Fresh Herbs in February?

Fresh herbs; the No Croutons Required February challenge!  Well now that is a challenge, especially as following a very mild winter so far February has begun with temperatures well below zero; so no herbs in the garden and I don't grow pots in the house, I've never faired very well with houseplants of any description.

So what fresh herbs can I find in the supermarket that don't look soft and flimsy,? Not much choice I'm afraid but Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes has laid down the gauntlet and I'm prepared to pick it up!

Given the drop in temperature I'm going for a soup rather than a salad option; so after sitting down with the cookbooks for a couple of hours I think I've found the answer in the latest addition to my library.  As you may have realised I'm a big Hugh FW fan, I find his recipes very achievable and above all really tasty.  After browsing through his latest offering River Cottage Veg Everyday whilst visiting J last weekend I was impressed enough to place an order for my copy.

dressed with mint and rapeseed oil

The soup recipe that I decided to try is Pea and Parsley Soup.  Two herbs make a very significant contribution to this light and fresh flavoured dish: flat leaved parsley and thyme.  The other ingredients being peas, onion, vegetable stock and mint.

Just noticed that other than the honour of winning this month's NCR challenge there promises to be a copy of River Cottage Herbs as a prize - could it be fate?

Pea and Parsley Soup
Makes about 6 - 8 servings
Method
Heat about 2tbs rapeseed oil and 20g unsalted butter in a saucepan.  When the butter has melted add the finely chopped onion and about 3tbsp of chopped fresh thyme.  Cook gently until the onion is transluscent.

Add 500g frozen peas, 20g chopped flatleaf parsley and 1 litre vegetable stock.  Bring to the boil then simmer gently for about 15-20 minutes until the peas are very soft.

Blend the soup until very smooth.  Serve with a scatter of chopped mint and a drizzle of rapeseed oil.

This soup could also be served cold in summer.

Note: I think I would make a couple of small changes to the recipe when I repeat it by increasing the amount of parsley and adding a little garlic; other than that it's perfect!

Something from the Garden

I haven't been posting much on my kitchen blog recently spending most of my free time in Holly Grove's garden; then I saw that the No Croutons Required challenge for September hosted by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen would allow me to combine both garden and kitchen.

Like most people who have the luxury of a kitchen garden or vegetable plot I've been growing a couple of courgette (zucchini) plants and have had the usual mammoth crop.  I've used much of the crop in ratatouille, vegetable curries, homemade preserved vegetable stock, and even muffins and chocolate cake.  I've also given some away to friends who don't grow their own veg and I've still got some left over!

So with the weather turning autumnal and the french and runner beans in full production too my thoughts turned to creating a soup with courgette as the main component.

runner beans and Purple Queen french beans

The result has been interesting and tasty, though not a very attractive colour I'll admit.  However it has used up more courgettes, giving us a few healthy lunches with some for the freezer for those evenings when I'm back at work and don't have the energy or enthusiasm to cook much and best of all, all of the ingredients (with the exception of the dried pulses) came from our garden.  It's been difficult to give absolute quantities of ingredients as it was more of a try it and see recipe, but here goes...

Courgette and Runner Bean Soup
Ingredients
1 large onion (peeled and diced)
2 garlic cloves (peeled and crushed)
4 large courgettes (washed and cut into chunks)
a good handful of french and runner beans (topped and tailed and cut into short lengths)
1 tsp ground cumin
75g broth mix (dried pulses including peas, pearl barley, lentils)
1.5 litres vegetable stock (made with either good quality stock cubes or 2 tsp homemade preserved stock)
2 or 3 tsp curry paste (I used Goan paste; similar to a Thai green curry paste but a little less spicy)

Method
Add about 1 tablespoon of oil to a large stock pot then add the onion and garlic and cook gently until softened but not browned.  Now add the courgette, beans and cumin and mix thoroughly with the onion and garlic.  Cook gently for a couple of minutes.

