Black Bean Soup with Cashew Cream and Coriander

Sadly I've been in a bit of a soup slump of late. But I did get around to making this soup this week. (Oops, or last year it seems- I forgot to post this). It caught my interest when I saw it in August 2016 at Kahakai Kitchen. I like the notion of an Australian recipe for a Mexican soup made by a Hawaiian, and now it's come back full circle to Australia. Naturally I modified the recipe a bit too.

I've never had black bean soup that I can remember, so I wasn't sure how this soup should really taste. Indeed black beans haven't really been easily available in Australia until this year, but now tinned black beans are available at the supermarket.

The colour isn't that pretty,
but it was pretty tasty

Master Soup deemed it to be like liquid burritos, and it basically was.

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tins cooked black beans, drained, rinsed
2 cups chicken stock
Stems from one bunch of coriander
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lime
Cashew cream

Salsa garnish:
Cherry tomatoes, chopped
Cucumber, chopped
Avocado, chopped
Corn kernels, fresh or defrosted frozen
Coriander leaves

Corn tortillas, to serve

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and sauté for 1 minute, or until tender. Add the garlic and cumin and sauté for 1 minute, or until the garlic softens. Add the beans, coriander stems and chicken stock and bring to the simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes to blend the flavours.

Mix together ingredients for salsa

Set aside some of the black beans. Blend the rest of the soup until smooth. Wipe out the pot, transfer pureed soup back into pot and add the reserved beans. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lime juice.

Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Top with a splodge of cashew creme and salsa. Serve with tortillas.

Notes:
Cashew cream sounds difficult but it is very easy to make. Soak raw unsalted cashews in water for at least 4 hours until soft. Drain. Whizz soaked cashews in a blender with water to achieve your desired consistency.

This post is linked to Souper Sundays
(how perfect)
at Kahakai Kitchen 

Spicy Cauliflower, Turmeric and Chickpea Soup

The Sunday Telegraph has been running a great column in the Body and Soul section Book of the Week for a while now. They print upwards of three recipes from current release cookbooks, with a new book featured each week. There is always something of interest.

In July there was an extract from Good Good Food by English GP (and much more it seems, mainly gardening) Sarah Raven. While the Spiced Beetroot Soda Bread and Stuffed Butternut with Goat's Cheese looked good, naturally I was particularly drawn to the Spicy Cauliflower, Turmeric and Chickpea Soup.

Styled recipe
Picture Source

Turmeric is having it's moment as a superfood lately. Which is fine, herbs and spices are all good for us, and tasty. Recently I tried fresh turmeric in a few recipes and so I'm still trying to get the bright orange stains out of various kitchen implements. Go the ground, I say. And I wasn't completely won over by my first Turmeric Latte in Newcastle recently.

I'm not convinced but may try one again sometime

1 medium cauliflower
1 medium onion
2.5cm piece fresh turmeric root, grated, or 1 tsp ground turmeric

1 heaped tbs coriander seeds
Seeds from 14 cardamon pods
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
5 cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled
1 red chilli (optional )

400gm tin chopped tomatoes
1L vegetable stock
2 x 400gm tins chickpeas, drained separately
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Small bunch coriander, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

Cut the cauliflower into florets and place in a bowl. Add the onion and turmeric.

Dry-fry all the spice seeds in a frying pain for a few minutes until fragrant, and then grind them into a coarse powder using a blender or mortar and pestle.

Add the spices and oil to the cauliflower and onion in the bowl and mix well- your hands are best for this. Place on a baking tray- don't crowd them, you may need two trays. Roast the cauliflower, onions and spice mix for 30 minutes until the edges of the cauliflower are starting to brown.

Meanwhile blitz the garlic, ginger and chilli. Put this mixture into a large saucepan and add the tomatoes. Stir, and cook over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, then add the stock.

Blitz the first tin of chickpeas in a food processor until smooth. Add to the soup along with the other drained but unblitzed tin of chickpeas.

Bring to the boil, add the roast cauliflower, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Season, serve with coriander.

My non-styled version
Made slightly non-vegan with a splodge of sour cream
I probably put about a kilo more coriander on after the picture-
I love the stuff and can't get enough

This was a fabulous soup. I really liked it, with and without sour cream. I'll be making it again. It may even enter the Hall of Fame. It's an unusual method really- par-roasting the veg and then boiling them.

