Coconut Celery Zucchini and Pea Soup

We are well and truly in winter mode. Rugs are out and hot mugs of drinks. Every week, I like to schedule in a soup for dinner.

I made this for lunch though. My friend is expecting her first child and was heavily pregnant. I thought it would be love to have a girly chat with her before the baby arrives. She and I love to exchange ideas and recipes and we had lovely conversations about using simple and down to earth ingredients rather than processed items. We laughed about how her husband still prefers sweet desserts as that is how desserts should be in his mind, and how my husband has grown to have less of a sweet tooth over time.

I wanted to make something nourishing for her. A little like our friendship. Nourishing.

There is a green smoothie and then there is a green soup. This has celery, zucchini and peas. How much more green can it get? Oh hold on, it does have red onion in it so it's not totally green. Instead of heaviness of cream, I used coconut milk for that added richness.

I picked up these vegetables from our local farmers market. The freshness shone.

Yes, of course I made extra for dinner and lunch the next day. It's a perfect plan. Lunch with a  girlfriend and dinner already done. More time for Asher for the rest of the day.

Coconut Celery Zucchini and Pea Soup (serves 6)
1 full bunch of celery chopped
3 zucchini chopped
200 grams of organic frozen peas
2 tsp coconut oil
2 red onions sliced
2 tablespoons of garlic
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of ground ginger or fresh ginger minced
2 ltres of chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 tin of coconut milk

Saute onions and garlic in 2 tsp of coconut oil. Add all spices and cook till fragrant. Add all veges and cook till they are slightly soften. Add stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend with a hand blender. Strain if you like. Otherwise, reheat the blended soup with coconut milk. Serve with Coconut Bread or a grain free bread.

Leek and Spinach Tart

This is one of my favourite "light meals" recipe. I spoke about Teresa Cutter before but honestly, this woman creates the best healthy clean recipes that are so nourishing for your body. I have made this tart a few times and even had it at my baby shower.

One of the reasons why I made this various times is because I have trouble removing tarts from tins. This version was one of the semi successful ones- but you can see it suffered some trauma. The filling is beautiful and the crust is so yummy though.

Some mistakes I made included
- Not oiling the tin enough
- Pressing the pastry too hard into the tin. Gentle pressing is sufficient.
-Not rolling the pastry evenly.
- Underbaking the crust.
- Using the wrong type of tart tin. I used the high wall type but found out that NOT all tins are created equal. Too thick a tin actually made it harder for the tart to be removed.

There was one week, that I was so frustrated, I made 3 tarts to prove that I can do it :x

Leek and Spinach Tart (Serves 10-12)
Crust
300 grams of Almond Meal
1 Cup of desiccated coconut or around 100grams
3 tablespoons of linseed
pinch salt
3 eggs

Filling
2 leeks
500 grams of spinach
500 grams of ricotta cheese
seasoning

Preheat Oven to 180C. Oil your tart tin VERY well. Blitz crust ingredients in the food processor. Roll pastry in between two pieces of baking paper and gently press it to the tin.

To make the filling, cook the leek with a little oil till soft. Add spinach till it wilts. Mix vegetables with ricotta and seasoning. Spoon into tart. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with rocket and balsamic vinegar.

Butter Brussel Sprouts with Pine Nuts

December post! This year has gone quick. The countdown has truly begin for Christmas. Over the weekend, we started getting our house ready for festive celebration.

I have started a love affair with brussels sprouts. My grandmother would probably be really proud of me. I used to hate this vegetable, but it was only this year, that I discover the texture and flavour of this fibre rich vegetable.

This time round, I sautéed it with butter and salt. Toss through some pine nuts and a side dish done.

Butter Brussel Sprouts with Pine Nuts
350 grams brussel sprouts (ends removed and halved)
1 tablespoon of butter
salt
handful of pine nuts.

Melt butter in pan. Add brussel sprouts and cooked till done. Toss through pine nuts and salt.

Pumpkin Bread

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Although thanksgiving is not celebrated here in Australia (as a public holiday), I personally think that it is a beautiful festival. A festival filled with good food, good time with families gathering together and simply, just being thankful.

What a concept. Being thankful.

As days get filled, and people get busier, it's not very often that we wait for a second and be thankful. After all, life is pretty fragile? In 3 days, I was made aware of a birth, a pregnancy and a death. It's times like that that make you realised how precious life truly is.

Then there are other things to be thankful of. Like having the a job, family to love, lovely weather, having the opportunity to travel, food to cook and enjoy, friends to spend time with and build memories.

Or perhaps negative experiences that deserved to be thankful of as well- like a family member's close brush with cancer, any kind of operation (yourself or someone close), close shave from a car accident or bad financial decision.

Good or bad, these experiences shape who we are and what we do. Our thoughts influenced our behaviour and feelings, and I truly believe that how we perceive each situation lead us to different path ways.

Like food. Eating clean can be challenging with friends sometimes. Preparing a lunch for friends earlier, I made us a pumpkin loaf to compliment some seafood skewers and a chicken salad. This bread was a big hit. It tasted even better toasted the next day with just a sliver (or more) of butter.

Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Teresa Cutter's Paleo Pumpkin Bread)
3.5 cups of grated pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of mixed spice
1/4 cup of coconut oil melted
 3 cups of almond meal
2 tsp of gluten free baking powder
3/4 tablespoon of honey
pumpkin seeds

Preheat Oven 160C. Line loaf tin with baking paper.

Mix grated pumpkin, almond meal, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together. In a jar, mix eggs, coconut oil and honey together. Fold through dry ingredients and sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top of loaf.

Bake for 1.5 hours (check every 45 minutes).

Miso Mushroom Soup

Sometimes, I wonder where did I get my ideas from. This came up randomly one evening when I was staring our semi empty fridge, planning for our meals the next week. I still have my little box of miso paste, and love to use it in soups- but not the usual japanese miso soup. Then I decided that I miss my mushroom soups (see how my thoughts jump?) and concluded that I can add miso paste to mushroom , blitz it up and make it into Miso Mushroom soup!


Yup. Pretty random.

Randomness aside, I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. Yes, I know! I surprised myself. Ha. I do love the heartiness of the soup and how miso gives it a depth in flavour. I add the paste at the last bit, so not to kill of the lightness of miso.

The only thing though, is that it's really difficult to photograph black soups. My photography skills needed work anyway but the lighting in my new kitchen is still a little foreign to me. ahhh. I am sure I will figure out a way to have additional white light soon.

Have you ever come up with meals using random ingredients?

Miso Mushroom Soup (serves 8)
800 grams of mushrooms
1 bunch of celery chopped
1 litre of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of garlic
1 red onion chopped

700 grams pork mince
2 tsp of sesame oil
4 tablespoon of soy sauce

Saute onion and garlic. Then add in mushrooms and celery. Add stock and cook till soft. Cool, then blitz vegetables in blender. Return to stove. Shape pork mince into balls and cook them in the soup. lastly, add miso paste to taste. Season with pepper. Serve!

Brussels Sprouts

It's not often that I post on vegetables or side dishes. Somehow, I never seem to conjure anything interesting with them. To me, they accompany the dish- even though we eat our fair share of salads and vegetables daily!

Funny enough, I never knew how to appreciate the beauty of brussels sprouts till recently. Maybe it's because I associate them with a bitter after taste when I had the as a kid. My mother in law though, loved it! and even brought some back to KL!

Anyway, I discovered that if I blanched it quickly and cook it in stir fry, it tastes fabulous. I love the crunch and texture of it. A little oyster sauce and mixed it up with other vegetables, it's a great side dish with chinese dishes.

So what are the other ways to cook Brussels sprouts? I can see it in some butter and pine nuts perhaps?

Almond and Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms

I would call this a "work in progress" recipe. Since I have been trying to work with almond meal and not breadcrumbs, I decided to make a stuffing for mushrooms. Nutty flavours with some chives and garlic could do the trick I thought.

The result is "ok". I like the texture of the crumbs, but wondered if I could put in maybe chill or even fresh chopped almonds to add another dimension to the texture.

I paired it with some grilled lamb chops and salad. Simple week night dinner.

You can tell that I'm still trying to work out in my head how can I better improve on this dish without the use of breadcrumbs or bacon. Any suggestions? ;)

Almond and Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms
6 mushrooms cups
1/2 cup of almond meal
1 tsp of garlic
small bunch of chives chopped
2 tsp of sesame oil
salt and pepper

Mix almond meal, chives, garlic, oil and seasoning together. Spoon into mushrooms and bake for 10-15 mins in a preheated oven.

Creamy Corn and Chicken Pasta

Joanne from Eat Well with Others made Pasta with Fresh Corn Pesto recently. What an idea I say! So using that as an inspiration, I made a version of it on the stove top. Instead of blitzing it with the food processor, I used creamed corn instead. I took Joanne's advice, and used fresh corn. Amazingly good stuff. While I love a packet of frozen corn in the freezer for emergency situations, fresh is always best isn't it?

I had some dill left over from making the fritters, and decided to add some of that to it instead. And everyone knows about my addiction to chili. So in that goes. For protein, it was chicken.

Did it remind you of something?

Almost like a pasta version of chicken sweet corn soup! Ha!

Nevertheless, it made a simple and "whatever in the pantry" meal. Certainly, this has the creaminess without the added cream or fat.

Cream Corn and Chicken Pasta (Serves 4)
250 grams of spaghetti cooked in salted boiling water
2 cans of cream corn
1 tablespoon of garlic
1 corn with kennels removed
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of fresh dill
1 chicken breast thinly sliced
Parmesan cheese

Saute garlic will fragrant. Add cream corn and stir throughly. Add fresh corn kennels and 1/2 cup of the water. Simmer till corn is cooked. Quickly add chicken and dill and cook through. Add the remaining water if needed. Toss spag through it. Serve with cracked black pepper and parmesan cheese.

