Beetroot Soup

The beetroot I got was more red than purple. So, when I serve this soup, my husband said it looks like its for dracula :D If you love beetroot you'll love this soup. It's simple (once you get the beef stock ready) to make and great to warm the tummy during this winter weather.


Beetroot Soup
source : Poh's kitchen

Ingredients

50g butter

1 large brown onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

500g beetroot, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly

1 ½ litres beef stock* (pre-made)

3 tbs plain flour

180ml (¾ cup) passata / tomato puree or tinned crushed tomatoes

300g desiree potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

3 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp table salt OR to taste (double if using sea salt flakes)

¼ tsp freshly cracked white or black pepper

250ml (1 cup) sour cream or crème fraiche

4 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

Beef Stock

2 kg beef bones

2 carrots

2 medium brown onions, with skins roughly chopped

3 litres water

2 sticks celery, with tops and roughly chopped

1 bouquet garni (2 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme and 1 bay leaf)

10 - 12 black peppercorns

Method

1. Heat butter in a large non stick saucepan on medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft but not coloured. Add beetroot and carrot and sauté until tender, then pour in beef stock. While this is heating up on the stove, whisk plain flour into three tablespoons of the tomato puree. Whisk with the remaining tomato puree and combine with rest of soup mixture. Cover and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes, balsamic and sugar. Simmer until potatoes are tender and then add the salt and pepper. Blend in a blender or with a stick blender until silky smooth. Serve with a generous dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche, sprinkle of parsley and pirozhki.

Beef Stock
1. Preheat over to 200ºC and bake bones in a roasting dish for half an hour. Add the carrots and onions and bake for another 20 minutes. Transfer the contents of the roasting dish into a large stock pot and pile in the remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, then lower to a simmer, for four hours, skimming the frothy impurities off the top as you go along. Strain the stock through a fine sieve to remove then discard all the solids. Cool and refrigerate so all the fat solidifies and is easily removed and discarded.

Left-over Pumpkin Soup as pasta sauce

Horrible photo; but the sauce and pasta combination was so moreish, I had to restraint myself !
The recipe is as per the title, it starts from cooking a batch of pumpkin soup (recipe below) spiced with dashes of curry powder for extra kick. Then use the leftover as pasta sauce for next day's main - just cook and mix in your favourite pasta, some grated cheese, pieces of fried chorizo, and finally sprinkle with chopped parsley - seriously good!
Pumpkin soup

Taste.com.au

serves : 6

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp ground coriander (omitted - didn't have any in the pantry)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1kg peeled pumpkin, diced
1 large potato, peeled, diced
1L chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup (125ml) thin cream (omitted)
*added
curry powder, to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over low heat, add onion and leek and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Add garlic and spices and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add pumpkin, potato and stock and bring to the boil. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then blend in batches.
2. Return soup to pan, stir through cream and reheat gently. Season and add a little more nutmeg if desired.

Roasted cauliflower & Curry Soup

A new favourite at our household ... simply delicious! Just follow the recipe at Recipezaar

Roasted Cauliflower & Curry Soup

Ingredients

Servings 4 Units US

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets 
2 tablespoons oil 
1 tablespoon butter
3 onions, sliced 
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons curry powder (or your favorite curry mix) 
4 cups water
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh parsly, chopped 
2 teaspoons salt, divided

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 450˙F degrees.
2. Coat the cauliflower florets in the oil and 1 tsp salt, then spread on a baking sheet.
3. Roast cauliflower until it turns brown, about 25 minutes.
4. Melt butter and add onions to medium size sauce pan. Cook onions until soft.
5. Add curry powder, cauliflower, water and broth to pan.
6. Cover and bring to a boil.
7. Uncover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Remove 3 cups of cauliflower from the pot.
9. Using a stick blender, CAREFULLY blend the remaining soup, adding 1 tsp salt, until smooth.
10. Add the 3 cups of cauliflower back inches Top with parsley.

