Specials Board: Carrot and Ginger Soup

Carrot & Ginger Soup and Vegan Mofo Day 20

I woke up to a dank morning, it was cold, misty and drizzling, and do you know what my first thought was? Perfect day for soup!

Earlier in the week I'd managed to pull up some carrots, there weren't very many and they weren't anything to shout home about, but I had carrots, something I'd not eaten for a few weeks. So whatever I did with them had to be good, I'd missed you humble carrot!

My very first year of growing carrots was a huge success I couldn't believe how easy it had been and the taste was out of this world, even my hubby said they were the best tasting carrots he'd ever had! Since the first year, I've not had a huge success with carrots, I've had some, but never a crop like I did in that first year. Maybe I was just spoilt!

These are what I pulled up the other day.

Nothing out of the ordinary, but they were orange, healthy and smelt good, so I'm calling it a win! I could have cut them up and served as a side vegetable but they wouldn't have gone far. So I decided to make them the star of the show and turn them into soup. Because of the weather I teamed them up with ginger for a little warmth.

Ingredients 

1 Tbsp Olive oil
230g Carrots chopped (peeled weight)
1 onion, diced
Small knob of ginger 
(I weighed mine and it was 5g)
650ml Vegetable stock

Method

Saute the carrot and onion in the olive oil for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.

Add the ginger and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes until the carrot is cooked.

Transfer to a blender and blend until you have a silky smooth soup. Perfect for a dank day.

Earlier today I attended a local food festival where the community were celebrating their growing talents by entering into a grow and show competition. As I wasn't part of the local community I didn't enter anything into the competition, but after speaking to the judges I was told that it was open to anyone, darn it I could have entered one of my mammoth pattypan squashes! 

Once the competition has been judged they auction off all the food entered into the competition. I was outbid on numerous occasions but once again my friend came to the rescue, as she did last year! She was the highest bidder for a beetroot and gave it to me as a present! It beats chocolate any day she said as she handed it over. Now this was no ordinary beetroot, just look at the size of it!

The beetroot was the size of my head! This could feed us for a month, easy. As soon as it was in my hands ideas were flooding through my brain with what I could do with it, cake, risotto, pickled, juice, chutney, jelly, ice-cream (?) the list went on. Another friend put in an order for cake, so I can see me being very busy tomorrow with this beast!

My gratitude didn't finish there, after leaving the local food show Marco and I went off exploring into the woods and guess what we found? I couldn't believe my eyes it was a miracle! I just happened to come across a sloe bush and it was full of sloe berries, I couldn't believe my luck! Thank goodness for doggy poop bags, LOL! I picked about a third of a bag, there were lots left on the bush so I could always go back for more if I can remember where it was. When I got home I weighed my bounty and it was just over 400g, sloe gin here I come!

My day of good fortune didn't end there either! On the way back I found a wild damson tree which was laden with fruits, thankfully I always have lots of doggy poop bags in my pocket! I managed to fill half a bag, which weighed just over 550g, so damson jam here I come!

I was chuffed to bits with my little bounty so on the off chance I tried the community orchard which had been raided a few weeks ago. I was rewarded, as I approached a tree which looked like its branch had been broken off and it was just dangling there, my eyes lit up. The branch wasn't damaged it was just heavy with pears! I think someone was looking down on me today! So, not only do I have a HUGE beetroot, I have sloes, damsons and 6 pears! There were lots more pairs on the branch but I took just what I needed and no more. Hopefully someone else will be rewarded too, before the ninjas of the night come and strip it bare.

So all in all a great day, see you all tomorrow!

TV Tuesday - The Breakfast Club Movie

Once again today's daily theme is TV Tuesday, where you cook a meal from a movie or TV show.

Today I have chosen the film called The Breakfast Club. This is an old classic, I think from 1985, yep remember them 80's! For those of you who have not seen it, the movie is about five teenagers at high school who each belong to a different social group. The five teenagers comprise of a geek, a princess, an athlete, a bad boy and one who is silent and disturbed. They spend a Saturday detention together for eight hours and at first they seem to have nothing in common and they all want the day to be over. However throughout the eight hours of detention slowly they start to help each other out, open up about their lives and come to understand that each of them is not that different from another.

My favourite scene is where they all let them selves go and dance like they've never danced before.

My favourite quote is related to the recipe I'm going to recreate with beans of course! 

John: What's in there?
Claire: Guess? Where's your lunch?
John: You're wearing it.
Claire: You're nauseating.
John: What's that? (Pointing to her lunch)
Claire: Sushi
John: Sushi?