Notes
Naturally I made a number of modifications to the original recipe:
I had a few parsnips to use up, so put two in with the cauliflower at the roasting stage
I accidentally dry roasted the ground turmeric with the other spices, it was still fine, just a bit darker.
I'm pretty sure that I added a stem or two of celery to the ginger and garlic stage. You can always use up more veggies in soup... It's a shame to waste them.
The original recipe called for 3 tins of chickpeas, but I thought two was plenty.
I bought a chilli, but forgot to put it in.

This post is linked to Souper Sundays
(how perfect)
at Kahakai Kitchen 

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking,
 a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Glowing Spiced Lentil Soup

Master Soup is currently vegan. It's not my choice. I've fully supported him being vegetarian for some years, but vegan is harder - especially for a non-vegan cook. A good lentil soup is always a thing of joy though and this one is lush and creamy because of the coconut cream.

Oh She Glows styled soup

I tried to make this recipe of Glowing Spiced Lentil Soup, but well I always substitute or change things, and I had pretty much everything in the cupboard, and didn't have to shop (except for the spinach as I'd finished off the last bag the day before). Too easy. This delicious soup is quick enough for a mid week dinner.


1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion
2 large cloves of garlic
A decent glug of white wine (optional)
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamon
400gm tin crushed tomatoes
270ml tin coconut cream
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, grated
2 carrots, unpeeled, grated
4 cups "chicken" stock
3/4 cup (140gm) red lentils, rinsed and drained
Sea salt
Pepper
120gm baby spinach
Lemon juice to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add onion and garlic and a pinch of salt, fry over medium heat (4-5 minutes) until onion softens and is translucent. Add the wine, let it reduce.

Add the dry spices, stir until fragrant, about one minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes, coconut cream, sweet potato, carrot, stock and red lentils. Increase the heat to high and bring it to the boil. Once the soup has boiled, reduce the heat to medium high, and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes until lentils and vegetables are cooked.

Turn off heat, add spinach and stir through to wilt. Add lemon juice, check seasoning. Serve with bread of your choice- rye and turkish are good. 

My soup
Clearly my food stylist career will never take off
But it was delicious

Notes
I didn't really measure the amount of stock I used. I didn't think the ratio of lentils was right so I added some more about 5 minutes into the cooking time.

I whizzed the sweet potato and carrot in the thermomix, and used the water needed to wash the thermomix as part of my stock. I had some white wine lying about, and since I don't drink it I've been adding it to most everything to use it up. 

The original recipe used coconut milk but I only had coconut cream in the cupboard, it worked perfectly well. It also used lime juice, but I had a lemon, although I do think lime would work better.

I didn't check how much turmeric I had before starting and wouldn't have had 2 tsp left in the jar, I had maybe 1 tsp- but hey, it's a soup, it doesn't matter, it will still work out anyway- one of the great principles of cooking soup, and I suspect one of the reasons I love making soup so much. Actually I think I could have named the blog It's Soup, It Doesn't Matter. 

The original recipe had no veggies in it- but I had some in the fridge to use up so added the sweet potato and carrot.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking,
 a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

This post is linked to Souper Sundays
(how perfect)
at Kahakai Kitchen

Super Green Soup with Cashew Cream

Can it really have been two and a half years since I was last here? Seems it must be true. Of course I've been making soup, a lot of Hall of Famers, and some new soups. A few were underwhelming which is always disappointing- and I don't see the point in sharing them here. Yesterday I made this unusual verdant soup, and it was great. I will definitely be making this soup again.

Super Green Soup with Cashew Cream

This soup is a celebration of all things green. Zucchini, kale and leeks also work well, along with any other greens from the fridge that need using up.

1 Tblsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets, stem separate
3 handfuls fresh or frozen peas
700mL hot vegetable or chicken stock
1 small bag baby spinach

For the Cashew Cream
150gm raw cashews
1 clove garlic
Zest of 1 lemon

A few hours before making the soup, prepare the cashew cream. Put the cashews into a bowl, pour over 300mL hot water and leave to soak for at least 2 hours. Once the cashews are tender, drain and place into a food processor along with 300ml of fresh water, the garlic and lemon zest. Blitz until completely smooth and creamy. Set aside

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, and sweat the onion until translucent. Add the chopped broccoli stems, cook for a few minutes. Add the broccoli florets and peas, cook for 5 minutes, then add the hot stock - the vegetables should be just covered (you may need a little extra water). Bring to the boil, then simmer until the broccoli is tender, roughly 4 minutes. Don't overcook the vegetables or they will turn a dull green.