Spiced Pinenut Couscous

One of discoveries I had while on the no sugar/sauces diet was how I underused spices previously. My favourite spices at the moment would be curry powder, chili powder, tumeric and cumin.

Making couscous as a side dish one evening together with some lemon roasted chicken, I decided to spice things up a little (ha ha, my pun!) by using most of the spices in the above combination with some pinenuts and vegetables.

I love the yellow tinge of this dish as well. I was told recently that tumeric and cumin has an added benefit of cancer prevention.

Crazily addictive it was!

Spiced Pine nut Couscous (serves 4-5)
1 cup of couscous cooked in water directions on packet

1 zuchinni chopped finely
1 tsp of garlic
1 red onion chopped finely
2-3 chili padi (hehe, i do put chili in pretty much everything)
1 cup of corn kenels
1/4 cup of pine nuts
2 tsp of cumin
2 tsp of tumeric
1/2 tsp of curry powder


Saute garlic, onion and chili. Add zuchinni and corn. Toss in all the spices and coat well. You may need to add 1/4 cup of water if mixture appears too dry. Toss in pine nuts and toast till nice and brown. Mix mixture to couscous. Toss well.

Tuna Corn and Potato Muffins

I made these little savoury muffins to go with soup one night. It's such a easy quick one that I thought you might find it useful as well. I didn't add any flour to it, so it's really just potatoes and eggs that are holding it together.


It's really adorable holding these little muffins in your hand and dipping it into soup! I am sure it will be a good picnic dish as well or lunch box for school or work.

I took these photos when the muffins were not cooled yet. But once it is, you can peel away the wrapper and eat it as it is. I used chilli tuna (yes, I do like chili in everything!) but I'm thinking some basil leaves will accentuate the flavour as well. Another quick fix, is to use some cheese in it and make it cheesy tuna and corn potato muffins!!! Ah, more to experiment.

Tuna Corn and Potato Muffins (makes around 10)
3 potatoes cooked in hot salted water
2 tins of tuna of your choice
1/3 cup of corn

Season with salt and pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of soy milk


Preheat oven 180 C. Line muffin tray with muffin cups.
Mash potato with olive oil and soy milk (or normal milk). Then fold in tuna and corn. Season. Spoon mixture into muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes.

Spiced Potatoes

I didn't have the chance to research and read up on masala potatoes and decided to do a dry potato curry version of what I think would go well. Since it is not the real masala, I decided to call it spiced potatoes instead.

I really like the dance of flavours that goes in this. It's a quick side dish to make for sure. I used a blend of cumin (oh my favourite spice!), coriander powder, turmeric and curry powder.

So till the next time that I make some real masala potatoes, this will do!

Spiced Potatoes (Serves 2-3)
3 potatoes peeled and diced.

1 tablespoon of oil
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp coriander powder
salt
pepper

Cook potatoes in salted water. Drained. Mean while, heat a shallow pan with oil and fry spices till fragrant. Toss in potatoes for around 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Chicken Pea and Celery Soup

From time to time, I would add a handful of pasta into soups. For this soup, I added around 1/2 cup of orzo in it. I love how you bite into different textures when you drink soup.

Soups are not as boring as one think anymore. For this version, I added abit of parma ham for the flavour and heaps of peas and celery. The hit of chili got to us while we drank this.

You can opt not to blend it but I blended half the soup to have the thicker, creamier flavour. It's a easy, no fail quick dinner!

Chicken Pea and Celery Soup (Serves 4)
50 grams parma ham
2 bird eyes chili chopped
1 red onion sliced
1 500 grams of peas
small bunch of celery chopped
1/2 cup of orzo
ltre of chicken stock
1 chicken breast poached and sliced


Cook parma ham, chili and red onions. Add all the peas and celery tossing it through. Add stock and simmer for around 10 minutes. Blend half the soup and return to pot. Add orzo and cook through. If you have some chicken, stir through and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with crusty bread.

Happy weekend!

*oops- I did 2 entries in 2 days! Scroll down for my Cheat's version of Beef Pho!!

Potato and Broccoli Soup

There are nights where we just want a simple dinner. No rice, no nothing but just soup and toasties. Melted cheese and ham on bread (especially since I can't have too much cheese makes this super appealing to me!) with a bowl of hot simmering soup.

I love thick soups like this. It gives the illusion that cream is added to it but it's really simply potato and broccoli. No fuss soup  blended to create such warmth.

I made this soup before heading to the gym for my zumba workout (loveee zumba!) so I wrote a note to hubby asking him to eat first. As I read it now, it says FAT ME instead. DOH! Subconsciously perhaps?

Potato and Broccoli Soup (serves 4)
4 medium size potatoes peeled and chopped
1 onion sliced
1 tablespoon of garlic 
2 medium size broccoli chopped
1 ltre chicken stock

Fry onion and garlic. Add in potatos and broccoli. Pour stock in and cook till done. Blend in liquidizer till smooth. Serve with some Parmesan cheese and toasties.