Hot, Sweet and Sour Orange, Carrot and Ginger Soup

I've always liked orange carrot soup much more conceptionaly than in practice. I've even had a Covent Garden Soups version with carrot, orange and ginger, which I thought I would love, but didn't. To me, the flavours needs balancing and more punch, and what I love about Chinese food is the concept of balancing all the taste dimensions: sweet, sour, salty and acid.

A cold has been doing the rounds at work and in this little abode, so while I'll write up the 'Feed-a-cold Chicken Fusion Soup for Him' soup that we did on over the weekend later, today will be about my 'feed-a-cold soup for Her', which is the above.

Just a heads up: we'll be roasting the carrots first to get them nice and sweet.

This soup makes just enough for two bowls with leftovers for next day lunch. Double up if you want more.

Ingredients:

• half a red onion
• 2 cloves, ground
• 2 'petals' of star anise, ground
• quarter teaspoon powdered ginger
• half an inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped fine
• quarter teaspoon nutmeg
• kallo (or other gluten free brand) vegetable stock cube
• 100 ml orange juice
• 3 cloves garlic - chopped. oh yeah, this cold is going down!
• 3 carrots, sliced in half
• 1 potato, diced.
• 1/4 cup of pink lentils, washed and rinsed very well
• sprig rosemary

After soup is made:

• Balsamic vinegar - to taste
• honey- to taste
• Tabasco sauce or scotch bonnet pepper sauce, to taste

Method:
First, toss the sliced carrots in olive oil in a metal tray and place in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees to roast.

When the carrots are ready: fry the onion, garlic and ginger gently in a frying pan in a little olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Into a pot add this and the diced potato, rosemary, and other ingredients except the vinegar, honey and Tabasco sauce. Add a cup of boiled water and cook for 20-30 minutes of medium-low heat.

After the time is up, let the soup cool a little, then use a hand blender to get everything smooth.
Now add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and a little honey to taste, then pepper sauce. The result is a beautifully deep soup that hits your taste bugs in all their erogenous zones!

(I did this in my thermomix for 20 mins at 100C, then blended at speed 7 for about a minute)

Autumn Layered Polenta Bake

Ready-made polenta is one of those great standbys to keep in the fridge.
A low fuss, low effort dinner could be some grilled or stir fried veggies and some fried polenta chips, but since I'm trying to cut the cholesterol, I googled 'baked polenta recipe', hit 'image search' and clicked the images I liked the look of. This recipe is the love child of those recipes.

You can change the ingredients around based on what you have at hand and add more polenta layers if you have more than one pack. In essence, you want to make a sort of chunky stew and then sandwhich it between two layers of polenta which you'll bake in the oven until crisp. The difference in texture between those layers is what makes this meal.

I use nutritional yeast and salt mixed together to give it a crunchy, cheesy topping, but for the dairy or soy-cheese enabled, please feel free to cover the top with the melting stuff.
Ingredients

• Ready-made polenta, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 stick celery, chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 carrots, sliced
• half a can of puey lentils (leftovers from another a previous night’s dinner)
• 3 marks and spensor 100% meat sausages (leftover from Mr Umami's lunch), sliced
• 1.5 cups peeled and diced pumpkin (I used a potato peeler) OR sweet potato, diced and peeled.
• Quarter teaspoon dried oregano
• Sprig of fresh rosemary
• Dash of balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt
• 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• Extra virgin olive oil

For the topping:

• Nutritional yeast flakes
• Salt
• Olive oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 190c. This recipe will use the hob and the oven. On the hob, in a large frying pan, fry chopped onions, garlic and celery on medium heat for 3-4 minutes until the onions soften. Add carrot, pumpkin, herbs and a little salt, and leave on the same medium heat, stirring occasionally to get colour on all sides of the veg until the pumpkin starts to soften, about 10 minutes.

Brush a baking dish with a little olive oil and leave in the oven to heat for ten minutes.

Return to the hob: add the tinned tomatoes, hot water, lentils, sausages and a dash of balsamic vinegar, then tun the heat up and leave on the hob for another 10-15 minutes until the pumpkin is fork tender.

