Posts Tagged ‘soup’

Parsnip and ginger soup

April 1, 2023

Two weeks ago I picked up a parsnip from Lincoln farmers market. What to do with it?

The following day I roasted a small portion with the Sunday dinner. What remained was saved for soup.

Today, I got around to making soup. An adaptation of Jamie Oliver parsnip and ginger soup.

ingredients

– parsnip
– 2 small carrots

– stick of celery

– medium onion

– a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger

– clove of garlic

– smooth peanut butter

– olive oil

– stock

to make the stock

Add to a mug boulin power, add small quantity of boiling water, stir with fork.

Left over from Turkish red pepper carrots and lentil soup from a couple of days ago. Simmered for a few minutes, drain into a mug, left over veg discard to compost heap.

Frying pan, swill out with boiling water into the pot.


to make the soup

Peel and roughly slice the carrots. Slice the celery. Peel and roughly chop the onions, parsnips and ginger Peel and slice the garlic.

Put a large frying pan on a medium heat and add a splosh of olive oil. Add the chopped and sliced vegetables and mix together with a wooden spoon Cook for around 10 minute until the carrots have softened but are still holding their shape, and the onion is lightly golden.

Add to sauce pan, add stock, add more water if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, leave to simmer for an hour or more on low heat. Stir occasionally

Pour soup into bowls. Spoon out with a spoon the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with a couple of spring onions.

Turkish carrot pepper and lentil soup

March 29, 2023

ingredients

– two small onions
– two red peppers
– carrots
– garlic clove
–  paprika
– cumin
– red lentils
– bulghur wheat
–  flaked almonds
– lemon
– cayenne pepper
– sprig of fresh mint

method

Peel and slice the onion. Deseed and slice the peppers. Peel and roughly chop the carrots.
Slash of oil in a large pan and gently fry them together for 10 mins, until starting to soften.
Peel and chop the garlic.
Add the garlic, paprika, cumin, lentils, and bulghur to the pan, and cook for a further 2 mins.
Bring water to the boil in a kettle.
Add boiling hot water. Bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Cook gently for several minutes, until everything is cooked and softened.
Empty into a medium size saucepan.
Wash frying pan out twice with boiling hot water, empty into the pot.
Bring the pot to the boil and leave to simmer for an hour or so.
Sample and check for seasoning.

.When soup ready to serve, slice a spring of fresh mint, toast fakes of almond with a pinch of salt in a small hot fry pan.

Derve and garnish with the toasted almonds and some freshly chopped mint leaves.

thoughts

Tasty.

I sampled part way through, a little weak and watery. I turned up the heat slightly to lose some of the water.

An improvement would be to use stock instead of water.

Soup was poured out of the pot, vegetables spooned out.

What to do with vegetables left in the pot? Compost heap or stock for another soup?

Little Tree celery and green apple soup

February 21, 2023

Soup was not as good as last week.

Little Tree

February 17, 2023

Book shop cum coffee shop located behind the Acropolis Museum.

Excellent celery and green apple soup.

Spicy leak potato parsnips pear soup

January 23, 2023

ingredients

  • leek
  • celery stick
  • medium potato
  • parsnips
  • 1 large or 2 smaller pears
  • garlic clove
  • ginger
  • bunch of rosemary
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • walnuts

method

Trim and slice the leek. Roughly dice the celery.

Splash of oil in a large pan and cook the leek and celery gently for 10 mins, until starting to soften.

Meanwhile, peel the potato, parsnips and pear and chop them into rough 2cm pieces. Peel and roughly chop the garlic and half the ginger. Strip the leaves from 2 large rosemary stalks and finely chop them; you want about 1 tbsp of chopped leaves in total.

Add the potato, parsnips and pear to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger and rosemary, along with the cumin and garam masala. Cook gently for 2 mins, making sure the spices don’t catch and burn.

Add water, bring to a simmer, and season with salt and pepper.

Pour contents into a sauceapn. Wash pan out with boiling water, add to the saucepan. Add more water if needed. Leave to simmer for a couple of hours.

Season if need be with salt and pepper.

Ladle out into bowls. Add a slosh of olive oil. Season if needed with salt and pepper. Garnish with broken walnut pieces.

thoughts

Wonderful Middle Eastern aroma as the soup was simmering.

As I prepared, I was drinking an Americano. Erm, thought I, a slosh of Campari and Cocchi sweet vermouth.

Soup was spicy and sweet. A strange combination. Was it sweet due to the parsnips, or sweet due to the Cocchi sweet vermouth?

