Easy Pumpkin Soup

 Having an allotment means ( if you grow them ) an almost endless supply of pumpkin. I now have last years to use up and I previously roasted it and whacked it in the freezer as it makes amazing soup and rather good risotto - if I can bear to not eat it straight out of the oven after roasting!. 

I needed a quick fix for dinner and had various bit and bobs in the fridge so this was the perfect easy dish.

Ingredients

4 Large Carrots   - peeled and roughly chopped

As much Pumpkin as you actually have to hand

2 Large Onions  - roughly chopped

2 Cloves Garlic - roughly chopped

1 Hot Chilli - roughly chopped

2 Sticks Celery - roughly chopped

Half a tube tomato puree

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tin full fat coconut milk

Good Splash Hendersons/ Lea and Perrins sauce

1 Stock cube/pot chicken or veg is fine

Salt and Pepper

If you have raw pumpkin then just take a little longer to cook but otherwise it's the same. I like my pumpkin roasted as it gives it a really nice roasted nutty taste.

Heat a little olive oil in a large flameproof pan and saute the onions for a few minutes, add all the other ingredients and a little splash of water just to cover - barely - you don't want to drown the vegetables.

Cook for about half an hour or so or until all the vegetables are cooked through.

When slightly cooled put through a blender or stick blender until smooth.

Return to a gentle heat and add coconut milk and season to taste.

Next time I'll put in two chillies I think as the soup can take the heat. 

We like this quite thick but you can thin it out a little with more stock or water, served with warm crusty bread - yummy !! 

Experimental Sauerkraut

 I've spent a long time thinking about making this as we love it, I really like the turmeric one but it's quite expensive to buy it ( in pretty small jars ). Noodling around on facebook at the weekend I found a lady in Scotland ...Nourished By Nature.... and decided to give it a go.

I followed the instructions apart from the fresh ginger as I'd forgotten to buy it. It was terribly easy and fingers crossed we'll have edible sauerkraut in a few weeks.

https://www.nourishedbynature.uk/

Lets see how this goes.....

Paul Hollywood's Corned Beef and Potato Pie

 Once again I gave his nibs a choice, corned beef hash or corned beef pie - prompted honestly by a random finding of a recipe by Paul Hollywood ! After a small amount of indecision, it was a thumbs up for corned beef pie.

This looked terribly easy and a great choice for a winters night.

Ingredients

For the pastry

250gms Plain Flour

125gms Good Butter

2 Free Range Eggs

Pinch salt

Little cold water if needed

For the filling

1 x  340g tin of Corned Beef  - chopped into large chunks

1 Medium Onion - chopped

2 Large Carrots - chopped

2 Sticks Celery - chopped

2 Large Potatoes - diced

1 Tablespoon Good Olive Oil

Splash Lea and Perrins or Hendersons Sauce

250mls Beef Stock

1 Tablespoon Chopped Parsley

Salt and Pepper

To make the pastry, place flour and salt into a large bowl, rub in the cold butter until it looks like breadcrumbs, whisk up the eggs and simply pour into the flour mix ( save a little bit for your glaze ) , bring together gently - add a tiny amount of cold water if needed - Do NOT overwork, simply bring together, form into a ball and wrap in clingfilm. Place in the fridge while you make the filling, don't leave too long or it becomes unworkable - no more than 30 minutes for sure.

Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan and add onion, fry gently for about 3-4 minutes then add the other veg, give it a good stir and leave to cook for 10 minutes or so, return every now and again to stir. 

Add potato and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Cook for a further 5 minutes and then carefully add the corned beef.

Add the stock and sauce and leave to simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the stock has been absorbed and the vegetables are cooked through. Do not stir too much if you want the corned beef to stay in chunks - it breaks up really easily and we like it to stay in chunks.

Once cooked , take off the heat and leave to cool completely.

When you are ready to assemble the pie, preheat the oven to 200c/ 400f gas mark 6

Add the chopped parsley to the filling and divide the pastry into two,  roll out to fill your pie dish, place one piece into pie dish and fill with the filling, place top on and crimp edges, cut a couple of holes in the top and brush with remaining egg. 

I never trim the pastry as one of us likes to nosh all the trimmings :) 

Place on a metal baking tray and cook for approx 30 - 35 minutes or until golden.

Leave for about 15 minutes if you can as it'll slice a lot easier, this is an amazing pie and it was great served cold ( not fridge cold ) next day - someone was very happy with this. 

Beef Stew And Dumplings

 It's that time of the year again, I gave the lovely Mr Debs a choice of beef stew and dumplings or pho as I had a large piece of brisket that I randomly bought whilst in the market ( looking for silverside ).