Blend soup adding the spinach - the spinach will cook as it's mixed into the hot soup. Blend until the soup is smooth and thick, then stir through half the cashew cream.

Serve with a swirl of cashew cream on top.

Picture Source

Serves 4
Edited extract of Amelia Freer Cook. Nourish. Glow
Published in Sunday Telegraph body + soul 28/2/16

Notes
Naturally I modified the original recipe a bit. I did have some zucchini and half a butter lettuce in the fridge to use up. I put the zucchini in with the stock, and mixed the lettuce in with the spinach at the blending stage.

The colour was beautiful punchy green the first night, but I forgot to photograph it. It was a little bit more olive green the next day.

It was good warm or chilled.

I'd never made cashew cream before. It was good- quite runny with the 300mL of water, you could easily reduce the water a little for a slightly thicker cream.

I didn't notice that it was meant to have chopped fresh parsley as a garnish until I was typing here. Clearly it was fine without it. Coriander would work I think, or basil- Master Soup is quite obsessed with basil currently.

Roasted Cauliflower, Garlic and Bush Dust Soup

Eek, I can't quite believe that it's been over a year since I posted here.... Hmm, I have been eating soup though of course, just not blogging about it. Naturally I've been making my Hall of Fame recipes, they're never far from my mind, or my lips, and I have tried quite a few new soups, not all of them noteworthy, and I don't see all that much point to blogging soups that I wouldn't remake myself.

I'm pretty proud of this soup though as it's an original creation. And it's super easy, and delicious! I started off intending to use this recipe for Creamy Cauliflower and Roasted Onion Soup from a lovely new Australian blog Lushloves, but I do love fiddling with soup recipes, and tonight I fiddled enough to create a new soup.

I've been eating well this year, losing weight, and estimate that I've now eaten my body weight in cauliflower- and I'm still not tired of it! I've been roasting quite a lot of cauliflower too so it made sense to roast it here.

I forgot to photograph the soup
but I'm sure you can visualize whizzed up cauliflower

Roasted Cauliflower, Garlic and Bush Dust Soup

1 cauliflower
2 brown onions, chopped in segments
Olive oil
1 head garlic, unpeeled, wrapped in foil
5 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup skim milk powder
2 tsp Tasmanian Bush Dust/or other spice blend that you like

Chop cauliflower and onions, put into two roasting pans, drizzle with olive oil.

Roast cauliflower, onions and garlic in a medium oven until done (I always lose track of time while doing this, but it's quite a forgiving process).

Squeeze garlic cloves from the head of garlic. Make a paste from the skim milk powder and some of the vegetable stock. Place all cooked vegetables into blender, add stock, milk paste and spice. Blitz until smooth.

Heat soup, and enjoy with some tasty toasted rye bread and butter.

Notes
I used Tasmanian Bush Dust as the seasoning tonight because I found an unopened jaw lurking in the pantry. I don't remember buying it but suspect that I bought it on a trip to Tasmania last year. Bush Dust is a delicious mix of macadamia nuts, Tasmanian native pepper, bush tomatoes, herbs and spices. You could substitute many other spices or spice blends that you have on hand. Cumin. Ras al hanout. Garam masala. A curry blend. They would all work really well.

The 5 cups of stock wasn't quite enough, my soup is really too thick (can that actually happen? I never really thought so until now), but I've been diluting it somewhat to eat it.

Chickpea and Lentil Mulligatawny with Spicy Yoghurt

It's always exciting getting a new soup cookbook. I have so many soup books that sometimes I can find a "new" book on my own shelf....

I don't remember buying this book, but recently I decided to use it for the first time. It has lots of great sounding soups- some classics, some tweaked versions of favourites, some quite novel. Lebanese lentil soup. Roasted sweet potato bisque with avocado and lime salsa. Persian minted onion soup. Beetroot gazpacho with avocado cream.

For my first foray I chose Chickpea and Lentil Mulligatawny with Spicy Yoghurt. I've adapted it a bit.