What is left, I will chill, then later, add a red onion, celery, water (possibly stock), simmer for a couple of hours. Anything then left, can be used as stock.

Chicken soup

December 31, 2022

In a large pot

– chicken carcass from Christmas Ay

– three small onions (two fed one white)

– three carrots

– two sticks of celery

– garlic clove

– stock

– season with salt and pepper

– red wine vinegar

– balsamic vinegar

Finely slice onions, carrots, celery sticks, garlic clove before adding to the pot.

Cover chicken with boiling water, bring back to the boil, pop lid on, simmer for hours.

Pho at Coco Tang

March 29, 2022

Previous week, a cappuccino at Coco Tang. A week on I thought try the food. Compared with my previous visit, a grave disappointment.



Lunchtime, packed. I wandered off to Kigali, had a coffee, returned mid-afternoon, now empty.

Pho, Vietnamese soup, not to be confused with Pho a corporate chain serving fake Vietnamese street food coupled with poor service and high staff turnover.

A long wait from taking my order. A very large bowl of soup, slivers of beef, noodles, with a side dish of red hot chilli peppers and bean sprouts and a couple of leaves.

Only when my soup bowl was taken away, did the waitress tell me what I thought was a side dish, was meant to be added to the soup. Why would I add a cold side dish to hot soup, why was I not told this at the time it was delivered to my table?

The slices of red hot chile pepper on the side plate, were not deseeded, hence very hot, but I was not warned. Contrast with Paste, nearby Thai restaurant, where they do warn.

Pho ok, but at the end of the day a bowl of soup, albeit a large bowl of soup. £10-50 for a bowl of soup.

I followed with a cappuccino. A disappointment compared with what I had the previous week.

I looked at the cocktails, £10 for an espresso martini, using poor quality coffee liquor.

To add insult to injury, 10% service charge sneaked onto my bill. Discretionary. No, it is not discretionary if added to my bill without my consent. And for what, a bowl of soup and a coffee brought to my table.?

To put in context, a three course lunch at Paste, less than a tenner. Or excellent lunch at Ugly Bread Bakery for a fraction of the price.

A very disappointing visit.

The Soup Dwagon

January 29, 2020

I stumbled upon The Soup Dwagon, a tiny little shop  hidden down a little alley, Chain Lane.

Serving soup, a choice of three different, and that was all the shop served.

A wonderful find. What I love to see, a shop with the emphasis on quality, not serving paninis

A choice of Stilton and broccoli, carrot and coriander or  mushroom. I chose mushroom.

The soup came with a choice of bread  rolls.

I was their only customer, sadly soup in takeaway,  for which the lady apologised. I was shown some beautiful bowls they will be using once a dishwasher installed.

My mushroom soup was excellent.

 

Carrot soup in Gail’s

November 25, 2017

A cold afternoon in Farnham.

A heron catches my eye as I walk along the riverside walk.

From Gostey Meadow I cut through alleyways to Castle Street.

Soup, maybe something savoury, a cheese and tomato bread roll, in Gail’s artisan bakery.

No bread rolls, I settle for the carrot soup, carrot and ginger.

Service has been appalling in Gail’s ever since it opened sometime last summer, today no exception. Rarely see the same staff twice though individual members of staff try their best and are always polite.

First find a clean table. Tables piled with dirty dishes. I find one that does not have dirty dishes, but it is not clean.

My soup comes, or what jokingly is called soup arrives. A few spoonfuls of puree carrots, bowl filled with cubes of soggy bread, is not soup.

I use the serviette to rest my phone on, as I did not wish to rest on the dirty sticky table.

I have to ask for butter, then ask for a  knife.

Waitress walks by, looks at the disgusting soup, stops and asks is it ok? I say no, it is disgusting. She offers to do something, I am not sure what, I say no.

During the summer, one thing that could be relied upon at Gail’s, when  available, was the soup.

The coffee is awful, they are using Union, and not doing Union any favours.

I leave for Krema, where I know I will at least get a decent cup of coffee.

Soup and cappuccino at Krema

October 22, 2016

cappuccino

cappuccino

I was pleased to find, now the weather has turned cold, that soup is back on the menu at Krema.

Excellent tomato and pepper soup, with a I think they said Wenslydale cheese. Big chunk of bread. Generous portion size.

A trip to the butcher, then back for a cappuccino and flapjack.

I noticed cascara on the board. I asked. Yes, it was a new addition.

Krema serve as tea, in a tea pot. Contrast with Coffee Lab who prepare and serve cold.


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