Mustardy, Cheesy, Broccoli Soup with Homemade Bread Bowls

This recipe is proof that I'll do anything to save on washing up.


Mustardy, Cheesy, Broccoli Soup with Homemade Bread Bowls
Serves 4

For the Soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 cups whole milk
3 cups chicken stock
Zest of a lemon
3 sprigs oregano
1/4 cup cornflour mixed with 1/4 cup water to make a slurry
3 cups broccoli florets
200g grated cheddar cheese (I used Red Leicester)
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the Bread Bowls:
150ml lukewarm water (about 40C)
7g (1 sachet) dried yeast
2 teaspoons caster sugar
250ml lukewarm whole milk (about 40C)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
600g baker's flour, plus extra if needed for the dough and for dusting
Sea salt flakes

Make the Soup:
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan (I use a Dutch oven).  Add the onion and cook on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.  You want it to softened, but not brown the onion.  Add the mustard powder and fennel and cook for about 1 minute.  Add the mustard, milk and stock, whisking so that the mixture stays smooth.  Bring to a boil and add the lemon and oregano.  Gradually add the cornflour slurry to the soup, whisking continuously.  Bring to a boil and once the mixture has thickened, add the broccoli.  Reduce to simmer and cook until the broccoli is tender.  I like to fish out a few florets and set them a side while I puree the rest of the soup with a stick blender until smooth. Put the soup back on a low heat, add the cheese and stir until melted.  Check seasoning and adjust to taste.

Make the Bread Bowls:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, pour the water, yeast and sugar and stir to combine.  Set aside for 5 minutes, until the mixture it foamy.

Add the milk, oil, salt and flour and mix on low for 5 minutes.  The dough should be soft. smooth and pull away from the sides of the bowl.  If it's still a bit stick, sprinkle in some extra flour and mix until it leave the sides of the bowl.

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot for 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

Line a baking tray with baking paper.  Set aside.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 4 even portions, about 160g each.  Roll each portion into a tight ball, and place on the prepared tray with enough space between them to spread during baking.  Dust the tops with flour, cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 250C.

Score the tops and sprinkle with sea salt flakes.  Use a spray bottle to spritz them with water.

Leave to rise for a further 15 minutes.

Bake for 2 minutes.  Open the oven and spray them again with water and reduce the oven temperature to 200C.  Bake for a further 18 minutes, or until golden and baked through.

Remove to a wire rack to cool.

To Serve:
Cut the bread bowl using a small serrated knife, cutting a circle directly downwards, then pull it out. Pull lumps of dough out of the centre, leaving a sturdy shell.

Spoon the hot soup into the bread bowl and add the reserved broccoli florets.  Serve the bread tops and innards along side for dipping.

Vegan Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Chermoula

Sometimes I DO treat my body like a temple rather than a cake shop.



Vegan Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Chermoula
Serves 4

For the Soup:
1/4 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 1 hour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1.5 litres vegetable stock

For the Chermoula:
from Alice Hart's Vegetarian
1 small bunch parsley leaves
1 small bunch coriander leaves
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon Ras el Hanout
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
75ml olive oil
1 lemon, juice and zest

Make the Soup:
Pour the oil into a large pan, heat it over medium heat  and add the onion. Cook for a few minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another minutes. Tumble in the cauliflower florets and toss them in the oil and vegetables. Cook for about 5 minutes. Don't let the vegetables brown, they should just be sweated down.

Pour in the vegetable stock, bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes until the cauliflower is so tender you can crush it with a wooden spoon. Add the cashews and remove it from the heat to cool slightly.

Transfer the mixture to a blender and blitz until smooth. Push the mixture through a fine sieve to make it velvety and pour it back into the clean pot. Return it to heat to make sure the soup is piping hot when you serve.

Make the Chermoula:
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and whiz to finely chop the herbs. This amount with make more than you need for the soup. You can store it in a jar in the refrigerator for a week and slather it on everything during the week.

To Serve:
Ladle the soup into four soup bowls and drizzle with the chermoula.

Smoky Black Bean and Roast Tomato Soup with Corn and Chilli Salsa

With my tendency to be a little bossy in the kitchen, you'd be forgiven for thinking there's more than a bit of The Soup Nazi about me.

