Mushroom Cashew Rosemary Soup, yet another favourite soup I created with available pantry ingredients a few days ago. Simple to make, beautifully flavoured and quite creamy because of the cashews within, I’m going to make this often. Like an earlier soup I recently made, this one too is thickened with oats {and cashews this time} making it healthy, delicious and gluten free too. I’m sure you’re going to love this one as it is a great winter warmer, just right for the current cold spell we are experiencing.
I’m not a huge soup person and don’t have great expertise in making them. I stick to a few basics, and really make soups in a hurry, often throwing in whatever I can salvage in ten minutes. Yet with these brrrrr freezing cold days and the mercury dipping day after day, sometimes soup is all that warms the soul. I like subtle flavour in my soup. I also prefer them creamy to clear possibly because I don’t know how to make a good clear soup.
Maybe it’s time to sharpen my skills as I had a really good miso soup a few days ago, and that was amazing. Until I get there, sharpen my skills a little, here’s one of my favourite soups for now. With cauliflowers literally falling off carts this winter, it’s a great way to use the humble vegetable.I did make a finger licking good roasted cauliflower salad the other day. So garlicky, so good! I loved how well the cauliflower roasted in the dressing, how beautifully the fresh beet greens and rocket from the garden complimented it. And oh, the pom pearls that add fresh flavour and a burst of colour. Would you like the recipe?
Mushroom Cashew Rosemary Soup ... truly a winter warmer!
Simple to make, beautifully flavoured and quite creamy because of the cashews within, Mushroom Cashew Rosemary Soup is a winter favourite. Thickened with oats and cashews makes it healthy, delicious and gluten free too.A great winter warmer!
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 30 minutesminutes
Servings 2people
Ingredients
2tbspbutter
1larger onionchopped
5-6clovesgarlicchopped
1/4cupcashews
200gbutton mushroomssliced
1TSP dried rosemary
1sprig fresh rosemary
1cupWater
1cupmilk
2tbspquick cooking oats
Salt & pepper to taste
balsamic vinegar
Instructions
Heat butter. Saute onions and garlic, then add cashews, saute.
Stir in mushrooms and saute on high for minutes.
Add rosemary, saute for 10 seconds, then add water andilk.
Bring to simmer, add oats, bring to a boil, them simmer 5 minutes.
Blend slightly for chunky finish (or smooth if you like), then return to pan
Season with salt and pepper, add balsamic vinegar, and simmer for 5 minutes.
If you'd like thicker soup, simmer a little longer.
“But since soup mainly involves tossing everything in a pot and waiting, it’s one of my better dishes.”
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Quick Tomato Coconut Soup … really QUICK! This is one of my fastest soups to make, and it became insanely quicker and fuss free thanks to the Philips SoupMaker. I am not an all and out fussy soup maker. Give me a quick way home, and yes I’d love me a quick soup. This soup recipe was a happy accident while developing recipes for Saffola Fit Foodie. It became an even happier one once I got the SoupMaker which is a dream machine. Have made this soups several times over in this gadget. And happily enough, I just throw everything in and 22 minutes later piping soup is served.
Fuss free yes. Fat free? Yes that too. With no added fat to the recipe, this tomato soup is earthy thanks to the robust flavours the humble winter turnip lends it. The silkiness comes with coconut milk. Coconut anything is now my friend ever since I used it in a coconut rice pudding, coconut flecked Butterscotch Blondies…and what not.
Here in this soup, coconut milk balances the tart edginess of tomatoes, balancing this simple yet flavourful soup in perfect harmony. Ask me which my favourite soup is, and chances are that this is the one. With the ease of the SoupMaker, you never know which experiment might uncrown it though. It takes the work out of soup making. With summer approaching, the SoupMaker is all set to churn up smoothies and compotes. It does that too!!
The mustard vinaigrette that topped the Baby Mustard Greens Soup is also now a firm and very versatile favourite. This quick tomato soup takes a leap to another level with a drizzle of this beautiful vinaigrette. Mustard or kasundi in the vinaigrette brings it together quite beautifully with the earthy turnip undertones. Whats not to love about flavours? This one is a hands down winner!
