Roasted tomato and basil soup

My mother in law kindly shares home grown fruits and vegetables with me when she has a surplus. I treasure these gifts whenever they appear and try to utilise this special produce in a recipe I haven’t tried before. The couple of tomato plants I grew last summer had a very short season as they were pulled up before we went on holiday so I was delighted to receive an assortment of standard and heirloom tomatoes from her recently.

An idea sprang to mind straight away – roasted tomato soup. As soon as the weather begins to cool down I always crave warm bowls of soup and aim to have a batch on hand for the days when there are no leftovers for lunches. I’ve previously made very tasty roasted tomato pasta sauces with home grown tomatoes and have wanted to try roasted tomatoes in a soup ever since.

I don't feel the need to seek out a recipe if I have a firm idea in mind. In these instances I trust my instincts and tweak the ingredient amounts (when necessary) after taste testing throughout the cooking process. This soup was kept very simple as I wanted the flavour of the tomatoes to shine, lentils were added for some protein as well as thickening the soup. After indecision about which type of stock power to include, I forgot to use any and simply seasoned the soup with sea salt after blending it.

Tomato soups create a divide throughout our household, the man and I adore them and the young man doesn't like them much at all. I'm not sure if that's the reason I don't make them as often as I should or perhaps it's just never cold enough for soup when tomatoes are in the height of their season. This particular soup turned out to have a wonderful creamy texture courtesy of the red lentils and the flavour of the roasted tomatoes paired with basil was lovely. It was an uncomplicated bowl of soup I'm looking forward to making again next tomato season.


Roasted tomato and basil soup

Serves 4

1 kg tomatoes

3 – 4 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium carrot, diced

1/3 cup red lentils

3 cups water

1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

30 basil leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 220C. Cut tomatoes in half and place cut side up on a roasting tray. Drizzle with 2-3 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with a few pinches of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tomatoes are very soft and juicy.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a stockpot and sauté the onion, garlic and carrots over medium heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the lentils and water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

When the tomatoes have finished roasting, add them to the stockpot along with all of the juices from the roasting tray.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in batches using a blender. Return the blended soup to the pot, season with sea salt to taste and stir through most of the chopped basil leaves. Allow to reheat, then serve garnished with additional chopped basil and freshly cracked black pepper. 

Favourite foods from 2012

Happy belated new year to all my readers! I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable and restful festive season full of delicious food.

Apologies for such a lengthy break between posts, it feels like ages since my last post was published and I'm also way behind in responding to reader comments as well as reading other blogs. After my family Christmas obligations ended, we spent a few days away camping in the bush which was relaxing as we spent our days swimming, playing with Ollie and watching the different native birds in the area. Instead of being rejuvenated by the camping experience, I picked up a bug just after we got home (the first illness I've had in over 2.5 years!) and have been feeling extremely worn out after dragging myself back to work last week. Now that my head is finally feeling clearer, it's time to get back on track with the first of a couple of posts I've been working on to sum up 2012 in my kitchen.

Favourite soup - Smoky cauliflower (and tofu bacon) soup. With or without tofu bacon this simple blended soup has become a household favourite. Red lentils are a sneaky ingredient to provide the soup with added protein and make it a more substantial bowl.

Favourite Mexican meal - Tofu adobe with refried beans. This has become our standard Mexican meal, when Mexican is requested this is what my fellows are after! We pile refried beans from Viva Vegan along with Tofu with adobe paste (from the Tofu Xpress recipe booklet) onto tortillas with some lettuce, tomato, cashew cream, guacamole and hot sauce. There's an art to how much filling you can load in the tortillas before they become a very messy eating experience.

Favourite meal that can be served anytime of the day - Mexican inspired tofu scramble. I've been making this scramble for such a long time and it never fails to satisfy our taste buds. It's loaded up with heaps of veggies and beans and pairs well with toast for an easy dinner or wrapped into tortillas for breakfast burritos.

Favourite fried food - Tofu “fish” fingers with tartare sauce. We adore Bryanna Clark Grogan's tofu "fish" recipe and have scoffed them down on a few occasions. I also tried a baked version with a polenta coating but they turned out rather dry so I recommend shallow or deep frying them for the the ultimate eating experience.

