Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

New year! New recipes!

This is some recipe from River Cottage which I adapted slightly. I remember when I was a child my mother was giving me jerusalem artichokes as a snack, its taste is so vivid and very special too!

I think it had been years since I had it last, when I found them in the farmers market, I enjoyed the same memory. I am not sure the new generations will have the same opportunity like us, like picking olives from the trees, enjoying sunshine and so on, but I think we should try our best to achieve that. So I suggest you all to have a look at this link and apply if you feel like you can buy a land in the proposed land for another Heathrow terminal!

Click here for Greenpeace Campaign link

Now, how to cook jerusalem artichokes?

I really like them in Mediterranean way, marinated in olive oil with lemon juice and cold but soup is not bad at all!

Here are the ingredients:

4- 5 medium size jerusalem artichokes (peeled and chopped roughly)
2- 3 garlic cloves (chopped)
1 medium size onion (diced)
1 big or two small leeks (chopped) I think you can use potatoes instead
double cream (I want to try plain yoghurt next time)
50 grams unsalted butter or equivalent olive oil
dill

How do we cook it?

1. Once you melt the butter add all the chopped vegetables and let them relax for about 15 minutes.
2. Add 5 standard glasses of or 1 litres of water. (If you like vegetable stock add it to the water)
3. Once you bring it to boil, simmer it down till the vegetables get really soft.
4. Put the soup in blender or liquidise.
5. Add 50 ml of double cream and chopped dill to serve.
For making caramelised butter
You can serve your soup with a sauce on top of it as in Turkish style, simply melt 20 grams of unsalted butter, add red chilli flakes or redpeppers with dried dill or dried mint. Be careful not to burn the sauce then pour it slowly over the soup just before serving in bowls.

Enjoy!

Photo by Cafemama

Soya meat balls (with lemon treated sauce)

This is originally a non vegetarian recipe, I tried it with soya minced meat and the result was pretty ok! It does not taste like original one but still a good one!

It is quite easy the only trick is the sauce. It is prepared with a similar technique like in cretan pepper soup just a little bit more attention!

What do I need to buy?

250 – 300 gr soya minced meat
breadcrumbs (let’s say equivalent of 2 slices of bread)
half a glass of basmati or jasmine rice
flour
parsley (half a bunch)
1 onion (grated)
1 medium size carrot (chopped ın cubes)
1 medium size potato (chopped in cubes)
(optional: half a glass of peas)
olive oil
2 eggs (keep one yolk separate)

For the sauce

1 lemon juice
1 eggs yolk

How to make soya kofte balls?

1. First of all, mix soya minced meat, chopped parsley, washed rice, 1 egg, breadcrumbs, grated onion all together in a bowl and knead as you might do with a dough.
2. Then have a surface covered with some flour, spread some flour in your hands then begin making small balls in your palm. You should cover each ball with flour so they won’t split whilst cooking.
3. Then put one and half litres of water in a pan, once boiled, add the carrots, potatoes and peas then add the meat balls in it. It takes 15 – 20 minutes to cook I guess.
4. Making the sauce: Mix the lemon juice and the egg yolk in a bowl, then add one or two spoonful of the water you boiled then mix and whisk nicely, get them know about each other. By doing this, you are avoiding the egg yolk from cooking over heat.
5. Pour it slowly in each corner of you pan.

Let it simmer then serve warm. Enjoy!

Cretan pepper soup

Cretan cuisine is undeniably vegetarian friendly, full of herbs and plants growing all over and cooked nicely and easily with olive oil. Although most of the plants growing are native to the island, you can find them both in Greece and Turkey.

This is a pointed green or red pepper soup recipe by one of my friends, Ahsen`s mother who has grew up on the island.Thanks to her, I have an easy soup to cook!

What do we need?

