Garden soup

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been quite busy in my garden over the past few months planting and maintaining veg.  The first things that I planted this year were spinach, watercress and rocket seeds.  I sowed them straight into a prepared bed in May

Tomato, lentil and lime soup - yummy!!

For lunch today we had tomato, lentil and lime soup.  The recipe is from the April 2012 issue of Olive magazine.  I found the recipe on the Good Food website by searching for lime soup.  There were a few lime left in my fruit bowl (they are starting to look a bit sad so I wanted to use them up) so I decided to see if there was a recipe that would allow me to use one of them for lunch.

One thing that I liked about this recipe (other than the fact that the soup was delicious) is that it uses both the zest and the juice of the lime, so there is no waste.  The recipe is easy to follow and quick to make.  I had a little bit more soup than what was needed to serve two people, so I have a portion left over for lunch tomorrow (there may well be a fight over who gets to take it to work!) as well as being able to feed two adults and a child lunch. 

I didn't give it to my son as I used a stock cube to make the vegetable stock.  To make the soup suitable for giving to a baby you need either make your own vegetable stock from scratch, omitting salt or use a low salt variety of stock cube (for example, Boots sell low salt stock cubes suitable for weaning in the baby food section of their shops).

Alterations
I made a few small alterations to the recipe.  I couldn't find my cumin seeds so I decided to use a little ground cumin instead of spending ages looking for the seeds.  I didn't have a large carrot, but had four small ones which I used instead.  Also, while the soup was simmering, the volume of the liquid decreased quite a bit, so I added some boiled water from the kettle to the pot. 

Cost
The onion for the soup cost 20 cent, the carrots were about 30 cent, the can of chopped tomatoes were 45 cent (from Lidl), the lime was 25 cent and I have allowed another 50 cent for the stock cube, ground cumin and puy lentils.  That makes the total cost of the soup €1.70 for three adult portions and a child's portion.  I think this would easily feed a family of four if the children are quite young.  If they are a bit older you might want to double to ingredients and have any leftovers you might have for lunch the next day.

If I had successfully grown my own carrots and onions this year (as I did last year) then the cost of the soup would have been €1.20 which is extremely cheap for lunch for the family.

Summer pea pasta

Like many parents, when feeling unwell I still have to make dinner for my kids regardless of how I'm feeling.  So on Monday night I wanted something quick to make so that I didn't have to stand at the cooker for long.  Also, given that I wasn't feeling very well, I didn't want something creamy or heavy to eat.  I found this recipe for summer pea pasta in the August 2010 issue of the Goodfood magazine and thought it would make an ideal meal for my family. 

This recipe was really handy for me to make as I had all the ingredients in the house except the basil and chilli which are available in my local green grocers, so I didn't have to go to a supermarket to get ingredients for dinner.


Tip
Eating vegetarian can be a good way of cutting the costs of a meal so I have decided to try and introduce more vegetarian meals to my family.  Unfortunately, my husband tends to expect meat with every meal (show me an Irishman who doesn't!) so I find that when I suggest adding a vegetarian option to the menu that it is usually meet with a 'what meat are we having with that' from him.  On Monday night he had no idea what he was having for dinner as the menu hadn't been prepared in advance, so couldn't protest at the lack of meat, so perhaps my plan for the future should be to just spring meat-free dishes on him!!  Fortunately for me, this dish was really tasty and filling, so he couldn't complain too much about the lack of meat.  If he did I think I would have told him how much it cost and pointed out that he could maybe have a nice steak some night soon with the money I saved!!

Alterations
As I was making this for two adults and one child, I used a bit less pasta, basil and peas than what the recipe suggests.  I used the full amount of red chilli, garlic and lemon zest suggested despite using less of the other ingredients and the result was a dish full of flavour.

Cost
This was quite a cheap dinner to make.  The basil was 40 cent, the pasta was 50 cent, the peas were 50 cent, the red chilli was 30 cent, the garlic was 20 cent and I am allowing 10 cent for the olive oil.  This means that the total cost of the dish is €2.

I haven't counted the lemon zest in the overall cost as I still have the lemons to use in another dish and didn't want to end up counting the cost of them twice.