Bean Sushi
Now, I know what you're thinking, how on earth can this work? Beans are not going to be the only ingredient in the sushi. In fact I think this Japanese dish is actually called maki sushi or sushi rolls.

Ingredients
2 Sheets of Nori seaweed
1 Cup Sushi rice - I just used leftover basmati rice
6 Green beans
½ Carrot
½ Avocado

¼ Lemon

Wasabi paste

Soy Sauce

Mirin or rice vinegar (optional)

Method
Wash the rice a few times in cold water and drain. Cook following the directions on the packet but as a general rule you will need 1 1/8 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. Simmer for about 20 minutes then take off the heat and let stand for another 15-20 minutes. Do not remove the lid, no peeking allowed.

Transfer the rice to a glass bowl to cool completely and add the mirin or rice vinegar, if using. Very carefully stir through you don't want to break down the rice.

While the rice is cooking and cooling prepare the other ingredients. Grate the carrot and transfer to a bowl. Mash the avocado with a little lemon juice to stop it discolouring. Top and tail the green beans and cook in boiling water for two minutes, no longer. You just want to blanche the beans they still need a crunch. Remove the beans from the heat and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Once the rice has completely cooled you're ready to make the maki sushi. On a folded T-towel (or sushi mat if you have one) place a sheet of nori seaweed and top with rice. Top with a line of grated carrot, a line of mashed avocado and then top with a line of beans.

Take the edge of the T-towel and carefully start to roll the sheet of nori, don't worry you may lose some rice. Brush a little water on the far edge of the nori seaweed so it stick together and forms a roll.

Wrap the roll in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Unwrap and carefully slice into rounds, the end rounds will be messy but that's the chef's treat. Serve with a small bowl of soy sauce to dip into and a dot of wasabi, careful its hot!   

I made double quantities and packed some up for lunch tomorrow. Apologies for the rubbish photographs, it was dark before I finished!

Happy Fathers Day & Gardeners Pie

Today, we all had lunch at Mum and Dad's house to celebrate Fathers Day. To make life a little easier on my Mum, I made my vegan lunch and took it with me.

I had such a success with my Soba Veganaise, a vegan version of Spaghetti Bolognaise, I decided to use a similar process and make a vegan Sherperds Pie, which I'm calling Gardeners Pie.

I've been hearing a lot about rice cauliflower, it's all over the internet and I'm dying to make a recipe using it but today I used cauliflower as one of the main ingredients, in my pie. In fact I used a whole head of cauliflower and this amazing vegetable features in both the 'meaty' filling and the creamy potato topping. I'm going to be experimenting a lot more with this vegetable it truly is a versatile veg!

Ingredients
3 Medium potatoes
1 Cauliflower
2 Tsp Vitalite
Splash of unsweetened almond milk
2 Tsp Olive oil
1 Carrot
2 Celery ribs
1 Onion
1 Courgette
½ Tin Chick peas*
3 Tsp Worcester sauce
3 Tsp Paprika
2 Tsp Garlic granules
½ Tsp Ground coriander
¼ Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Onion granules
½ Tsp Balsamic vinegar
1 Cup mixed nuts - I used walnuts, cashews and pecans

Method
Peel the potatoes and add to a pan of boiling water. Cut the cauliflower in half and break one half into florets and add to the potatoes. Boil until soft, drain, add the vitalite and almond milk and mash until smooth. Add the 2 Tbsp of nutritional yeast and stir through until thoroughly mixed. If you prefer process the cauliflower, potatoes and nutritional yeast in a food processor until smooth. Set aside

While the potatoes and cauliflower are cooking add the onion, celery, carrot and courgette to a food processor and process until finely chopped, but not pureed. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the mixture to the pan. Saute for 5 minutes stirring all the time, if the mixture starts to stick add a splash of water.

Put the remaining half of the cauliflower in the food processor and pulse until finely shredded, it should resemble small grains of rice. Hence all the cauliflower rice recipes out there!empty the contents of your processor into a bowl and set to one side. Put the chick peas in the processor and pulse until finely chopped, you don't want to make houmous here you want some texture.

Next add the Worcester sauce, spices, shredded rice and chopped chick peas to the pan and stir to combine. Heat through for another 3-5 minutes over a low heat, stirring regularly.

Add the nuts to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped, be careful, if you have a powerful processor it may process the nuts to a paste. Add to the pan with the balsamic vinegar and stir through.

Transfer the mixture to an oven proof dish and top with the potato, cauliflower and nutritional yeast mash. Spread evenly using a fork to give a ridged effect. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes or until the mash potato starts to brown in places.

Serve with a selection of green vegetables and enjoy!

Both my Mum and sister tried a little piece and both said it tasted good - result!