Favourite finger food - Gobi (cauliflower) pakoras are superb when paired with a coriander chutney from Vegan Eats World. I made these a few times by frying them in a wok and have been meaning to make them again in our relatively new deep fryer.

Favourite noodles - Steph from vegan about town's Char Kueh Teow recipe isn't actually restricted to our favourite noodle dish of 2012, it first appeared in my kitchen in 2011 and has been on semi-regular rotation since. It's a super tasty meal for minimal effort.

Favourite quick meal – Smoky Alfred with broccoli, asparagus, spinach or broad beans. I've been making this pasta dish for years (originally based on Hurry Up Alfredo in Vegan Yum Yum) and we never tire of it for a speedy weeknight meal. I change it up frequently by adding in some seasonal greens and enjoy it with tofu bacon on occasion too.

Favourite from around the world posts - Sri Lankan pan rolls. Although they took a couple of attempts to perfect, I've been very happy with my version of these deep fried snacks that we used to enjoy years ago. Stay tuned for another delicious Sri Lankan snack soon which I've been playing around with recently.

Favourite sweet - Sfoof (Semolina cake) and Chocolate chip cookies. As I rarely feel the urge to eat sweet things I'm leaving this one up to my fellows. Bryanna Clark Grogan's semolina cake with lemon or lime syrup from World Vegan Feast was the definite winner for the man last year, when he is craving a cake this is what he always asks me to make. The young man's choice is slightly more mundane, chocolate chip cookies are his fave which is fairly predictable coming from a teenage boy.

Number 1 household favourite - Calzones. The regularity of our calzone nights has dropped back from fortnightly to about once a month but they are still without a doubt the recipe I am requested to make if I ask the others what they feel like eating. I can't imagine them disappearing from meal rotations in the near future either!

Borscht and pretzels

Borscht has been on my cooking to-do list for such a long time. I'm not quite sure why I wanted to try it so badly, was it the brilliant colour calling out to me or an opportunity to build up my repertoire of beetroot recipes? Certain things about borscht didn't really appeal to me, like serving it cold. Chilled soups are something I'm yet to get my head around and muster the guts to try, perhaps on a hot summer day when it makes a bit more sense. Warm hearty soups are what I need in the middle of winter in Melbourne.

I had been eyeing off a borscht recipe in World Vegetarian Classics for ages yet it seemed a bit too chunky for my liking. A few weeks ago Johanna posted a version that was mostly blended, I preferred the sound of this texture so I used both sources for inspiration and came up with something in between the two. Cashew based creams have been my preferred replacement for dairy sour cream for ages but as there was some silken tofu that needed to be used quickly I whizzed up a tofu/cashew cream to serve with the soup instead.

After sampling pretzels at Gasometer recently, I was keen to give them a try at home and tracked down a recipe on Peas and Thank You. This seemed like the perfect occasion to make them! I was playing a dangerous game by serving soup for dinner (which is generally frowned upon) and thought that some freshly baked pretzels might win me back some brownie points.

Mama Pea's recipe was written using a stand mixer with a dough hook which I don't own so I changed the process around to suit a traditional kneading method and used my prior bread making knowledge and judgement at times. After the dough had been kneaded, rested, rolled out and shaped, the pretzels had to be boiled for 30 seconds prior to baking. This is similar to a step I've read about in bagel recipes. The only problem was that I forgot to add bicarbonate of soda to the boiling water which is supposed to give the pretzels their shine and colour!

Similar to Gasometer's pretzels, I topped mine with coarse sea salt and caraway seeds and served them with vegan mustard butter - a mixture of dairy free margarine and seeded mustard. The boys weren't very keen on the soup but they loved their pretzels. Borscht isn't going to become one of my favourite soups but I did enjoy it's earthy flavour and was happy to eat the leftovers for lunches. On the other hand the pretzels were an absolute highlight that I'll definitely have to make again, perhaps a little shinier next time.     

Borscht - Beetroot soup with kidney beans and cabbage (Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe and World Vegetarian Classics)

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
3 medium (500g) beetroot, diced
1 large (200g) potato, diced
1 large (200g) carrot, diced
4 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
¼ small head green cabbage, finely shredded
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
300g silken tofu
½ cup cashews
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
Finely chopped fresh dill, for garnish
Freshly cracked black pepper

Place the onion, garlic, beetroot, potato, carrots, water and salt in a stockpot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Meanwhile place the tofu, cashews, lemon juice and salt in a blender and process until no chunks of cashews remain. Transfer the contents to a bowl and refrigerate. Rinse out the blender.