Bone Broth

Bone Broth
Ingredients
3 pcs beef bones
1 large onion, peeled left whole
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 knob of ginger, bashed
1 stick of cinnamon, optional
2 carrots, peeled left whole
2 parsnip, peeled left whole
1 celery root, peeled , halved
1 bay leaf
6 pcs black pepper corns
salt, to taste
garnish
1 bunch parsley , finely chopped
1 spring onion green part, chopped
Method
1) Bring 1 litre of water to a boil. Put in the bones, boil it for about 20 mins. After 20 mins. pour away the water, clean the bone a little under cold water.
2)  In a clean pot,put in all the ingredients except for salt, parsley, and spring onion. Pour in enough water to cover all the ingredients in the pot. Bring it boil and then simmer for 2 hours. Remove carrots, onion and parsnip, set aside in fridge until 30 mins. before serving. Continue to simmer soup for another 5hours. After that season with salt and simmer for 1 hour.
3) Finally , use a strainer , strain the soup to get a clear broth. Serve with chopped up carrots, onions, parsnip, parsley and spring onion.
You can serve with vermicelli pasta,rice noodles as well as protein of your choice.

Chicken soup with Hungarian semolina dumplings { Grizgombócleves }

As I was scrolling my news feed the other day, I came across Jamie Oliver's recipe of Jewish Penicillin . It was served with matzo balls. I love the idea but without the matzo crackers (to make the matzo balls) I needed a substitute for matzo. My search lead me to the Hungarian semolina dumplings, which I have eaten at my MIL's place. I thought what a perfect substitute as I will put one more Hungarian recipe under my belt!
Chicken soup with Hungarian semolina dumplings
dumpling recipe via Hami Hami
For soup :-
1 medium onion, peeled
1 knob of ginger, peeled
1 cinnamon stick
6 pepper corns
1 dried bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
oil, for sauteing
3 chicken legs, de-boned, keep the bone
3 carrots, peeled and chopped half
2 parsley root, peeled and chopped half
1/4 celery root, peeled
3/4 cup of frozen green peas
salt, to taste
water
for sprinkling
parsley leaves, chop finely
spring onion, leaves only chopped
For semolina dumplings
1 egg
4 Tbsp semolina flour
salt, to taste
ground pepper, to taste
parsley leaves, chopped finely
Method
To make soup
1) Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in pot, saute whole onion, knob of ginger, cinnamon stick, whole garlic cloves, pepper corn, dried bay leaves and bones of chicken legs.Once browned a little, add all vegetables and about 2 tsp salt. add water enough to cover the vegetables and a little more.
2) Bring the water to a boil and put in the chicken leg meat, cook the meat for 20-25 mins until cooked. remove meat from soup and set aside let it cool and later keep in the fridge. Turn down the heat to simmer the soup for about 2 hours. remove the onion, and root vegetables except for celery root. set aside.
continue to simmer soup for another 1 hour. Cube the root vegetables, and put it back to the soup add the frozen peas. Bring it to a boil again check for seasoning. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with chopped parsley and spring onion leaves. It is ready to be served with semolina dumplings and chicken meat.
To make dumplings (start during the last hour of simmering the soup)
3) Prepare the batter for semolina dumplings. In a bowl, beat in the egg, add in the semolina flour, season with salt and parsley leaves, mix it well. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
After 30 mins., bring a small of pot of water to boil, season the boiling water with some salt. Take out the dumpling batter, use 2 spoons to quenelle the batter into dumplings. Drop dumplings one-by-one into boiling water gently. Turn it a few times. The dumplings are reading when they float to the top and the semolina is no longer hard. Set it aside until soup is ready to be served.

Hungarian Fish Soup

Hungarian fish soup is a must during Christmas time; however, we love our fish soup, so I try to cook it as often as possible. The recipe that I am about to share might not be from scratch as most Hungarian would cook it, but this is how my late father-in-law did his. And this version is so easy that it is ready in just an hour!

Hungarian Fish Soup
Serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 whole carp, filleted or 3 frozen fillets of white wish (defrosted)
1 medium-size Onion, sliced or minced
1 medium-size tomato, quartered
1 Hungarian green pepper, halved
3 tsp of smoked paprika powder (spicy or sweet) - you can also mix, eg. 1/3 sweet + 2/3 spicy
1 ltr of water
fish paste concentrate,
fish stock cubes, to taste

To serve : Match stick pasta

Method
1) Sauté onion with some oil in a pot. When onion is soften, remove from heat and put in the smoked paprika. Stir it a bit , add a little cold water and return it to the stove, let it come to a boil.
2) When the liquid boils, you can add in the green pepper,  tomtato and salt. Cook until pepper and tomato are almost done. Then add in fish paste and fish stock cube and simmer further for 20 mins.
3) Add in the fish fillets and cook until done. Do not over cook fish.
4) Serve very hot with match stick pasta.

If you wish to try cooking the soup from scratch, this link may be helpful.