Sweet potato and chickpea soup

 
I really love this soup. This is my second time around the block with it and I still can't believe how easy and tasty it is.

You literally throw all the ingredients in the pot and boil for a bit. The recipe calls for canned chickpeas but I used dried. They take way more effort but I think they taste nicer. Plus they're dirt cheap, easier to store than tin cans and a doctor once told me they are less likely to make you gassy. Sounds good, eh?

 To prepare dried beans, soak them for 12 hours in cold water (overnight works well). Change the water a few times while they soak. (I usually put beans in to soak in the afternoon, change the water every few hours as I'm popping in and out of the kitchen and then leave them to soak overnight.) When you're ready to boil the beans, drain the water, throw them in a pot with more fresh cold water, bring to the boil and then boil rapidly for 10 minutes, skimming off any foam that's created (I love doing this bit - it's very satisfying, hence my photo below where the middle bowl is skimmed foam... scum to some). If you're going to use the cooking water in your recipe (good for soups!), after 10 minutes of rapid boiling, drain and cover with at least an inch of water (fresh and cold, you guessed it!), bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for at least an hour. Or you can choose to just lower the heat and simmer.

Different beans require different cooking times - chickpeas can take up to 2 hours. Once beans are cooked though, you can drain off the water (or keep it to top up stock in a soup) and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to use - I'd do this quite quickly though so they don't spoil.

I was quite sure why you needed to do the 10 minutes of rapid boiling so I googled it... and found this aptly named guide which has some really good tips about cooking beans, even if you're not particularly worried about flatulence (great word, flatulence).

Anyway - on to the recipe! This comes to you courtesy of the October 2011 Sainsbury's Magazine

Sweet potato and chickpea soup
Sainsbury's says: 'Sweet potatoes give a lovely smooth texture to soups.'

Prep 15 mins, Total time 35 mins, Serves 6

750g sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (this is about 2 largeish sweet potatoes)
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp grated root ginger (do use fresh instead of dried)
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped (I have a little pot of frozen red chillis - very helpful)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 litre veggie stock
1 x 410g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 3/4 cup dried, soaked and cooked)
handful of flat-leaf parsley to garnish

1 Put the sweet potato, onion, ginger, chilli, garlic and cumin in a large pan. Pour in the stock, cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the sweet potato is almost tender. Add the chickpeas and simmer for a further 5 minutes. (I think it takes longer than this to get sweet potato tender. And as I'd already been cooking the chickpeas, I just tossed everything together and simmered for awhile.)

 2 Puree with a hand-held electric blender or in a liquidiser until smooth. Add a little more stock or water if it's too thick. Warm through, check the seasoning and finish with freshly ground black pepper and a few parsley leaves to serve.

Can't beat a soup with two steps! Enjoy...

Cycle: On falling off your bike

 
(This post is from way back in March. I never got around to posting it then, but will now because I think it's funny.)

I wanted this post to be about sunshine and spring time and purple crocuses and how I've got my bike back (again) after taking it in to the bike shop because the gears were acting up (again).

But instead, this post is, I'm sad to say, about falling off your bike. Sigh. I'll try and get the pity party out all in one go.

I'm sitting on the sofa to write this, my legs on the footstool because I can't bend my knees and my hands resting rather comfortably on the keyboard due to the gauze and tape. My boyfriend Steven likes to watch me slowly go up and down the stairs because he says it's entertaining to laugh at a 20-something who walks like a pensioner and I've taken to calling myself Lurch in my head. (Frankenstein was just too cruel.) Rolling onto my side in bed last night was an absolute luxury because it took bloody ages to achieve.

Adults aren't meant to fall down. And it's why it's such a shock to your system when we do. I experienced that moment of thinking '... oh this is going to end badly ...' yesterday morning on my cycle in to work. I was already sore from my Thursday night yoga class, where I think I got a better grip on what it means to 'grip my outer hips together' but my ride was going well. It was chillier than I thought it would be and I nearly stopped to out my gloves on. *I should have stopped to put my gloves on.*

Have you seen that video of the cyclist in New York who after being given a ticket for not staying in the cycle lane decides to only cycle in the cycle lane to prove how impossible this actually is? My favourite bit is when he rides into a police car (parked, in the cycle lane).