After the soup has simmered for an hour, transfer batches to the blender and process until smooth. Return the blended soup to the stockpot and reheat gently. Add the kidney beans, cabbage and red wine vinegar and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the cabbage has just softened. Serve garnished with the tofu/cashew cream, dill and freshly cracked black pepper.


Pretzels (Adapted from Peas and Thank You)
Makes 4 large pretzels

1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon dried yeast
¾ cup lukewarm water
2 ½ cups plain flour
2 tablespoon dairy free margarine, melted
10 cups water
2/3 cup bicarbonate of soda (I forgot to add it this time!)
Coarsely ground sea salt
½-1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Dissolve the salt and sugar in a jug containing ¾ cup lukewarm water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes or until the yeast starts to look foamy.

Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the contents of the jug into the well, followed by the margarine and mix the ingredients with your hands to form a rough dough. Turn the dough out onto a clean floured bench and knead for at least 5 minutes or until the dough is soft and supple. Rest the dough in an oiled bowl covered with a tea towel for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Cut the dough into 4 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece of dough out into long thin strands using your hands, each piece should be approximately 60cm long. Shape each piece of dough into a pretzel knot and press the knots together gently so they do come apart during the boiling process.

Preheat oven to 230C. Bring 10 cups of water plus 2/3 cup bicarbonate of soda to the boil and line an oven tray with baking paper (I didn't use baking paper and one of the pretzels stuck to the oiled tray so I would highly recommended using it). Gently lower a pretzel into the boiling water and allow to cook for 30 seconds. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon and place on the oven tray. Repeat for the other 3 pretzels.

Bake the pretzels in the oven for 12-14 minutes until golden brown.

Soup, casserole, cake and a new family member

Life has been a little crazy over the past couple of weeks which means that blogging has taken a backseat. There are so many posts I would love to be writing as I've been cooking up plenty of interesting meals, unfortunately there aren't enough hours in the day so I haven't had the time to follow most of them up with a blog post.

Our time has largely been devoted to our new family member Ollie. Long time readers of my blog may remember the heartache we experienced last year with our dog Jasper after he was diagnosed with a bone cancer. Jasper successfully went through a hind leg amputation and lived an active and happy 6 months before deteriorating rapidly when the cancer spread to his lungs. It was a devastating experience and has taken almost a year for us to feel ready to accept another dog into our home.

We went through a lengthy period of attempting to adopt a dog via various rescue organisations. After a lot of waiting, red tape and many close calls we ended up finding an older puppy outside of these organisations that was in just as much need, if not more, of a good caring home. A group of young international students had purchased a border collie puppy from a breeder obviously without having any knowledge of dogs or this particular breed of working dog. The pup had been confined to the inside of their house for 5 months, was never walked, trained or even desexed and had developed into a bundle of frenetic energy that just wanted to jump all over people. They were so desperate to get rid of the problem they had unknowingly created and didn't even bother to say goodbye when we took him off their hands!

In just over a week with us Ollie has learnt to stop jumping on people (most of the time), walk on the lead, sit, stay, drop and go to his bed. He is a sweet pup that is very eager to please but there are still a lot of areas where he needs work, including learning not to chase our dear old cat Monty! It has been an exhausting period as he can be the equivalent of a badly behaved toddler at times although it is wonderful to have a canine companion around the house again.

A couple of weekends ago I pulled up some more borage plants to make soup. This dark green soup was very basic and adapted from an old celtic recipe which we initially enjoyed and likened the flavour of the borage to spinach. Unfortunately the leftovers didn't fare as well! The following day the soup was very thick and set like jelly. It thinned out a little after it was reheated although the flavour wasn't as nice as it had been on the first day. The man thought that it tasted like egg yolk and although we did finish our bowls I'm not sure that I would use borage this way again.

