I do love soup for lunch, and this particular one is a meal in itself! If you don't have a soup maker, cook the vegetables and stock on the stove, and then either use a stick blender or, indeed, leave them unpureed!
Amounts are totally variable!
Frozen chopped onion (or 1 fresh onion, peeled and chopped)
Frozen vegetable mix
Stock cube
Water
Seasoning to taste
Put all the above in the soup maker and set to pureed soup.*
When cooked, transfer to a saucepan and add:
Chinese quick-cook noodles (ramen noodles are lovely, but you might not need to flavour sachet!)
Frozen peas
I had some frozen beans that wanted using
Frozen "steam veg" pack from Iceland with quinoa and beans
Or whatever you fancy! Bring to the boil and simmer until noodles are cooked - 2-3 minutes.
* I very often stop right there and just add a tin of sweetcorn for a bit of mouthfeel.
This was a little too salty for my taste, but not too bad. Maybe the Stock Pot was a mistake....
2 large onions, chopped (mine were not as chopped as I should have liked, as I was going to do them in my mini food processor, and it was totally discharged)
A little sunflower or other vegetable oil
1 Stock Pot (I used beef, as we were having it with Cornish pasties, but chicken or veggie would work, it depends what you want to eat it with)
1-2 tsp plain flour (use cornflour or a gluten-free variety if you need to)
1/4 cup cold water and 1/2-2/3 cup boiling water
Seasoning to taste - I used a bit of vinegar and some black pepper. I had salted the onions, but wished I hadn't!
Put a heavy-based pan on the stove and let heat up, and add the cooking oil after a few minutes. Then put in the chopped onions, stir, and turn the heat as low as it will go. I think I should maybe have used a different burner, as mine caught slightly rather than caramelised nicely. Cover, and leave to cook for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then stir in the Stock Pot (if you are using a cube, dilute it in the boiling water). Put the flour in a mug and add the cold water (quantities need not be exact), and stir, then stir this through the onions, and finally add the boiling water. Now season to taste, and then leave on a low heat, uncovered for a further 20-30 minutes until it has reduced and is lovely and thick!
I was making chips in my air fryer, and thought afterwards I could have turned this into a curry sauce by adding a spoonful of curry powder to the oil before anything else, and then using a stick blender on it at the end. Next time, maybe.
This recipe is totally not original - all credit must go to Max Miller of Tasting History. His recipe is also in his eponymous cookery book, which you should absolutely all buy (as well as following his YouTube channel if you like food and history, and the history of food). Anyway, the first time I made it, I followed Max's recipe exactly, except that I used cider vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar he recommends, and I only made half-quantities, in case we didn't like it. This time, however, I wanted to make a litre to take away on our forthcoming holiday (and yes, do please follow on my travelblog!), but, needless to say, Lidl was out of frozen raspberries and I only had about 200g of them in my freezer. I use frozen, by the way, as they are very much cheaper than fresh, and also render a lot of juice when they thaw, adding to the deliciousness of the drink.So, anyway:
About 700--750 g frozen red fruit of various kinds (I used a 500g pack of "summer fruit" and c 200 g raspberries)
500 ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. Whichever you use, get the clear kind, not the one with the "mother" in it.
450 g granulated sugar
Put the fruit into a large saucepan and allow to thaw. Pour over the vinegar and mash it very thoroughly - you don't want any whole berries left. Leave for at least 12 hours, and up to 24 hours.
Bring the vinegar and fruit mix to the boil, and then pass it through a sieve or a mouli to extract as much juice as you possibly can from the fruit.
Now add the sugar, bring it back to the boil, and simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool, then bottle. Will keep awhile in the fridge.
Dilute to taste with still or sparkling water - and maybe, as Max suggests, add some gin! Delicious. I expect one could get away with slightly less sugar, but it's still lovely.
I broccoli stem (you can add some florets if you like, but I didn't)
2 cloves garlic
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Seasoning to taste - I used pepper, mixed herbs and a teaspoonful of vinegar - the stock cube meant it didn't need salt.
Soak the chickpeas in boiling water for at least an hour, ideally more. Then drain and rinse, and put in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot with the stock cube and cold water and cook on high for 12 minutes, allowing it to come down from pressure at room temperature. You can, of course, boil the chickpeas on the stove, but that will take at least 45 minutes to an hour, Or, of course, you could use a large tin.
In the meantime, chop the onion and sweat in the oil for a few minutes while you peel and chop the rest of the vegetables. Add them to the pot, and stir, allowing them to sweat a bit. Now take about 1/3 of the chickpeas and some of their cooking water and blitz until smooth. Add this to the pot, plus the tinned tomatoes and as much of the rest of the chickpea liquid as you need to rinse out the tin of tomatoes. If you are using tinned chickpeas, use cold water for this, unless you actively like aquafaba, which I don't!