Remove the tray from the oven and arrange polenta slices on the bottom layer, then add the stew on top, then arrange another layer of polenta slices on top. Brush the top polenta slices with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with nutritional yeast flakes and grind some sea salt all over the top (cheese is actually quite salty). Put in centre of oven for 20 minutes.

Baked Spanish Meatballs and Potatoes in Tomato Sauce

They tell you to never shop for groceries while hungry, and that applies doubly for people with allergies; you will see things that you want to eat but can’t. This recipe was inspired by a Marks & Spensor 'Gastropub' ready meal. For the non-allergy prone, you could run off and buy the plastic tray version, but I encourage you to try meatballs spiced my way at least once. It's fast and easy to prepare and the results are perfect for an autumn evening.

You can use either (low fat) beef or pork mince for the meatballs, or a mixture of both. You could also add some chopped chorizo, although we’re going to spice our meatballs chorizo style anyway so it’s not necessary and I didn’t use it in my recipe.

I decided to skip a little oil by steaming the meatballs in my Thermomix varoma tray and used the Thermomix’s internal basket to boil the potatoes at the same time (why make life any harder?), but boiling the spuds the old fashioned way, in a pot, and browning the meatballs in a frying pan before putting both in the oven to cook through works just as well, although I'd reduce the boiling time a smidgen since you'll need to bake the meatballs in the oven just a tiny bit longer to cook through and don't want mushy spuds. You can use any tomato based pasta sauce for this recipe. I found a great tomato and basil one at Marks & Spensor which had no nasties in it.

Note: if using frozen meat, pour a little white vinegar on them to help tenderize the meat while it defrosts. This results in softer meat. 

Ingredients:

• 400g beef or pork mince
• 1 clove garlic (or two smaller cloves. I like mine big and chubby!)
• Quarter teaspoon smoked paprika (mine is hot, otherwise I'd use more)
• Teaspoon oregano
• Salt and pepper, to season
• 1 egg 
• Gluten free breadcrumbs
• 1 jar tomato pasta sauce
• New potatoes, sliced in half or regular potatoes cut into chunks.

Preparation:
In a large bowl, combine mince, oregano, chopped garlic,paprika, salt and pepper and egg. Add enough breadcrumbs to make the mixture non-sticky. Form into meatballs and add to varoma tray. Mine filled the bottom tray and a little of the second tray too. Since they’re going in the oven after, it's ok if they’re a little undercooked.

Chop potatoes and add to the thermomix’s internal basket. Add 3 cups boiled water to the Thermomix, place the varoma tray on top, set to 15 minutes, varoma temperature, speed one. Switch on oven to 200c to warm. When the spuds are done and the meatballs steamed (or pan fried) drain and place into a large baking tray. Coat meatballs and potatoes with tomato sauce and leave it to bake for 15-20 minutes (a little longer if pan frying. Steaming cooks them all the way through better).

Serve into bowls and enjoy!

Vegan Corn Chowder Recipe, Two Ways

This is an extremely comforting and filling soup, perfect for counteracting windy and wet commutes. Corn is very high in fiber and antioxidants, and cooking it for longer releases more of the good stuff.

We're in corn season so I'm using fresh corn in this recipe, although canned works just as well and apparently has a better amount of antioxidants, just less vitamin C. You could skip pre-boiling the corn and cook the soup longer, although when doing this recipe in the thermomix, which usually cooks roots and pulses tender in 20-30 minutes, I found that even at 45 minutes, the corn was still a little crunchy. I don't know how long uncooked corn would take to get soft in the slow cooker, and think it would probably be easier to pre-boil it first rather than overcook everything else to get it to the right texture.

The slow cooker recipe is a set-and-forget easy but takes 7-9 hours and needs another 30 mins to get the coconut milk hot. it's perfect for setting up before work, or if you'll be working at home and don't want distractions.

The thermomix is much faster- 35 mins- and doesn't need a hand blender, but you'll need to cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes ((puts-hand-on-forhead-to-feign-horror)) before adding the other ingredients in. Once the coconut milk is addd, it's really fast to warm that up in the thermomix. Today Mr Umami will be deep in the countryside of Thames Valley for much of the day, so this will be a thermomix day.