25gm unsalted butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
125gm chickpeas, soaked in water overnight and then drained
2 tblsp prepared curry paste
1 tblsp gram (chickpea) flour
1 L chicken stock
125gm puy lentils
1 tblsp mango chutney
1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
400ml can light coconut milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cumin yoghurt
1tsp ground cumin
1 small pot of Greek yoghurt

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic and turmeric, cook over a low heat until softened. Add the soaked chickpeas and curry paste and cook for 5 minutes, then sprinkle over the chickpea flour and stir it in. Pour on the stock and bring it to the boil, then simmer for 2 hours topping up with more liquid if it begins to get too dry.

Stir in the lentils and simmer for 30-40 minutes, then add the mango chutney and apple and cook for another 20 minutes.

For the cumin yoghurt, stir the cumin and yoghurt until combined.

Pour the soup into a blender/thermomix, blitz until it is a smooth puree. Return to the pan, add the coconut milk, and reheat. Season to taste. Serve topped with cumin yoghurt.

Notes
Always beware of recipes that aren't photographed in books that have a photo accompanying each recipe. They are usually an unappealing colour.  Especially if the chosen picture is of an ingredient that isn't even in the recipe.

I omitted 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes. The original recipe also included two smoked chicken breasts to be served shredded on top. I never bothered with that.

I used a yellow curry paste.

You can just blitz a few unsoaked chickpeas in a thermomix or fast blender to make the chickpea flour. And then use leftover chickpea flour on parboiled potatoes before roasting them- crispiest roast spuds ever!

Pea, mint and pine nut soup

While pea and ham soup isn't one of my great favourites,  I do love a fresh pea soup. This intriguing twist caught my eye recently. It was delicious, and so simple.

Pea, mint and pine nut soup

1 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
1 leek, washed and sliced into rings
1 L chicken or vegetable stock
600gm fresh or frozen peas
2 tblsp chopped mint
2 tblsp pine nuts

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onion, celery and leek and cook, stirring, for 5-7 minutes until vegetable are soft but not coloured. Add stock, peas and three quarters of the mint and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast pine nuts by tossing in a frying pan until golden. Roughly chop nuts and combine with remaining mint leaves.

Remove soup from heat. Puree until smooth. Season, return to heat and serve hot, sprinkled with pine nuts and mint.

Serves 4
David Herbert
The Weekend Australian Magazine
31/3/12

Note
I actually cooked mine in the Thermomix, I'm sure it would be just as easy, and just as wonderful on the stovetop.

Green Tea and Broccoli Soup

I love how international recipes can be now. This recipe came to me via a French magazine and a Lebanese-American blog! Now it comes to you via an Australian soup blog. It is certainly the modern way to pass a recipe about. I immediately knew that I would have to try this when I saw it on Taste of Beirut a few weeks ago.

This soup was a bit experimental for me, particularly the novel use of green tea as stock. I'm not the biggest tea drinker. I do like green tea at Thai restaurants, but have had trouble replicating that success at home. I have a cupboard full of different brands that I've tried, and then not really liked. I thought it would make a perfect antidote to hot cross buns and Easter chocolates. A nice antioxidant boost to counteract the recent badness somewhat.

I modified the recipe to cook it all in my Thermomix. It's easy to adapt back to stove top if you don't have such expensive toys.

Green Tea and Broccoli Soup

1 large brown onion
2 cloves garlic
20gm olive oil
4 Japanese green tea bags
1 litre (4 cups) boiling water
600gm fresh broccoli (1 large and 1 medium head of broccoli)
1/2 bunch coriander (cilantro)
Sea salt, freshly ground white pepper to taste


Peel onion and garlic. Chop onion into quarters. Place into Thermomix. Chop on Speed 7 for 5 seconds.

Add oil.

Cook onion and garlic at 100 degrees on Speed 1 for 3 minutes.

Steep green tea bags in boiling water for a few minutes. Remove tea bags.

Add lightly chopped broccoli. Chop on Speed 7 for a few seconds.

Add the hot green tea.

Cook for 14 minutes at 100 degrees on Speed 1 or until broccoli is cooked.

Add coriander. Season. Blitz until smooth.

Notes
Coriander is the major flavour- which is a great thing for me, as I really love coriander, and don't love broccoli all that much.