Season to taste, and then bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. This will serve 3 or 4, especially if you add rice or quinoa or similar. I used quinoa to add more protein.
I think, were I to make it again, I'd use a small tin of chickpeas to blitz up and thicken it, as I didn't think there were quite enough chickpeas left. As I have a lot of the stew left over, I'll add a small tin to it before we have it again.
I don't really know what to call this; we had some cold turkey left over from the Church Christmas dinner, and I thought this would be a good way of using the remains. It was. It served both of us, and the photo shows what was left over, which we will bulk out with more veg.
I onion
1 quantity butternut squash (about 200g?)
1/3 large pack mushrooms
1 packet pre-cooked rice (I used mexed pepper rice from Lidl)
Quantity cold turkey or chicken
About 50-60 ml chicken stock - I used liquid stock)
Seasoning to taste
Peel and chop the onion and sweat in a little oil or butter, add the peeled and chopped aquash and let cook, covered, for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped mushrooms, and let cook a few more minutes. Now add the packet of rice, the chopped poultry and the stock - just enough to moisten, you don't want it swimming in it. Season. Let cook for a couple of minutes until boiling hot.
You can, of course, swap out the veg, or add more. Doesn't have to be the same twice! And if you had leftover red meat, it might work too, with the appropriate stock. Or use tofu or kegumes and vegetable stock to make it plant-based... The possibilities are endless!
Three nights ago, I made stuffed spaghetti squash for supper (link). There was about half left over, so tonight I decided to make it into a kind of meatloaf. Only not, because it has no meat in it!
I whisked up two eggs with some seasoning - the stuffing was extremely good, but I thought lacked salt, and might have been even nicer with a bit of spice in it. Then I put the stuffing into a large bowl, and poured over the eggs. Using my hands, I mixed it all together, then put it into a loaf tin and topped with grated cheese (because everything is better with cheese on the top, right?)
, and put it in the oven at gas 5 for about 40 minutes. I served this with a rich tomato sauce (link).
It wasn't quite as set as I'd hoped, but it really was delicious.
Would have happily served 3 - we had really rather a greedy amount each!
You can't often get spaghetti squash in this country, but I was delighted to be able to buy one in Germany or Austria (forget which) during our recent holiday (link).
So last night I rootled around on the Interwebs to see if I could find out what people liked doing with it, and this was the result.
1 small spaghetti squash, halved and seeds removed
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
A few mushrooms, sliced
1 packet pre-cooked quinoa (I used Jamie Oliver's, which had wheat and other things in it, but plain quinoa would be very good, too. And you can always cook your own, if you prefer)
1/2 pack pre-prepared microwaveable vegetables (I had eaten half the pack last night, but as it was only me, the whole packet was too much!)
1/2 pack halloumi cheese, diced (optional).
Spray the halved squash with a little oil, and place cut side down on a baking tray. Put in a hot oven - Mark 6, 200 C (180 fan, 400 F), for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the onion and carrot, and crush the garlic. Put into a heavy-based pan with a little more oil on a medium heat, and leave to cook down for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Then add the mushrooms, and allow to cook for a few minutes before adding the quinoa and microwaveable veg. Stir thoroughly and season to taste.
When the squash is cooked, scrape the flesh with a fork - it should come out rather like spaghetti, but in my case it was more like angel-hair pasta, but hey!
Mix that, and the diced halloumi (if using), into the vegetable mix, and pile the skins full of this.
There will undoubtedly be a shedload left over, but you can use that in all sorts of ways. Put the filled skins back into the oven for 10-15 minutes and then serve at once. It was delicious, but could have used a touch more salt, and possibly a touch of chilli or similar spice.
So yesterday I made a sauce for pasta using a tin of chopped tomato with chili, and another tin of chopped tomato with onion and garlic, which I tossed into a pan with half a tin of water (rinsed out both tins), and left it to get on with it. But it was rather liquid, so to thicken it I got out a small tin of red kidney beans which I blended with a stick blender and stirred in. Seasoned, the sauce was delicious with Schwabian Maultasche, but we only wanted about half of it.
So tonight......
1/2 cup cannelini beans, soaked for one hour in boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube
1 very large onion (or two small ones)
1 red pepper
1 chili pepper
1 garlic clove
1 pack unsmoked lardons
The end of a punnet of mushrooms
1/2 quantity of tomato sauce, see introduction
Put the beans into a pressure cooker with 1/2 the onion, 1/2 the pepper, the chili, the garlic and the stock cube. Leave the onion and pepper whole; I did cut the chili in half and removed the seeds, but you don't have to. Cover with water, and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before releasing pressure, and ideally let it release pressure naturally.
