Soups make winter bearable

We have been making lots of yummy soups lately. I can't remember exactly which one this was and I have lots more pics that even I won't post.



My two favourite soups so far include Cheri's Hearty Garlic and Lentil Vegetable soup which is so warming and comforting when you have a cold.

2 cups green lentils
1 head garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed (we used less than this)
2 medium onions finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bunch celery chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4-5 carrots sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
4 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
8 to 10 cups water or vegetable stock
2 bay leafs (remove before serving)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste


1. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about five minutes or until soft.

2. Add onions and garlic to stock pot with water or stock.

3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occassionally for at least 1 hour. Like most soups of this type, this one will taste even better the second day when the flavors have had a chance to develop.

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A surprisingly awesome combination is apple and pumpkin soup from the great big vegetable challenge. The apple just adds a nice sweetness to this otherwise savoury soup. It has inspired me to try other soup recipes that I have seen about that contain fruit.

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

500g roasted pumpkin flesh

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 medium onions finely chopped

2 tablespoons of rape seed oil (or olive oil)

2 medium cooking apples, peeled cored and diced

1 roasted garlic bulb ( roast at same time as pumpkin flesh)

1 and a quarter pints (750 ml) of vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to season

Roast the pumpkin flesh by scraping out the flesh in large chunks and laying it in a baking tray, season with salt and pepper and mix round with a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Roast in the oven at 180 for about 35 to 40 minutes. Wrap whole garlic bulb in foil with a little oil drizzled on top and roast at the same time.

In a small frying pan, gently saute the chopped onions and apple together until both are soft.

Puree roast pumpkin, add squeezed out roast garlic. Add onion and apple and stock and puree with a hand held blender or in a food processor. Cook in a large pan over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Dutch Pea SoupHow come the books pic is yellow and not green like mine, it does contain GREEN split peas after all?

Ok, so you are probably sick of me talking about Las Vegan's Soup For All Seasons cookbook, but this will be the last one for the while or my other cookbooks will get jealous.

I couldn't wait to try the dutch pea soup after Lisa Dempster raved about it. I started cooking it, again excited by the simplicity. Have I mentioned i'm a pretty lazy cook? I was a little worried by the yucky smell of it cooking, it kind of reminded me of the smell of cabbage soup or something like that, but it was delicious. Although I do disagree with Lisa about one thing, I like it with the soy hot dogs.

While on the topic of Las Vegan, I went back yesterday and decided that the ginger-lemon muffin is my fav muffin and cajun eggplant calzone is the greatest.

Procrastination cooking

I have been cooking a lot lately, not just baking like I normally do but actual cooking. It's because I've reduced my work hours so I can work on my thesis. So instead of doing homework I cook, at least it's productive procrastination.

If you have read this blog before you may have picked up on the fact that I love combining fruit/fruit juice with savoury dishes. It's one way that I try to eat more fruit, I don't eat enough by itself. So I decided to try the orange, lentil and carrot soup here. I didn't use fresh coriander or yogurt, and used ground cumin and coriander instead of seeds. It was ok, but I found myself needing more stock and relying too much on my 'beef' stock for too much of the flavour. Perhaps it is because I didn't use the seeds. I might have try it again actually following the recipe before I judge it.


Next, I decided to try the tofu balls thanking to Cindy's post. I really enjoyed them, the peanut butter helps them to stick together, and peanut butter, soy sauce, breadcrumbs (or cornflake crumbs in my case) all together equals yummyness. I didn't use the onion it asks for because I didn't have any, but I don't think it mattered. Sorry for my pic, I ate all of the prettier ones first and then put the uglier ones in my lunch box with pasta. Everyone at work, commented they smelled great. I did however, learn through trial and error that if you don't roll them in flour you can dry fry them instead of having to use lots of oil. I'm going to skip the flour next time.