The other night I baked a tortilla casserole to use up some very old corn tortillas that had been in the fridge for ages. I made the tortilla casserole from Viva Vegan a while ago and didn't have the right ingredients for it this time so I created my own version. Rather than topping it with a creamy nut/tofu based sauce, I crumbled some plain corn chips followed by grated cheezly. The sauce that was spread within the tortillas included pinto beans, corn kernels and diced mushrooms. I love the concept of a tortilla casserole as it's like a Mexican styled lasagne, this recipe is simple and versatile as it could be changed up to suit whatever vegetables or beans happen to be on hand. This meal was fantastic and just as tasty as I recall the one in Viva Vegan, it's definitely something I'll be repeating again as it was a hit with all of us.

A recent acquisition to my ever growing pile of cookbooks is World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan. I wrote about Bryanna's delicious tofu "fish" fingers recently which is a recipe that is posted on her blog. I have made a handful of recipes from World Vegan Feast recently and they have all been fantastic. I had been eyeing off a recipe for a lebanese semolina cake with lemon syrup from the book and ended up making it with limes as my mother in law gave me heaps from her tree. The semolina cake which is also known as sfoof was supposed to be topped with slivered almonds and as there were none in the house I used some chopped pistachios instead. This cake had a nice tangy flavour from the syrup, a different texture from the semolina and it was so lovely and moist. The syrup is supposed to keep the cake fresher for a longer period. I'm not sure we will be able to test that theory as I have a feeling that it won't last long around here.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into more regular blogging soon, for the time being I'll leave you with these three recipes.

Borage soup (Adapted from a recipe on celtnet)

2 tablespoons dairy free margarine
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup basmati rice
4 cups vegan chicken stock (I used Massel stock powder)
450g borage leaves, washed thoroughly
½ cup cashews
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
Salt and pepper, to taste
Garnish borage flowers

Melt the margarine in a stockpot over medium heat and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the rice and stir thoroughly so that all of the grains are coated. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Stir through the borage leaves and allow to cook for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the cashews, water, lemon juice and salt in a blender and process until a smooth paste results. Stop the blender and scraping down the sides a few times if necessary. Transfer the contents to a bowl and refrigerate. Rinse out the blender with warm water.

When the borage has cooked for 20 minutes, transfer the contents of the pot to the blender and process in batches until it is completely smooth. Return the blended soup to the stockpot and reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the soup ladled into bowl with a dollop of the cashew cream, garnished with borage flowers.


Tortilla casserole (Inspired by Viva Vegan)

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
150 g mushrooms, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 heaped teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 x 400g tin pinto beans, drained and rinsed
400g fresh tomatoes, chopped (or use a tin)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup water
½ teaspoon smoked salt (or use regular)
6 small corn tortillas (15cm diameter), cut into halves
Large handful of plain corn chips
100g cheezly, grated
Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and salsa picante

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat the oil in a deep sided frying pan over medium heat, add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the garlic for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook until softened. Add the cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika and stir until fragrant then add the corn kernels, pinto beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, water and smoked salt. Allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Spread a thin layer of the sauce in the bottom of a 20cm x 20cm baking dish and layer a couple of tortillas on top. Repeat the layering another 2 times finishing with the sauce on top. Crumble a large handful of corn chips on top followed by grated cheezly. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes. Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and salsa picante.


Sfoof - Lebanese semolina cake with lime syrup (Adapted from World Vegan Feast)

¾ cup raw sugar
¾ cup water
grated zest of 1 lime
juice of 4 limes (about 2/3 cup)
½ cup pastry flour (low gluten)
1½ cups fine semolina
1 teaspoon turmeric
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups raw sugar
1 cup soy milk
zest of 1 lime
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup pistachios, chopped roughly

Place the sugar, water and lime zest in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir through the lime juice thoroughly, then pour the contents into a jug and refrigerate until required.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper and grease lightly with dairy free margarine. Combine the pastry flour, semolina, turmeric, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. With a hand held mixer, beat together the soy milk, sugar and lime zest in a large bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the contents of the small bowl and the oil and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes. Pour the batter into the cake tin and sprinkle the chopped pistachios on top. Bake for 35 minutes on until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 10 minutes, then remove carefully from the tin. Using a bamboo skewer, pierce small holes all over the top of the cake then pour the cooled lime syrup on top.

