Page 10 - Simply Veg Issue 1 2016

From the Kitchen
By Mary Thomas and Linda Hargrave
Winter warmer – soups
Soups are nutritious and warming and is
a good way of getting a good few of your “5 a day”. Father Christmas often likes to bring me a gadget and last year was no exception. The big box revealed an electric soup maker and has really had the thumbs up from me and several friends. You really do not need a recipe for this but there are instructions and guide lines enclosed. I always start off with:
1 medium oury potato (for thickening)
1 carrot
1 medium onion
Prepare and roughly cut the above and put in the soup maker. Add whatever avour you fancy e.g.
1 leek – prepared and cut or
Punnet of mushrooms (basics) or
Tomatoes
And/or anything else that takes your fancy, such as a piece of broccoli, kale, spinach, garlic, chilli etc.
Add a stock cube of your choice, a bit of seasoning and ll up to the line with water, as indicated.
Put the lid on and switch on and 30mins later you have a wonderful nutritious soup.
Enjoy with a chunk of wholemeal and/or seeded bread and it will give you bags of energy for the rest of the day.
With soup, nothing is lost as the water soluble vitamins will be consumed, lid is on and nothing escapes through evaporation and it does not take long to cook. In fact, it ticks all the boxes.
Parsnip soup with Apple
1 large parsnip aprox 1Kg cut into 1⁄2 inch pieces
2 Med onions nely chopped
1 stick celery chopped
1 inch ginger nely chopped 3 cloves garlic chopped
2 Apples chopped
2 tsp Ground coriander seeds 2 tsp ground cumin seeds
1 tsp Turmeric powder Salt and Black pepper. 3 pints vegetable stock Little oil for frying.
Fry the onion on a low heat stirring frequently until turning brown. Add the celery and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger stir well and fry for another minute. Add ground seeds, Turmeric, salt and pepper stirring well. Add parsnip stir for a minute then
add stock. Simmer with lid on for 30 minutes. Add the apple 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Liquidize until smooth. This
will make a thick velvety soup, if you want a thinner one you could add a little more stock.
Serve in warm bowls with a swirl of crème fraische if liked.
10 simplyvegetables