My fall was not nearly as glamorous (?) as a headlong crunch into a police car. I had to move off the pavement (sidewalk to us North Americans) and onto the road to get around a transit van that was parked on the end of someones drive (yes, yes, I cycle on the pavement - but only sometimes and where the road is particularly narrow or where the cars go particularly fast). As I was moving to get back up on the pavement, I hit the curb at too shallow an angle and as the curb was higher than I expected, my wheel caught the edge and down we went. I bounced up pretty quickly - aware that I was wearing tights and a kind of short dress which may have ridden up over my bottom when I fell - too shocked to really remember. I picked my bike up as it was kind of hanging into the road and then felt really nauseated. Falling as a child never made me feel sick - just like crying. Falling as an adult makes me feel sick and like crying - crappy deal.

I took some photos of my ripped up knees and hands but it's kind of gross to share them I think so I'll leave it at summary of my physical woes - not including of course, my bruised ego and slight fear for getting back on my bike.

And now I'll sing my ode to Savlon Advanced Healing Gel and also to the nice man who stopped to see if I was alright. He insisted I call Steven and go home - which I think was a good call. I'm not sure that showing up to work with ripped tights would have made a great day. Nor would have leaving bloody hand prints on my mouse. Though in the large scheme of things, my trauma is peanuts. For example, my friend Hannah went over her handle bars and cracked her ribs - I'm such a wuss! Will aim to get back on it shortly - as soon as I can bend my scabby knees.

(Cleansing) Tuscan Bean Soup

Soup is my saviour these days.

I've decided to do a cleanse to get nice and trim for the summer... and in preparation for my high school bff's upcoming wedding. As I'll be wearing a midriff baring sari for the occasion, it's probably a good idea to shed a few spare pounds before the big day. And my skin has been a bit spotty lately and I figured my innards could do with a bit of a tidy up.

In my last year of uni I did this cleanse but as I was only ever cooking for myself, I don't remember making soup at all. It felt daunting to get a big pot out and make something with - what I imagined to be - huge amounts of leftovers. How wrong was I! I don't know how I managed a cleanse without making soup! Soup is so brilliantly healthy and easy and it makes eating a variety of things simple so you don't get bored and give up on the cleanse.

(As I write this, Saturday Kitchen Best Bits is on and Lorraine Pascale has just made triple chocolate cheesecake... omg it looks nice... and sooooo not cleanse friendly... How does she stay so skinny while eating brie and pancetta toasties? Some people just have it all.)

Yesterday's dinner was Tuscan Bean Soup - a modified version from The Soup Bible.

I've omitted the potato - potatoes, tomatoes and mushrooms aren't allowed on the first 10 days of my cleanse. All my food has to be cooked as well (no salads) so this soup gave a good chance to get some healthy greens in. (I've used curly kale instead of Savoy cabbage.)

I went a bit o.t.t. with the dried oregano last night. I didn't have any fresh in, but would highly recommend this - think it would be nicer. The recipe says that this soup tastes even better when reheated so I'll be looking forward to this for lunch today.

Tuscan Bean Soup, adapted from The Soup Bible

Ingredients
Serves 4

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 leeks, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, squashed through our new garlic press (Steven broke the old one and I'm sure glad he did)

5 cups veggie stock
14 oz can cannellini beans, drained and liquid reserved
6 oz Savoy cabbage, shredded (I used curly kale instead)
3 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1 Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently cook the onion, leeks, potato and garlic for 4-5 minutes until they are just beginning to soften

2 Pour on the stock and the liquid from the beans. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

3 Stir in the cabbage, beans and half the herbs, season and cook for a further 10 minutes. Spoon about one-third of the soup into a food processor or blender and process until fairly smooth. Return to the soup in the pan, adjust the seasoning and heat through for 5 minutes. (I just used the hand mixer to blend about a third of the soup. This worked fine too.)

Step 4 of this recipe has you make some garlic toasts to go with the soup. (Rub oil-drizzled bread with garlic and then toast the bread.) I'm not allowed wheat or yeast on my cleanse (or dairy or alcohol or...) so bread that matches this criteria is quite difficult to come by. I was in Whole Foods in London last week and got some amazing German rye bread but it's so tasty I'm going through it quite quickly. The expiry date is in 2014 but it will definitely be gone long before then... So absolute joy of joys when I found proper bread at Waitrose yesterday without wheat or yeast! Two varieties and it doesn't break the bank at about £1.70 a loaf. Though I haven't tasted it yet, I'm going to big this bread up simply for existing - Whole Foods sells loaves of spelt bread for more like £5.00 a loaf - not cool. I'm doing this cleanse by choice, but it really does make me feel for people in the UK who have food allergies. The gluten-free ranges at all the major supermarkets carry something that sure looks like bread, but it's crammed full of potato or maize starch (gross) and a long list of ingredients I can't pronounce. My bread from Waitrose has three ingredients - and I've heard of everything on the list. Sounds good to me.

