Wild Watercress Soup

Today went for a little walk along the canal watching the baby ducks play and two moorhens fight off a marauding coot . I wanted to get plenty of wild herbs for a rabbit pie fortunately I found plenty of hedge garlic and wild chives.

The recent rain spells meant I was also able pick plenty of wild watercress from the canal . It had grown a lot since my last visit  when I gathered a few bunches for salad

Watercress is just coming into season so there should be plenty in the shops now if   The proper name for watercress is Nasturtium officinale. Nasturtium is Latin for ‘nose twister’, a reference to the plant’s pungency.

This simple soup definitely gives you a bit but the short cooking should mean you get the full benefit of the vitamin C, calcium, iron and folic acid.

Wild Watercress Soup

4 handfuls of wild watecress
1 pint of water
1 medium potato peeled
1 medium onion chopped
1 clove of garlic
4 tbsp of low fat plain yogurt
Salt and Pepper

1. Bring the potatoes , onion and garlic to a gentle simmer
2. Cook until the potatoes are soft , add the watercress a cook for 5 minutes, cooking any longer would give  dingy colour soup.
3. Liquidise  &  then add the yogurt
4. Taste and season with salt and pepper

Pot Barley Soup

Got home after a horrible day how much did I need a hug but soup had to do ,  hearty and delicious simple vegetable soup with pot barley , this should be a very chunky soup the pot barley gives a chewy texture.

Pot Barley Soup
100g of dried pot or pearl barley
2 medium carrots  roughly chopped
2 leeks roughly chopped
1 medium onion roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 pints of vegetable stock
2 rashers of bacon roughly chopped
Fresh soft herbs thyme or parsley
Seasoning to taste

Gently fry the onion , bacon garlic and leeks til soft
Add the carrots and barley with the stock
Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 30 minutes
Season with salt , pepper and fresh herbs

Roasted Parsnip and Carrot Soup

I have been a very bad blogger recently , though I have been eating pretty well due to some excellent preperation of food from the freezer , meals  they tend not to look too appetising quickly reheated and chewed down at 9pm when I get home.

Working from home today though so lunch was hearty soup , I had roasted some carrots and parsnips earlier in the week . This is a fantastic way to use up leftover root vegetables

Spicy Root Vegetable Soup.

400g of Roasted or boiled root vegetables ( I used carrots and parsnips)
2 tbsp of cumin seeds
1 tbsp of coriander seed
1 tbsp of paprika
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 small onion roughly chopped
100g of tinned tomatoes
3 pints of vegetable stock
2 tbsp of sunflower oil

1. Heat the oven to 200degC
2. Gently fry together the cumin , coriander , paprika add the onions and garlic
3. Add the stock ,  tomatoes  and vegetables.
4. Spoon the mixture into a liquidiser and process until smooth
5. Pour into a pan & heat through
6. Serve with extra toasted cumin seeds

Ham, Bean and Cabbage Soup

We were doing a lot of walking this weekend so a really hearty warming soup, this actually stared as a gammon joint to be served sliced beans but it worked better as a soup .

Ham, Bean and Cabbage Soup

200g of dried haricot beans soaked overnight and rinsed well
200g of gammon joint
1 medium white cabbage
1 small onion finely chopped
Bunch of fresh parsley
1 pint of cider
1 pint of boiling water
Salt and Pepper to season

Place the gammon joint , in an ovenproof dish with the onion and beans cover with the cider and water
Simmer for 1 hour
Remove the gammon joint cut into 1 cm cubes return to the dish and add the cabbage
Cook for a further 20 minutes adding water if it looks dry and serve with a scattering of chopped parsley
Alternatively leave the gammon whole and slice and served heaped with beans.
Even better the next day.

Corn Chowder and My Fridge

I don’t really get much of a chance to work from home anymore ,even though the commute to London is a bit of a hassle I have really loved being part of a team again especially being part of the tea round . Working from home today meant on my 50 trips to the fridge for milk for my tea I had a good chance to contemplate my fridge door quite by coincidence A Wee Bit of Cooking (one of my most read blogs) is running a competition for readers to post pictures of their fridge doors so here is mine and a few notes of explanation .

