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Sunday, 2 November 2008

It's frickin freezing in here, Mr Bigglesworth

It's officially winter! It's cold, rainy and dark at 6 o'clock! Today I went to my friend's beautiful little girl's christening and then my friends came over for a little Supernatural catch up. By the time they went home I really was hungry and wanted something quick. But instead I took my time and made an AWESOME soup.

I won't lie, I totally stole this idea from the Barefoot contessa - it's a lentil soup with smokey sausage! Recipe is below the pic.


Lentil & Sausage Soup (approximates as I didn't weigh)
1/2 cup lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots
1 medium potato
2 medium tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, grated on a microplane or chopped finely
1 veggie stock cube
about 3 cups of water*
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
Good squeeze (tbsp or so) tomato puree
4 spicy/smokey vegan sausages (see below)
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
Pour boiling water over the lentils and set aside while you prepare the rest of the veg.

Chop the onions, potato and carrots into rough dice. Saute the onion in the olive oil and a pinch of salt for 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, tomatoes, carrots and potato and stir well and cook for a few minutes. Add boiling water from the kettle *enough to almost cover the veg (I also added a bit more as the soup was cooking so I added about 3 cups in total). Add the stock cube, tomato puree and the drained lentils and a pinch of salt & pepper. Don't go overboard on the salt if your stock cube has added salt. Add the herbs and bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and turn down to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes until the veggies are cooked.

Turn off the heat and add the sausage if still warm. If the sausage is cold, cook it for a minute or so after you add the sausage.

Check seasoning and serve with crusty bread.

Onto the sausages I used in the soup. I used the Everyday dish recipe, but I halved it and took out all the garlic & seasonings and replaced it with 1 tbsp of smoked paprika, 1 tsp regular paprika and 1 tsp liquid smoke.


To go with the soup, I made some focaccia. I didn't save the link to the recipe but I just googled focaccia and the one I used was ace.


I used my soymilk maker!! Exciting it was too, except that I was watching TV and the blade kicked in and scared the bejesus out of me several times!


This was brekkie today; it may look like a common old tofu scramble but the addition of a tablespoon or so of leftover VCON mustard sauce transported this scramble into a parallel dimension of radness!


Lastly, but definitely not leastly, I baked yesterday. I woke up hungover at my friend's house (Halloween was a boozy one) then went home, baked cupcakes and went back to my friend's house again to watch horrors. Bad ones.

My friends requested chocolate CCs with peanut butter frosting and that is what they got!

Cooking (the soup) to: Supernatural Season 2

14 comments:

  1. I am seriously feeling ya on the winder outside- I can barely feel my fingers!! Your food looks fricken amazing- and I really wish I could have some of that soup..

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  2. It's freaking cold here too Sal - all I want to do is cook and keep warm in the kitchen, and here was me thinking I'd lose the few pounds I'd put on during MoFo!!
    LOL!
    A bowl of your Soup with that bread and finished off with them there cupcakes and I'd be all warm again!
    YAY! For using your Soy Milk maker - I soooooooo badly want Santa to bring me one of these. Excuse my ignorance but you can make other Milks in it right?

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  3. And why don't you have a subcribe via email option on your blog? Yes I am lazy.

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  4. Oooh oooh ooh...where did you get your liquid smoke from?

    (sorry - multiple comments and LOTS of questions!!)

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  5. Jeni - yes you can make other milks in it, it has instructions for making almond and rice milk, so I want to have a go at that as well as it is really so quick and easy.

    Re the email thing - I'm dense with technology and haven't worked out how to do that yet! But I'll see if I can work it out!

    I had to order my liquid smoke online as I kept seeing it in all these ace american recipes. I got it from here - http://www.thebbq.co.uk/item/mesquite_liquid_smoke_145ml/ Which reminds me I must buy some more!

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  6. Scratch that! I just tried to order some more liquid smoke and they've told me they don't carry it anymore. I did a quick google search and this place does it (and I'm sure this place is about 5 minutes' drive from my house!!)

    http://www.americansweets.co.uk/stubbs-hickory-liquid-smoke-1351-p.asp

    Oh and email subscription box added!! :)

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  7. it's unseasonably warm here in southern indiana. but fall is in full force and i'm diggin' making stuff like chilli, fruit crisps, and quick breads that make colder weather more bearable.

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  8. oh man, stay warm, Sal! the soup looks sooooo glorious! i love the potatoes, carrots, and sausages! your focaccia looks glorious, too! mmmmmmmmmmm! i need more cuppies in my life, i think i might have to whip some up soon - and your scramble sounds rad, indeed! yummy eats, fo 'sho! mmmmmmmmm!

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  9. Yum! I'm sending this to my friend. He's got some frozen "pepperoni" that I made him for his birthday. I bet it would be perfect in this!

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  10. what an amazing display of yummies! you know, the very first vegan cupcakes i ever made were chocolate with pb frosting. oh yes, they are amazing. man... everything looks so good.

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  11. That soup looks like total cold-weather food - could do me a bowl of that right now! And your cupcakes look delish!!

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  12. That awesome bowl of soup will exorcise the winter out of a snowman! And that sausage looks AMAZING!
    Such pretty cupcakes, the frosting looks absolutely perfect! Chocolate + peanut butter = total bliss

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  13. I made this soup, Sal! It was awesome! Your yummy soup is the perfect remedy for these cold winter days! I blogged about it today :)

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speak to me, yo!