Chop the other half of the onions and pepper, and fry them up in a heavy-based pan with the lardons and mushrooms. Add the tomato sauce. Remove the onion, pepper and chili (and garlic if you can get it) from the pressure cooker, and blend with a tablespoonful of stock. Add this to the casserole. Stir well and check the seasoning, and let simmer for about 1/2 an hour. Serve with crusty bread and butter.
This has worked, quite beautifully! The soap, which we last saw in their moulds drying off in the airing-cup
board, hardened far more quickly than I thought it would, and I was able to turn it out yesterday. Meanwhile, I tried using one of the washballs, and found it delightful, so decided to make some more as I had a bit of time. They are currently hardening in the airing-cupboard (the original 5 are on the same plate, to make life easier!).
Then this morning I decided the moulded soap was hard enough to cut up, and, behold - 16 bars of soap flecked with lavender and/or rose-petals.
These can sit on the corridor cupboard to dry for a few more days, and next week I will wrap and label them, all ready to be given away!
As I still have a drawerful of ends-of-moulds and so on waiting to be used, I think I will use them up in these sorts of bars before making any fresh!
Those of you who know me well will know that I have been making my own soap for many, many years. It never ceases to amaze me how drain cleaner and cooking-fat can be turned into the most lush and lavish soap - I almost never wash my face with anything else.
However, this also means that I have a drawer-ful of bits of soap - mostly the ends of moulds that aren't nice enough to give away. We use these in our bathroom, but obviously a bar lasts some time, and the drawer was getting fuller and fuller.
But the other day, I came across this video on YouTube.
And that gave me some ideas. I started by making a few balls as proof of concept,
but then it occurred to me that one could make some extremely nice soap by melting down existing bars with rosewater or orange flower water, and maybe adding some ground-up flowers or herbs.
You start by grating your soap, 2 or 3 bars at a time,
then put in a bowl with your flowers, if using (I used lavender and rose-petals in the first lot, and just rose petals in the second lot. You moisten this with rose-water, or orange-flower water, and stir vigorously. Now at this stage you can absolutely form the resulting squidge into balls and let them harden off, as Sally does in the video, but I chose to melt the soap down. This is done in the microwave, a minute at a time, stirring vigorously between bursts. When it has gone fairly liquid and looks absolutely revolting,
pour into moulds (I used silicone loaf tins for this, to distinguish from the empty water-bottles I usually use), cover with cling-film or whatever, and put in a warm place to harden off.
When they are hard, probably in three or four days (although they'll have to come out of the airing-cupboard before then as it'll be wanted for clean laundry!), I'll unmould them, and probably slice them up a few days later.
If they are a success, I'll be using up all my ends before I even think about making more goats' milk and/or lavender and/or oat milk soap! I'll update on the results in Part 2.
Update: For Easter Day, I boiled up yellow onion skins the day before and left them to sit overnight, then boiled our breakfast eggs in them this morning, with this result:
In German supermarkets, they sell boxes of six or ten hard-boiled eggs, dyed pretty colours, all year round, and I often buy them, both for us to eat at lunchtime and to take home for my mother, who likes them.
However, we are not in Germany, and won't be going for another month, and it is Eastertide. I have vague memories of reading that one could dye eggs with natural ingredients, and then a picture form this post popped up in my Facebook feed. So I had a couple of experiments.
WARNING: The eggs, while perfectly edible, are horrendously hard - I still haven't quite perfected them. The ones you buy in Germany are hard-boiled, of course, but not to the extent that they get a black ring round the yolk, But I think it's probably difficult not to when making them at home.
The basic recipe is very simple. In a stainless-steel saucepan you put your dyestuff of choice (I used firstly 1/2 packet of frozen blueberries, and then secondly the skins of 5 or 6 red onions), and a large spoonful of vinegar. Fill the saucepan with water, bring to the boil, and simmer for 20-30 minutes (don't let the saucepan boil dry, which I nearly did!). If necessary, top up with cold water and bring to the boil again. Let it cool, strain out all the solids, and then add your eggs - as many as you can spare, or as can comfortably fill the saucepan, bring back to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, then let them cool in the liquid. If they aren't coloured enough, let them soak a little longer. Remove from the water and admire! When cold, polish with olive oil.
This was my first attempt, with blueberries:
and the next day's, with red onion skins:
Of course, the colours will vary according to whether you use white eggs (not so easy to get here, but Lidl does sometimes have them) or brown. I think for Easter Day I'll use yellow onion skins (maybe make the dye bath the night before) and then just boil the eggs as normal for Easter morning breakfast. We shall see....
