Borscht

My photo using homemade sunflower cream. Borscht recipe by Alissa Saenz. connoisseurusveg.com

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 medium beets, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups finely chopped beet tops or cabbage
1 medium russet potato, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, plus more for serving
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegan sour cream, yogurt, or cashew cream, for serving
Chopped fresh chives and/or parsley, for serving

Instructions
Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil and place it over medium heat.

When the oil is hot, add the beets, carrot and onions. Sauté until the veggies begin to soften, about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and sauté another minute, until very fragrant.

Stir in the broth, tomato paste, beet tops /cabbage and potato. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil.

Lower the heat and allow to simmer, uncovered, until the veggies are tender, 15-20 minutes. You can add more broth or water if you like.

Remove the pot from heat and stir in the lemon juice and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the soup into bowls and top with vegan sour cream, yogurt, or cashew cream, and a sprinkling of fresh dill, parsley and/or chives. Serve.

Portuguese Tomato and Onion Soup with Poached Egg

I had this surprisingly good tomato soup when we visited the rugged and fertile island of Madeira. It was about the only vegetarian option on the menu of most places but was well worth its place, and more than worth its cheap price. Not just any old bowl of soup but a rich homemade style tomato and onion soup bursting with summer flavours in which an egg is poached, and is decked with rustic slices of bread. 

 Now that tomatoes are in season here in France, I decided to have a go making this soup at home. I searched online for recipes and, strangely, the one that seemed most like what I'd eaten in Madeira came from a Canadian blog of mainly Ukranian recipes! I rang my friend in Portugal who, as well as being Portuguese is an excellent chef, so just the person to consult with! She confirmed that the ingredients and method were fairly simple but it takes good ingredients. This recipe really did make good use of the vine-ripened tomatoes I had bought and, had I tried using bland supermarket ones, I would have had to add more ingredients, including tomato passata, to enrich it. The blog whose recipe this one is adapted from recommends using tinned tomatoes rather than hydroponic ones if you can't get tasty fresh tomatoes - after all, tinned tomatoes preserve the tomatoes (grown in suitable climates) soon after they are picked whereas supermarket ones are usually watery hydroponic red balls of nothingness which may have travelled far, been refrigerated and then sat on the supermarket shelves for some time before you buy them. So if at all possible, use local organic tomatoes and onions for freshness and the best flavour.

Portuguese Tomato and Onion Soup with Poached Egg

Serves 6.

4 large yellow onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
8 large juicily ripe tomatoes, chopped OR 2 cans whole tomatoes (1lb. or 454 g each)
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
5 cups water (OR, if using canned tomatoes, 5 cups rich vegetable stock)
6* eggs (*or 1 per person)
12 thick slices stale / day-old French or Italian bread (use slim baguettes)
¼ cup minced parsley / coriander / fresh thyme / basil / savory



Sauté onions slowly - about 15 minutes - until soft and golden.  Add garlic and tomatoes (you can first peel and de-seed tomatoes if you care for such things - I never mind using the whole thing), cover and simmer 1 hour; uncover, and simmer to reduce liquid for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Add water or stock, salt and pepper to taste and, if needed, a little sugar (add a pinch at a time, tasting till you get the edge off any bitterness. The soup I made was not at all bitter - it depends on the tomatoes and how well the flavours have cooked together. The other recipe recommended 3T butter as well but I didn't feel it was necessary - it's up to you.

Simmer, uncovered, 1 ½ to 2 hours or until flavours are richly blended.  Cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate until about 1 hour before serving.  (I reheated just enough for tonight's dinner and put the rest in containers to go in the freezer or you could save leftovers in fridge to eat the next day when the flavours will be even more nicely developed!- soups are great like that!)

Bring soup slowly to serving temperature. Carefully break eggs into soup, spacing them evenly, cover and simmer slowly 5-15 minutes or until eggs are poached to your liking.

Ladle soup into large shallow soup bowls, including an egg with each portion.  Garnish each bowl with bread slices and a sprinkling of herbs.