Parsnip soup

As my menu planner for the week shows, on Sunday I intended to make soup for my family, but the type of soup would depend on what vegetables were on offer in Dunnes when I got there.  Parsnips were on offer for 49 cent for a tray of 500g.  I bought two trays (98 cent) knowing that I would be able to find some sort of parsnip soup on the GoodFood website that I could make.  After doing a search on 'parsnip soup' and sifting through the results I decided on the parsnip soup with parsley cream, minus the parsley cream as I didn't have all the ingredients for it.

I only completed step one of the recipe.  After an incident (the soup boiled over when I went upstairs to see what my daughter was up to) there wasn't much liquid left in the soup, so I didn't bother with the removing of the liquid to blend the parsnip.  As it was, once I finished blending I had to add a bit of liquid to the soup as it was very thick. 

The end result was pretty tasty and it is definitely one I would make again.  Removing a chunk of the steps and cutting the parsnips finer than the chunks the recipe calls for meant that it was ready in about 30 minutes.  Leftovers were used for lunch on Monday.

Not adding the parsley cream lowered the calories and fat content of the soup considerably. I used slimline milk to help lower the fat content as well.


Cost
The cost was pretty reasonable.  As I already noted the parsnips cost me 98 cent.  I have allowed another €1 for the onion, stock, milk and bay leaves - I think this is quite generous.  This means that the total cost of the soup was €1.98.  Another bargain soup for lunch!!

Next time I make the soup I'd really like to make the parsley cream as well.  I know that this will add to the cost of it, but given how cheap it is in the first place I don't mind.  As I've mentioned before - parsley is one of my favourite ingredients and I'd try the soup with the parsley cream in it to see how it adds to the taste.

Orange, carrot and mint soup

For lunch this weekend I wanted to make some sort of a carrot soup that I had never tried before.  I didn't want anything with coriander in it or red lentils, so I did a search on the GoodFood website and found this recipe for orange, carrot and mint soup.  All the ingredients were in my cupboards and I as interested to try the combination of orange, carrot and mint.  It was lovely!

Now, I have to confess that when it came to making the soup I wasn't too pushed about step 3 - it seemed like it would take a lot of time to me.  Plus it would result in extra dishes to wash which would use up even more time!!  Instead I used my hand blender to blend the soup in the pot.  It was still really smooth and velvety.

Alterations
I didn't really make any alterations to this recipe.  I had no large onion so I used 2 small onions instead, but I don't really think this could be called an alteration as this ingredient was listed already.  To lower the fat I didn't bother using the cream.  If I was to make it again I might use fry lite to further lower the fat content. 

I didn't add any salt to the soup and it tasted fine without it.  I never add salt to any of my cooking as I think it's best to leave it for people to add their own salt.

Cost
The recipe was quite cheap to make.  The carrots cost 70 cent, the onions were 10 cent (bought when they were 29 cent for a kg), the orange that I juiced was 80 cent and I have allowed 30 cent for the mint and the vegetable stock cube.  This means that the recipe costs €1.70 in total.  There is enough to do lunch for my family today and tomorrow.

My effort in a bowl!

Broccoli and almond soup

Well, as I said in my menu planner for the week I intended to make some soup for the weekend but the type of soup would depend on what vegetables were on offer in the supermarket.  When I was doing my shopping broccoli was on offer for 35cent for 500g.  I bought two to use for soup and as one of the vegetables that I would serve with the roast beef dinner on Sunday.

To be honest I hadn't ever made a broccoli soup before and had only ever eaten it once when I was kept in hospital overnight while pregnant with my second child.  I liked it and was sure I'd find a recipe among my various recipe books at home.  If I hadn't I would have fallen back on the trusty Goodfood magazine website for a suitable recipe.

As luck would have it I had a choice of recipes for soups using broccoli as the main ingredient.  I decided to make broccoli and almond soup for the simple reason that I had all the ingredients - there are only 4 excluding the seasoning - in the house.  The recipe is from 'The Soup Bible', edited by Debra Mayhew.

