fall happiness:

squash!


apples!



pretty leaves!

And, not to forget: soup!


butternut squash soup with warm spices and crispy onions

I happened to have a roasted butternut squash sitting in the fridge that I had stuck into the oven this weekend, when baking something else. I highly recommend you do that, it's really a no-brainer. I imagine acorn squash would work just as well and in a pinch canned butternut squash might do, too, if you think roasting your own is too much effort (but it really isn't).

For roasting, I just halved the butternut squash, scooped out the seeds and baked it, cut side down on a piece of aluminium foil on a baking sheet (to minimize clean up) until a fork slid in easily. 45 minutes maybe, but that obviously depends on the size and your oven. I then scooped out the flesh and stored it in a tupperware container.

Once you have the roasted squash, the soup takes literally 10 minute to prepare. The crispy onions were a stroke of genius. You can omit them, but you would be terribly, terribly mistaken.

flesh of 1 scooped out roasted butternut squash
1 Tbsp of butter
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
about 2 Tbsp of your favorite thai curry paste (how much exactly will depend on the curry paste you use and how spicy you like your soup--I used green, though red would probably be even better, at least colorwise)
1/2 can of coconut milk (I had some leftover in the freezer)


Heat butter in a large pot and saute until translucent, about 2 minutes. Throw in the garlic, the butternut squash, the coconut milk and 1 cup of water. Add the curry paste. If you want to be on the safe side, add 1 Tbsp first and then adjust later. Let it cook and bubble for a little bit, then blend until smooth.

Add more water until you like the consistency. Then add salt and more curry paste, to taste. Maybe a little lemon juice?

Serve, topping with the onions. I didn't have any cilantro on hand but imagine it would go well.


crispy onion topping

1 onion thinly sliced
1 Tbsp of butter
handful of raw cashew nuts

While the soup is bubbling, heat the butter in a small pan until very hot. Add onions and let the fry, stirring occasionally. You want them to get very brown, almost burned on the edges. Just before they are ready, throw in the handful of cashews. Swirl them around and let them get a little toasted but watch closely because the little suckers like to burn when you are not watching. Sprinkle with a little salt to taste.

Serves 3.

An announcement, and a recipe

Exciting news: I've enjoyed posting recipes here so much that I decided to start my very own food blog: http://tastememories.typepad.com/ I'm still finding my feet (and my photographs are pretty awful), but I'm having a lot of fun doing so. I'd love it if you'd stop by. Oh, and guest posters would be wonderful - let me know if you're interested! I'm doing recipes of all kinds, provided they're original or at least significant adaptations of an existing recipe.

Of course, I'll still be contributing here, especially when I have a recipe for something vegetarian and lunchable. Here, as proof, is a recipe for an edamame, avocado, cilantro and lime soup that I made recently. (If you visit my blog and scroll down, you'll find an extremely unattractive picture of it. But I swear, it really is good).

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped (I used red onions)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
6 cups vegetable stock
1lb frozen, shucked edamame
1 punnet silken tofu
2 limes
1 avocado, de-stoned
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
½ cup sour cream

Method:

Add the olive oil to a large pan over medium-high heat.

Add the onions, the salt and the cumin, and sauté the mixture for a few minutes, until the onions are soft and beginning to caramelize.

Then, add the vegetable stock and bring it to a boil.

Add the edamame, and boil for about 10 minutes or until soft.

Next, puree the soup in a blender, together with the remaining ingredients (you may need to do this in batches).

Adjust the soup for seasoning and acidity. You can also add a little more liquid if you like.

This serves six, generously. By the way, I actually prefer to serve this soup cold, but it’s nice warm too. Either way, you might want to swirl a little more sour cream into it.

3 minute gazpacho

The perfect way of using up half an avocado. Simple and divine.

Ingredients:
2 large vine-ripened tomatoes
1/2 English hothouse cucumber, peeled
1/2 avocado
handful mint (or basil, or maybe even cilantro)
sea salt
red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Method:
Grate the tomato and cucumber into a bowl. (By the way, grating rather than dicing tomato as a topping for bruschetta is a trick that I learned from the wonderful cookbook 'Moro.' I highly recommend both the technique, and the book.)
Chop the avocado and mint, and add it in.
Season the mixture to taste with (about) a pinch of salt, (about) a teaspoon of the oil, and (about) a tablespoon of the vinegar.
Add a little bit of water if you want a soupier mixture.