NB. This is a filling and delicious vegetarian and dairy-free recipe but Luc reckons it would be even better with cheese and chorizo - he would!

Turkish Rice and Lentil Soup

Good for cooking for oneself - we should try and treat ourselves to healthy, delicious food even in a hurry :)
Thanks to my old boss (also a vegetarian food fan) for this very easy and yum soup recipe. It's the kind of easy throw-together one that I've never had time to photograph, ...might one day....



Boil 2/3 cup red lentils in veg stock till mainly done
add bay leaves
add 1/3 c rice, almost cooked
Mix together:
tomato paste
turmeric
smoked paprika
chilli flakes

Add and cook another 5 min

Put baby spinach leaves in a bowl and pour over the soup.

Gazpacho

If you don't make this already, you should. Especially you Perth people. Especially this week. Nuff said.
It's refreshing like crazy. And probably good for us too. I love that scene in Women on the Verge of a Mental Breakdown where she makes gazpacho. This one will be just as good even if lacking the magic ingredient. Sadly it won't be served by a dorky Antonio Banderas though.

900g overripe tomatoes (blanched and peeled is best if you have time)
1 T tomato sauce / paste
1 T olive oil
1 small garlic clove, peeled
1 T sugar/agave syrup (really? taste and decide)
150ml vegetable stock
bunch of fresh basil
2 T redwine vinegar
salt and freshly ground white pepper


Set aside a few basil leaves to decorate then put all the ingredients in a blender and whizz. Strain mixture through a sieve into a bowl, pushing hard to extract all the juice. (The remaining pulp can be used in another recipe, like the gazpacho paella thing). Or you can just put all the veg ingredients through a juicer and then mix in the extra liquid ingredients. I did this today but just juiced half a celery in place of vegetable stock. Adjust the seasoning then chill until ready to serve. If it's as hot as it is in Perth at the moment, you might like to think about chucking some icecubes in the glass / bowl you serve it in.

NB - why not just keep all the pulp in? Well you can, sure, but the clean texture helps it feel extra refreshing, I think. Also, no pulp means no bits of basil on your teeth which is good if you're having this at work!

Gyoza in Lemongrass Broth

This soup with dumplings (the Japanese 'potsticker' kind, not the stodgy British kind) is just delicious and makes a filling meal. I always thought of 'broth' as something like watery healthful but bland meat stock for the infirm - not so in this recipe! We've been getting asparagus just recently in our organic delivery box (Australia has food in season at strange times, lucky us). If you want to make this when asparagus is not in season, use your imagination and substitute some other yummy veg like something from the broccoli family maybe.

By the way, it's easy (at least here) to grow lemongrass. I have a border of it doing well along the wall below the leaky gutter - perfect as lemongrass likes water which is a scarce resource here.

This recipe comes from a beaut book by Nicola Graimes called New Vegetarian Kitchen: Raw/Broil/Fry/Steam/Simmer/Bake. (Recipe is hers but photo is of my attempt; hers looked good too!)




1. First make the gyoza. Put the aduki beans, sesame oil and half the soy sauce in a bowl and mash lightly with the back of a fork, leaving some of the beans whole. Stir in the ginger, spring onions, garlic, cornflour and cabbage, Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

2. Put 1 heaped tablespoon of the filling in the centre of a gyoza wrapper - you want the parcels to be as full as possible. Brush the edge of the wrapper with water, top with another wrapper and press the edges to seal. Set aside and repeat to make 11 more gyoza.












3. To make the lemongrass broth, put the stock, lemongrass and lime leaves, ginger, vegetarian fish sauce, lime juice and caster sugar in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain the stock into a clean bowl, discarding the solids, and return broth to the saucepan. Add the remaining soy sauce, coconut milk and chilli and cook for another 5 minutes until slightly reduced and thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 70 degrees celsius / 150 fahrenheit and heat a griddle pan (I didn't know what one was so used a frying pan) over medium heat. Toss the asparagus in the sesame and sunflower oils and griddle it (fry) for 5-7 minutes, turning occasionally, until tender and charred in places. Transfer to an ovenproof plate and keep warm in the oven.

