Pesto cabbage and chickpea soup

This is a red soup, a very red soup indeed! 

As much as I love this soup and could eat it every day, sometimes I have the urge to change things up a little and so today this is my new soup concoction.

I used a red onion and a red cabbage which gives the deep rich hue, but I imagine this would also work fine with white cabbage. The key ingredient in this soup is pesto. I used my homemade pesto but you could use any vegan pesto (or regular pesto if vegan is not a priority).

This soup is super simple to throw together, and allows for plenty of variation with choice of beans and cabbage type if you don’t have the ones I used to hand. I love using chickpeas in soups as they have a lovely unique bite to them, more so that other beans in my opinion, but that’s just me so feel free to go for your favourite. Or use red kidney beans for a truly red delight!

This makes for a lovely light lunch or a more hearty evening meal served with bread, cous cous or quinoa. You could even try this chilled on a hot summers day!

The sun has finally decided to come out here and I am going to make the most of it! I have a few ‘summer’ recipe ideas up my sleeve for the coming days…and hopefully a few days of reading in the sun will be on the cards for this weekend. Yay!

I hope the sun is out wherever you are too!

Recipe: Pesto cabbage and chickpea soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

2tbs olive oil

1 red onion

1 carrot- grated

1 small courgette- grated

½ head red cabbage- chopped/sliced

¼ cup vegan pesto (I used my homemade version)

1 can chopped tomatoes

4 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp dried oregano or mixed herbs

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup pine nuts (or crushed cashews as I used)

Handful fresh basil

Method

Heat oil in a large pan and gently fry the onions for 2 minutes. Add the pesto, grated carrot, courgette and cabbage and sauté for another 3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, dried herbs and stock and simmer for around 15 minutes until softening. Add the chickpeas and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Mix through the basil and nuts just before serving. Serve with a swirl or soy yoghurt or cream if desired.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Pesto polenta bruschetta

I gave you a little teaser yesterday and now here it is….pesto polenta bruschetta.

The perfect light lunch option, it’s also a lovely twist on tradition since the polenta offers a tasty gluten free alternative to traditional crusty bread.

The recipe is pretty simple, but it’s more the concept that I was going for really. The idea of using polenta as a bruschetta base delicately flavoured with pesto and then topped with a pesto coated bruschetta medley. Perfectly delicate (dare I say it ‘summery’) flavours, you could mix and match with other ingredients to suit your tastes.

The polenta is simply made mixed with water according to the packet instructions. Just add a dollop of pesto to the mixture too. I used quick cook polenta and whipped it up in 3 minutes in my Thermomix, but it would also work in exactly the same way on the hob- just keep stirring until it thickens.

You don’t need to be too precise with the topping ingredients, below is just a guide so just throw in what feels right!

This really does seems like a summery dish, why is that?  What makes some foods comforting winter dishes, like my sweet potato coconut curry or chickpea and lentil soup, and some foods much more ‘spring’ like? Well I am going for the spring option today, we’ve had some glorious warm weather recently although I haven’t spent much time outside in it, and the daffodils are well and truly emerging now.

Spring is most definitely in the air…happy times!

Recipe: Pesto polenta bruschetta

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

Quick cook polenta

Water (amount varies depending on how much polenta used- see polenta packet instructions)

2-3 tbs pesto divided between polenta and the topping

1 onion- chopped finely

2 handfuls tomatoes- chopped

Half a red pepper- chopped

2 handfuls spinach

A few sprigs of fresh basil

Vegan parmesan- optional

Method:

Cook the polenta according to the packet instructions and then pour/spoon immediately into a lined loaf tin (size based on the amount of polenta you’ve cooked up). Allow to cool and set in the fridge.

Once set, cut into 1cm thick slices before frying on a griddle for approx. 5 minutes. each side to achieve a slightly golden crisp coat (mine should have had a little longer ideally). You couod oven bale the polenta. Note any extra polenta can be stored in the fridge for a few days prior to its second cooking.

Meanwhile, prepare the bruschetta topping by combining all the remaining ingredients and toss together with the remaining tablespoon of pesto. 

If serving the polenta hot, heat the topping through before spooning over.  Alternatively, both polenta and topping can be served cold.

Dust with a little vegan parmesan if desired.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Pesto

I know what you’re thinking…. pesto is all about the cheese.

