Roasted Cauliflower and Green Pepper Soup with Blue Corn and Parmesan Taquitos

I know for some people soup is not a meal, but I'm more than happy with a bowlful of hot, thick, creamy soup and a tray of crunchy chips to dip.  I'm pretty low-maintenance really.  

Roasted Cauliflower and Green Pepper Soup with Blue Corn and Parmesan Taquitos

slightly adapted from here

Serevs 4

For the Soup:

1 large head cauliflower, broken into florets

2 large or 4 small green capsicums

2 tablespoon olive oil

Sea salt flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

1 litre chicken stock

1/2 cup cream

For the Taquitos:

A bag of blue corn tortilla chips

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

Make the Soup:

Preheat the oven to 200C. Put the cauliflower florets on a baking tray. Drizzle both with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 30 minutes, until it is tender and starting to brown at the edges.  Put the cauliflower into a saucepan.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, char the capsicums on a barbecue or directly on a gas flame.  Remove once blackend and blistered, Place in a bowl, over with plastic wrap and leave for 10 minutes.  Peel the skin off and chop the flesh.  Add it to the saucepan with the roasted cauliflower. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Pour into a blender and blitz until smooth.  Pour it through a sieve back into a clean saucepan.  Bring back to a simmer and add the cream.  Adjust the seasoning.

Make the Taquitos:

Preheat the grill to high. Spread the corn chips onto a baking tray and sprinkle with the Parmesan.  Grill until golden brown.

Ladle the soup into bowls and top with a few taquitos.

Chunky Roasted Pumpkin and Corn Soup with Garlic Crostini

You know what happens when you harvest all your pumpkins?  You're forced to make chunky pumpkin soup... And then because you made chunky pumpkin soup, you're forced to make garlic crostini to go with.  It's the law.

Chunky Roasted Pumpkin and Corn Soup with Garlic Crostini

Serves 4

For the Soup:

700g pumpkin, peeled and chopped into 3cm thick wedges

Olive oil 

1 ear corn

1 large carrot, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, unpeeled

1/4 cup tomato passata

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3 cups vegetable stock

Pinch chilli flakes

Sea salt flakes

For the Crostini:

4 slices of day old bread (I used sourdough)

1 clove garlic, cut in hlaf

Extra virgin olive oil

For Serving:

Pesto (I make my own and keep it vegan)

Lemon

Sprouts

Make the Soup:

Preheat the oven to 200C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.  Put the pumpkin pieces and garlic cloves on the prepared tray, drizzle over some olive oil,  toss to coat and roast for 40 - 45 minutes, until tender and starting to caramelise at the edges.  Remove from the oven and squeeze the garlic flesh from the skins (discard the skins) and mash the pumpkin and garlic up a little with a fork.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, grill the corn on a very hot grill pan until slightly charred.  Remove the kernels from the the cob and place them in a large Dutch oven along with the roasted pumpkin and garlic, carrot, passata, quinoa, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika and stock.  Bring to the boil and cook until the carrots are tender.  Season to taste.

Make the Crostini:

Grill the bread on a hot grill pan on both sides until you get good grill marks.  Immediately rub the toasted bread with the cut side of the garlic cloves and then drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil.

To Serve:

Ladle the soup into deep bowls, top with a dollop of pesto, a sprinkling of sprouts and a drizzle of lemon juice.  Cut the bread into triangles to serve with.

Spicy Tomato and Fennel Soup with a Dollop of Fresh Pesto and Ricotta Toast



We are having some renovations done to our house at the moment which involves taking some windows out and replacing them with glass doors. We are at the "windows out" stage today... a winters day... Cue multi-layered clothing, steaming bowls of soup and hot toast for lunch... and a hot bath for afternoon tea.




Spicy Tomato and Fennel Soup with a Dollop of Fresh Pesto and Ricotta Toast
adapted from here
Serves 4

For the Soup:
2kg tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 carrot, diced
1 small bulb fennel, sliced
1/2 red chilli, sliced
60ml olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the Pesto:
A large bunch basil, leaves picked
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
50g pine nuts
50g parmesan, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
150ml olive oil

For the Toast:
1 ciabatta loaf
400g fresh ricotta
1 tablespoon olive oil
zest of half lemon
Freshly ground black pepper

Make the Soup:
Preheat the oven to 200C.

Put the tomatoes, garlic, carrot, fennel and chilli into a large roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and cover the pan tightly with foil. Roast in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the foil and roast for a further 30 minutes.