3 – 4 green or red pointed pepper (you can try bell peppers if you can not find any, why not?)
3 – 4 tomatoes
spicy red pepper paste
1 onion
3 spoons of plain flour
4 spoons of yoghurt
4 – 5 glasses of water
olive oil

(optional: dry mint, and feta cheese, my idea)

How to cook pepper soup?

1. Chop the onions and peppers finely, then sautee till they turn brownish. (I admit I have burned them whilst surfing the net but tasted nice in the end.)
2. Add the tomatoes, cook until the water is soaked then add the flour, stir well, don`t let them stick to each other.
3. Add the water, continue stirring and melting the flour in the soup/
4. Put four spoonful of yoghurt into a bowl, now here is the trick, add one spoonful of soup into this bowl, stir quickly then add another, stir quickly, well I prefer to call this first acquintance as the yoghurt and hot soup meet outside, get used to each then become one as you poured this mixture into your soup whilst stirring. Now, if they haven`t get used to each other enough, your soup might end up as a disaster, yoghurt might just go off, so try to do it carefully!

5. Then simmer it down and your pepper soup is ready to serve with some toasted bread.

optional: I suggest to add some dry mint and may be a bit of feta cheese to give a different taste!

Enjoy!

Red lentil soup

Irresistible, indispensable, irrevocable.. Red lentil it is.. Previously you might have seen another recipe with them. Actually I think I love green lentils too! But red lentil soup is definitely a classic; winter, summer, morning, dinner, anytime..  There aree  many ways of cooking this soup but try this one and let me know if you like it or not!

Serves 4 – 6

What to buy?

1 glass of red lentil (Washed and soaked half an hour in hot water)
1 onion
1 potato
1 carrot
2 garlic cloves
tomato or pepper paste (preferably spicy)
olive oil
half a teaspoonful of turmeric (optional not in the classic recipe)
1 teaspoonful of red pepper flakes or paprika (optional for people who does not like spice)
black pepper
lemon juice
fresh parsley or mint (you can use dry mint as well, gives a nice taste)

1. Chop the onions, garlic cloves, grate the potato and the carrot, sautee for 5 minutes with a little bit of water or oil. (Water is good, you add your oil at anytime, but it is not good to burn olive oil!)

2.Add one spoonful of pepper or tomato paste in the pan, stir well.

3. Heat 5 – 6 glasses of water, add the lentils then pour the hot water slowly then mix nicely.

4. Bring it up to boil then simmer it down and collect the bubbly layer at the top of your soup. This is completely unnecessary, happens usually if you do not soak the lentils in hot water enough, and causes flatulence.

5. In my iron casserole, it takes not more than 15 minutes to cook but with other pans I would say give it a good 25 – 30 minutes to cook. Whilst simmering, do not forget to check, if the vegetables and the lentils are soft enough use your hand blender to perfect it!

6. Simmer a little bit more, chop some parsley or mint add it, then your soup is ready to serve! (with a big slice of lemon next to it!)

Shiitake and chestnut mushroom soup

Yummy!

One could think why I would waste those lovely shiitake and chestnut mushrooms in a soup. Well here`s the answer, because this soup is delicious! It is amazing if you add a little bit of spice too! Normally I would have made a pasta dish but this time I had time and said why not try it?

10 – 12 pieces of chestnut mushrooms
10  pieces of shiitake mushrooms
1 medium size onion
single cream or yoghurt
parsley
black pepper
pinenuts

1. Chop the onion and cook it with some oil till it gets brown.
2. Chop the mushrooms then add them into the stirfry.
3. Pour some warm water to soften them, just to the top of the mushrooms then let them relax.
4. After 4 – 5 minutes, pour 4 – 5 glasses of warm water, bring it to boil then simmer it up.
5. Add some black pepper and if you like it some red pepper flakes and chopped parsley in.
6. Blender the soup then let it cook slowly for about 4 -  5minutes.
7. Fry the pinenuts and put them in before serving. Add a little bit of parsley to decorate.

Marvellous!