Soups and stews please

[zapata99]

I like this thread already

 

[DamePeggy]

Made some delicious Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup tonight...

To make enough for about four good portions:

Sweat 1 large/2 small chopped onions with a clove or two of garlic according to your taste in a little virgin olive oil.

Add 3 or 4 chopped carrots, a chopped stick of celery, a diced sweet potato, a good teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder [or veg stock cube] along with some ground black pepper and a pinch of chilli powder. If my partner isn't watching, I also add a handful of red lentils!

Add about a pint-and-a-half of water, bring to the boil and then simmer for around an hour until everything is cooked through.

Blitz to preferred consistency, adding a little more water if too thick - serve with a swirl of cream or a little grated cheese.

Enjoy!

 

[DamePeggy]

i just went out and brought a new blender time to get some indigence what soup to make lol never done a homemade soup.

Making soup is easy, fun and good for you! Try "Fridge Bottom Soup" to use up leftovers of all sorts of vegetables - some good stock and plenty of herbs or seasoning! Enjoy!

 

[Okjilly67]

Mushroom soup. In a saucepan melt a good bit of butter sweat down a medium diced white onion and a couple of garlic cloves, meanwhile slice a punnet of mushrooms, and make up about litre of stock, I usually use an organic chicken stock cube. Add all of these to the saucepan salt and plenty of pepper, I also like to add a good pinch of tarragon lovely with mushrooms. Cook this at a simmer for about 20 minutes, then whizz up with a blender. When serving add a good glug of cream. Scrummy !! )

 

[rowan]

Making soup is easy, fun and good for you! Try "Fridge Bottom Soup" to use up leftovers of all sorts of vegetables - some good stock and plenty of herbs or seasoning! Enjoy!

I do something similar and it turns out gorgeous! Only problem is if it's especially nice i can never remember exactly what went in it so I can't make the same one again

Good thread

 

[Lancelot J]

Want to makes your plain old beef stews or any 'ho-hum' dish a little more 'exotic'?
Add one or two Star Anise or one cinnamon stick.
Just remember to take them out before you serve.
I put mine in one of those perforated tea holders you drop in the teapot and drop it in the pan.
Experiment with your spices to get 'just the right taste'.

 

[Amanda61]

@Kat100 coincidentally I've just popped in the oven an aubergine variation ... fry chopped onion, garlic & a bay leaf with cumin seeds, cinnamon & chilli flakes. Add (lamb or beef) mince and the flesh of an aubergine and chopped courgette, stir a bit, add chopped tomatoes, bit of soy sauce (opt) or cider vinegar, cover & simmer 20 mins. Uncover & reduce to thicken. Fill aubergine shells & bake 30 mins. Top with your choice of cheese & bake a bit more. I'm steaming some broccoli & leek to go with it. The aubergine flesh has disappeared with all that cooking!
NB isn't yours a sort of tagine without the fruit? I luuuuurve tagine, fruitless though it has to be.

I am going to try that recipe DeejayR Looks delicious. I would maybe put the aubergine flesh in 10 mins before baking in oven.

 

[Amanda61]

Made some delicious Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup tonight...

To make enough for about four good portions:

Sweat 1 large/2 small chopped onions with a clove or two of garlic according to your taste in a little virgin olive oil.

Add 3 or 4 chopped carrots, a chopped stick of celery, a diced sweet potato, a good teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder [or veg stock cube] along with some ground black pepper and a pinch of chilli powder. If my partner isn't watching, I also add a handful of red lentils!

Add about a pint-and-a-half of water, bring to the boil and then simmer for around an hour until everything is cooked through.

Blitz to preferred consistency, adding a little more water if too thick - serve with a swirl of cream or a little grated cheese.

Enjoy!

I love soups and i will definitely be making this one. Thanks for sharing DamePeggy

 

[Amanda61]

Last night i made Mulligatawny soup. very enjoyable and very filling!
Serves 4
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 roughly chopped red onion
1 peeled and roughly chopped carrot
1 deseeded and roughly chopped red pepper
6 peeled and finely sliced cloves of garlic
A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped
A small bunch of fresh coriander- with stalks finely chopped and leaves picked then chopped
1 finely deseeded red chilli ~ i used a tsp pf chilli flakes
2 tbsp of madras curry powder~ i used medium curry powder and it was hot enough for me
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 coarse minced beef
2 tins of quality plum tomatoes ~ i used chopped tomatoes
2 cups of beef stock ~ about 400ml
salt and freshly ground black pepper
full fat yoghurt to serve~ i used greek yoghurt
Method
1, Place a large pot on a medium heat. Pour in a good measure of olive oil and add carrot,onion,pepper,ginger,garlic,coriander stalks,and chilli
cook gently for about 10 minutes until soft and fragrant.
2, Stir in curry powder and tomato puree and cook for another 2 minutes.
3, Add the beef( i fried my beef seperately then added it) stock, and tinned tomatoes, and salt and black pepper.
4,Break up your tomatoes if using plum and also mince if you are putting in raw at this stage with a wooden spoon.
5, Bring it all to the boil and gently simmer for 1 /30 minutes.
6, Serve in warmed up bowls with a dollop of yoghurt and coriander leaves.

 

[mrschill]

my favorate soup has to be what we call potnip soup, its sweet potato, parsnips, veg stock and basil. cook it until the veg is soft and then blitz it ...... add a bit of natural yougurt if you like it creamy xxx

 

[dunelm]

Bitter melon is supposed to be good for lowering blood sugars: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/natural-therapies/bitter-melon.html. We got some today (sometimes called bitter gourd or karela) and my daughter in law who is Thai taught me to make a delicious soup with it. If you get a large Bitter melon you may want to prepare the whole thing, bag into potions and freeze.