Smoky Black Bean and Roast Tomato Soup with Corn and Chilli Salsa
slightly adapted from Alice Hart's Vegetarian
Serves 4

For the Salsa:
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
Corn kernels from 1 ear of corn
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped

For the Soup:
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
2 red onions, chopped
3 gloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chipotle sauce (I buy this Spicy Mexican sauce from Coles)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
20 roma tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 x 400g cans black beans, drained and rinsed
750ml vegetable stock
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup thick Greek yoghurt

Make the Salsa:
Put the oil in a frying pan and heat over medium heat. Add the red onion and cook until softened and golden. Add the corn and chilli and cook until the corn is tender and toasted. Remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes and ground black pepper. Squeeze from lime juice over it and sprinkle with coriander and set it aside.

Roast the Tomatoes:
Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Lay the tomato halves, cut-side up, on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt flakes and ground black pepper. Roast for 40-45 minutes, until they have collapsed slightly. Remove from the oven. At this point you can remove the skins from the tomatoes (they will just slide off), or if you don't mind a bit of extra roughage, by all means leave them on. Set aside.

Make the Soup:
Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the onions and cook until softened but not brown. Add the garlic, chipotle sauce, oregano and cumin. Stir and cook gently for 2-3 minutes.

Add the roast tomatoes, beans and stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Season with sea salt flakes and ground black pepper and lime juice. Take 3/4 of the mixture out of the pan and put it into a blender and blitz until smooth. Add it back to the pan. Put it back on the heat to make sure it is good and hot and serve with Corn and Chilli Salsa and a dollop of Greek yoghurt.

Turkish Bride Soup

I figure you can eat all the brownies you want when you have a bowl of this for dinner.


Turkish Bride Soup
slightly adapted from All Recipes
Serves 6-8

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 brown onions, roughly chopped
Sea salt flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1/2 cup fine bulgur wheat
3 litres vegetable stock
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons dried mint
A handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
The juice of 1 lemon

Fresh mint leaves, lemon wedges and Greek yoghurt to serve.

Put the roughly chopped onions into a food processor and blitz to chop them finely.

Heat a large Dutch oven over a medium flame and pour in the oil. Let the oil get warm then add the blitzed onion along with a fat pinch of sea salt flakes. Turn the heat down to low and cook the onions for 10 minutes. You don't want any colour on the onions, so stir them occasionally. Add the tomato paste, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper and stir for about 1 minute just to heat the spices up.

Add the lentils and bulgur and stir, coating them with the oil and spices. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover, cooking for about 30 minutes. Give it a stir now and then.

After half an hour the lentils and bulgar will be soft and you'll have a lovely thick soup. Remove from the heat and add the dried mint and a squirt of lemon juice and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Clamp the lid back on until you are ready to serve.

To serve: Ladle the soup into deep bowls and garnish with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, a sprig of mint and a spritz of lemon juice.

Pea and Ham Soup

A cupcake can be like a kiss on the cheek from your son. A cookie can be like a high-five from your best friend. A bowl of chilli can be like a belly laugh with the person you love. This soup is like a big, long hug from your mum.



Pea and Ham Soup
Serves 4-6

500g green split peas
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 large ham hock
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 slick of celery, chopped
1 large potato, diced
2.5 litres of water
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Put the split peas into a large bowl of cold water (make sure the water covers the peas by at least 5cms) and add the bicarbonate of soda. Leave to soak overnight.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the onion, carrots and celery and sweat the vegetables over a low-medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the water and then the ham hock. The water should completely cover the hock, if it doesn't add a little more.

Thoroughly drain and rinse the soaked peas and add them to the pot along with the potatoes, thyme and bay leaves. Bring it to the boil, then reduce to simmer and cook gently for an hour. Check the seasoning and add sea salt flakes and/or freshly ground black pepper if needed.

Remove the hock, thyme and bay leaves. Rest the hock until it is cool enough to handle, then shred the meat, discarding the bones, fat, sinew and skin.

Take about 2 cups of the soup out of the pot and blitz in a blender until it is totally smooth.  Add this smooth puree back to the pot with the rest of the soup along with the shredded meat. Check the seasoning again.

Chicken and Egg Noodle Soup with Veal Meatballs

 

Having a bowl of this soup is the food equivalent of taking a hot bath. At first, it's a little too hot to be able to just jump in. But it's too tempting to leave while it cools to a more sensible temperature, so you risk a toe. Slowly. slowly, hoping not to scald yourself, you inch yourself in until you are enveloped in a soothing elixir that's almost too hot to handle... Delicious. Now go and make this soup... and then take a bath.