I enjoyed this for a few work lunches, and then had the last of it for dinner with a toasted chicken sandwich. It was tasty.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Dunny Wall Philosophy

I'm a great believer that you need to take wisdom wherever you find it. Even if it is on the toilet wall.

Kenny and Ziggy's Houston Texas, Ladies Toilets

Sadly I didn't get to eat soup at Kenny and Ziggy's. I had already ordered when I found this piece of wisdom, and so I ate (some of) what appeared to be the largest Reuben in the world. 

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Catalan Potato and Broad Bean Soup

Last year I was brave and discovered that I like broad beans. After that initial success, I even made some very delicious Broad Bean Felafel Fritters. I've been eagerly awaiting this years broad bean season, and was excited to see them for $2.99 a kilo over the past few weeks. Time for another broad bean intervention.

I decided to make a soup this time, and knew that I would have a recipe for a broad bean soup somewhere. Of course I did. Several. But I picked this one- I just love coriander, and can rarely resist it. I'm so glad I did- this is a fabulous soup. I'm not sure what makes it Catalan particularly, but it is simple and delicious nonetheless.

Catalan Potato and Broad Bean Soup

30mL/ 2 tblsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 large floury potatoes, diced
450gm/1 lb fresh broad (fava) beans
1.75 L/ 3 pints/ 7 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 bunch coriander (cilantro) leaves only
150 mL/ 1/4 pint/ 2/3 cup thickened light cream
salt, pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes until softened but not brown.

Add potatoes, beans, and stock to the mixture in the pan and bring to the boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Add coriander, allow to wilt.

Process the mixture in a blender or food processor, then return soup to the pan.

Stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer.

Serves 6

based on the recipe by

Anne Sheasby in The New Soup Bible

Not a particularly pretty picture this week I'm afraid- I took this soup to work everyday for lunch, so it was only able to be photographed in traveling containers. It doesn't do it justice.

Notes
The original recipe added the coriander after 5 minutes then simmered it for 10+ minutes. I like it added fresh at the very end. It keeps the lovely green colour, and more of the flavour I think. Less stewed, less grey. As such my soup was a pale green, pretty colour, the one in the book is more of a golden brown colour.

This soup is delicious hot or cold. A bit like a vichyssoise.

The recipe didn't state it, but I took "broad beans" to mean peeled, blanched, repeeled broad beans.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Red Lentil and Burghul Soup

I wasn't too sure what I thought of the notion of this soup. But I'd ripped it out of the newpaper (back in February!) and it was time to try it.

I like burghul (also called bulgur), but hadn't had it in soup form before. Of course it's most famous use is as a base for the middle eastern classic Tabbouli. I do like red lentils in soup- indeed some of my favourite soups contain red lentils now that I think about it.

Red lentils are an amazing nutritious, low GI food. GI 26.

Burghul/bulgur is simply whole wheat that has been hulled, steamed then cracked (which gives the other name of cracked wheat), and so it retains the wheat germ and bran. The GI for boiled burghul hasn't been measured, but when it is soaked as you would do for tabbouli it is 48.

Red Lentil and Burghul Soup

1-2 tblsp olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1.25 L chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup red lentils
1/3 cup burghul
2 tblsp tomato paste
2 tblsp chopped fresh mint and basil

Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and saute onion, celery and garlic for 7 minutes, or until softened. Add chilli and cook for 1 minute. Add stock, lentils, burghul and tomato paste, stir and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until grains are tender. Add a little extra stock if needed. Season to taste. Add mint and basil just before serving. Serve with a dollop of thick yoghurt.

Serves 4
David Herbert
Weekend Australian, February 26 2011


Notes
I omitted the chilli as I was making the 10 year old eat it for dinner.

It's a very quick and easy soup to throw together for a simple meal.

I wasn't sure I liked the appearance of the soup as it was- so I blitzed it in the Thermomix to make a smooth soup. The burghul then gave it a bit of a furry mouth feel. I don't know that I'd make this again, but it was interesting to try- and the 10 year old ate it with no fuss!

I will cross post this on my low GI blog.

Potage St Germain (well nearly)

It's always great when a recipe combines several of your great loves, and this soup does that. Soup. Low GI goodness. France. And a friend's blog. Too good to pass up.

