Vegetable Soup

Vegan Mofo is almost over! And, contrary to my expectations, I've managed to blog nearly every day. Most of the posts had a recipe, even if it was only something simple, and all of them had photos. So I'm feeling quite proud of my effort... which is probably why I'm here talking about it, instead of writing the Seminar that I need to give on Wednesday. Admittedly, I should have written said presentation yesterday (probably should have also posted a recipe here) but I was feeling a little tired and "under the weather". I could, in retrospect, give you Matt's recipe for a gin and tonic, but I think you can all do without. Just know that there was nearly as much gin as tonic, that the gin was supplied by a good friend of mine who knows how much I love Hendricks, and that they were absolutely delicious. ;)

I also ate more food on Saturday night than a body should endure in the space of two days, but I'll get to that on another post. In the meantime, I'm sticking to whatever is warmest and easiest, and soup fits that category. This one is incredibly easy, as any good soup should be, and it's made with whatever vegetables you have around the house. At its simplest, it can include carrots, potatoes and celery; I had some pumpkin and parsnip on hand to liven it up a little. I love parsnip.

I like chunky soups, so I just mashed this one up a little with a potato masher, in order to create some thickness and vary the texture. Of course, it's perfectly appropriate to put it (carefully) into the blender and puree it to velvety-smooth, but hey, who really wants to clean their blender? Not me, that's for sure. Granted, I don't really want to clean anything. Unfortunately, this chef is also a master dishwasher... much to my dismay, they're not going to wash themselves. My solution is to make everything in one pot, which is why I always have recipes for soups, stews and chilli. (And have you ever seen me make cake or bikkies in more than one bowl? Not a chance!) So, here's to as little washing up as possible. Easy vegetable soup. You'll note I'm giving the rather vague description of "chopped" for most of this; make the pieces as delicate or chunky as you like, but adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Vegetable Soup

1/4 small pumpkin (I used a small muskatcurbis), chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped
1 large parsnip, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
enough stock to barely cover (I used homemade; it was already in my fridge in a cute jar!)
2 large stems parsley, stalks included but separate, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Sautee garlic and onion in oil until transparent. Add all vegetables and allow to sautee, stirring regularly, until they begin to soften. If you fear for your onion or garlic, add the stock.
When the vegetables have softened and browned a little, add enough stock to barely cover and throw in the dried herbs. Add the parsley stems but save the leaves for adding at the last moment, otherwise they'll lose their flavour.
Simmer for about half an hour, until the vegetables are soft. Check a piece of parsnip, because it will be the last vegetable to soften sufficiently.
Mash lightly with a vegetable masher, making sure that there are still a few chunks of vegetable for texture. Season to taste with salt and pepper - if you're using commercial stock, you'll probably want to omit the salt here.
Stir through the parsley leaves before serving. Put a generous ladleful (or several, if you're a hungry vegan) in a bowl and eat it with slices of fresh baguette, or the traditional way, with margarine-spread toast soldiers.

Cutest jars, ne? :)

Beet and Vegetable Soup

Apologies for the lack of Vegan Mofo post yesterday; I've had an Australian visitor for a few days, so I was in Koln yesterday. I'm exhausted; this is a short post, because the faster I write, the faster I can crawl into bed.

I only wish tomatoes like that were still available. They're a little lighter in colour, a little smaller than the tomatoes of mid-Summer, but compared to the tomatoes of today, they're a dream. Of course, the weather is only getting colder. I'm not terribly appreciative of that fact, as I'm sure you're aware, but I can only grin and bear it.

What that means is that I'm completely addicted to making soup. I love sauteeing some veg and simmering it long and slow, until my cold kitchen windows fog over and make the room into a steamy and tropical environment. Then I sit down at my table to mop up a huge bowl of rich and warm soup, using a hunk of crusty bread to clean the bowl.