* You could use a whole tin of chickpeas if you want, but I made houmous with the other half!

Soba Veganaise

No, the title doesn't mean I've been drunk and now sobered up! 

With all the fresh vegetables I bought on Wednesday I was excited about cooking tonight's tea. I randomly chose some vegetables from the fridge and decided to challenge myself to make something yummy. I was really pleased with the results.

The vegetables I chose were, mushrooms, carrot, onion, celery, red pepper, green pepper, baby corn and courgette.

After looking at the vegetables for what seemed ages, I decided I was going to make a vegan version of spaghetti bolognaise, no fake meats allowed. To do this I needed to add some standard store cupboard ingredients, which were, Vegetable bouillon powder, chopped tomato, paprika, oregano, herbamore salt, pepper, tomato puree and garlic.

I finely diced the onion, garlic and most of the peppers and then through all the other vegetables into my trust food processor to chop up.

I processed and pulsed until all the veg looked like this

I fried the onions in a little olive for about 5 minutes before adding the garlic and cooked for another two minutes before adding the chopped peppers and cooking for another 5 minutes. Then I added the processed vegetables to the pan and let them cook for another 5 minutes.

Next I added the chopped tomatoes and a little tomato passata  and stirred to combine. Next came the tomato puree, herbs and spices (including a pinch of chilli pepper), salt and pepper. I also added a little sugar, parsley and about a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. I let this mixture simmer slowly whilst I boiled the soba noodles.

After boiling the soba noodles for about 6 minutes drain and rinse with cold water, this will stop the cooking process. Pour into a dish and top with the veganiase sauce.

Eat it up! Even though I say so myself this dish was amazing and one that I will make time and time again, it truly was delicious. It turned out far better than I'd hoped.

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Thai Coleslaw

Yesterday I told you about the buffet we had last bank holiday and the dishes that I made, but I forgot to post the Thai coleslaw recipe, which was amazing.

The recipe was published in a Tesco magazine which you get free at the check out and I've changed the ingredients to make it vegan and to use vegetables that I already had.

Ingredients

3 Baby Bok Choy
1 Bunch Spring onions
1 Red Pepper
1 Large carrot
4 Tbsp coconut milk
3 Tbsp Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce
3 Tbsp vegan mayonnaise
½ Lime
Salt & Pepper

Method

Finely slice the bok choy, red pepper and spring onions, and grate the carrot. Add to a bowl big enough to enable you to mix everything with the dressing. To make the dressing add the coconut milk, vegan mayonnaise and sweet chilli dipping sauce to another bowl and whisk until combined. Add the lime juice and salt and pepper and whisk again. Pour over the vegetables and mix so that all vegetables are coated. If the mixture is a little dry add more coconut milk.

I think this would make a lovely filling for lettuce wraps, just add a spoonful near to the edge of a lettuce leaf (iceberg would work well) and fold the left and right edges in and roll. Easy to eat to especially if you haven't got a fork and knife!

And...... just because the photo of the Thai coleslaw is so small, here's another of Marco watching a pigeon in the back garden. He is fascinated with pigeons and will watch them for hours! I'd love to know what he is thinking...............

Send me your photo captions!

Homemade Coleslaw

Today is just a quick post. I can't believe how busy I have been this week, time has just flown by.  I've been enjoying salads this week for lunch due to the weather being a little warmer. Now, lets not get carried away we're not talking shorts weather here, but the winter coat may get put back in the wardrobe. Weather reports suggest tomorrow is going to be warm and sunny! I won't get my hopes up, the weather seems to change from one extreme to another at the moment.

Today's recipe is homemade coleslaw and its super easy and quick to make and it beats the shop bought dairy version anytime!

Ingredients
1 Onion
1 Carrot
¼ Red cabbage
Salt & Pepper
Vegan Mayonnaise

Method
Finely slice the red cabbage and onion and transfer to a bowl. Grate the carrot and add to the bow. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add about a tablespoon of the vegan mayonnaise. Stir to combine making sure everything is evenly covered. Add more vegan mayonnaise if you think the mixture is a little dry for your taste.

 I used the vegan mayonnaise (solesse mayonnaise) that Hannah sent me last month in the vegan food swap box and I was pleasantly surprised. Last time I'd tried this mayonnaise I didn't enjoy it. but its amazing how your taste buds can change.

I received my vegan food parcel today too! Yay! I will post what I received from Finola soon. I'll also post what I sent my food swap buddy, Stephen too.

Satay Stirfry

Hubby has gone pizza mad since the night we made pizza. He had some friends round the other day and they went shopping and bought lots (and I mean lots) of pizzas. He is still scoffing his way through them all as they didn't manage to eat them on the day! He's going to look like a pizza soon!

