Pre-Christmas soup

I am about to go to Stansted Airport. Once again, like many times before, I am checking my luggage, hoping that is not too heavy, look at my passport to check the expire date and check that each Christmas present is safe and it’s not going to crush during the journey.
I made myself a breakfast soup (yes insane I know), to make sure that I don’t have to rely on the airport Prêt a Manger, and in a kind of last attempt to have something healthy before my parent’s lovely starchy approach-olive oil showered food, (delicious but hard work to digest when you only sit on the sofa and chat all day).

Cook in boiling water some soba noodles and at the end rinse them under cool water.


At the same time heat up about one half bowl of water per person and use this to prepare vegetable soup. I used: baby leeks carrots and cabbage, I added some Wakame seaweed, and a couple of shitake mushrooms.
Towards the end I added grated ginger and few drops of toasted sesame oil. I turned off the heat and added a few drops of Tamari.
I put noodles in the bowl and just poured over the soup.

After this my fridge does not contain any more veg from 2007!

See you in the new year
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My broccoli cream is really the best, FACT

November evenings were made for soups. Cycling back from work in the mad traffic on Euston road the idea of a cream of roasted vegetables, a soup of carrot and coriander or a miso one seem like a prize after an hard day.
When I was a child I dreaded sundays because of the awful meat broth that together with Minestrone was the only soup my mum seemed to know.

These days for me the winter vegetables are an endless resource and making a soup is so quick and rewarding that there is really no excuse to buy a supermarket's one.

My broccoli cream:

2 medium broccoli cut into small pieces(I use the whole of the broccoli)
1 sliced parsnip
2 small white onions
1 tbsp of extravirgin oive oil
1 tbsp of caraway seeds
1 tbsp rice flour

Sautee' the thinly sliced onion till transparent, add the vegetables and enough water to cover them, bring to the boil and lower the flame.
Cook till soft, add the flour, salt and olive oil and either transfer into food processor or use a hand one.
Serve with caraway seed and a slice of sourdough bread.

The Ghost Soup

While my friends are emailing me saying how hot Italy is at the moment, we switched the heating hot for a couple of hour as the house was really becoming a freezer.
For the rule of yin and yang now I fancy only hot dishes, soups etc.. but being already summertime I quite like to include some raw greens in them.
Yesterday it was a rainy Sunday, a bit depressing really,so I thought I cook something stylish and tempting to lift the moral up. From the amazing “the best of tofu” I got this recipe that was warming and looked absolutely stunning.
You need:
1 tofu (I used a firm one but the silken is more appropriate)
1 pack shimeji mushroom a 1 enoki mushroom, they had them both at our local Vietnamese shop, but I think they are fairly easy to find in any Asian shop, waitrose has them as well (about 1.5£ each)
1 bundle chive
4 cups soymilk
Soy sauce

Note------ if you are not vegetarian you can add dashi stock to the broth and you can find it in Japanese stores

Dice the tofu, trim the end of the mushrooms and separate them.
Heat the soymilk, but be careful, it scorches really easily so you need have a low flame. When it comes to the boil add the tofu and the chopped chives. Reduce the flame again and cook till the chive is tender but still a bit crunchy. Serve hot.

To find the ingredients for this soup you just need to live near an Asian shop, but the great thing is tha those mushrooms are not even imported, they grow them in Britain! This soup is so easy to make and it’s so impressive that you can serve it even to the snobbiest of guests!