Honestly, I thought he'd go for the pho as we have just returned from a wonderful trip to Australia and the choice of cuisine was remarkable....nope.....straight away he plumped for this British winter stalwart. 

Every time I make this it's slightly different depending on the veggies available but just throw anything that you have in as it always comes out tasting delicious anyway.

Ingredients

1 Kilo piece Beef brisket

3 Large Carrots Roughly Chopped

2 Large Onions Roughly Chopped

3 Sticks Celery Chopped

2 Cloves Garlic Minced

1 Parsnip Chopped

3 Bayleaves

2 Beef Stock Pots ( or beef stock cubes )

3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

3 Tablespoons Mushroom Ketchup

2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Mixed Dried Herbs

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

Salt and Pepper to taste

For the dumplings

160gms Self Raising Flour

80gms Butter

2 Tablespoons Chopped Parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cold Water

Now, many recipes will have you browning the meat etc before you put all these ingredients into the stock pot or slow cooker, I've tried both ways and it makes no difference at all. I simply put everything into my slow cooker, top up with cold water to make plenty of gravy and put the cooker on a high setting for 7-8 hours.

Once the meat is tender and falling apart , thicken the gravy.

Towards the end of the cooking time and about 45 minutes from serving, make the dumplings.

Simply rub the butter into the flour to make a fine breadcrumb consistency, add salt and chopped parsley, bring the dough together with enough cold water to make a slightly sticky dough - do NOT overwork - simply bring together and form into balls.

 Pop them into the pot, cover to cook .

They can cook in about 30 minutes but they're even better after 45.

Serve with whatever floats your boat, we had peppery buttery cabbage with enough left over for bubble and squeak next day.

Vegan Lemon White Bean Soup ( Vegan Richa )

 Finding this lovely blog has been an absolute inspiration for my vegan cooking, I cook up something nice for Sam and Hayley every week as I look after our granddaughter and this blog has soo many recipes I'm spoilt for choice. 

This one appealed to me as I love all thing beany and lentilly and I make a really large pot and share it between us.

It was terribly easy to make and I would say served 5/6 portions with some nice crusty bread.

Ingredients

For the bean puree

• 1 to 1.5 cups cooked white beans( I used canned )
• ▢0.75 cup cashews or 1 cup silken tofu
• ▢6 teaspoons white miso
• ▢6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• ▢3 tablespoon lemon juice
• ▢3 teaspoon lemon zest
• ▢1.5 cup vegetable stock or a little more if needed
• 
  

Place all ingredients into a blender and blitz until nice and smooth.

Ingredients for the soup

• 6 teaspoons olive oil
• ▢12 cloves garlic finely chopped or minced
• ▢2 large chopped onions
• ▢6 teaspoons tomato paste
• ▢3 teaspoons dried oregano
• ▢
• ▢1.5 teaspoons smoked paprika
• ▢0.75 to 1.5 teaspoon black pepper
• ▢1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ▢4 large chopped carrots chopped small
• ▢3 sticks chopped celery chopped small
• ▢1 red pepper chopped small
• ▢3 x  400g tins any cooked white beans
• ▢1 Large tin sweetcorn
• ▢3 cups chopped broccoli chopped small
• ▢4.5 cups vegetable stock or more if needed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Heat the oil in a flameproof stock pot and gently fry the garlic for a few seconds, add the onions and a good dash of salt, cook for about 10 minutes or until the onions are softened but not brown.

Add all the herbs and spices and tomato paste and a splash of stock and cook out for a couple of minutes.

Add all the veggies, cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add all the beans and the puree and the stock, give it all a good stir and cover and cook for a further 15 minutes until the veg are cooked.

Add more lemon juice if needed, add salt and pepper to taste and serve with crusty bread.

Picture ruthlessly taken from the original blog as we ate ours before photographing! It simply delicious and we all agreed that we love to have it again.

Happy New Year to all of you !

 Happy new year to all my readers, hoping that we have a happy and healthy 2026 xx 

One of the most beautiful places on earth Clashnessie, a piece of my heart is here .

Merry Christmas to all at Tony Ale Foodmarket Perth ( well Cockburn )

 Having just returned from an amazing one month trip to Perth to see my wonderful son, I had to post a picture and give a big shoutout to Tony Ale.

I visited here two years ago for the first time and most likely haven't stopped talking about it since. Fast forward two years and Tony Ale wonderful foodmarket was top of my things to do.

Now I realise that there is a LOT of stuff to do here and oh boy we did it - but - yup Tony Ale still gave me a great big thrill.

This is a food shop and then some, sad to say ( not that sad ) that it's at the very top of my list when I go to Fremantle.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AT TONY ALE 

If you see a punky pensioner gazing lovingly at the fruit and veg..... it'll be me