I am not massively into fridge magnets, I once lived with someone who collected 3D magnets that fell off every time you opened or closed the fridge door , the guilt at breaking such precious things remains with me. I have also had those magnetic poetry on my fridge but I found it meant the fridge door was very hard to keep clean and eventually these began to rust onto the fridge.

I like the little hand magnets I have now and they do actually hold things onto the fridge though I have no recollection how I came to own them .

Clockwise from the top left hand corner

• Photo of two snails meeting on a leaf . I took this photo in a wood near Gloucester and it was on the first card I gave my boyfriend , he still has a copy on his fridge too.
• ” Asylum for Teaching Young Females Household Work” , this fridge magnet plaque is a witty reference to my lack of natural housework abilities .
• Fungi Photo , another photo I took . I am never happier than kneeling in leaf mould getting shots of tiny fungi and flora. I do also forage a lot for wild food , which often end up in the fridge for cooking
• Photo of the lovely boyfriend and I on holiday , we are seperated by a hundred miles or so in the week , this is so I don’t forget what he looks like.
• Turkish evil eye , this charm wards off evil …. scary things can live in fridges . If you have seen Ghostbusters or my vegetable drawer after a weekend away you will know what I mean.
• Thank you card was from my former work colleagues who I left just a few months or what feels like a hundred lifetimes ago , it there to remind me not to lost touch.

Enough about my fridge this a food blog & working from home also meant the chance for some breif cooking at lunchtime. Two small corn on the cob in the aforementioned vege-drawer which I had planned to devour freshly steamed and dripping in butter where a little dried up. Cursing my wastefulness I decided to turn them into soup from very few ingredients and a little internet research I made a large bowl of corn chowder which turned out creamy and delicious though I am sure not authentic

Corn Chowder
Fresh corn from two small corn on the cob
1/2 pint of vegetable stock
1 spring onion finely chopped
1/2 pint of milk

1. Simmer togther the corn , spring onion and vegetable stock for 15 minutes
2. Blend together and simmer for a further 10 minutes this brings the starch out of the corn and thickens the soup.
3. Add the milk and serve with fresh chives or parsley

Chilled Courgette Soup with Radish and Mint Pesto

Lots of courgettes and radishes in the vegetable box and have a large bunch of mint , I was saving it for Pimms but I don’t think its ever going to be hot enough for that delicious summer drink.

I have frittated , grilled kebabed and saladed courgette this year already but how about soup maybe not a natural choice for summer but chilled soups are delicious the secret to keep them light and eat them fresh they don’t keep for long tending to seperate .

Courgette and mint are natural partners set off by zesty lemon and biting radish which also adds a crunch and crazy pink to the soup. If you don’t have radishes a dollop of horseradish cream works well too

Mint and Radish Pesto

4 radishes
Half a lemon juiced
1 handful of mint

1. Finely chop the radish and mint
2. Squeeze over the lemon juice

Chilled Courgette Soup
3 courgettes – roughly chopped
1 cup of plain yogurt
1/2 cup of cold water

1. Steam the courgettes over boiling water for a few minutes. You could boil them but they keep a lovely green colour when steamed
2. Remove the courgettes from the heat and place in cold water to cool
3. Drain the courgettes ,add the yogurt and water
4. Liquidise with an ice cube to chill or place in the refridgerator for 30 minutes
5. Serve with a dollop of the radish and mint pesto

Rosemary Chicken and Swiss Chard with Lentils

Chard for a long time every restaurant menu featured a healthy portion under seasonal vegetables .

Many people eulogize about it I have found it at times both bitter and bland and most of the favored recipes seem to require a suspicious amount of cream , butter or Parmesan . This always raised my suspicion since I suspect cardboard would be pretty delicious baked with butter and Parmesan.Most times I have resorted to placing it as a Kale replacement in spicy kale soups

The boyfriend had a beautiful specimen in the vegebox , glistening white stalks and glowing green leaves so I am giving chard a second go .