I rather think this is one of those unrepeatable dishes, but I had half a trout and half a pack of (packet) hollandaise sauce, and didn't fancy a fish pie, so improvised. But the basic idea could work for all sorts of things.... This served 2
For the rice:
c 1 tbs cooking oil
a little salt
1 tsp Pilau seasoning (bought in Nour, Brixton)
1/2 cup (125 ml) long-grain white rice (I used Basmati, but whatever you like)
1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
Hot the cooking oil, then stir in the salt and spices. Add the rice and stir thoroughly. Add the boiling water, stir again, then cover and reduce the heat to as low as possible for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let stand for another 5 minutes.
Meanwhile
Another tbs cooking oil
Various vegetables, diced. I used:
A slice of butternut squash
1/2 yellow pepper
1 medium courgette
1 small pak choi
A sloosh garlic paste
A few drops of sriracha
1 tsp Dunns River All-purpose seasoning
1/2 tsp each vegetable and fish seasoning (these are from Germany, but any similar ones will do)
Heat the oil, then stir-fry the vegetables for at least 5 minutes. I then added the cooked trout and Hollandaise sauce and made sure it was heated through, but you could use any fish, or perhaps cooked sausages, cut into chunks, and if you don't have any sauce, then about 100 ml water, or just let the vegetables moisten it all - you don't have to use my choice of veg, but a range of different colours is always good. If you wanted it veggie or vegan, you could add peas or beans and sweetcorn to balance out the proteins.
I've put sausages in quotes because honestly, I think it would be easier to form them into patties or burgers, but whatever. I thought this would feed 2, but it was so filling we both left half to live to fight another day!
I adapted this recipe from one I saw on Facebook or YouTube or somewhere - really can't remember where. I happen to have the most enormous courgette you ever did see, so cut a chunk off that to use.
1 medium courgette, or a chunk off a large one
1 medium potato
1 medium carrot,
1 egg
2-4 tablespoonsful gram flour
1/2 packet halloumi cheese
Peel and grate all the vegetables (no need to peel the courgette unless the peel is a bit tough), squeezing as much liquid as you can out of the courgette and potato. Dice the cheese, add about 2 tbs gram flour (aka besan or chickpea flour), season, and mix thoroughly. Add the egg and mix until it holds together, then with very clean hands, form into sausage - or patty - shapes and put on a floured board. Sprinkle with more flour and rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes or so. Fry in a little oil in a covered pan for about 8 minutes each side. I served this with a rich tomato sauce and green beans.
The original recipe used oatmeal, which might have been better for absorbing moisture, and also grated cheese that would have melted and bound the whole thing together, and I think, if I make them again (which I expect I shall), I might use grated cheese. But the gram flour does add such a lovely texture!
I do love watermelon at this time of year, and tend to buy whole ones as being less extravagant than the boxes of chunks you can buy. Okay, someone has to cut it up, but that's not difficult. But, of course, you end up with boxes full of watermelon chunks in the fridge, and while it's a refreshing dessert, or a delicious salad with feta, but....
And I had run out of "yelm", and although I had the lemons to make more, I didn't have any mint. While plain yelm is delicious, I am also not averse to experimenting. I only made a small amount, to see if it worked.
Rind and juice of 2 lemons
About 300 ml watermelon juice (fill a blender goblet and see how much it makes. Drink whatever is left over!)
25 g citric acid
250 g sugar
About 450 ml boiling water, maybe 500 ml.
Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool for awhile, then strain and bottle. Keep in the fridge. Dilute to taste, either with plain or sparkling water, ideally chilled!
This is absolutely lush, and well worth the time it takes!
2 tsp cooking oil
1 large onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tin tomatoes (ideally tinned cherry tomatoes, if you can get them)
1/2 tub soft cheese, ideally garlic and herb
Seasoning to taste - I find it doesn't need salt, just pepper.
Place the oil in a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently. Peel the onion, and chop it as finely as you are able. Put the chopped onion into the saucepan and stir well to coat.
Let them cook gently to soften and go translucent. Meanwhile peel the garlic, and either chop, crush or grate it - I always use a crusher, but I know other people have other ways. Add this to the onion and oil, and again, allow to cook gently for a few minutes. Now add the tinned tomatoes and about 1/3 tin of water. Stir thoroughly and bring to a simmer. Cover, and let it simmer for about 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then add the half-tub of cream cheese and stir thoroughly to mix. Delicious with pasta, either as is, or as a pasta bake. I also made a roast vegetable bake with it earlier in the week, which was lush!