Split peas are a nutritional storehouse, with a fabulous low GI of 32. 

I've never really been a fan of the traditional pea and ham soup, I find it too furry on the tongue, and the colour is usually unappealing. Here, we don't have the ham, and the soup is glammed  up by addition of fresh peas at the end to give it a great colour boost. So when my friend Hannah blogged this simple French potage, I knew I would have to give it a try quite soon. So I did. And it was fab. 

Although it turns out this isn't really a traditional Potage St Germain, which is more a fresh pea soup made with stock, lettuce, onion and celery. I felt certain that Elizabeth David had a recipe for Potage St Germain in her book French Provinical Cooking, but I suddenly can't find it. The name of course brings to mind St Germain de Pres, a lovely but dilapidated church on the left bank of Paris. 

2 cups green split peas (400g)

1 litre water

1 tblsp olive oil

1 large brown onion (200gm), coarsely chopped

2 trimmed sticks celery (150gm), coarsely chopped

1.25 litres chicken or vegetable stock 

500gm frozen peas

Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

Soak split peas in the water in a large bowl for 3 hours or overnight.

Heat oil in large saucepan; cook onion and garlic, stirring, until onion is soft. Stir in celery, cook, stirring for 2 minutes.

Add undrained peas and stock, bring to a boil; simmer, uncovered, about 1 hour or until peas are tender (skimming the surface and stirring occasionally). Stir in frozen peas; cook, for about 10 minutes until peas are tender.

Blitz soup in high speed blender, until smooth.

Return soup to pan. Heat through. Season to taste, and garnish, with mint or garnish of your choice.

Pretend you're in Paris whilst you eat. 

Notes

My 10 year old ate this without complaint- just the usual bribe of bread and butter. 

I garnished with creme fraiche and chives, as that's what I had on hand. 

I only noticed the soup was meant to be simmered uncovered when I typed the recipe here. I did it covered.

I'm cross posting this on my low GI blog.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Four Cheese Dumplings

I've been terribly slack with both soup making and soup blogging this winter, but I'm back, with a fabulous effort. This soup came into being for our family dinner tonight. It arose from a wonderful mix of opportunity and circumstance. My husband moved my recipe file so that I glimpsed a pumpkin soup recipe tucked way in the back that I'd been meaning to make for two years! I combined it with the leftover 4 cheese tortellini filling in the fridge and magic was created.

Fabulous colour, wonderfully pleated dumplings!

Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Four Cheese Dumplings

1 kg butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and diced
1 litre chicken stock
2 tsp low GI sugar (Logicane)
1 bay leaf
150ml creme fraiche
Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

16 cooked homemade 4 cheese dumplings

Place the pumpkin, stock, sugar and bay leaf into a saucepan, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until pumpkin is soft.

Remove the bay leaf from the pumpkin mixture, then blend in high speed blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and bring it to a simmer. Add creme fraiche. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of salted water. Add dumplings cook for 2-3 minutes until done.

Serve soup in bowls topped with 4 dumplings.

A mere sprinkling of truffle salt is totally MAGIC!

Notes
I'm not all that crazy on butternut pumpkin, I much prefer the sweeter more intensely flavoured Jap/Kent pumpkin. But I do like trying it in different recipes every so often, everyone else seems mad on it. This one worked really well and was totally delicious.

The soup recipe is based on a recipe by Guillaume Brahimi from Bennelong restaurant in Sydney, originally published in Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, August 8 2009 (published two years ago to the day! Karma). I halved the amount of creme fraiche he used, and substituted his garlic croutons with my 4 cheese dumplings. In his recipe he passed the blitzed pumpkin through a fine sieve- I did that to be true to the recipe, but it didn't really need it, after I had blitzed it in my fab new Thermomix. The texture was amazing.

The dumpling mix was left over in the fridge from last nights dinner. A four cheese mix of ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan and blue cheese with freshly ground nutmeg. Mr Soup had made home made pasta the day before, but I can't be bothered with all that, so I used gow gee wrappers instead of pastry for the first time- it was so simple, worked really well- and none exploded. That's a win in my book.  I'll definitely be using them again. 

