In recent efforts to eat well, eat less, and be frugal with our food, I introduce you to 5 more soups.
Noodle Tomato Soup
I roasted some very pretty pieces of red pepper and tried to make a tomato and roasted red pepper soup, but the flavours weren’t coming out well enough with tinned tomato (you definitely need fresh not tinned), so I added noodles.
It also contains half an onion and half a bag of bean sprouts. A lot of flour and a little milk was used to thicken it. Stock, extra salt and a few herbs and spices are a must, but the soup is quick and healthy, if a little peculiar. Done properly with a large quantity of roasted red pepper and fresh tomatoes, skinned by dipping them in hot water, it’s amazing.
Black Bean Soup
I had a lot of black beans in the cupboard, dry, which I soaked overnight and boiled for over an hour. Sadly the soup product still found them slightly undercooked, but you can’t have anything, and it tasted really nice – the flavour soaked out really well!
I found a variety of receipes for black bean soup on the web, but you actually have to type in “vegetarian” if you want one without bacon or pork in it! In the end, I borrowed some ideas and did it myself – using plenty of fresh ginger, tomato puree, stock, and a generous dollop of honey.
Mixed vegetables go into the recipes suggested. Mine contained onion, carrot, potato, mainly.
It’s very much a do-what-you-want-with-it soup, in my opinion.
Floating Mushroom Soup
I don’t like cream of mushroom soup; I think it’s vile. And the Fiance is not keen on mushrooms full stop. However, I do really enjoy the floating button mushrooms in the Chinese Noodle Soup recipe I use from the Women’s Institute, so decided to do a version of my own.
I diced up some potato, chopped some onion, quarted my somewhat large button mushrooms and opened a tin of butterbeans. A bit of stock and cayenne to spice it up, and voila, floating mushroom magic.
It was delish.
Tomato and Lentil Soup
I gotthis recipe, oddly enough, from the Recipe of the Week section in our local Brummy newspaper. I usually just glance at it, as it is mostly meaty, but today’s wasn’t, so I read it, adjusted quantities (I think it was to feed 6 or something) and made some. I made enough to feed 3.
Used:
Half an onion
2 small carrots
2 sticks of celery
…and chopped them up really really fine using a herb chopper until it was practically mash. Heated in a bit of oil until golden, then added
About a cup of lentils
A tin of chopped tomatoes
Half a stock cube (Knorr vegetable)
I also added salt, pepper and thyme, which were not in the original recipe, but made it good.
I then boiled it gently, adding a little extra water, until the lentils were cooked and I was pleased with the viscosity.
I couldn’t get a photo which accurately represented the colour, so here’s one which is too red:
And here’s one which is too orange:
French Onion Soup
This is a very simple soup, but delicious and completely timeless. For soup for two all you need is 1 large onion, 1 stock cube, water and oil – it’s that awesome!
Finely chop the onion, frying slowly on a low temperature until golden. Then add water and stock and boil for a while. Doesn’t really matter how long, and you can always make more and reheat.
To serve traditional French style, toast two slices of bread per person and cut into quarters, then grill a small bit of cheese onto each piece. The squares of cheesy bread may then be floated in the soup. You can also use a French stick.
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We’ve been working with Lamb. They are friendly, compromising and their food looks great. But maybe not that comprmising. We asked them to try and find ways to reduce the price (e.g. by cutting some service, et cetera)… and it crept UP.
Since it’s now nearly twice what we wanted to pay, we decided to have another look for Oxford caterers from scratch. We’d been tipped off that smaller caterers will have lower prices (though they are harder to find out about), so we started hunting through lists to find more obscure ones.
In the end 4 caterers got back to us, but only two were really interested in helping us and giving us a low price, and sent us menus tp peruse. We asked for quotes. One of them was even higher than Lamb!
However, the other was lower than the Lamb quote, and, unlike the others, was INC VAT!
We have a WINNER.
We haven’t booked them yet, so I won’t link you to them, but here is a little taster…
I have given some thought to your main course requirements and have listed a few suggestions that you may like to consider or that may spark some ideas with you.
Butternut squash and sweet potato Tagine with dried fruits, honey and Moroccan spices
Lamb strips or Chicken Fillet Tagine with similar fruits and spices.
Served with a timbale of tomato scented cous-cous and a selection of steamed vegetables.
Slow cooked British Beef Steak in Red Wine with a hint of horseradish
Or a Pastiche of baby Roots braised in Burgundy
Both served under a herb scone
With a selection of potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Turkey Cranberry and Brie Wellington
Or Portobello mushroom cranberry and Brie wellington
Both served on a bed of wilted spinach
With minted new potatoes and steamed garden vegetables
Old Town Smokie
Salmon, smoked haddock and tiger prawns cooked in a creamy cheese sauce
topped with golden sliced potato
Or broccoli, courgette and almond bake topped with golden sliced potato
Served with ratatouille stuffed tomatoes and glazed chantenay carrots
This list is by no means exhaustive or exclusive if you are happy with the price and would like to go ahead and decide on your choices a little closer to the date please let me know and we can put the booking into the diary.
I do hope that we can share your special day with you and look forward to hearing from you.
Leave a comment | tags: ate, baby roots, beef, brie, burgundy, butternut squash, cassis sorbet, caterer, caterers, catering, cheese sauce, chicken, cook, cooks, cranberry, cream cheese, delicious, dried fruits, duck, eat, eating, eats, events catering, exciting, food, garden vegetables, good food, herb, herb scone, honey, horseradish, lamb, mmm, Moroccan spives, mushroom, nom, onion, pastiche, portobello mushroom, potato, red wine, scone, sorbet, spices, spinach, squash, steak, steamed vegetables, suppliers, sweet potato, tagine, tiger prawns, tomato, turkey, vegetables, wellington, white wine, winner, wrightons, yummy | posted in Budget, Food and Drink
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