Add the broth mix and the vegetable stock and curry paste.  Stir well and bring the soup to a gentle simmer.  Cook for between 1 and 2 hours to allow the dried pulses to cook through.

Remove from heat and blend with a stick blender. 
Serve the soup in bowls or large cups with some garlic ciabatta.

Note: If your runner beans are a it stringy I'd suggest passing the blended soup through a sieve to remove the stringy bit of the beans. Our beans were lovely and young so no need to sieve.

No Crouton Required - April

Well, I can barely believe it but I've won a second No Croutons Required badge: success with my Walnut and Rosemary soda bread recipe - hurrah!

Back with a Challenge

Well, it's been a while but I'm back and the encouragement I needed was to be found in this month's No Croutons Required challenge.  Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes has been very generous this month allowing a choice of challenges and, as a July baby, I've gone back through my archives to find a delicious bread to enter the fray.



A reminder of July - beautiful sweet peas




Rosemary and Walnut Soda Bread - Yum!


The recipe of choice from my archive is Rosemary and Walnut soda bread, easy to make and bake and delicious with almost any soup - here's the link to the recipe.

Ingredient Challenge

Following my early success in the No Croutons Required monthly challenge last month I thought I'd risk it again and make a dish for the November challenge.  This one is more tricky as it's using an ingredient selected by Lisa that I've never cooked with before - quinoa.

From the reading that I've done on this grain, I understand that it can be used in place of couscous or rice in most recipes.  With this in mind, and given that I submitted a soup recipe for the October challenge, I've decided to try a salad this time.  The resulting dish was lighter than a couscous version and less grainy than a rice version; I'll be trying quinoa again perhaps in a soup next time.

Quinoa, Courgette and Dolcelatte Salad

Ingredients

75g quinoa

1 small courgette, sliced into ribbons using a vegetable peeler

quarter of a red onion, finely diced

75g cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small red chilli, finely diced

75g dolcelatte, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Cook the quinoa following the packet instructions.  Drain and refresh under cold running water.  Leave to drain and cool.

When cool, add the courgette ribbons, chopped onion, chilli, cherry tomatoes and dolcelatte cubes and toss together well.  Whisk the olive oil and red wine vinegar together and pour over the salad.  Toss together and there you have it!

Note: I didn't add any salt to this salad as the salty flavour of the cheese added enough flavour for me.

Chicken(less) Noodle Soup

First Time Lucky!

Amongst the blogs I follow is Tinned Tomatoes where Jacqueline co-hosts a monthly challenge, No Croutons Required, so this month I decided to try my luck.  The ingredient selected for the October challenge is noodles.

I have a great recipe from my Dad for chicken noodle soup, but then I noticed that the challenge is to create a vegetarian soup or salad; so what about chicken noodle soup without the chicken?  Worth a try?  And how to make it as tasty as the original?  And what seasonal produce can I incorporate?  Well, let's see what transpired...

 

Mushroom and Noodle Soup

Ingredients

1tbsp rapeseed oil or vegetable oil

1 onion, peeled and diced
1 leek, cleaned and sliced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 small swede, peeled and diced
250g mixed portabellini and chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced

half tsp chilli flakes
2.5 pts vegetable stock
2 tbsp mushroom ketchup

1 portion fine egg noodles

salt and pepper
fresh parsley, chopped

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Add the onion and leek and cook gently until transluscent.  Add the carrot and swede and continue to sweat gently with the lid on for about 5 minutes.  Now add the mushrooms, put the lid back on and cook until the mushrooms have reduced in volume.  Add the chilli flakes and stir well.

Pour the vegetable stock and mushroom ketchup into the vegetables and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  Break up and add the egg noodles and simmer for a further 5-10 minutes until the noodles are soft.  Add the parsley and stir.  Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper and serve with vegetable spring rolls.

Note: I made my own vegetable stock, though you can use vegetable stock cubes, just be careful when
seasoning the soup as the stock cubes can be salty.