Leave the vegetables to cool slightly, then pour them into a food processor and blitz. You can make the soup as smooth as you like. I prefer a it rough and chunky.

Make the Pesto:
Put all the pesto ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth.
Make the Toast:
Heat the grill (broiler) to medium.

Put the ricotta, olive oil and lemon zest into a bowl. Season with pepper and mix together to combine. Set aside.

Slice the ciabatta in half horizontally. Spread the ricotta mixture evenly over the two halves. Grill (broil) until the ricotta starts to go golden in places.

To Serve:
Ladle the soup into deep bowls, dollop with fresh pesto and serve with ricotta toasts for dunking.

Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup

Today is all about this soup... because yesterday, this happened.




Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup
adapted from here
Serves 4

For the Soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
800g sweet potato, chopped (I don't peel mine, but you can if you want to)
100g red lentils
4 cups vegetable stock
2 teaspoons Harissa
1 teaspoon Ras el Hanout
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus extra to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the toppings:
Nigella seeds
Lemon halves
Buttermilk

Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the leeks and a good, fat pinch of salt. Cook the leeks, stirring occasionally, until wilted. Add the garlic and sweet potato chunks and cook until starting to soften, about 10 minutes. Give them a stir every now and again to stop them of catching on the pan.

Add the rest of the ingredient (except the toppings), bring to boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, until everything is tender.

Take about half of the mixture out of the pan, put it in a blender and blitz until smooth. Add the puree back to the pan. You should have a thick soup with some texture. Check seasoning and adjust to taste.

Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle with nigella seeds, a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of buttermilk.

Lush Tomato Soup with Basil Pesto and Basil Oil





Looking for something to do with the last of your summer toms and basil? Look no further. Tom and Basil are going to parrrtay.



Lush Tomato Soup with Basil Pesto and Basil Oil
slightly adapted from here
Serves 4

For the Soup:
50g (1 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
Sea salt to taste
1 long red chilli, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
100g (3 1/2 oz) caster sugar
250ml (9 fl oz) red wine vinegar
2kg (4 1/2 pounds) really ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 thick slices of white bread (I used ciabatta), torn into rough chunks
A large bunch of basil. leaves and fine stems
1 teaspoon smoked paprika


For the Pesto:
A large bunch basil, leaves picked
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
50g (1 3/4 oz) pine nuts
50g (1 3/4 oz) parmesan, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
150ml (5 fl oz) olive oil

For the Oil:
A large handful basil, leaves picked
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) olive oil
pinch salt

Make the Soup:
Heat a large heavy pot on medium-low heat. Add the butter and when it's melted, add the onion and a sprinkling of salt and cook gently for about 5 minutes, until softened but not browned. Add the chilli and garlic and continue to cook for a further 2 - 3 minutes.

Add the sugar and vinegar and bring to a boil. Boil until the mixture it reduced by about a quarter and starts to look syrupy.

Add the tomatoes and bring back to the boil. Clamp a lid on the pot and cook at a lively simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes have completely broken down. Take off the heat, add the bread, basil and smoked paprika, stir and leave for 15 minutes so that the bread can soften in the juices. Stick the whole lot in a blender and blitz until smooth. Push through a fine sieve into a clean pot. Discard the skins and seeds and set aside.

Make the Pesto:
Put all the pesto ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth.

Make the Oil:
Put the basil leaves into a bowl. Pour over some boiling water and after 10 seconds, drain and plunge the leaves into some ice water. Lift the leaves out of the ice water with a slotted spoon, dry on kitchen towel and put into a blender with the oil and salt. Blitz until smashed up, pour through fine muslin into a bottle. Set aside.

To Serve: 
Heat the soup to that it is piping hot, adding some water if it is too thick and adjusting the seasoning if necessary. Ladle into 4 deep bowls, spoon a generous dollop of pesto into the middle of each bowl and drizzle with basil oil.

Roasted Carrot and Fennel Soup with Turmeric

This gloriously sunny soup was my lunch today... and about half of that loaf of bread you see up there.