Next up, I decided to make some choc mint cupcakes from VCTOTW. These taste like mint slices in cupcake form. Mr T helped me out with the icing and decided to be a little creative with it as you can see below. I did however notice that the mint icing part was kind of watery, i'm not sure if that's because I used margarine instead of shortening but taste wise it really doesn't matter. I even made a couple of non mint icing ones for those crazy people who don't like choc mint combinations. My little teenage cousins commented they they can't believe that they are vegan, and I ever so wisely replied 'sugar is vegan, and sugar is yum'.

I've decided I've been eating way too much sugar lately, so I decided to bake a slightly healthier baked good to take to Melbourne vegan strength training session. I wasn't training but just went to support the guys with food and to chat and to eat of course. Mr T recently started going to the gym and attending Melbourne vegan strength sessions and raved about them, so I also wanted to see it for myself. I thought that both bananas and peanut butter make a good workout meal, especially if teamed with choc chips. A Google search revealed a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana muffins with Choc chips at Utopian Kitchen. I had everything except for the egg replacer and according to the recipe it was optional, and considering that banana makes a good egg replacer I decided to give them a shot. I also used all white flour because I didn't have any wholemeal. I had 3 small bananas, but half way through making them I dropped a banana on the floor so I couldn't use it. Taste wise they were great, however it didn't make enough for 12 muffins , only 11 and they were still kind of small. I'm not sure if that is because of the missing banana or the missing egg replacer. Maybe I'll make them for brunch next week. Here's a pic of them with Noah's Cherry cupcakes.


Here are some of the guys in action:



They also have non conventional methods like tire throwing

And circus acts :-)

Meanwhile, I was playing with one very affectionate cat called 'Nothing'

Hope you had a great weekend!

Chilled cucumber soup

I can't believe it wasn't until day 5 that I thought of chilled soup.

I've never made or even tried chilled soup, so it was completely new to me. I veganised and mixed around with a few variations for chilled cucumber soup that I found online. It's not fancy but it is pretty good and really refreshing for the hot weather we have been having. Besides, it took 10 minutes to make and didn't require any cooking and I made it myself (not Mr T). If I hadn't of spend most of my money of soy ice cream I may have added in some fresh dill or mint. A lot of the recipes asked for raw garlic but I couldn't do it.

2 cucumbers, peeled and diced
1/2 cup soy milk
2 containers of plan soy yogurt (almost 2 cups)
3/4 -1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of salt
pepper to taste

Put all in blender and blend til smooth


If you have any tried and tested chilled puréed soup recipes please share! I like the look of this chilled cucumber and rocket soup recipe.

The Uncheese cookbook

Every so often I get together with a friend and cook up a storm, by a storm I mean generally one dish. Normally we chat and chat and chat and look through several cookbooks for new recipes to try before we finally decide on one , we then go get the ingredients and then have dinner at some crazy hour like 10pm. It lots of fun and certainly beats cooking by yourself! This was the probably the first time we had already chosen a recipe and had the food ready to go. She had recently got the revised version of the The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook and had her eye on the french onion soup with vegan gruyere cheese. I know it's summer at the moment but it wasn't particularly hot that day and she had lots of onions. The soup itself was great and was better than a french onion recipe that Mr T once made that took 2 hours.
The spoonfuls of the 'cheese' were lovely inside the soup, I think this soup would be great in winter time but I probably wouldn't make the soup often though since it's not super nutritious. I also loved that she had a side note on the recipe that you can put the 'cheese' on bread and put into under the grill so we tried it:


The ''cheese" on toast was yummy although I'm sure it wouldn't convince a cheese eater especially by itself but it was great for me who can't really remember what cheese tastes like anymore. I think it looks pretty convincing too. It was especially good when you dipped it in the soup.

We also made instant cheez it, a powder that you can just add water to and cook for instant 'cheese', I will let you know what it is like when I try it. Anyone made it? What did you add to it? I'm thinking pasta and vegetables.

I like the layout of the book and if she lets me I would love to borrow it once she has finished trying recipes from it, is that a big enough hint?