This one is pretty easy to make, and is a great way to use whichever leftover vegetables you have sitting in your fridge. All that you really need is a beet or two and some tomatoes, plus a few other vegetables to balance it out. I usually add celery and carrots, and sometimes a potato or two to make it extra-filling. This batch had some leftover brussels sprouts, to add to the mix, and some red onion. A hint: add heaps of garlic. You'll thank yourself for it when you ward off colds in colder weather...!

So, soup aside for the moment, it's the 18th day of Vegan Mofo. It's been fun, but it really does tie me to my laptop, because I like to read my blog roll daily; it's somewhat unmanageable if I don't. I'll have a lot of catching up to do tomorrow evening, when my visiting Australian has gone off to Berlin... but most important will be catching up on my sleep. I think sometimes visitors forget that I still have to get up at 6:30am, even when they sleep in until 10. So, let's see if my tired and fried brain can remember what I put into this pot of sweet, earthy deliciousness...

Beetroot and Vegetable Soup

2 medium-sized beets, peeled and chopped (I used red)
6 tomatoes, chopped (or a can of tinned tomatoes)

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 large celery stalks, sliced

300g brussels sprouts, quartered

1/2 delicata squash or two carrots, sliced
2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper

olive oil

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil until fragrant and turning transparent.
Add the celery, beets, sprouts and squash, and sautee for a few minutes longer, to bring out the flavour.
Add tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme and tomato paste. Add enough water to generously cover the vegetables and simmer slowly for as long as you can leave it. 40 minutes minimum for the beets to become tender, but honestly, make this at lunchtime so that you can eat it at dinner. You'll thank yourself for it!

Season to taste with salt and pepper, and eat with a generous amount of bread - I recommend ciabatta. ;)

Creamy Celeriac Soup

Here in Paderborn, today's maximum temperature is only 5 degrees. Needless to say, I find that a little depressing, so my reaction is to reach for something warm. While I know I've complained in past about the quality of certain fruit and vegetables here, there are also some things that grow very nicely indeed. Two such vegetables are celeriac and potatoes.

Because a little celeriac goes a long way, I tend to buy mine in halves from the Markt. Half a celeriac was enough to make me a big bowl of creamy soup, which was absolutely perfect for today's lunch, after my long and windy walk home from the Technology Park. Paired with a large potato and a few cloves of garlic, it was exactly what I needed. Some days, you just need soup.

I make my own stock whenever I'm making soup, generally using whatever scraps I have on hand. I was baking some muscatkurbis (Nutmeg pumpkin? It doesn't translate well - I think they can be called "Fairytale Pumpkin" in the USA) at the same time, so in went the peel, along with the scrawny celery stems and the peelings of my fresh garlic. This stock is for a blended soup and not a consumme, so it doesn't matter if it's cloudy, therefore scraps from vegetables that break down easily are always welcome. If you're making a clear soup, however, don't use pumpkin or potato peelings in your stock. I also recommend keeping a bag of stock-scraps in your freezer, for ready access.

This soup is incredibly easy. Some garlic, cubed celeriac and potato get sauteed in olive oil, stirring constantly, until little crusty sections form on the edges of the vegetables. These are the best part - they give that extra kick of toasty flavour to the soup that you'd never obtain, were you simply boiling your vegetables. And I'm sure you all know by now how I feel about the idea of boiled vegetables! I like to make a similar soup with carrot, celeriac and ginger, but I felt like something a little softer and milder today. However, I'll still recommend the other combination to anyone who asks, and right about now, I'm recommending it to readers who didn't ask at all. What can I say, I'm generous with my advice! ;)

I have a slight confession to make: I'm a huge fan of cooking in order to warm up my kitchen. So really, I didn't need to have warm stock at the ready for this dish. It's not like I was trying to make risotto or something. But the idea of having two hotplates running at once, to warm up my freezing fingers... I'm sorry, but I caved in. It happens, sometimes. I'm still convinced that eating a warm lunch is better than turning on the heater in my room. Anyway, the rest of the soup was made in comfort, with steamed-up windows and toasty hands. Definite success!