On the left is bread from biona, available at Whole Foods and on the right bread by The Village Bakery, available at Waitrose. The bag looks funny here as it had just come out of the freezer for this photo shoot. Love the statement on it: ' More than 80% agree Rye leaves you less bloated...' It's only day 5 of the cleanse, but I would have to agree.

To warm the cockles of your heart...

 ... made for you, by me, from paper. Mon dieu, how I love paper. xo Happy Valentine's Day

Celeriac (my ugly friend and yours)

Don't you just love it when something defies expectations?

Celeriac is a perfect example. Ugly as sin, but tasty to beat the band. Such a humble vegetable - it even makes me feel bad for calling it ugly.

Alarming looking, yes?

This time of year in the UK, celeriac is easy to find and I do suggest you seek it out (it's kind of hard to miss). I've used it to make soup before and it's super easy to use (once you get that skin off), filling and tasty (like a sweet, nutty potato maybe? or kind of like parsnip but nicer?). Last night I decided to try it in a different incarnation though and made smashed celeriac.

 
(Some photos... nude celeriac after you've whacked off all the rooty bits and peeled it, chopped and in the pan, and smashed with bok choy/pak choi and veggie sausages. Apologies for the poor quality.)

I used a recipe by Jamie Oliver (who, btw, I LOVE but in a really platonic way) and be warned, it was quite garlicky. I'm pretty sure I still smell of it today though my work friend Dan assured me I was in the clear...

You could make a really simple soup instead by following the recipe and then adding a low salt veggie stock cube and enough water to cover. Boil it for a little longer (about 35-40 mins) and then whizz with a liquidizer. Alternatively, add more veg to start with - some celery, a leek, a potato, some parsnip or butternut squash - for a fuller flavour. I made the recipe exactly as called for and added chopped bok choy 2 minutes before serving. The heat from the dish gently steamed the greens and this addition is good for your intake of vitamins C, A and K. No joke.

I imagine celeriac would be amazing done like sweet potato fries in North America - a bit of salt and a bit of spice, deep fried with some chiptole mayo to dip in - my arteries are positively singing with joy... maybe I'll just have to give it a bash (a homemade, low-salt version, low-fat version that is). Don't worry, I'll take photos and let you know how it goes.

Awe... (can I have) ...some.

My mind was blown this week. Absolutely, no words for it, inspired beyond compare.

In September (or maybe May ;-) my high school bff, Bhavna. is getting married. We've been talking about wedding plans and ideas and she'd mentioned taking a course and learning to make her own wedding cake. I said, 'I can help!' and something was born.

I told Bhav I'd send her some pictures to help with ideas and in looking, I stumbled over... The Caketress.

The. most. amazing. cakes. I. have. ever. seen. Full stop.

(I found it difficult to work after I found this website/blog. My life needs more awe, more inspiration. I seriously considered quitting my job and offering to open Lori Hutchinson's mail just so she'd have more time to create awe-inspiring cakes. And she's a Canuck - ah but, of course.)

And if that wasn't enough - edible lace! It exists! My life is complete!

Inspired, I decided I would make a cake this weekend to practice some techniques and try out some ideas. It's no Caketress cake, but it's a start.

Cycle 1: The Fear

If I could sum up my early cycling-to-work experiences, it would be in the above. This has become my mantra and it honestly helps LOADS.

I realise that I went all shy and quiet just as the biking was getting interesting. (Well actually, choosing my bike and what happened next was a whole lot of waffling and pretty damn boring.) In another post I'll introduce you to my bike (not quite named as she's yet to settle down and sort herself out).

(A side note about fear: I would have ridden in to work either yesterday or today for the third time in 2012 except that on Saturday it snowed and oddly for England, it hasn't all melted yet. My post is about overcoming the fear, but I'm not a frickin numbskull and until England has sorted out some snowplows and cleared the roads, me and Ethel (one name for the bike bandied about) are playing it safe and I'm taking the bus.)