5. I fried the gyoza with just a little oil in a non-stick frying pan but the recipe suggests deep frying: To deep fry the gyoza, heat the remaining sunflower oil in a deep saucepan to 180 C / 350 F, or until a cube of bread turns golden in 40 seconds. Fry the gyoza, 3 at a time, for 2 minutes, turning once, until golden and puffed up. Remove, using a slotted spoon, and drain on kitchen paper. Transfer to an ovenproof plate and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining gyoza.

6. To serve, heat the lemongrass broth, if necessary, then ladle it into four large, shallow bowls. Sprinkle with coriander and put three gyoza in the centre of each bowl, slightly overlapping them. Arrange the asparagus on top and serve immediately.

Soupe du jaune

It's officially Spring and the first Spring morning was all sunshine and promise- then the promise was delivered when the afternoon brought the gift of rain and the evening an impressive lot of stormy weather. So you can forgive yet another comforting meal-in-a-bowl type soup. Also, we had corn, pumpkin and cream cheese that needed eating, et voila! - a recipe is born! So I adapted a recipe from World Vegetarian Classics for corn chowder and made this rather wonderful roasted vegetable chowder - the roasting bringing out even more flavour and allows us to use heaps of garlic (entirely missing in the corn chowder recipe). The cream cheese with its richness and that touch of acidity complements and balances the sweetness of the vegetables. However, if dairy products are not for you, you can make the soup vegan by swapping the cream cheese and milk for soy milk.

Ingredients

1/2 Japanese pumpkin
3 carrots
3 parsnips
4 fresh corn cobs
1 L / 4 cups water (I may well have used more, so add more to get consistency that suits you)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 bay leaves
1 large or 2 small onions
1 bulb garlic (yes, a whole bulb, but don't worry, the roasting softens its flavour)
1/2 t dried sage
1 t fresh thyme leaves / 1/2 t dried thyme
3/4 c 200g cream cheese
1/2 c / 125ml milk
(or swap cream cheese and milk for 325ml unsweetened soy milk)

Recipe serves 6-8 (or more if served in mug-sized portions)

Directions

Preheat oven at 160 degrees celcius (my oven is quite hot but do keep temp lowish so veggies develop good flavour)

Spray a big baking tray with olive oil. Chop pumpkin into large slices (leave skin on - it will peel off easily once cooked) and place on the tray. Slice carrots in half lengthways. Dice a few pieces of carrot for chunky textures bits and set aside. Trim skinny parsnips ends off and set aside with carrot chunks. (seen here on plate with corn in a steamer. I also aded some chopped soft roasted bits, too, because I can't follow even my own recipes as I'm making them up).


Cut the bulbous tops in half and arrange these and the carrots around the pumpkin (or on another tray if they won't fit without overlapping). Place in oven and cook till vegetables are soft and roasted (with that nice caramelly chew on the pumpkin) but don't let them dry out or go hard and crunchy - we're making soup here!


While veggies are roasting, strip kernels from corn cob - like this: stand corncob upright (hold the top) and cut downwards with a sharp knife. It's a good idea to do this in a large bowl as they kind of ping off everywhere. Leave kernels in the bowl for now. To make the stock, place the stripped corn cobs and the bay leaves in a big pot. Sprinkle on a pinch of salt and cover with the water. Bring stock to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. At the same time, cook veggie chunks: In a steamer, place the corn corn kernels and twiggy parsnip and carrot ends and steam these as soup is boiling. Remove steamer once kernels and vegetables are tender.Discard the corn cobs and bay leaves.


Roughly chop roasted veggies, whizz in a blender/ food processor and add to the stock along with the remaining herbs. Add the cream cheese and milk to the soup mixture and stir / whizz with handheld blender till smooth and creamy. Return steamed veggie chunks to the soup. Reheat soup and add salt and pepper if desired.