Creamy Celeriac Soup
(feeds one hungry vegan)

1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 large celeriac, peeled and cubed
1 large mashing potato, cubed

6 cups vegetable stock (for basic stock advice, go here)
2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp thyme leaves
salt and pepper, to taste

Warm the oil and garlic together until it begins to sizzle - this method stops the garlic from burning. Add the celeriac and potato, stirring often, and allow them to get brown, toasty edges.

When you have it sufficiently toasty (or when you're concerned that any longer would burn your garlic) add the stock and herbs. Turn the heat down a little and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender - about 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.

Blend the soup in a blender or with one of those lovely hand-held mixers (mine is back in Australia, sigh!) until it's smooth and creamy. Serve warm with lots of black pepper and a sprinkling of parsley.

Winter Greens Soup

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, so here's today's Vegan Mofo post! It's extra-hearty to make up for yesterday's absence... ;)

Sorry about the picture. I'd already started eating by the time that I remembered that I was supposed to take a picture. Oops. That wasn't even the first bowl (which is why the colour isn't so bright any more)... I'm such a disgrace of a food blogger! Not that that phases me in any way, heh. Anyway, this soup is a really simple and really delicious way to use up leftover veg, or just get some more green vegetables into your life. Because I know you all need more green vegetables. Even those of you who are as addicted to them as I am. Not that it came easily for me: I had to coax myself onto greens, starting with garlic-fried choy sum, then working my way onto the slightly stronger bok choy, and then baby spinach leaves, still wilted with copious amounts of garlic. Broccoli was one of those vegetables I only used to like stir-fried and still crisp-tender, and it took some persuasion for me to accept it in other forms. Yet, thanks to a few over-zealous bushes of Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Cabbage) in my garden a few years ago, I'm onto the hard stuff. Kangkong, the whole Kale family, and whatever else I can get my hands on. Growing multi-coloured Silverbeet (Swiss Chard) probably didn't hurt, either. Give me my greens.

Of course, a common thread that links all of these green vegetables together is garlic. Whether they're sweet or bitter, tender or tough, greens love garlic. Good olive oil, a generous amount of chopped garlic, and some well-washed greens equals an amazing side dish. Sometimes I eat it over rice, or mixed into small pasta shapes, as a main course. And sometimes I make green things into soup. This soup is an easy way to use up leftover green vegetables, as well as those tough broccoli stems that you're too lazy to properly peel in order to get to the tender inner core. The garlic, which is ever-important here, has two roles to play: first, as a base for the veg, which get a quick sautee to bring out the flavour. Secondly, when I have time, I use the outer layers of my fresh garlic, parsley and basil stems, and the leftover celery twigs (not the thick stalks, but just the spindly parts at the top) to make a quick stock to add to the soup. I hate wasting vegetables, so stock is a good friend of mine. A small mashing potato makes the soup creamy without stealing the flavour. Rounded out with a handful of sweet frozen peas, this soup is warming and delicious.

Winter Greens Soup

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 cups chopped green veg (broccoli - especially the stems, kale, spinach, or even broccolini or asparagus, if you're feeling fancy!)

1/2 cup cubed potato (about 1 small potato)

1/2 cup frozen peas
2 large cloves garlic, chopped

1 2cm piece ginger, chopped

1 thai birdseye chilli, chopped

1/4 cup chopped parsley and basil (I used a mix)
3 cups stock

1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper + chilli flakes

Heat the olive oil in a pot and add the garlic, ginger and chilli, frying until fragrant. Add the celery, stirring to mix well, and cook for a minute longer. Add the greens (stems take longer than leaves, so take that into account if you like) and potato and sautee another minute.

Turn the heat down to medium and add the stock. Simmer until the vegetables are tender. Add the frozen peas, and allow to thaw - this should only take a minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and blend thoroughly until the soup is completely smooth, adding water to thin if desired. Add chilli flakes to taste, and to decorate.

Winter Greens Stock
1 generous handful of outer peelings of fresh garlic, or 2 cloves, sliced

1 cup celery twigs, roughly chopped, plus celery heart, chopped (optional)*
1 thai birdseye chilli, sliced in half lengthways

1 large stem fresh thyme
stems of parsley and basil

4 cups water

Put everything in a saucepan and cook on medium-high heat, about 20-15 minutes, and strain well.