Simple satisfying soup

There's nothing better than a bowl of soup to get you through a period of ill health. When the man came home from day surgery a couple of weeks ago I wanted to have a pot of soup ready for him as I had a feeling that his appetite would be diminished. I figured if there was a pot of soup around he may be persuaded to try some. I didn't have the time or inclination to look up recipes, instead I pulled vegetables out of the fridge and decided to make a simple soup based on broccoli as it's one of his favourite vegetables.

The soup turned out to be really lovely and the two of us polished it off in a couple of days. As I forgot to take a photo at the time, I had to make it again. It's a very simple recipe which takes about 10 minutes of preparation, 25 minutes of cooking and a few minutes at the end to blend it into a thick smooth delicious soup. Like most of my other blended soups, I included some red lentils for extra protein and to thicken it up.

I wasn't quite sure if the soup would be flavoursome enough initially and stirred some basil pesto into my bowl, honestly it tasted so much better without it. I love it with a shake or two of white pepper and think that's all it really needs. A mild tasting herb like parsley could also be a nice garnish.

Broccoli soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup red lentils
4 cups vegetable stock
2 medium (300g) potatoes, peeled and diced
2 heads (600g) broccoli, stalks and florets roughly chopped
salt and black or white pepper, to taste
fresh parsley chopped, for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a stockpot and fry the onions over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir through the garlic for a minute then add the lentils, stock, potatoes and broccoli. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

Transfer the contents of the pot to a blender and process in batches until smooth. Pour back into the stockpot and reheat gently. Season with additional salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

Chickpea soup with mint and lemon

Recipe bookmarks tend to pile up and get out of control if you're a person like me. I am always adding more to the list and my occasional attempts to cull the older ones that have been hanging around for a while doesn't really seem to work. I guess I am addict when it comes to hoarding recipes!

I bookmarked a chickpea, lemon and mint soup from Green Gourmet Giraffe almost two years ago now. Johanna had made an interesting soup from Stephanie Alexander's cooking bible The Cook's Companion which is a cookbook I was given as a wedding present many years ago. The main reason for bookmarking Johanna's post was to remind me to look this recipe up in my copy as the size of this book and the thousands of recipes within can be rather daunting at times.

With some mint in the fridge that needed using up and a few lemons on my tree that were finally ripe, now was the perfect time to give this a try. I did forget to buy celery that was intended for the soup when I was out shopping and made a few vegetable alerations. Stephanie's method was different to other soups I had made and I didn't really follow her instructions and used my intuition more than anything. As I prefer my soup to be on the thicker side, I decreased the amount of stock which turned out to be a wise decision.      

The only issue I had with the recipe was the amount of lemon that was written in the ingredients, it was listed as the juice of 2 lemons. Lemons come in various shapes and sizes and some are juicer than others. Like Johanna, I only used about one and a half lemons and found this to be on the strong side initially although the addition of the mint and parsley garnishes did a good job of balancing out the flavours. This soup was lovely and creamy and simple to make, it just requires a bit of planning ahead as the chickpeas need to be soaked in advance.

Chickpea soup with mint and lemon (Adapted from The Cook's Companion and Green Gourmet Giraffe)

250g dry chickpeas
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 leeks, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
6 cups vegetable stock
Juice of 1½ lemons (just under half a cup)
½ teaspoon salt
freshly cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Soak the chickpeas in a bowl filled with water overnight or at least 8 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly in a colander.

Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a stockpot and add the coriander and cumin seeds. When the seeds begin to sizzle and smell fragrant, add the leeks, carrot and potato. Cook for 10 minutes until the vegetables have softened, stirring occasionally. Add the chickpeas and vegetable stock, bring to the boil and simmer, covered for 1 - 1½ hours until the chickpeas are soft.

Transfer the contents to a blender and process in batches until smooth. Pour the soup back into the pot and reheat on low. Stir through the lemon juice and seasoning to taste. Ladle into bowls and garnish with mint and parsley.

Thai pumpkin and lentil soup

When it comes to pumpkin, the man and I are in total agreement. The only way we appreciate it is roasted or in a Thai flavoured pumpkin soup. There are so many recipes around for Thai pumpkin soup that are essentially a standard pumpkin soup with curry paste and coconut milk added. I've made soups like this before so I decided to create my own this time with additional ingredients to enhance the Thai flavours.