I used a commercial chicken stock for this recipe. One of those tetra pack ones. I think it needed some water, especially when I ate the leftovers the next day. The soup was really too thick, and probably a bit salty.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Chestnut Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons

For some reason I recently became obsessed with the notion of cooking chestnuts. Not sure why particularly. I'd seen them around in the fruit and veg shops I guess, and was becoming more curious. And really wanted to give it a try. Then I remembered this recipe in my Delia Smith Soups book. I decided several years ago that I wanted to make so many of the recipes in this book, that I would make it my project to cook them all. There's been some great surprises along the way and it's taking a bit longer than I really expected- but then doesn't every project?

So, I armed myself with some chestnuts, and set to work.

Delia has thoughtfully provided the recipe online. I couldn't find any thyme for love nor money in my small town this week. Well, I gave up after 2 supermarkets and a fruit and veg shop. And made do without. So I really made Chestnut Soup with Bacon Croutons.

I decided that I would make stock for this soup, as I really wasn't sure that I'd like a chestnut soup, and wanted at least a good flavour base. Delia suggested either ham or vegetable stock. As I hadn't got myself organised to get a ham bone, I made vegetable stock. Making stock always seems so totally virtuous, even though for vegetable stock you roughly chop some veggies, cut a couple of bay leaves off the tree, and count out 12 peppercorns. Not very hard.

but worth it

So, how did the soup turn out? Better than I was expecting actually. Although, I'm not sure I knew what to expect at all. This being somewhat beyond my ken. It was thicker than I was expecting, which I think was body given to it by the chestnut flesh. I'm not sure that chestnut has a strong enough flavour to dominate anything- our local bacon is quite a powerful taste.

It is a bit of an unappealing colour, as many of Delia's winter soups have been actually. A bit dishwatery. Which is a shame. The nonsoup lovers in the house ate it, the adult one with reasonable enthusiasm, the 10 year old less so. But some minor bribery with strawberry jelly worked a treat. I'm not sure if I'd make it again. The whole chestnut process was rather lengthy and traumatic. Perhaps if we had easier access to packaged chestnuts? But then cooking them yourself adds to the appeal and the adventure of it all. 

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Sweet Corn and Basil Soup- Hall of Fame

Confession: I've never actually cooked this soup. But I've eaten it many, many times. My husband has taken this on as the only soup he cooks. I initially ate this soup back in the late 90s in that fabulous few years of full-time wage before child, when we could eat out at fancy restaurants with ease. I remember a wonderful evening at the now defunct central Sydney restaurant Banc. It was served there as an amuse geule. And it was astonishing. It can apparently be served warm or cold, but I've only had it warm, so will have to try it cold sometime. We love this soup so much we bought little cups just to serve it in. Now that's devotion.

We bought the Banc cookbook solely to get access to this recipe. It remains the only recipe we have used from the book, which is filled with time-consuming restauranty recipes for delicious things that aren't quite right for family dinners. In the recipe introduction they say they were often asked for seconds or an entree sized portion by enthusiastic diners.

Sweet Corn and Basil Soup

Serves 4 (makes 1 litre or 1 3/4 pints)
4 fresh corn cobs
200g (8 oz) diced onions
50mL (3 1/2 tbsps) cream
50gm (2 oz) diced butter
1 small bunch fresh basil
salt and freshly ground pepper


The stock.

Peel and remove all the outer leaves and stalk form the cobs. Using a knife, remove all the corn kernels from the cobs and reserve, and then cut the cobs in half.

In a heavy-based pan melt half the butter and add half of the diced onion. Sweat the onion for 5 minutes on a medium heat without allowing it to colour. Add the cobs and a good pinch of salt and cook for a further 5 minutes without browning. Add 1/5 litres (2 1/2 pints) of water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the stock to infuse for a further 30 minutes before passing it through a fine sieve, discarding the cobs and onions.

The soup.

The spattered picture in the book

In a heavy based pan melt the remaining butter and add the remaining diced onion. Sweat the onion for 5 minutes on a medium heat without allowing it to colour. Add the corn kernels and a good pinch of salt and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the corn stock and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the corn kernels are tender. Pour in the cream and continue to cook for 5 more minutes.

Remove from heat and blend the soup in a blender until smooth. Add roughly chopped basil, and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Leave the soup for an hour, or even overnight to allow the flavours to infuse, before passing the soup through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the corn to extract as much flavour as possible. Taste-check the seasoning once again. Serve either hot or chilled.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.