Roasted Carrot and Fennel Soup with Turmeric
adapted from Delicious
Serves 4

1 kg carrots, peeled trimmed and sliced into 5mm thick rounds
2 fennel bulbs, trimmed (fonds reserved) and sliced thinly
1 brown onion, peeled and sliced thinly
Olive oil
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 teaspoon turmeric
1.5 litres (6 cups) vegetable stock
Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
Thick Greek yoghurt, to serve
Lemon, to serve
Reserved fronds, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Put the carrots, fennel and onion into a large baking dish. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and toss well to coat. Roast for 30 minutes. Add the garlic, stir and roast for a further 20 - 30 minutes. The vegetables will be starting to soften and be getting a little golden at the edges. Remove the skins from the garlic.

Put the roasted vegetables into a large pan. Add the stock and turmeric and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the temperature to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender. Remove the soup to a blender (or use a stick blender) and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle hot soup into bowls, top with a swirl of Greek yoghurt, sprinkle with reserved fronds and a squeezed of lemon juice.

Roasted Vegetable and Red Bean Soup

Put on your fluffy slippers and wrap a quilt around your bod, it's soup season.



Roasted Vegetable and Red Bean Soup
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
1kg pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 3cm chunks
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm rounds
1 red onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges
1 head garlic
1 yellow capsicum, cut into 2cm dice
1 red capsicum, cut into 2cm dice
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
2 litres vegetable stock
Salt
1 x 400g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Greek yoghurt to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Put all the chopped vegetables on a large baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with cumin, chilli flakes and fennel. Toss to coat the vegetables in the oil and spices and roast in the oven  for 40 - 45 minutes, or until golden and tender.

Once roasted, squeeze the garlic flesh out of the papery skins and discard the skins. Put all the roasted vegetables into a large soup pot with the stock and beans. Bring to the boil and season lightly. Simmer for 10 minutes. Take half the vegetables and stock out of the pan and put them in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Add the puree back to the pan. You'll have a thick soup with lots of texture. Put the pan back on the heat to make sure it's piping hot, check the seasoning and add some water if the soup seems too thick. Serve in deep bowls with a swirl of yoghurt.

Roasted Poblano and Corn Soup

When I found poblano chiles in my local supermarket last week I was gob-smacked. We Aussies have been repeatedly told that Mexican Food is the "new wave" here. I've bored my family and friends nauseous telling them that, until I find real Mexican ingredients in my supermarket, I wont believe the hype. Well, I'm about to eat my words, or poblanos... which I'm totally okay with. After I found these little gems just up the road, I immediately skipped home and began gushing all over Facebook about my amazing find like I'd found the golden ticket. Embarrassing really. But my lovely FB friends indulged me and came up with some utterly delicious suggestions for their use. One suggestion from my friend Megan at Yumology was to make Chile Rellenos, which I did and I was so busy scoffing them that I didn't take any photos... wah! But to make amends, I went back to the supermarket today and bought a sack of the suckers and made this soup which was a great suggestion from another very helpful FB friend... and, I took some photos. So in the last little while, I've eaten humble poblano pie and learned from the error or my ways.

PS: And another thing I've learned from this whole poblano affair, is that I desperately need a new hand model.

Roasted Poblano and Corn Soup

adapted from Food Network

Serves 6

For the Soup:

6 poblano chiles 

8 ears of fresh corn, kernels removed

2 litres milk (I used full cream)

2 tablespoons cumin seeds

2 chipotle chillies

2 fresh bay leaves

1 sprig rosemary

30g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large onions

2 teaspoons fine salt (I used Pink Himalaya)

6 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons ground cumin

For the Garnish:

Corn tortilla strips, fried in a little oil until crispy

Coriander leaves

Set the grill (broiler) to high, lay the poblano chiles in one layer on a baking tray and grill (broil) until the skin is black and blistered. Remove them from the grill, place them in a plastic bag and leave them for 15 minutes.

Then peel the skins off and discard (they should just slip off) and remove the stems and seeds. Cut into dice. Set side.

Put the milk into a large pan. In a small, dry frying pan, fry the cumin seeds over high heat until they are toasted and fragrant. Tip them straight into the milk. Add the chipotles, bay leaves and rosemary to the milk. Bring the milk to a simmer, clamp on a lid, turn of the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.

In a large soup pan, melt the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, but not browned. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the garlic and ground cumin and cook for another minute. Add the corn and roasted poblanos and cook for a few minutes. Strain the milk through a fine sieve and add it to the vegetables. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 - 20 minutes (do not boil). Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Take half the soup and blitz it in a blender until smooth. Add it back to the pan. You should have a thick soup with lots of body and a chunky texture. Check seasoning. Serve in deep bowls and top with crispy tortilla strips and coriander leaves.