A satisfying meal for one.

rainy day

hmpf. what can you do but make soup?

tomato chickpea orzo soup

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced (optional)
2 sprigs of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 14 oz can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 cups vegetable broth
1 large handful of fresh parsley, chopped
salt, pepper

1/2 pack of orzo pasta (about one cup)

Pour the olive oil into your soup pot and heat over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until it softens, stirring, ca 5 min.

Throw in the leek, the celery, garlic and thyme. Saute for a few minutes until the vegetables soften a little and you can smell the garlic.

Add the diced tomatoes, the chickpeas and the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and lower the temperature and let the soup simmer for about 10-15 min.

Meanwhile cook the orzo in a separate sauce pan. Drain when it's al dente.

Using an immersion blender, blend the soup, though not too much--you want some chunky pieces and some chickpeas remaining. Throw in the orzo, the chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Eat with yoghurt on top.

Serves 3.

emergency-pea-soup.

I make this when I come home absolutely, completely starving and I absolutely cannot bear the thought of waiting more than 15 minutes for dinner. It's instant gratification.

emergency pea soup.
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 medium potatoes (e.g. russett), peeled and diced (the smaller you dice them the faster you get to eat)
1 pack of frozen peas
5 cups vegetable stock
pat of butter or 2 Tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper

Heat the butter or oil in a big pot on medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute for a minute or two until it turns translucent and starts to smell good. Throw in garlic, celery and stir around for a minute or so.

Add potatoes and pour over the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and let simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes, which is just about enough for a quick shower.

Back in the kitchen turn the heat up and throw in the bag of peas. Bring back to boil and simmer for another 4 minutes or until the peas are cooked through.

Get out your immersion blender and blend happily away until the soup is smooth. Taste: Some pepper. More salt? Maybe a squeeze of lemon?

Eat, preferably with a blob of yoghurt.

Serves 2 extremely hungry people or 1 with generous left-overs.




Note: The soup is easily fancy-fied by topping it with some chopped parsley and maybe some dry-roasted pine nuts or sunflower seeds. Or, if you have an open bottle of white wine sitting in your fridge, you can replace half a cup of the vegetable stock with it.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

2 medium yellow onions
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon flour
29-32 ounces beef broth (2 cans)
1/2 cup vermouth

bread
swiss cheese

butter
olive oil

(1) thinly slice onions
(2) cook onions in 3/2 tablespoons butter & 1 tablespoon olive oil till soft (15 minutes)
(3) add salt and sugar to onions, and cook till golden brown (15 -20 more minutes)
(4) add flour to onions, and cook for 2 minutes
(5) off heat, add some beef broth and stir ingredients till well blended
(6) add remaining beef broth and vermouth, and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes

(7) broil buttered bread on both sides, add swiss cheese, and melt

(8) to serve, ladel soup over swiss cheese toasts

(modified recipe from Julia Child)

chopping theory and minestrone

there are different kinds of chopping for different mind sets. there is the meditative chopping, steady-paced and precise, sitting at the kitchen table with some music in the background. there is the animated chopping while talking to someone, with the knife being used as much for cutting as for wild gesticulation. and finally there is the aggressive chopping, hunched over the cutting bord, lips pressing together so that the carrots, were they not doomed to a mute existence, would scream with terror.

all kinds of chopping are good for making minestrone. it makes your appartment smell delicious and it tastes even better when reheated for lunch the next day.

wintery minestrone

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 fat leek
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1 small rutabaga (alias swede)
1/2 butternut squash
3 handful french lentils
2 handful pearl barley
5 cups vegetable broth
2 handful frozen peas
2 handful fresh spinach
1 handful fresh parsley
feshly ground pepper
2 tbsp balsamico vinegar

heat the olive oil over medium to medium-high heat, add the thyme and start chopping the vegetables, adding them to the pot as you go and stirring from time to time. slice the leek lengthwise, wash it under cold water and slice it thinly, using the white and lighter green parts only. slice the celery stalks. scrub and chop the carrots. peel the rutabaga, half it and dice it. peel the butternut squash and dice it too. this is a rustic soup, so no need to obsess about the vegetable chopping--the important thing is that they are more or less the same size and on the smaller side.

Increase the heat to high and add the lentils and the barley to the vegetables, stirring them around until they start browning--about 3-5 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat until the lentils and the barley are tender.

Next throw in the peas and the stir in the spinach, roughly torn into smaller pieces. Simmer for 3 more minutes or so and then add the freshly chopped parsley. Season with pepper, salt and balsamico.

Eat from big bowls, and maybe a drizzle of olive oil. maybe even a little freshly grated parmesan on top. as for all soups, a hunk of crusty bread and butter on the side are absolutely essential.

this makes enough for four.