I had some Thai green chillies and lemongrass in the fridge that needed using up and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Red lentils have been finding their way into a lot of my blended soups recently as I love their thickening quality, the nutritional value is just an added bonus. Our little kaffir lime tree had a couple of leaves stripped off for this purpose and I chose to use some Thai thin soy sauce in place of vegetable stock. The Thai thin soy sauce isn't an essential ingredient, regular soy sauce or vegetable stock could be used in it's place which is how I have written the recipe.

It turned out to be fairly spicy which is exactly how I planned it. The amount of chillies could be reduced or omitted to suit personal tastes. I loved the slight undertone of the kaffir lime and lemongrass in this soup and enjoyed an extra squeeze of lime halfway through my bowl.

Thai pumpkin and lentil soup

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Thai green chillies, sliced finely
3 tablespoon vegan red curry paste (Maesri brand)
1 cup red lentils
4 cups water (or use vegetable stock if not using soy sauce)
1 kg jap pumpkin, cut into chunks
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 stalk lemongrass
3 tablespoons Thai thin soy sauce (or regular soy sauce or omit and use vegetable stock)
165ml tin coconut milk
fresh coriander leaves, for garnish
lime wedges, for serving (optional)

Heat the oil in a stockpot and add the onions. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat until softened then stir through the garlic and chillies for a minute. Add the red curry paste, lentils, water (or stock), pumpkin, and kaffir lime leaves. Trim the end of the lemongrass and remove the outer layer, then pound the stalk gently using the back of a knife so that it releases more flavour into the soup. Add the lemongrass stalk to the pot, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

Discard the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves then transfer the contents of the pot to a blender and process in batches until smooth. Pour the soup back into the pot and place on low heat. Stir through the Thai thin soy sauce, coconut milk and lime juice. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with wedges of lime.

Smoky cauliflower and tofu bacon soup

The weather has been cold enough for weeks yet it's taken me this long to get back into the swing of making soup. There have been heaps of leftovers from dinners recently to satisfy our lunch requirements so there hasn't been any need to cook up a batch of soup, until now.

I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge and looked up a recipe I posted last year for a creamy cauliflower and tofu bacon soup which was delicious. After scanning the ingredient list I wanted to make a few changes so it ended up being a slightly different version. Last time I used some Tofutti better than cream cheese and in hindsight didn't think it was really necessary as blended cauliflower is very creamy on it's own. For this version, I ditched the Tofutti, increased the quantity of nutritional yeast flakes and added some red lentils and smoked paprika. Smoked paprika was something I mentioned in my previous post as being a potential addition so I took my own advice on board!

When I was seasoning the soup at the end, I remembered Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe had used leftover tofu bacon marinade in a pumpkin soup she had made. Unfortunately I recalled this after adding some salt and only used a little as a final touch. Never mind, the rest of that marinade went into some refried beans on another night which gave them a lovely flavour.

Which soup did we like the best? Well, it's difficult to say as this one is fresh in my mind and the others don't have the best memories when it comes to food. This soup seemed just as creamy and the smokiness from the paprika, marinade and tofu bacon melded together wonderfully. I prefer these ingredients over the previous version which means it's the winner for me.


Smoky cauliflower and tofu bacon soup (Adapted from my other recipe)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, diced or 2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red lentils
5 cups vegetable stock
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon left-over tofu bacon marinade (optional, or bump up the quantity of smoked paprika)
8 slices precooked tofu bacon, chopped
fresh parsley, chopped roughly, for garnish

Heat olive oil in a large stockpot and saute the onions until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute then mix through the lentils. Pour in the vegetable stock and add the cauliflower florets. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes until the cauliflower florets and lentils are tender.

Transfer the contents of the pot to a blender and process in batches until very smooth, alternatively use a stick blender to process the soup in the pot. Return the blended soup to the cooking pot and stir in the nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, salt, marinade and 6 slices of chopped tofu bacon. Reheat on a low temperature and season with additional salt (if required) and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat the remaining 2 slices of chopped tofu bacon in the microwave for 30 seconds. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and garnish with tofu bacon, parsley and freshly ground black pepper.