The recipe is as follows:-

Ingredients
50 g/ 2oz/ 0.5 cup ground almonds
675 g/ 1.5lbs broccoli
900 ml/ 1.5pints / 3.75 cups of vegetable stock or water
300ml / 0.5pints / 1.25 coups of skimmed milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ gas 4.  Spread the ground almonds evenly on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes until golden.  Reserve one quarter of the almonds and set aside to garnish the finished dish.
2. Cut the broccoli into small florets and steam for about 6-7 minutes until tender.
3. Place the remaining toasted almonds, broccoli, stock or water and milk in a blender and blend until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Reheat the soup and serve sprinkled with the reserved toasted almonds.

This soup was really quick and easy to make.  I decided not to garnish the finished dish with the toasted almonds which saved me a bit of money and will make my ground almonds last a bit longer.  I found it quite tasty.  In the future I might use chicken stock instead just to give it a slightly different flavour. 

Cost - This soup was really cheap for me to make owing to the fact that the broccoli was only 35 cent.  I used one and half heads of the broccoli that I bought to make the soup, costing me 53 cent.  I used about 35g of ground almonds which I have estimated at about 85 cent.  The milk was about 30 cent and I will allow 10 cent for the stock cube and seasoning.  The overall cost of the soup is € 1.78 using these estimates.

Cream of scallion (spring onion) soup

Spring onions were on offer in Dunnes this week for 45 cent per bunch.  I remembered seeing a recipe for Cream of Spring Onion soup in a recipe book at home, so bought 3 bunches to make it.  I then set about the somewhat mammoth task of trying to find the recipe (note to self - must write down the name of the cookbook I see recipes I'd like to make in so that I can find them easier!).  Anyway, I eventually found the recipe yesterday and set about making it to have for lunch today.

It tastes quite similar to leek and potato soup, so if you like it you should like this.  The recipe is from 'The Soup Bible' published by Hermes House.  The recipe is as below.  I've added any alterations I made in brackets.  The recipe serves 4-6 people and can be served hot or cold.

Ingredients
25 g/1 oz/2 tbsp butter
1 small onion
150 g/5 oz/1.75 cups spring onions, chopped  (I used a bunch and half of the spring onions I bought in Dunnes)
225 g/8 oz potatoes, peeled and chopped
600 ml/1 pint/2.5 cups vegetable stock
350 ml/12 fl oz/1.5 cups single cream  (I didn't use this, so my soup was really just spring onion soup, not cream of spring onion soup!)
30 ml/2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to season

Step 1

 Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add all the onions.  Cover and cook over a very low heat for about 10 minutes or until soft.
2. Add the potatoes and the stock.  Bring to the boil, then cover again and simmer over a moderately low heat for about 30 minutes.  Cool slightly.
3. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor.  (I used my hand blender so didn't need to do the first part of step 4)
4. If serving the soup hot, pour it back into the pan.  Add the cream and season with salt and pepper.  Reheat gently, stirring occasionally.  Add the lemon juice.  (I don't add seasoning.  I put salt and pepper on the table and let each person season their own instead)
5. If serving the soup cold, pour it into a bowl.  Stir in the cream and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.  Cover the bowl and chill for at least 1 hour.
6. Sprinkle with the chopped spring onion greens or chives before serving.  (I didn't bother with this)

TIP  To lower the fat of this recipe I didn't add the cream.  It was still tasty.  The fat content could be lowered even further by using fry lite instead of the butter.

Cost - Again, this is another recipe that was quite cheap to make as a result of the scallions being on offer in Dunnes.  I used a bunch and half in this recipe, so that's 68 cent.  The potatoes I had left over from a bag I had from a previous week, estimated cost 50 cent.  I had a lemon in already as I had bought a tray of 4 for €1 two weeks ago.  I used half of a lemon, so that is 12 cent.  The onion was leftover from a bag I got for 49 cent, so 6.5cent for it.  I've allowed 50 cent for the remaining ingredients, making the total recipe cost €1.86!

Obviously if I had added the cream this would have added quite a bit to the overall cost of the recipe, so omitting it kept the recipe under € 2 as well as lowering the fat.