Chicken & Puy Lentil Soup

This is a quick outline of our chicken and puy lentil soup. I love the texture and nuttiness of puy lentils, and the creaminess of well cooked barley.

~Chicken & Puy Lentil Soup~
1 large chicken carcase or 2 small
salt
water to cover chicken
olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
2 small parsnips, finely chopped
3 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 handfuls of green puy lentils
2 handfuls of pearl barley

Place chicken carcase(s) in a stockpot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and add a good pinch of salt. Allow to simmer gently until meat shreds are soft, then turn off.

Remove carcases and pick off all meat. Shred meat then return it to the stock and discard the bones and any skin. If you want to remove the melted fat, allow the stock to cool then chill in the fridge overnight and skim off the fat.

Heat a sploosh of olive oil in a large heavy based saucepan and sweat onions over lowish heat. When onions are translucent, add the other veges and continue to cook slowly to allow the onions to caramelise. Add back the stock with the puy lentils and barley.

Add more or less water/veges/lentils/barley according to how thick you prefer soup. I like ours quite thick.

Bring soup to the boil and simmer until lentils and barley are soft.

I like to add any extra seasonings, like black pepper, salt, chopped herbs, olive or sesame oil etc to individual bowls when serving.

Mum's Pea & Ham Soup

Finally, mum made this on her last visit, so we could write the recipe down. It's all things winter, thick and delicious. Years ago, before we knew what cholesterol was, we ate it with crunchy fried bread croutons, heaven.


~Mum's Pea & Ham Soup~

1 bacon hock/ ham bone
about 5L water

Cook slowly until the meat falls off the bone. Remove meat, cool liquid and skim fat from the top. Chop meat and return to the stock. Discard any fat/skin and bones.

Add about 2 - 2 1/2 cups green split peas and reheat. Simmer.

Roughly chop and add :
2 medium carrots
2 medium onions
3 medium parsnips

Simmer until peas are soft, then blend till smooth.

Serve with cracked black pepper and thick bread - with butter if you aren't worried about fats! ;)

White Bean Dip, Beetroot Dip

We made these over the weekend - delicious, easy, yum :)


~Rosemary, Lemon & White Bean Dip~
2 cups cooked cannellini beans (or similar)
2 cloves garlic, crushed with salt (or less if you prefer)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teasp rosemary, finely chopped
grated zest of 2 lemons
salt & black pepper

You can use canned beans, but I prefer freshly cooked. Place beans in food processer with garlic and process till fine. Add olive oil while motor is running and keep going until it is smooth.

Stir in rosemary & lemon zest and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I can't remember where this recipe originated -it's very good ;)



~Roast Beetroot Dip~
600g raw beetroot, trimmed and washed
1 clove garlic, crushed with salt
2 tab tahini
6 tab extra virgin olive oil
2 tab fresh mint
2 des spoons red wine vinegar

This is from Moro East by Sam&Sam Clark - the only change was that I roasted the beetroot instead of boiling, because we had roast lamb a few nights ago and we have masses of beetroot in the garden, so it followed that roasting beetroot while the oven was on would be a good thing...

So - take the cooked and cooled beetroot and slip the skins off. Place in the food processer with garlic, tahini and oil and whizz until smooth.

Stir through mint and vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Eat with bread or flatbread and enjoy the earthy richness. This would be delicious with freshly fried haloumi and lemon juice.

Ginger Garlic Red Lentil Soup

We tried this recipe recently onehttp://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/gingergarlicsoup/ for a Friday night quickie. I made a few minor changes, as per below :

~Ginger Garlic Red Lentil Soup~
2 cups red lentils
1.75 l vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and mashed
5 cm piece of ginger, grated
2 carrots, grated
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 medium sliced onion
1/2 cup sliced scallions, green tops as well
sploosh olive oil
2 tspn ground cumin
2 tspn ground coriander
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
juice of 1 lemon
salt and black pepper

Wash the lentils, and add to vegetable stock, bay leaves, garlic and ginger in a large pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the carrots and tomatoes and simmer until the soup thickens to the consistency you like (mine was around 20 minutes).

Heat the olive oil in a frypan and sauté the onions and scallions until translucent. Add the spices and sauté a further minute. Remove the bay leaves from the soup and add the onion mixture with the lemon juice. Serve and add salt and pepper to taste.

Lovely and fragrant, super quick to prepare, nourishing, cheap, easy ingredients - but eating this reminded me that I'm not so keen on the texture of cooked red lentils. Somehow they seem a bit like cardboard-ish, and I forget that between times. Maybe that is the quality of the lentils or my ignorant cooking? I'd make this again though - the ginger/garlic was lovely on a winter night, and if you increased the heat it would be a very good soup for headcold days.

Boston Baked Beans

This recipe may have come from a Super Food Ideas mag years ago, but I'm not sure at all. I love baked beans. Comfort food, yum scrum.


~Boston Baked Beans~

350g dried haricot/cannellini beans, washed and soaked overnight
2 onions, chopped
250g bacon or ham, chopped
2 tab treacle
2 tab tomato paste
2 tab white wine vinegar
1 tab Keens mustard powder
1 tab brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed with salt
1/2 tab Worcestershire sauce
few whole cloves
black pepper
fresh parsley, finely chopped

Drain beans, place in large pan, cover with cold water and bring to boil. Simmer about 30 min. Drain and reserve liquid.

Mix beans, onions and bacon/ham in a large casserole dish.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together, plus about 2 cups of reserved bean liquid, and pour over bean mix.

Cover and bake in a slow oven (150 degrees) for 4-7 hours, depending on the beans used. Test to see when they are soft and done.

Serve sprinkled with fresh parsley.

You can use any beans you want really, just need to adjust cooking times to suit. The cooked beans can be frozen for reheating later as a quick meal with wholemeal bread and salad.