His and hers comfort soups

The man was a little under the weather last weekend so I kindly offered to make him some soup. He was keen for some smoky tomato soup although I managed to talk him out of it as the quality and price of fresh tomatoes at the moment is terrible. My line of questioning mustn't have been clear enough or his responses were marred by his clogged up head because the soup I produced on Saturday was not what he wanted at all. Instead of making his comfort soup, I somehow managed to make my own!

Apart from feeling lousy, I find the most frustrating thing about colds is losing your sense of taste. Food that usually would be palatable becomes bland and unappetising, so I normally make meals loaded with garlic, chillies and spices. My favourite curried lentil soup includes these components and has the added bonus of being a cinch to prepare, with about 10 minutes of initial prep work required and no blending at the end. 

On Sunday, I had to make amends as the man was not impressed with my comfort soup (never mind, son and I were more than happy with it). After further probing, he indicated that he wanted a smooth pureed vegetable soup that you could drink from a mug if desired. His idea of comfort soup = boring soup to me! That's probably why he wanted it so badly as I haven't made a soup like this for such a long time. I loaded it full of vegies and he even agreed to some celery which is something I usually omit from recipes as he isn't a big fan. 

The man was much happier with this soup and has been devouring it for days. I'll keep this soup in mind for next time he is unwell...

Curried red lentil soup (Adapted from Curry & Chilli Cookbook)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 1/2 cups red lentils
6 cups vegetable stock
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and fry the onion over medium heat for 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and mustard seeds fry for another minute. Add the turmeric, curry powder, garam masala, coriander, cumin and chilli powder and cook for a minute then stir through the lentils so they are coated with the spices.

Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 40 minutes until the lentils have broken down completely. Stir through the lemon juice and coriander leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Mixed vegetable soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, chopped
1 onion, diced
4 large cloves garlic, chopped 
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
200g pumpkin, chopped into chunks
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 zucchini, chopped 
6 cups vegetable stock
3 tablespoons fresh parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and fry the leek and onion over medium heat for 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Keep adding the vegetables to the pot as you chop them and then pour in the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

Add the parsley to the pot and process the soup in batches in a blender. Return the blended soup to the pot, reheat and season with salt and pepper.

Smoky tomato and lentil soup

I have been making so many different soups lately! A couple have been tried from Appetite for Reduction, smoky split pea which was lovely and a lentil and rice soup which I didn't enjoy as much. Others that have been popular from blogs are Ashley's curried chickpea soup, Lisa's madras-style red lentil soup and Sarah's smoky chiptole split pea and barley soup which I posted about a while ago. 

With so many soup recipes floating around that I had been choosing for so long it was time to find out if anyone else had a preference for something specific. Well the man definitely had something in mind! All he wanted was a simple tomato soup just like the one I used to make. I wasn't that enthused with his response so to get me a bit more excited he mentioned that it would be nice with smoked paprika. That was exactly what I needed to hear!

The tomato soup I made previously would turn out rather thin which I don't really fancy in a soup. I love how adding legumes to soup can give it some texture so I decided to include some red lentils. This was a great idea as after blending, the soup had a lovely velvety texture and it tasted beautiful. I didn't bother tracking down the old recipe for this and just made it up as I went along.  

Smoky tomato & lentil soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks

4 cloves garlic

1 bay leaf

600g tomatoes, chopped
800g tin diced tomatoes

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup red lentils

1 tablespoon smoked paprika
20 basil leaves, shredded

salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh basil to garnish

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or stockpot, fry the leeks for about 5 minutes until they soften. Stir through the garlic for a minute then add the bay leaf, tomatoes, vegetable stock, lentils, smoked paprika and shredded basil leaves. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 30 minutes until the lentils have broken down. 

Process the soup in batches in a blender or use an immersion blender to process the soup in the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Serve garnished with fresh basil or vegan pesto. 

Creamy cauliflower and tofu bacon soup

Earlier this week, I was excited to find some cauliflowers that were a little over $2 so I bought one and was sorry later that I didn't purchase a second one. It was used up straight away in an old favorite at home, Red and White Cauliflower bake from Vegan Yum Yum. 

A creamy cauliflower soup was something I had been wanting a make for a while and as there was a bit of tofu bacon leftover from the calzones, I thought this would be a perfect finishing touch to the soup. Another cauliflower had to be sourced for the job and unfortunately not at the same price. The soup was made up as I went along and it turned out to be a big hit. The flavour that the tofu bacon brought to it was fantastic and next time a dash of smoked paprika could also be on the cards.

