan blog that I was planning on having Gnocchi for dinner one night this week, but due to an oversight in the Sweet Potato front, the whole lot went in the bin.

Well, this left us with a whole heap of diced carrot, celeriac, fennel and asparagus sitting with no home to go to.

I'd already mentioned to hubby (who was doing the chopping and a-peeling) to keep the woody ends of the asparagus and I'd make some soup at the weekend.  (Darn it, just remembered we forgot to buy a leek in the shopping!).  Anyway, this throwaway request had obviously sowed a seed in hubby's brain as he suggested I make some soup with all the dice.

So, back he went to chopping and a-peeling-land and added an onion and two potatoes to the mix, finding some tinned sweetcorn on the way.

I had bought a litre of Jersey milk to make the sauce which was to have gone with the Gnocchi, so I had the basics for a really nice chowder-style soup.

The ham was a last-minute inclusion, but for all that it was the making of the soup.  It added that little bit of savouriness that otherwise would have been missing.

With some bread and butter for dipping, this made a perfect main course soup - and is  easy to have as a vegetarian option, by simply leaving out the ham.

This soup actually took me back to a time when I was vegetarian for a while.  It was just after I'd had my first horse, Baringa, put to sleep and the whole experience had made me turn my back on meat.  As often happens, it was the demon bacon sandwich that turned me back again! 





SPRING VEGETABLE CHOWDER  (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

A knob of butter
a splosh of olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
2 carrots, peeled and diced small
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 celeriac, peeled and diced
100ml vegetable stock using half a stock cube

1 litre of jersey milk
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 fennel bulb, diced small and with herby fronds chopped & retained
a bunch of asparagus, trimmed and sliced to 1cm pieces
2/3 slices of thick cut ham, shredded thinly
crusty bread with butter, to serve.

Method :


1.  Melt the butter in a deep saucepan and add the olive oil.


2.  Add the onion and saute until transparent (around 5 minutes on a light/medium heat) - do not let the onion brown at all.


3.  Add the carrots and stir to combine.  Allow to cook for 4-5 minutes.


4.  Add the potato and celeriac and stir to combine.  Allow to cook until the heat appears to have penetrated the mass.


5.  Add the stock and as much of the milk as it takes to cover the vegetables.  Season to taste, being careful of the amount of salt that the stock may have brought.


6.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.


7.  Test a piece of potato.  If it is well on it's way to being cooked, add the fennel - but not the frondy fennel herb.  Continue simmering until the carrot is within minutes of being cooked.


8.  Add the asparagus and the fennel herb, stir to combine and simmer until the asparagus is done (around 2-3 minutes).

9.  Using a stick blender, whizz the soup until the majority of the cubes are pulverised, then add water until it becomes the consistency you are happy with.

10.  If you are using the  ham, add it now by either resting it on top of the soup, or mixing it in.


11.  Serve in deep warmed bowls, with crusty bread and butter.


Scrumptious!


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Cheesy Celeriac Slice - a bit of a serious cheese-fest!

As part of my continued attempts to foil the demon gout, I've been following a largely vegetarian menu.  

Well, I reckoned that it wouldn't do any of us any harm to lay off the meat for a bit.  So for the last few weeks, I've had my eye open for likely-sounding vegetarian recipes.

I came across a recipe for a Potato & Cheese slice which the writer had prepared for her Wedding buffet. However, what to use instead of potato to make it more attractive to him indoors?

For some reason, celeriac immediately popped into my head.  Well, celery certainly goes with cheese sauce, celeriac is capable of being mashed like potato - I reckoned it'd be worth a go.  I am very glad I went with that celeriac thought, as the end result - we had it for dinner last night - was not only delicious, but a bit of a celeriac revelation.   Needless to say, I wasn't content with just changing potato for celeriac, but I tweaked the recipe a bit further and added a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, just to help those cheesy flavours along.

Served as a slice - as pictured - or even as individual Cheesy Celeriac Rolls (like sausage rolls), it went perfectly with baked beans for an easy dinner.  It is just as nice cold (I'm using up the leftovers for my lunch today) with salad.

Oh - and there wasn't a peep of protest from the boys.  Well, not once they had a forkful in their mouths.  ~Satisfaction~

20 October 2016 : I can't believe it's been so long since I made this last!  Still, it's worth the wait and this version of it was no exception.  I tweaked the recipe a tiny bit by adding grated nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper to the original celeriac mash, which meant I could leave out the cayenne pepper which doesn't agree with us these days.  It definitely doesn't seem to have noticed the change, as it was just as delicious as always.  For me, the recipe is entirely dependent upon choosing a good, super flavoursome Cheddar cheese.  Coupling that with the celeriac is absolutely the base of a good end result.

CHEESY CELERIAC SLICE  (serves 4 - makes one slice)

Ingredients :

500g celeriac, peeled and cubed
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp Dijon or wholegrain mustard
150g grated strong cheddar
150g red leicester, cut into tiny cubes
a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced finely
375g ready made puff pastry
1 egg, whisked.