So: the fear. The first fear I overcame was that I quite simply wasn't going to make it. Twice in my first ride back in November I very nearly turned back and went home and it was only knowing that I would be ridiculously late for work that kept me going. This kind of makes me laugh - now - but there's something very strange about knowing that it is your own body that is going to get you the 6 miles to work. It's kind of a lot of pressure. The second fear is of the traffic.

There are two routes I can take to work - one picturesque, over hills and along canal tow paths (which I'll take in the summer when it's light out and I'm more confident) and the other: on the road, in the road, of the road. Cars generally give me a pretty wide berth (you'll understand when you see a photo of me on my bike) but I still have to bike alongside them and get in front of them and slow them down. (I hate slowing them down - how embarrassing!) That first ride when I nearly turned around and went home, I was in the way of a car as I tried to muster up the courage to bike on the road where the cars giving me wide berth would be risking it by crossing into the oncoming traffic around a blind corner. There is no fear here though if you... *drum roll please* keep calm and carry on. Just keep biking! Don't stop and it's all good. Particularly when biking between lanes of traffic on a roundabout. I won't explain the ins and outs of this except to say, it must be done, I have to cross lanes of traffic while going around the roundabout and having done it once, it's actually quite exhilarating (I'm always thinking 'I'm like a car! I'm like a car!') and I'm happy to do it again and again.

Those of you reading from Canada will be familiar with lululemon and their manifesto. I think it's a good mirror for the jpg I started this post with. One of the things from the manifesto also runs (cycles?) around my head as I cycle - do one thing a day that scares you (that and floss every day). On days when I ride to work, I definitely tick that one off the to do list.

Happy THE Year!

2012 is going to be THE year. It seems this year, I'm aware of new year's beginnings more than ever before. Get out there, try new things, make this year OUR year. I like the Chinese New Year (such good celebrations!) and celebrating it after the 'calendar' new year means that January gives me the chance to take stock and make some decisions - what is going to be a priority this year? What's on that list of resolutions, or in my case, what am I asking for this year - from myself and from the universe?

2012 is the Year of the Dragon. Chinese dragons are a symbol of power, strength and good luck. The perfect emblem for what promises to be a year full of big and exciting changes. The fireworks Steven and I watched last weekend at the Lakeside Arts Centre were amazing - a goosebumpy sign of things to come. I'm a bit scared of 2012 too if I'm honest (power, strength and good luck can be scary!), but as my friend Sonja says 'leap and the net shall appear.' Heck yes.

Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnip and Thyme Soup

Ola! I'm back!

Over Christmas and in the last few weeks I had some positive comments along the lines of 'Where's your blog gone? It's still on that mushroom soup!' and that in combination with more friends having blogs to follow has made me want to come back and keep on.

With a twist - of course.

Just making soup is kinda boring right? Anyone could just make the soup out of a recipe book, n'est ce pas? Why read about me banging on about it? What about reading about soups and other recipes I've created? Sound slightly more exciting? I readily admit I am no expert - heck, I'm not even a novice - but I'm going to attempt to bring you dead easy recipes from the things in your fridge (actually my fridge) as well as introduce to ingredients which may not be in your fridge but are well worth finding.

First up in 2012: Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnip and Thyme Soup

Ingredients
Serves 4
1 butternut squash
2 parsnips
1 large onion
2-3 tbsp of olive oil
handful of fresh herbs (I used thyme here)
1 low sodium stock cube
Boiling water to cover (about 1 litre)

Step 1: Roast your veg

This could not be more easy. I sliced the butternut squash lengthwise in two and scooped out the seeds. You could peel it, but I didn't bother and did this later. Peel the parsnips and cut them into cubes. Peel the onion and chop into large chunks. Chuck all of this on a baking sheet lined with foil making sure that the squash is scooped side down. Toss a bit of healthy oil on the vegetables and throw some fresh thyme on top. (I think most any fresh herb would be nice. I don't usually have fresh stuff but happened to this time and they were nearly out of date - bonus!) Stick your baking tray full of veg into the oven on 200ºF for about 40 minutes.

Step 2: Make soup

When the vegetables are done roasting, remove the thyme and crumble the toasted leaves into a soup pot. Peel the squash, cut it into chunks and put in the pot with the roasted onion and parsnip chunks. (Watch your fingers, the squash will be a little warm.) Toss in a stock cube and cover with boiling water. Whiz with a hand blender (do you like our shiny new one?) and serve with bread. Yum if I do say so myself.