Pages

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

I Love Soup!



Soup weather! YAY! I just love soup!

Throw a whole lot of stuff in a pot, simmer, bang it in the blender, and wha-lah: meal in a bowl! Now that's my kind of meal. Easy, versatile, and healthy too!


I have made a few batches lately. I just love the ability of soup to take some boring old leftovers that I really don't feel inspired to eat, and turn it into something delicious, nutritious, and oh so satisfying for my 'waste-not' soul. Leftovers suddenly become inspiration. A recent soup started off with some leftover sauce from the previous night's dinner. The interesting thing is that the sauce wouldn't probably be your first thought for a soup base. It was juiced apple with cooked onion slices that had been used to cook some pork chops. Add a whole bunch of veges, a tin of baked beans, and it was just delicious!


Today's soup was inspired by a roasted pumpkin that needed to be used but didn't look quite good enough to make pumpkin soup. I teamed this one up with some leftover casserole sauce (the beef casseroles started to overflow their dishes and create havoc in my oven a few nights ago so I scooped the tomato based sauce into a pot and shoved it in the fridge till I could decide what to do with it all!). I added kumara, potato, carrot, and onion. Then a tin of borlotti beans, 1/4 of a cup each of red split lentils and pearl barley, and some silverbeet, thyme and parsley from the garden. A dash of sweet chilli sauce and some salt, an hour's cooking, a blend and we have just eaten yet another delicious soup!


I quite like blending vege soups like these. I find I can put a larger proportion of energy dense foods like beans, lentils and pearl barley, without feeling like I'm just eating beans and beans and beans (not really a fan of beans!). We get a really filling soup that is both good for us and tasty enough that we actually want to eat bowlfulls of it. Even Boyo (not a soup fan) will have soup and bread for dinner...especially if bribed with the promise of apple crumble for dessert!



Do you have a favourite soup, or favourite way of making it?



Amy



Wednesday, 27th April, 2011

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

YUMMY - cooking a stew as I type this, dinner tonight :-)! Luke loves soups and stews thankfully!!!!

Aynsley said...

Tonight's dinner ... soup with a grilled cheese roll followed by left over strawberry and apple crumble with custard! One of my favourite winter meals.

kiwimeskreations said...

I love soup too, but DH does not necessarily so, so the soup pot does not get used quite as much as it once did.... :-(
Blessings
M