Well not this version and I guarantee you won’t miss it. What’s more I’ve included a few cost saving and tips and healthanizing (hmmm that’s really not a word!) tips to reduce the oil content if you are that way inclined (personally I am not since pesto is used in such relatively small quantities).

I first made this batch up a few months back and had almost forgotten about it since I had portioned it in to an ice-cream tray and frozen it. It’s a great way to ensure you have fresh pesto on hand at all times as it can be used in so many ways…. one great option will be coming up in tomorrow's post…but for now let’s just talk pesto!

This recipe is so simple (as you know I’m not generally a fan of over complicated instructions),  it’s another one of my ‘whack it all in a food processor and go’ type recipes, so there’s no excuse for not giving it a go if you have the ingredients to hand!

It’s also a pretty flexible recipe, and as you can see from the list of ingredients, spinach can used to sub part of the basil if necessary without compromising the flavour, similarly in the past I have used both walnuts and cashews instead of pine nuts as they are so expensive, but feel to use either, or even almonds…go a little crazy with your combos! Obviously some nuts have more of a dominant taste than others, so go with your preference.  The nutritional yeast and miso paste are what gives the pesto the deep mellow cheesy nutty touch so don’t leave these out if you want to achieve a pesto that is more reminiscent of the real thing. As with many vegan foods, don’t expect it to be an exact replacement for it’s traditional counterpart . Embrace the (healthy) differences and enjoy it in it’s own right and appreciate the unique but equally satisfying flavours and textures.

Recipe: Pesto

Makes one jar

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh basil (or 1 ½ cups and omit the spinach)

½ cup spinach plus ½ tsp dried basil)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbs soy milk or silken tofu

1 cup walnuts/cashews/almonds (cheaper than the traditionally used pine nuts)

4 cloves garlic

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp miso paste

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Note: You could sub half the oil for silken tofu (not tested)

Preparation:

Grind nuts and garlic in a food processor until nuts are coarsely ground. Combine with remaining ingredients and grind until you have a medium grained paste- it should not be to smooth!. Add more salt and pepper if preferred.

Store in the fridge for a few days or freeze in batches- I used an ice cube tray.

 (here's your little teaser....pesto polenta bruschetta)

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Roasted vegetable tart

One of the winning dishes (other than the sweet potato curry) served to my colleagues when I cooked them lunch earlier in the week was this roasted vegetable tart. Soooo simply and sooooo delicious, this was also a requested recipe that they wanted me to write up for them and so I wanted to share it here also.  Ok, before I start-  I know puff pastry is not typically healthy- BUT- this is topped with loads of healthy veggies and the proportion of pastry to veg is really not too naughty (particularly if you team this up with a quinoa salad or similar as I did when I cooked for my colleagues).

This is another really versatile recipe and you can use whatever veg is in season. Asparagus worked really well here as it looks so pretty laid out across the tart. Strangely enough, the first comments from my colleagues were ‘wow, a pizza’, obvious this is not pizza at all although I guess visually it’s 

not so far off… and I reckon it tastes so much better!

Note, I was pushed for time when I made this tart (with so many other dishes to create) and I cheated a little and bought ready-made puff pastry which happens to be vegan anyway (check the packet when buying). Feel free to make your own puff pastry (and make me feel guilty in the process!)

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Tart

Serves 4 (or more if serving with other dishes)

Ingredients:

1  pack of ready-made puff pastry (I used Jus-rol available in most UK supermarkets)

Paste- 1tbs tomato puree, 1tsp lemon juice, handful of tomatoes, small onion, 2 cloves garlic, ½ a pepper, 1tsp oil. (or could simply use 2-3 tbs tomato puree)

2 tbs hummous

Veg for roasting- 1 onion, 1 or 2 peppers, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, approx. 10 asparagus stalks (or other combinations)

Olive oil

Vegan pesto or other herb and garlic seasoning

Method:

Prepare veg topping for roasting- cut all veg into chunks but keep asparagus whole (break off woody ends). Coat in oil and pesto or other seasonings and roast in oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile blend paste ingredients in food processor and set aside (or omit this and use tomato puree). Roll out the puff pastry until thin (approx. 3-5mm thick). Spread hummous in centre leaving a 1” space from the edge of the pastry. Spread tomato paste on top of this. Pile the roasted veg on top of the paste laying the asparagus across and putting the other vegetable pieces on the gaps. Lightly coat the 1” space around the edge in olive oil. Bake in the oven at 220 C for 10-15 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden.

Aw, almost too pretty to cut up and eat…. Oh well dig in!