* I know you can see a celery leaf in the stock photo. Sure, one leaf is fine. I was cutting up a whole head of celery, so I added the thin inner stems to my stock as well - just those that were too thin and insubstantial to make it into my fridge-supply of celery. I wouldn't recommend letting more than one or two leaves make it into your pot, however, because they can be incredibly bitter, especially the older (outer) leaves.While I'm confessing, I'll also add that I love cucumber peeled when I add it to salads, because the skins of cukes here seems really tough... so if I have some peel, I throw them into the soup at the blending stage. Why not? It doesn't affect the flavour, and it means that they don't go to waste. Plus it makes the colour even greener. I know, I'm crazy.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup.

I'd like to say that this is one of those pumpkin soups like the one my mother makes, where onions are sauteed, pumpkin is cubed and cooked until fragrant, and carrots and the stray potato add extra depth of flavour to the soup. But, you know me. So, this is a cold-weather favourite, made from leftover roasted pumpkin. Therefore, the flavour is already sweet and the texture is incredibly creamy, so you don't need to bother messing about with onions and carrots. No adultery here, just butternutty goodness. I love having leftover roasted pumpkin. Whether it's mixed into couscous, salads and tagines, or mashed for the sake of scones and breakfast muffins, or simply snacked on out of the container (not that I'd do that, of course) it's a versatile ingredient to keep in the fridge. So when I cut up pumpkin to roast, I do it in industrial quantities.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

1 large butternut squash, cut into large chunks, seeds removed

1 onion, halved (completely optional!)

3 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

pepper

Dry roast the pumpkin (and onion, if you must) in a 250 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, until soft and a little browned.

Using a soup spoon, scoop the flesh directly from the skins and into your blender or food processor. Eat the skins. (Leaving the skins out isn't strictly necessary, but it makes for a smoother soup.)

Add all other ingredients and blend until velvety-smooth. If you like a thinner texture, add a little water. Adjust for salt if neccessary, and top with a generous grind of pepper. Serve with crusty bread.

Sweetcorn Soup

Dear Farmers of Paderborn, I have a slight complaint. Every time I leave the centre of the city I see fields of corn, tall and lush, often dominating the landscape. However, Summer has passed, and your corn would have well and truly ripened by now. So, why is it that only one market stall has had corn for sale? So they could charge exorbitant prices for it? Or is it that you're feeding all the rest to factory-farmed animals, hmm? And when I go to the markets and see that that one stall has corn again (it's a sporadic thing), and I buy five cobs for three Euro, you'd better count on my being disappointed when they're starchy and dry and not fully formed. This cries out to me that corn season is over, and I feel completely ripped off. And if any German dares to suggest that I should buy the pre-cooked, shrink-wrapped, long-life corn in the supermarket, made by the same company responsible for the inedible beets, then I'm probably going to punch them.

So, what's a girl to do with disappointing corn? The last time I found it, I just ate it straight from the cob. Without salt, pepper, or any slather of hydrogenated fats. This time, I did that with one cob, and felt too bitter about the starchy taste in my mouth to bother with the others. So I did the most reasonable thing for a person to do: I made sweetcorn soup. (I also resolved never to buy from that stall again - a resolution that I've made once, and broken simply because of the availability of corn. But this time, I mean it.) The corn kernels were sliced from the cob, mixed into some sauteed onion and chilli, and blended to make a thick soup. I know everyone (including me) sings the praises of using the best-quality fresh ingredients, but sometimes, we have to compromise. And, I assure you, this was a delicious compromise.