Cauliflower & Olive Soup

Here's another yummy soup as it's slowly getting Autumny here. This one comes from Paul Gayler's Little Book of Soups. It doesn't look too flash in the picture - not just because it's not in a nice dark coloured bowl -we oughta get some of those one day :), but also because the photo was taken by my flatmate on her phone - but the fact she wanted to record it shows that this soup was destined for great things - like your kitchen!

Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets
3 T virgin olive oil (the tasty stuff)
10g unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
1 small leek, white part only (in second photo I made a soup using both so it looks greenish), chopped
750ml vegetable stock
150ml full-fat milk
85ml double cream (I'm pretty sure I used single and it was fine)
6 black olives, stoned, rinsed, dried and finely chopped (I did no such thing; I used our leftover mixed green and black marinated, pitted olives from the supermarket, chopped roughly. Olives with the stones in DO have better flavour but it's more work to cut out the stones. Up to you depending on the time you have and how much of a purist you feel like being).
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 T chopped chives


Method:

Blanch the cauliflower florets in a pan of boiling salted water for 2 minutes, then drain well.

In a large pan, heat 1 T of the oil with the butter, add the onion and leek and sweat until tender. Pour in the stock and milk and bring to the boil. Add the cauliflower, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the cauliflower is almost pureed. Place in a blender or food processor and blitz until smooth. Return to the pan, add the double cream and olives and lightly season to taste - remember the olives are already salty.

To serve, pour into soup bowls, drizzle over the remaining olive oil and sprinkle over the chives (you can also add a little chopped olive for colour)

I served this with crusty homemade garlic bread - after all, I live with Frenchies!

Harira (a Moroccan Soup)

When we visited Luc's sister in Bordeaux, she took us to the markets and a few Moroccan stores nearby. We bought some yummy food for dinner and I also grabbed a couple of packets of soup in case I needed a standby vegetarian meal on my trip. The soup was Harira, a dish I've since learned is traditionally served after a long day's fast during the month of Ramadan. I certainly wasn't fasting in France and ate some truly delicious meals but surprisingly, the packet soup compared favourably!

I made this yesterday for the first time - the recipe a combination of the packet ingredients I remembered, ingredients we had in the house and I also found this recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks - so I'll give you that version with my changes.

Harira
from World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown

Ingredients:
(longish list, yeah, but the soup is easy and quite quick to make!)

2 T olive oil
2 onions (I added leek too as it needed to be used and it flavours soups so well)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 t freshly grated ginger
1 T paprika (I also added about 1t Korean chile powder because it has a great warmth and moreish quality)
1 t cumin seeds
600g / 1 lb 5 oz whole tomatoes / about 5 plump vine-ripened tomatoes
2 c / 500ml / 16 fl oz boiling water
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1x 400g / 14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 T chopped, fresh parsley
3 T chopped, fresh coriander (cilantro)
3 T chopped celery leaves
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T tomato puree
2 T plain flour, slackened with 3 T cold water
1/3 c / 40g / 2.6 oz vermicelli
3 fresh free-range eggs (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve

Serves 4-6


Method:

Heat oil in a big saucepan with a lid. Add the onions and fry until translucent, then add the garlic, ginger, paprika and cumin seeds. Fry briefly until fragrant, then add the chopped tomatoes and cook until somewhat softened. Puree this mixture with handheld mixer or in a food processor or blender. Return the pureed mixture to saucepan, add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the chickpeas, herbs, lemon juice and tomato puree. Bring to the boil and simmer 2-5 minutes. Stir in the flour mixture to thicken the soup. Add the vermicelli and simmer for a further 5 minutes. If using eggs, break these in now and stir to break them up. Leave on heat till whites have set (when the white turns white). Serve each bowl with a drizzle of olive oil over the surface. (I used an egg with the packet version but not with yesterday's one, pictured. Both versions were delish!)

NB: some versions I have seen (on how-to videos, etc) cook this for about an hour all up. That probably helps the flavours develop really well but the colour is not as nice - more end of Autumn than the nice red colour you can have with this one. But choose what kind of flavour you like - I loved the freshness of this one.