Saturday 17 December 2011

Just Right!

For two days in a row, we've had stormy, wet weather which made one want to stay indoors, and so that is what we did on Friday night.

As mentioned in my "Making Do" post, I like to use whatever I find in my fridge, and yesterday, those findings included several large carrots and some sausages plus a few remaining spuds in a bag in the cellar that really needed using up (the spuds, not the bag).
I had plenty of time, and so I thought why not try something I've never made before, something that is just right for a stormy evening in late autumn - soup!
(Not that I have never ever made soup before, just not of this kind.)

The spuds and carrots were peeled and diced and put into a pot with water just about covering them.
After I had let them boil for about an hour (I told you, I had plenty of time), with me replenishing the water twice so that the bits were always covered, they were soft enough to be easily mashed up with a spuds masher.


And then came the part where I cheated: instead of making this soup with home-made vegetable or chicken or any other kind of broth, I used the instant vegetable broth they sell at the supermarket. Sometimes when I am cold but too lazy to cook, I have a mug of this broth to warm me up and a slice of bread with it.


But the "cheating" broth was not the only spice for my wintery soup, of course. I had brought nutmeg and ground ginger from the Christmas market a few days before, and I used that, the result being a delicious but not over-spiced, warm taste and scent.


The soup needed to boil a bit longer, and RJ was not here yet anyway, so I used the time to dice a few slices of untoasted bread and fry it in a pan with some oil to make croutons.


I had also fried a package of sausages I still had in the fridge, and we put those in our plates before the soup was added, and then the croutons. We had salad with that, and ice cream for dessert. 


Although I'd never made this kind of soup before, I think this will not have been the last time; the result was really good.

16 comments:

  1. I don't think that using the instant stock is cheating. I don't use enough vegetables to have the left over peelings etc to make anywhere near enough stock for the amount of soup I make. Not do I use meat with bone for stock. So I use the instant stock almost all the time.

    I use a stick liquidiser to mash my soups. One of the most valuable items in my kitchen armoury!

    I love ginger too.

    Hmmm. I'm feeling peckish now!

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  2. GB, my mum has such a stick liquidiser, too, but I lack such sophisticated kitchen equipment (and since I do not cook more often than once or twice a week, it would be a waste to buy any).
    I am glad you do not consider my use of instant stock cheating :-)

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  3. That looks like a good recipe and a bit different from how I make soup . I usually fry an onion first. I also made soup yesterday from leftovers - I had fennel, onion and a cauliflower . Actually I got the cauliflower to make muffins. I picked up a recipe ina bio shop in Germany but I have not yet sat down with my dictionary to translate and meanwhile the cauliflower is getting older...

    I too used "cheating" bouillon and dried rosemary which I collected fromt the garden and a bit of curry powder which I thunk goes well with cauliflower. And oddly a bit of sugar - not much. As you can guess, trial and error. The verdict was "very good "

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  4. It sounds very interesting, Jenny, I don't think I have ever had cauliflower combined with curry, but I am quite sure I'd like it!

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  5. Your soup sounds so good and warming. And like GB above, I love ginger too! That along with cinnamon is something I am never without.
    Just wondering, do you make cornbread? I may have asked you before, I can't remember. I could buy cornmeal in England but no one else had ever heard of it.
    You see, cornmeal muffins would be what I would make to go with the soup!

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  6. Kay, it WAS good and warming :-)
    No, you have not asked me before whether I make cornbread. And I don't. But if cornmeal is what I think it is, then it is sold in most supermarkets overe here, and in all those shops specialized on "green" food as well as food for people with special dietarian requirements, such as diabetics, people who can not eat gluten or lactose, and so on. We have several such shops in my home town.

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  7. Hello:
    We just love soup, any kind and in any season. It is such a marvellous invention and is the most perfect vehicle for using up whatever one might have available. Yours looks wonderful. Life is often too short in our view to make a vegetable 'broth'.....!!!

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  8. Jane and Lance, welcome to the soup lovers' club :-) And you are right about the broth!

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  9. Like Jenny I never make soup without onions and I also use curry powder in my cauliflower soup it's really good.

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  10. I just love that you refer to potatoes as 'spuds!' Is that German or Librarian?

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  11. I'm not really into carrots but this one looks good... (well, as long as I don't get to taste the carrots...) :))

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  12. GB, onions do not feature greatly in my kitchen since I am not too keen on them (but I love garlic). Must really try that curry-cauliflower-combination soon!

    Jill, Steve used to say that, he was a Yorkshire lad and I grew so used to his expressions that I have largley adopted them.

    Denise, simply chuck enough ginger and nutmeg in, and maybe use fewer carrots and more spuds, and the carrots won't bother you :-)

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  13. For many years, back in the day, curry dip and raw cauliflower-ets were served at cocktail parties. Haven't noticed this recently. Dips seem to go in and out of favor.

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  14. It sounds quite nice, Jill, and seems a shame it has gone out of fashion. Maybe you want to start a revival?

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  15. If Jill comes back, we say spuds, too! I love your cooking description. And that picture at the top is really wonderful. Shiny and bright!

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  16. Thank you, Nan! You are the only one who noticed that I have added a header picture for the very first time since I have started my blog.
    Last Wednesday, I one of my closest friends came visiting, and I'd put the present I had prepared for him on top of the cabinet so that I would not forget to give it to him, and then I thought, this looks nice, and took a picture.

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