A soup for October – Butternut squash & Lentil

This is so good.

Great for using up autumn harvesting. Beautiful colour, texture. Glossy.

Ingredients are: two thirds of a butternut squash, peeled and chopped, a good amount of red lentils, one yellow pepper, chopped, one stalk of celery, one onion, one clove of garlic – all chopped. Tomatoes – I put in half a tin of Italian and some cherry tomatoes – yes, also chopped.

Olive oil, ground black pepper, paprika, cumin and veggie stock. Water too.

Go through the necessary process, allow to simmer til the squash is soft then pop it all in a blender and whizz.

Serve with a dollop of yoghurt and chilli flakes, toasted sourdough on the side. Enjoy!

Lentil and brassica soup

You will need

A pan and a spoon, something to chop with etc.

This is a simple soup which requires time to simmer so the lentils can soften. Thereafter, either whizz up or serve as is.

A small brown onion, one stick of celery, one carrot, all chopped up and sauted in the pan with olive oil til onion is softened and shiny. This is the soffrito. In French it’s done with buttter and is called mirepoix. But you know that!

Add Swiss bouillon or Vegeta, white pepper, one bay leaf, some dried thyme.

Then the lentils – a mix of green and brown, chopped broccoli.

Tomato puree and water. Stir. Allow to come to boil them simmer for around 45 mins.

Towards the end, add some chopped fresh savoy cabbage and baby spinach leaves.

Serve as is or with parmesan. Wholemeal bread to go with.

And there you have an earthy, simple yet tasty soup for a winter’s day.

It’s Christmas Day. We’re awaiting promised snow.

Prijatno and Sretan Božić!

Lentil and brassica soup

Sontag with Green Soup!

Temperatures have dropped suddenly. Whether this will now be the norm for the end of summer and in to the bountiful month of September, is to be seen. Projects are being ploughed through during the long bank holiday weekend. There will be walking too.

Cooking as ever is on my mind and I have much greenery including a giant marrow (gifted to me from an allotment), the latter which will go in a pita sa tikva (search the post on my blog for recipe).

If you are planning on starting to grow your own veg I would heartily recommend perpetual spinach, purple broccoli, spring onions, chard, green beans and peas as easy and generous in yield when grown organically.

This weekend’s soup will be green – including the leaves and flower heads mentioned above, adding in the holy trinity of onion, carrot and celery plus garlic, some herbs. A handful of puy lentils too. Then cornbread with a little spinach.

I have steadily lost a few lbs this month, hurrah!

What else  –  I have returned to editing my manuscript.

Reading – Ishiguro and  work by Susan Sontag – lots of. There is an interview with her in the current Paris Review.