Creamy cauliflower and tofu bacon soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, chopped finely
2 cloves minced garlic
3 cups vegetable stock
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

6 slices tofu bacon

2 tablespoons tofutti cream cheese
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
salt and pepper, to taste

fresh parsley, for garnish

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the leeks until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a minute then mix through vegetable stock and cauliflower florets. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 15-20 minutes until the cauliflower is tender. 

Place leeks, garlic, cauliflower and stock in a blender and process until very smooth. Return to the cooking saucepan, stir though 4 slices of chopped tofu bacon, cream cheese, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper to taste. Allow to heat through.

Microwave the remaining 2 slices of chopped tofu bacon for a minute. Spoon the soup into serving bowls and garnish with tofu bacon, parsley and pepper. 

Recipe error or am I becoming a chilli wuss?

Surely it couldn't be the latter!!! Spicy foods full of chilli have always whetted my appetite although I have been toning it down a bit recently for the sake of others...

I had no intention of writing up a post when I set out to make this Red Lentil Thai Chilli soup from Isa's blog. The recipe stated that it made quite a large volume so I decided to make a half batch as a trial. As I was working out quantities the chilli powder seemed like it was way too much so I decided to halve it and use 2 teaspoons instead of 1 tablespoon. After an initial taste test the soup was still extremely spicy, it was edible for me but I wasn't confident about how it would fare with the others.

What do you think based on the original full recipe? Would you add 2 tablespoons of chilli powder to a soup that only contains 1 litre of stock, 800g of tinned tomatoes and 400ml of coconut milk? Not to mention there are already 2 tablespoons of Thai red curry paste as an additional spicy ingredient. My theory is that tablespoons may have been a typo for teaspoons, although after reading through the comments no-one else seemed to have an issue. Perhaps the chilli powder I purchased from a local Indian spice shop has a lot more heat than the powders available in the US...

The Melbourne weather being so interchangeable has been a fantastic excuse to start the soup season early this year. It's great to have a pot of soup ready for lunch days when there are no left-overs around. I must try this soup again with less chilli (will try 1 teaspoon for a half batch) as the other ingredients (especially a squeeze of lime juice at the end) make it an extremely flavoursome hearty meal.

Soup for Unseasonal Summer Weather

This Melbourne weather is crazy!!! 20C in the middle of summer. As soon as the temperature drops all I want to do is cook soup as it's my favourite lunchtime winter meal. The Northern Hemisphere bloggers have had me drooling over so many delicious looking soup recipes lately so I had to make the most of this cold spell and give one a go.

Legume based soups are always at the top of my list as they are a great source of protein and can take on so many different flavours. I decided to give this Smoky Chipotle Split Pea and Barley Soup a try however being the spice nut that I am, I chopped and changed the ingredient quantities to suit my taste. The soup tasted perfect to me - true hearty spicy comfort in a bowl! My adaptation is below, the only change I would make in the future would be to omit to the pearl barley as I wasn't too keen about the texture of it in this mix. 

Spicy Smoky Chipotle Split Pea and Barley Soup (Adapted from Sarah - The Ordinary Vegetarian)

1/4 cup water

1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp chipotle chilli powder 

1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

8 cups water

3 Massel "Chicken" stock cubes 
1 & 1/2 cups yellow split peas, rinsed and picked over

1/3 cup pearl barley
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tbsp lime juice
Vegan sour cream and coriander leaves

Heat 1/4 cup water in a large pot and saute onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.  Stir in thyme, chipotle chilli powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and bay leaf, and saute for 1 minute stirring constantly.

Add 8 cups of water, stock cubes, and split peas. Turn up to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and partially cover. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

After 1 hour of simmering the peas should be starting to break down a bit. Add in the barley, and carrots and continue simmering for 45 minutes to an hour, until the peas have completely broken down. If the soup starts to thicken too much add extra water 1 cup at a time as needed, maintaining the thickness that you prefer.

When the split peas, barley and carrots are tender, remove from heat. Remove bay leaf and stir in liquid smoke and lime juice. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve hot, topped with a tablespoon of vegan sour cream and coriander leaves.