I on the other hand wanted something loaded with veg, quick and of course tasty. What else could it be other than a stir fry. I didn't want to use a packet of stir fry sauce as I wanted it to be fresh, crisp and unprocessed!

I decided to make a satay sauce, now when I've made this in the past its turned out stodgy so I knew what NOT to do. Today it turned out brilliantly and I still have some left to use for another day. OK so its not 100% unprocessed as I used ready made peanut butter, but it sure was tasty.

I also made some garlic bread to go with the stir fry, this time I used olive oil instead of a vegan margarine and, my oh my it come out so garlicky and buttery it was untrue. It was truly delicious. I will definitely make garlic bread this way again. Plus its much quicker than the margarine version I have done previously.

Ingredients for stir fry - serves 2-3 people depending on how hungry you are

2 nests of wholewheat noodles

1 onion, finely sliced

1 red pepper, finely sliced

1 green pepper, finely sliced

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

1 courgette, cut into matchsticks

Handful of green beans, top and tailed and cut in half length ways

Packet of marinated tofu pieces (OK these are processed, but they're organic)

1 chilli

Knob of ginger

2 Garlic cloves

Ingredients for Satay Sauce

5 Tbsp crunchy peanut bitter

2 Tbs Soy sauce

3-4 Tbsp Warm water

3 Tsp Red Thai Curry paste (OK this is also processed-but you could make your own)

½ Can of coconut milk

Ingredients for Garlic Bread

1 Baton of crust white bread

5 Tbsp Olive oil

4 Cloves Garlic

Fresh Parsley

Method

Before you start cooking the stir fry you need to make your garlic bread. Cut into your chosen bread and split open. I chose to do diagonal cuts but this wasn't that successful and I ended up cutting through the bread completely and working with the round pieces of bread individually!

However you choose to do it, all you need to do is finely chop the parsley on a board, then crush the garlic onto it and finally pour over the olive oil. Give everything a mix with your fingers and stuff the mixture into the bread. Use the bread to soak up any remaining oil. Or if you're like me rub each piece of bread in the mixture on both sides. 

Get a rectangle of baking paper and wet it under the tap scrunching it at the same time. Wring out the water with your hands and transfer the bread onto the paper. Fold the paper over the bread and transfer to a baking tray. Pop it in the oven that's been preheated to a moderate temperature about 180°C. It will be ready by the time you've chopped and stir fried all your veg and made the sauce.

Bring some water to a boil in a saucepan and when the water has reached a rolling boil add the two nests of wholewheat noodles. Cook for 4 minutes and drain.

Finely chop the garlic, chilli and ginger and stir fry in a little olive oil with the onion. After 3 minutes add the carrots and green beans and continue to stir fry for another 3 minutes. Next add the green and red pepper slices and stir fry for another 3 minutes. Add the courgettes and tofu and stir fry for another 3 minutes. 

Whilst you are stir frying the vegetables make the satay sauce. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add more water if its too thick for your liking, and more peanut butter if its too thin. You won't need all of the satay sauce for the stir fry. 

Add the drained noodles to the vegetables and toss to combine. Pour in the satay sauce, I used about half of what I made and using tongs carefully mix through. Serve straight away with the garlic bread.

Vegetable Filo Pie

I was in the mood for cooking up a storm, the slow cooker was on for hubby's tea (this piece of equipment is an absolute god send for cooking his food. I just throw the ingredients in and turn it on)! I fancied something that was full of vegetables with a creamy sauce and this is what I concocted, it was very tasty, filling and filled the craving.

Ingredients
1 large carrot
1 large onion
½ head of cauliflower
½ head of broccoli
150g green beans
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp English mustard
1 tbsp flour
4 tbsp nutritional yeast (or more if you want a more 'cheesy taste')
500ml soy milk
Salt and pepper
Filo pastry x 4 sheets

Method
Turn on your oven to 180°C. Dice the onion and carrot and cut the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets. Saute the onion in a little olive oil for 3 minutes and add the rest of the vegetables. Continue to saute until the vegetables start to go soft. Add the thyme and mustard and stir to combine thoroughly. Next add the flour and stir to combine, cook for a couple of minutes. Slowly add the milk whilst stirring until all the milk has been added. Next add the nutritional yeast and stir through the mixture. Slowly bring to a simmer and the mixture will start to thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. Try a little and add more mustard, nutritional yeast or salt and pepper to your desired taste. Spoon into a baking dish and lay the filo over the top creating waves in the pastry. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the oven. Whilst the pie is in the oven boil some potatoes ready to mash to serve with the pie.