Here is her recipe for pickled cabbage soup with bitter melon
Depending upon how much you want to make you will need the following:
a pint or two of water
1 clove garlic
some pork, chopped into cubes
chunk of the bitter melon
packet of Pickled Sour Musard (from Chinese/Asian supermarket) - [you can make without or substitute with some chopped cabbage and a dash of rice wine/ vinegar of some sort]
Soy sauce

1. Bring water to boil and then to a bare simmer. crush the garlic and drop into water in one piece. Now add cubes of pork.

2. Prepare your bitter melon. Cut off a chunk if it's a big one or grab a couple of small ones. split, scrape out seeds and pulp with a spoon and cut into chunks. Add it to the pork in the pot.

3. Prepare the Sour mustard. Open the packet and drain the liquid - discard or add to pot for a fuller flavour.
Chop up the sour mustard and add to pot.

4. Leave on a bare simmer for at least 30 minutes - the longer you leave it the better it gets. Now add a dash of soy sauce to taste and serve.

 

[Celeriac]

Made Whatsinthefridge soup for lunch this week

Remains of a head of organic celery (about four stalks)
1 medium organic onion, white or red
400g tin organic chopped tomatoes
1 Kallo organic tomato and herb stock cube
200g bag of organic young spinach washed and picked over
100g bag organic curly kale, ditto
30g bag organic sorrel, ditto
2 small cloves organic garlic, minced
Small squeeze La Phare du Cap Bon harissa
Small quantity fresh herbs e.g. parsley, chives, basil, coriander, tarragon, mint
Extra Virgin organic olive oil

Dice onion, celery (reserve leaves) and soften in oil. When soft, add garlic and harissa. Add tomatoes, use can to dissolve stock cube with somewhat cooled boiled water to get all the tomato juice. Add another can of water (you may need more later). I pick stalks off sorrel, parsley as I pick over leaves, chucking leaves into pan which is on medium heat, along with celery leaves. Once all the greenery is in the pan and wilted, it can be liquidised, reheated and served with a swirl of creme fraiche or double cream or sour cream or fromage frais or even coconut cream.

Depends what you have in the fridge. It's basically a base (onions, celery, any other firmer veg) plus tomatoes, plus herbs/spices plus greenery.

Made two full cereal bowls of soup

 

[Malsange]

I am making "Moroccan Pork Casserole"

• 1 lb diced tender pork (500g)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 1⁄2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground paprika
• 1 teaspoon asian sweet chili sauce
• 8 ounces winter squash, thinly sliced,250 g (pumpkin)
• 4 ounces spinach leaves, shredded roughly (100g)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro(optional) or chives

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
2. Heat oil in a large skillet and stir-fry the diced pork in two batches until browned.
3. Add ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin and paprika, and stir fry a further minute to cook the spices.
4. Add chili sauce, squash, spinach, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste), and chicken stock, and mix well.
5. Transfer contents of skillet to a casserole dish, cover tightly and cook in the oven for 45 minutes.
6. Check once or twice during cooking that the liquid has not evaporated, and add a little more stock if necessary.
7. When the meat and squash are tender, stir through the fresh cilantro and serve with rice or other like mashed cauliflower.

 

[Diane_Jess]

Hi, I make a butternut squash, tomato and celery soup that's delicious. You need one squash, head of celery and two tins chopped tomatoes. I use veggie stock cubes, you can also add garlic if liked.

 

[chris2512]

I love this thread! Some great ideas.

 

[bluejeans98]

I made a butternut squash soup last week and put half a teaspoon of crushed chillies in for a bit of heat, over did it as it was too warm for my liking

Should have blitzed as few tomatoes into it, Or a glug of cream. Both help to reduce the burn. Third option is sugar. But as we are all diabetics that's not really one to do.

 

[chefdee]

Just found this thread I am a soup fiend especially at this time of year, I have Butternut and Sweet Potato on the hob at the minute, first time I've had Sweet Potato since testing my blood so will be interesting to see what it does, since I no longer use flour I've kept it simple......fry off a chopped onion with some garlic salt, add a couple of sweet potatoes and a butternut squash cover with water add a veggie stock cube, when the veg is soft whizz it with a hand blender and adjust seasoning

 

[Calle2015]

Here is my family's favourite, Broccolli and cheese soup. Even people who don't like Broccolli like it. You can easily double the recipe to make more.

Fry an onion and some mixed herbs in butter ( I buy pre chopped)
Add a broccoli head, hacked or ripped into pieces.
Add stock (melt a stock cube into boiling water) to cover the broccoli.
Bring to the boil, turn down and simmer till the broccoli is soft.
Liquidise. (Take care when liquidising hot things, you might want to let it cool first and heat it back up afterwards)
Add grated cheese to taste, for us it is a 25g slice per person in the soup, then a slice on top of the soup. We use extra mature so tend to use less as it packs in more flavour.
Season to taste. Lots of pepper is nice.

I use a cuisinart soup maker.
For stock I use chicken, but marmite, veggie or other stock will add a different dimension.
It is very filling when served with a baked part baked baguette and is easily a meal in itself.

 

[amanda19640]

Lamb stew pot

Pkt minced lamb
Mixed herbs
Veg stock pot
Tarrogan & lemon stock pot
2 x lamb oxo cubes
Tin chopped tomatoes
Celeriac cubed
1 carrot
1 courgette cubed
3 shallots
1 sweet potato cubed
Small amount of water
Mix everything together in a casserole dish put lid on and put in oven 160 for 3 hrs and enjoy.

 

[chefdee]

I was given a slow cooker for Christmas I don't know how I lived without it and for low carb meals it's a Godsend, and not for just soups and stews , I've cooked joints of Pork and Veg, Chicken fillets with Veg, Italian chicken it's endless, I would so recommend Slow cooking to everybody