Wednesday 3 December 2008

Bottom of the fridge soup day 2

I said yesterday that it was a bit bitter and bland.
I added:
 
1 vegetable oxo cube
some garlic and parsley
a knob of butter
 
I dissolved the oxo cube in a pint of water and added some garlic flakes (a sprinkling) and some dried parsley (another sprinkling). I let this stand for 5 minutes or so to let them 'brew' together and then added them to the rest of the soup that I had bubbling on the hob.
 
It did the trick! The soup now has some depth and flavour and its a lot thinner and more soup-like than puree like.
 
Got to find out what's in vegetable oxo cubes that makes them so so necessary in my soup flavouring!

Tuesday 2 December 2008

The 'What's in the Bottom of the Fridge' Soup

I cleared out the veg drawers in my fridge today and made enough soup to last me the rest of the week!
 
It has:
 
2/3 Swede
2 small bunches of Pak Choi (I think...it could be chard...)
2 small carrots
2 small parsnips
1 med onion
couple of handfuls of Curly Kale
1 medium potato
 
All this veg was getting a bit past its best. So I souped it!
 
Cook the potato, swede, carrots and parsnips together with the onion.
When they're soft, turn off the heat and throw in the chard and the kale. leave it to wilt.
Add some salt and pepper to taste
Whizz in the blender with the water used for the cooking.
 
This soup is full of nutrients and vitamins. It has a mixture of colours in the veg and I reckon it goes some way towards your 5 a day.
At the moment, it tastes a bit bland. Its come out a fantastic grassy green colour with flecks of green in it. It needs sweetening somehow, so I'm going to cook some butternut squash tomorrow, puree that and mix it in. I'm not too keen on the idea of adding sugar to soup because sugar's sweet and soup is savoury...
 
Its a nice filling soup, but I think that it could do with a vegetable oxo to bring out the veg flavours. I'll add that tomorrow in about a pint of hot water to make it have more of a soup rather than a pureed vegetable texture.