Chicken and Egg Noodle Soup with Veal Meatballs

slightly adapted from Food Network

Serves 8

For the Soup:
1kg whole chicken
Sea salt flakes
2 cloves
4 litres water
1kg beef morrow bones
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm rounds
2 stalks celery with leaves, inner pieces from the bunch peeled of outer skin, cut into 1cm pieces
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
Freshly cracked white pepper
1 small bunch fresh thyme
1 bay leave 

For the Meatballs:
250g ground veal
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

200g dried egg noodles
3 cups loosely packed spinach leaves, washed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Make the Soup:
Season the chicken with salt and push the 2 cloves into 1 of the chicken thighs. Add it to a large stock pot, cover with about 4 litres of cold water and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Meanwhile, season the beef bones with salt and brown them in a frying pan with the canola oil, searing them over medium heat. Add them to the pot with the chicken. To the pan that the bones were seared in, over medium heat, add the carrots, celery and onion and toss until they are coated in oil. Add the thyme and bay leaf to the stock pot along with the sauteed vegetables. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer and skim the surface with a ladle. Discard any oil or "scum" that accumulates. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and lower the heat to finish cooking the chicken slowly.

Make the Meatballs: 

Put the ground veal into a medium bowl. Add the salt, garlic, Parmesan, basil, egg and bread crumbs. Use your hands to mix to blend the ingredients. Roll the veal mixture into small meatballs. They should be about the size of a small cherry tomato. Arrange the meatballs in a single layer on a baking sheet and refrigerate.

After about 45 minutes at a gentle simmer, taste the chicken soup and adjust the seasoning, if needed. Use a large spoon and a pair of tongs to remove the chicken to a baking tray and allow it to cool for a few minutes. Remove the beef bones and scoop out the marrow. Add it to the soup, if desired. Remove and discard the fresh thyme and bay leaves. Take the breast and thigh meat off the chicken, taking care to discard the bones and skin. Break the chicken into bite-size pieces, but not too small, and add them to the soup.

Bring the soup to a gentle simmer and add the meatballs. Allow it to continue simmering for a couple of minutes so the meatballs have a chance to cook. Add the noodles stirring gently. Stir in the spinach and taste for seasoning. Transfer the soup to serving bowls and serve sprinkled with the Parmesan.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Creme Fraiche and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

There was I time when I didn't think I would ever be able to face another bowl of pumpkin soup again. That time was when my, then two year old, son would eat very little else (we call it his pumpkin soup period). That's all he would eat... that and oatmeal. And when I say pumpkin soup, I actually mean pumpkin puree watered down with a little unseasoned chicken stock... ew!  I can't tell you the number of spoonfuls that went into that little rosebud mouth of his (not to mention those slopped on the floor, smeared on tables, sneezed out or burped up... sorry!), but it was A LOT! He ate so much of it that I thought he would make like Cinderellas carriage and turn into a pumpkin at midnight. I must have seen pumpkin soup every other day during that time. I was OVER pumpkin soup for a long time. I've made much tastier versions for him since then, which he still eats bowl after bowl of, but I rarely partake in it myself due to my pumpkin soup over-exposure. But my little Prince Charming has since moved on. We've seen him go through many other stages like the hot dog period, the burger period, the baked bean period, the mashed potato period, the pasta period and the Mexican food period (which includes sub-categories of an enchilada period, a nacho period, a taco period and a burrito period)... come to think of it, we haven't actually seen the end of any of those periods yet..., but pumpkin soup still remains a favourite with him. And this is one version that I actually enjoy eating too, and believe me, that means it's really good.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Creme Fraiche and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds 
slightly adapted from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook
Serves 6

For the Soup:
2kg Kent pumpkin (enough to yield 3 cups of puree), unpeeled and chopped into about 5cm dice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce (if you can't get them, then use some chilli powder and some smoked paprika, to taste)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons chipotle puree
3/4 cup creme fraiche
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds, for garnish

For the Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Sea Salt Flakes

Make the Soup:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Put the pumpkin in a bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. a good pinch of salt flakes and olive oil and toss to coat. Put the pumpkin on a baking sheet and roast for 1 hour, until soft and golden. Once cool, scoop the flesh from the skin, pop the flesh into a food processor along with the chipotle chilli and sauce, and blitz until smooth. Discard the skin. 

Put the chicken stock in a large Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Whisk in the pumpkin and chipotle puree, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, allspice,ginger, nutmeg, honey and maple syrup. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Remove from the heat and whisk in 1/4 cup of the creme fraiche and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

In a small bowl, mix together the remaining creme fraiche and remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon until combined. 

Divide the soup among 6 bowls and garnish with the cinnamon creme fraiche and a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds.

Make the Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.

Toss the seeds with the oil and a generous pinch of sea salt flakes. Spread on a baking tray and bake, tossing occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are lightly golden brown and crisp. Let cool.