Swiss Chard with Lentils

1 large swiss chard
200g of puy lentils
1.5 pints of vegetable stock
3 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

1. Place the lentils in a sauce pan & pour over the stock
2. Boil for 10 minutes .
3. Remove the chard leaves from the stalks
4. Finely chop the stalks and roughly chop the leaves
5. Pour the lentils & stock into a casserole dish , add the garlic and chard stalks
6. Cover and place in the oven at 180degC
7. Cook for one hour minutes , for the last 15 minutes stir in the green chard leaves.

The lentils become sticky with the stalks keeping a firmness and the leaves soft with a ferrous taste. Unlike spinach which vanishes into nothing the second you cook it the chard maintains bulk .

Rosemary Chicken
1.5kg free range chicken
5 large stems of rosemary
2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
Salt and pepper

1. Rub the chicken all over with garlic salt and pepper
2. Layer the bottom of a roasting pan with the rosemary
3. Place the chicken on top , cover with foil
4. Roast in the oven at 190gC , for approx 1 and 1/4 hours for the last 30 minutes remove the foil to allow in the skin to brown
5. this will also crisp up the rosemary which with the chicken juice will form the base of a tasty sticky juice.

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Tomato and Haricot Bean Soup

Baked Beans in tomato sauce the fancy version. I had soaked the beans planning on using them at the weekend but change of plans meant they still needed eating so whipped up this soupy stew. Dinner watching Torchwood and Dr Who on BBC I-player my guilty geeky pleasure .

Tomato and Haricot Bean Soup

300g of dried haricot beans
300g of tinned plum tomatoes
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1/2 small onion
1 pint of vegetable stock
Salt and Pepper

After soaking the beans for at least 8 hours
Cover the haricot beans with water a simmer for 30 minutes
Drain and add the tomatoes and vegetable stock
Finally add fresh or dried herbs , thyme , oregano
Simmer for a further 20 minutes

Of course I ended up using some of the wild garlic butter to finish it off and a few fresh wild garlic leaves.

Cauliflower Soup

I had to hang around the flat this morning waiting for the telephone engineer so watching a bit of Nigella Bites, she was doing comfort food making risotto which meant I then craved it all day and was planning to try a leek and lemon risotto. Got brown rice , white rice , wild rice even got some Marmite rice cakes but no risotto rice

So instead soup to make a dent in the cauliflower mountain . A surprisingly sophisticated soup that managed to be satisfying filling without being stodgy it came out beautifully pale and delicately lemon scented the tahini adds toasted notes.

Cauliflower Soup

200g of Cauliflower broken into florets
1 pint of vegetable stock
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tsp heaped of tahini
1 heaped tbsp flat leaf parsley
1 tsp of lemon zest

1. Gently simmer the cauliflower until soft
2. Puree the cauliflower with the stock and garlic
3. Add the lemon juice , tahini , parsley and warm through
4. Serve.

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Creamy Cruciferous Vegetable Soups

Broccoli Stilton and Walnut Soup.

Creamy cruciferous vegetables , with a nutty bite , you might not want to leave this soup too long or it will go a kind of yellowy colour this dish takes less than 15 minutes to make . You could substitute cream for milk and up the stilton for a richer dish , but its still a bit post Christmas

Broccoli , Stilton and Walnut Soup.

400g of broccoli divided into small florets finely chop any stalks
3/4 pint / 300ml of boling water plus 1 tsp of vegetable bullion/stock powder
2 tbsp of crumbled stilton
2 tbsp of crushed walnuts ,
1/2 pint of milk
Salt and Pepper to season

1. Place the broccoli in a pan , cover with warm water and simmer til soft
2. Place the walnuts in a hot pan and allow to warm through
3. Pour half the water away and add the stock powder to the remaining water
4. Add the stilton, milk and walnuts.
5. Puree and serve

Cauliflower and Toasted Walnut Soup

The Broccoli soup recipe works well substituting cauliflower which has a creamy texture all of its own so you won’t need the stilton , I used walnuts but toasted pine nuts would also work well .

Last year I found that tahini worked really well in a cauliflower soup or for a more smokey taste a little smoked paprika , prepare cook the cauliflower as for the above soup adding a teaspoon of tahini or paprika in place of the walnuts & stilton .

Cauliflower, Tahini & Paprika Soup

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