Ingredients:

• 2 ears of corn, kernels removed and boiled for 15 minutes
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1 large carrot, cut into cubes
• little pinch of smoked cayenne pepper- it's easier to add more later if not enough.
• pinch of nutmeg
• little bit of thyme
• 1-2 cloves garlic. (I like it garlicky!)
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh grated pepper to taste
• 2 measuring cups boiled water

(add these before serving)

• Half a can of coconut milk
• olive oil to taste (dairy free butter would actually be better, but we're out!)

Slow cooker recipe (takes 7-9 hours plus 30 mins)
Put ingredients except olive oil and coconut milk into the crock pot.
Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours. Before serving, puree using hand blender. Check the consistency: it should still show some chunks. Stir in coconut milk and olive oil, and heat on HIGH for 30 minutes. (or you can nuke in microwave to get the milk hot)

Thermomix Recipe
Add onion, garlic and a little olive oil and cook at speed spoon, 100c for 2 mintues.
Add other ingredients except canned coconut milk, cook at speed spoon 100C for 25 minutes. If the corn is still a little crunchy cook at varoma temperature for 2 mins.
turn to speed 5 for 15 seconds. Check the consistency. it should still show some chunks.
Add coconut milk and cook at speed spoon, 100c. for 5 minutes.

Sultry Carrot, Lentil and Aubergine soup

Why sultry? It has an unexpected twist- a quarter teaspoon of star anise and pink and white peppercorns that don't announce themselves, but gives this soup an air of mystery and depth.

I've written this recipe up for the thermomix since that's what I used to make it, but it's easy to do this with a frying pan, a pot and a hand blender, just leave it with some texture!

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, chopped
• Half an onion, chopped
• One clove garlic
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• Half cup pink/red lentils, washed
• Half a cup chopped baby aubergines
• 2 small potato diced (or one larger one)
• 300 ml boiled water or same amount of vegetable stock
• Vegetable stock cube
• Quarter teaspoon star anise, powdered
• A couple twists of mixed peppercorns (pink, black, white)
• Quarter teaspoon (hot) smoked paprika - don't worry, it won't be a hot soup!

Sauté the onions and garlic at 100c for 2 mins at speed spoon. Then add the chopped carrots and chopped aubergines and cook again at same temperature and speed for another 2 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook at 100c for 20 minutes (speed spoon). When time is up, blend at speed 4 for 20-30 seconds. This gives is a slightly chunky texture and you can still see flecks of aubergines.

Sea Maiden Salad: Raw Vegan 'Seafoody' Sea Vegetable Salad

I've started Kriss Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet, and am on day 4 of the 21 Day Cleanse, which is a low glycemic, no refined carbs, no sugars, no meat, no coffee or black tea, no junk, all vegan, high raw, low inflammation diet. It sounds hard-core, but I've been eating vegan at least twice a week and can't eat dairy and seafood anyway, and most importantly of all- I keep hearing people rave about how their assorted ailments improved on this diet. It's worth a shot!

So far, I'm loving it!
This Salad is so good! I had to write it down now before I forget what when into it. It started of as leftover lemon-kale salad which I added wakame to and then thought I'd make taste a bit more 'seafoody' with chlorella powder.

Ingredients:

• Half a cup chopped kale, stems and hard spines removed.
• Raisins, rinsed and soaked in hot water for 10-15 minutes, then drained
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt, to taste
• 1 tablespoon Arame, soaked in a little warm water (this will expand)
• 2 tablespoons broken off bits of Wakame (mine were in long strands) soaked in warm water for 10-15 minutes
• Half an avocado, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chorella powder
• 1 tablespoons sprouted sunflower seeds (optional, but I love the slightly nutty creamy taste these add)
• olive oil or flax seed oil, to dress

Toss the Kale with the lemon juice and salt and leave to wilt a little while the seaweeds are soaking, then add the raisins, seaweeds, sprouted sunflower seeds (if using) avocado and chlorella. Toss to coat the leaves with the chorella powder - this is where a lot of the seafood taste comes from, along with the sea weeds. Taste, and add a little more salt and oil if you like. The avocado gives the salad creaminess and texture and the raisins add sweetness to offset the kales bitterness. If you don't have or don't like raisins you can add some sugar but I'm avoiding sugar for my 21 Day Cleanse so raisins it is for me. 

Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

I confess, I've been cooking on autopilot a lot lately: cycling through my own recipes for weeks and reverting to my standby favourites (rice and beans, veggie rice, gluten free pasta, soup..so much soup!) when I'm really tired. It's been comfy! In the beginning, I felt I needed to put down a showstopper on the table each night, to prove to myself and my boyfriend that allergy food wasn't drab, but now that I know what's out there, chilling with the beau or having some time to read seems more important most nights.

Then we went away on a short break in Scotland and I mostly lived off my home baked gluten free bread, chorizo, and baked beans for four days. It was fun, but I really did not want to see anything tomato, bean, or sausage based when I got back. I wanted fresh, and lots and lots of veg. And easy to put together cos we were still unpacking. I kept thinking 'fennel' ..and then 'pineapple', so sweet and sour it was!

The following recipe for sweet and sour sauce comes out at around about the same thickness and taste as Uncle Ben's sweet and sour. Make of that what you will. Yes, it's not like in the Rice Box (Rice Box, I still miss you!), but it's still nice and doesn't require a box of pineapple juice and another of orange juice like some recipes ask for. it does require a can of pinapple chunks but you probably figured that since those are visible in most sauces anyway. Toss in whatever veg you have at hand, and serve over brown rice.
I know this list of ingredients seems long, but they are mostly things your likely to have at hand (they were what I had!). Probably the only things you'll need to get from the store are the actual pineapple and five spice powder. :)

Ingredients:

• 420g (or similar, that was the weight they had in the store. I could have used less) Pinapple chunks in natural juice. Don't drain the juice! We'll use it in the sauce.
• 2-3 tablespoons of orange marmalade. I used a 'no sugar added' brand cos I react to glucose syrup (which is often derived from wheat in Europe) but any type will do if your less sensitive. The marmalade has it's own sweetness, so it replaces both orange juice and sugar in other recipes. It's also something I had handy, and vow to keep handy!
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (or soy sauce if you're ok with soy)
• 100 ml sherry (sweet or dry)
• 1 inch fresh ginger, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3-4 tablespoons ketchup
• Quarter teaspoon fennel seeds
• 2 teaspoons five spice powder. I actually had no five spice powder so I pounded 2 cloves, a quarter stick of cinnamon, and a star anise in my pestle and mortar, then added coriander and lots of black pepper. I have a lot of herbs :)
• Cornflour, to thicken.  I always use Doves, cos they have gluten free facilities so I don't need to worry about cross contamination. 
• Red pepper, chopped into 1 inch chunks
• Garlic
• Onions
• meat and veggies of your choice
• Salt, to taste

Method:

1. Chop onions, garlic, and ginger, then fry the onions and garlic for 1 minute, then add the ginger for another minute. If using meat or meat replacement, add now and season. If using had veggies like carrots or cabbage, add this now too. All other veggies should be added later. 
2. Add the sherry, and let boil for 30 seconds.
3. Add everything else except the veggies. You added the pinapple juice too, right? Good! Stir well to get those the jam, ketchup, tomato paste and spices all mixed. You can add a bit more sherry to add liquid, but remember meat and many veggies give off water when they cook. 
4. Now add your veggies, and cook until soft. In a separate small bowl, add a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of cornflower and mix to get a smooth paste, add to the sweet and sour sauce to thicken. If it's not thick enough to your liking you can repeat this step. I added about 3 tablespoons of cornflower to mine. 

I served this with brown rice because I was craving simple, unrefined foods (I ate many, many refined rice cakes on the road), but sticky or egg fried rice would also be amazing with this. Here's a simple egg fried rice, and here's a more fancy one that would work as a quick meal on it's own, or accompaniment for a special dinner.