My first taste of sweetcorn soup was of the chicken-and-corn variety, when I was in New Zealand as a twelve-year-old. Dad had been to a conference, and it was something of a family holiday. It was my first time overseas, including my first time on a plane, and it wasn't very different to Australia, except that I saw a chestnut for the first time. And I tried corn in soup at the house of some family friends. When I was told we were having corn soup for lunch, I remember saying to my mother that I didn't want to eat it. (I wasn't very good with trying new foods sometimes.) She told me that I couldn't be rude, and that I had to eat at least some. I think I was pleasantly suprised at how edible it was. And in my older years, I became a fan of the version served at Chinese restaurants. Now I'm a fan of my own version, sans chicken and MSG, which is blended just a little. Sometimes I add a spoonful of peanut butter for some satay-goodness, but not today. When I do that, I like to add a swirl of coconut cream, or use coriander instead of parsley. However, sometimes simplicity is the best answer to complicated questions.

Sweetcorn Soup
4 ears of corn, kernels shaved
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
1 small (brutal) thai chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp thyme leaves (if using dried, halve the quantity)
fresh parsley (optional)
1 litre vegetable stock
salt and pepper
chilli powder (optional)
olive oil

Pour a small splash of olive oil into the bottom of your pot, and sautee the onion until softened and transparent. Don't be afraid to let it colour a little. Add the garlic and chilli, frying about a minute longer, until fragrant. If you're not coughing from the chilli fumes, add a little more!
Throw in your corn kernels and thyme, sautee for a minute, before adding the vegetable stock.
Simmer until the corn has brightened in colour - it really only takes a minute or two.
Add chilli powder, salt and pepper, and fresh parsley to taste.
Blend, in batches as necessary - I like to blend maybe 3/4 of the mix, so that I still have some chunks of corn in the finished soup. Don't worry if it froths up a lot - it's just because the corn is so high in natural sugar. The bubbles will subside by themselves.
Scatter with parsley and pepper. Best served with crusty bread.

Pumpkin Soup

Soup is the ultimate cold-weather food. Served together with that fantastic loaf of crusty spelt bread that you just made (go on, you know you want to), it's a great meal or snack for something to warm you up quickly. It also makes a good breakfast, as was demonstrated this morning, but you probably didn't need to hear about my penchant for real food at breakfast.

Pumpkin soup is a simple, filling and delicious soup to make. I used Hokkaido squash, which is the most readily available cucurbit at the moment. Butternuts, my usual favourite, are still tinged with green, and the really hard pumpkins are still unavailable. Hokkaido has a slightly chalkier texture, which means that this soup might take a little more water than your regular recipe, but it does thicken nicely.

I know, you're gasping with disbelief. Sacrelige! My pumpkin soup is not blended! I know, you're appalled. Unfortunately, at the time of making this (about 10:30am on a Saturday morning), my housemate still hadn't gotten up. So I decided to be polite - I know from experience (usually late at night on the weekend) that being woken up by the blender, especially when a certain housemate uses it to crush ice, is not a pleasant experience. So I decided to spare my other housemate from the horror. If it were the cocktail-making housemate, I might have a far prettier photo to show you...!

Pumpkin Soup

1 Hokkaido squash, about 1.5kg, cubed*

2 medium carrots, peeled and cubed

1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or dried, if you must!)

2 lge stalks celery, diced (feel free to substitute one for 1/2 an onion)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

2 tsp stock powder (or better, use fresh stock in lieu of water, if you have it on hand)

salt and pepper to taste

sprinkle of nutmeg (optional)

Sautee celery, carrots, and onion, if using, in the olive oil until the celery is transparent. Don't be afraid to let it brown - this just adds extra flavour.

Add the pumpkin, and allow to soften a little. You can add fresh thyme here, too. When it reaches the point where you don't want to let your celery or onion brown any more, add enough water just to just cover the pumpkin. Add the bay leaf - and dried thyme, if you don't have fresh. Add stock powder. (Alternately, if you have real stock, use that in place of stock powder and water.)

Simmer, 20-25 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft. Allow to cool, then blend in batches until creamy, adding extra water if needed.

Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with nutmeg if you're so inclined.

*If you're using Hokkaido, don't bother peeling it. The skin is incredibly thin, and is very soft once cooked. So it'll just get blended up when you puree the soup, and because it's such a lovely colour, it'll just make your soup even more orange and luscious. :)