Method :

Pre-heat oven to 200degC/400degF/gas 6.

Boil celeriac until tender along with a pinch of sea salt, then drain well, allow to steam dry and mash with a pinch of pepper and nutmeg - ensuring some texture is left in the mash.  Allow to cool.

Add the cheese, Dijon mustard and onions to the celeriac and stir to combine.  Taste to check for seasoning.

Lay out one of the sheets of puff pastry and roll lightly to reduce the thickness, taking care to keep the rectangular shape.

Take half of the cheese mixture and press into a sausage shape along one of the long sides.

Egg wash the opposite side, and roll into a long cylinder, pressing down along the egg washed side to seal.  Place on a baking tray.

Repeat with the other sheet of pastry, then paint all the rolls liberally with egg wash.  Taking a fork, prick along the top of each roll to allow steam to escape easily.

Place into the oven to bake for around 30 minutes.

Slice and serve.

Printable version

Menu plan : Week 12 - Pizza through Bobotie to Celeriac

The Sunday morning ritual of scratching one's head and juggling with ingredients is over for another week and, with two dinners left to go from last week's Menu Plan, I've placed the order for my online shopping.  Now all that's left to do is cross my fingers that a) it all works out how it's supposed to; b) everyone's in a fit state to eat the dishes and c) I'll be in a fit state to make them.

Point b) became an issue last week when hubby damaged a tooth/gum and it became very difficult for him to chew anything particularly chewy.  Even a cream cheese sandwich was too much on the day after it happened, poor soul.  Having planned out the menus for the week, needing to cater for a sore mouth, or an upset tummy, can be quite tricky.  I think For the future, I'll have to make sure we keep a tin or two of "gentle on the tummy" and "easy eating" soups in the cupboard!

So, Maestro, what's on the menu list this week then?

Well, we'll kick off the week with son & heir's favourite - pizza.  This is largely because I will be in and out during the day and can't guarantee to be here for the online order to be delivered.  I've organised it to arrive after son has come home from school, as I know we'll be here and available then - and the dear chap can help put it all away.  Once we've done all that, I know I won't be in any fit state to cook - so Pizza is the order of the day.

I'm rather looking forward to Wednesday.  I'm going to be doing a Beef & Cauliflower Curry with naan bread, adapted from my curry recipe that I used for hubby's birthday.  It will be utilising my current favourite of beef shin - and using the other half of the cauliflower that I bought in for last Sunday's roast.   Hence, effectively, all I'll be buying to make this one will be the beef shin and some naan bread.  Everything else is in the larder or the fridge!

Thursday is another new recipe, being a Chicken & Chorizo Jambalaya.  We made a Jambalaya shortly after Christmas, but for all that it was tasty and quite nice, it didn't really hit the spot.  So, we're having another go - this time with a different recipe.  I've already got the chicken in the freezer, so that's another one that has worked out to be relatively cheap.

Friday brings one of my favourite meals - Bobotie.  Now I've only ever made this once before (and really enjoyed it then), but I can recall how a seemingly odd collection of ingredients managed to magically amalgamate into a really delicious whole.  Again, I already have the lamb mince in the freezer from a BOGOF offer previously.  I'll be serving this one with savoy cabbage and some carrots.

Saturday, and hubby has promised us a meal of Sausages with red cabbage & apple, together with mustard mash.  Yum!  Once again, I've already got the sausages in the freezer, from this week's trip to Sainsbury's for their sausages - which are streets ahead of Asda's miserable, hard, tasteless efforts.

Sausages always make me think of "The Perishers" and Marlon cooking sausages while Boot looks on

I shall be breaking with tradition this coming Sunday and not indulging in a roast.  I think it does us good every now and again, to kick over the traces and go for something different.  I hate to think I'm getting into a rut along the lines of "fish on Fridays".  So, on this Sunday we shall be travelling to the Orient (oh, I wish!) with Beef & Butternut Squash (using brisket, this time) together with home made fried rice.

Celeriac - looks like an alien!

So that just leaves us Monday, which shall be our meat-free day.  (Sssshhh, don't tell the boys - who are strict carnivores!).  We're having a Celeriac & Cheese Slice - which is basically celeriac mash, mixed with cheese (two types) & spring onions, wrapped in pastry and cooked.  There's only one thing that would go with this, in my opinion - baked beans.


What does that translate as, then?  Three types of bread product, two different cuts of beef, two different rice dishes, one curry dish, one chicken dish, one lamb dish, one pork dish.  Looking at the vegetable side of things, there's five dishes which involve fresh vegetables of one sort or another, plus the baked beans - which are a superfood, you know! I think there's balance in there - somewhere.


If you're looking for inspiration via other people's Menu Plans, then look no further than Mrs M's blog and her "Menu Planning Monday" feature.  I wonder if Menu Planning Sundays qualify? ...


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