So much soup talk, and it’s time to announce the winner of the Philips Rice Cooker giveaway that Philips was sweet enough to sponsor for a reader of this blog. Congratulations Meena Kumar @ Elephants & The Coconut Trees , you are the winner of the rice cooker. I hope you enjoy it.
[print_this]Recipe: Quick Tomato Coconut Soup
Summary: Quick Tomato Coconut Soup. Rich, smooth and creamy, this soup gets delightful flavour with coconut milk. It’s easy to make and has a robust tomato flavour with pleasing undertones of coconut milk. Serve drizzled with a mustard vinaigrette or whole grain bread croutons. better still, with both! Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 25 minutes Ingredients:
Tomato Coconut Soup
1 small onion, quartered
4-5 cloves garlic
500gms ripe red tomatoes, quartered
1 turnip, quartered
200ml light coconut milk
Salt to taste
Dash of Tabasco
Mustard vinaigrette
2tsp extra virgin olive oil
1tsp mustard {kasundi}
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp finely chopped garlic greens
To top
Wholegrain croutons if desired
Method:
Tomato Coconut Soup
Place all ingredients {except Tabasco} in the steel jug of the soup maker and give it a good stir.
Shut the lid, switch on the soup maker and select the smooth soup option from the menu.
In 20 minutes soup is ready. Season with Tabasco.
Top with mustard vinaigrette and croutons if desired.
Mustard vinaigrette
Place all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk with a fork.
“One whiff of a savory aromatic soup and appetites come to attention. The steaming fragrance of a tempting soup is a prelude to the goodness to come. An inspired soup puts family and guests in a receptive mood for enjoying the rest of the menu.”
Louis P. De Gouy
Roasted Pumpkin Soup … comforting, smooth, silky and delicious. I’ve been on a pumpkin high of late. Must be the season. I get drawn to vibrant orange pumpkins each time I visit the local market! The bright orange ones are HUGE, and then there are these little ‘green from the outside and yellow inside‘ ones. Pretty! This humble veggie holds a lot of promise, more promise than I have ever realised.
Pumpkin Pie is a said thing in our home, but now I am eagerly stepping out to explore and experiment further. Roasted Pumpkin Soup has been on my bucket list for a few years! Why? Because I enjoyed my first ever pumpkin soup with immensely talented and large hearted Jamie in London many years ago. We excitedly met for the Food Blogger Connect, one of the best get togethers of our blogging life. Nascent bloggers, a food centric conference, a relatively low key {as compared to today} meetup … the memories still alive in the head!
’twas a dream come true – Jamie, Meeta, Mowie, Jeanne, Hilda, Beth, Allesio, Pamela, Nic, Sunita. We met up day after day, night after night, eating like there was no tomorrow, splitting our sides like mad folk, painting downtown London red, getting lost incessantly, finding our way again, tripping along in the biting cold. Those were happy November days!
There have been many food blogger conferences thereafter, loads I have read about, but this one was special! I still remember sharing a Pumpkin Soup with Jamie after a visit to the Marylebone Farmers’ Market; a soup I never forgot. There was a fantastic whole grain bread on the side too. While I still have to make the bread some day, the soup is what I have tried to recreate.
It isn’t like the one we had that cold winter afternoon, yet the sentiments suddenly came alive. Oh the nostalgia! This is my style of roasted pumpkin soup … roasted pumpkin, a bone stock with gentle fennel and coriander {left over from stock from biryani}, a dash of cream and hints of green chilies! You can make a vegetarian version with vegetable stock if you like.
Got huge thumbs up from the men at home. They had 2 huge bowls each, slurping through happily. The daughter isn’t a ‘soup person‘ so was excused! Strangely enough, I loved it cold! Must be the weather which has been quite warm of late.
[print_this]Recipe: Roasted pumpkin soup
Summary: Comforting bowlfuls of roasted pumpkin soup with delicate flavours of fennel and coriander, and hints of green chili.
Prep Time: 10minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
50g onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
750g cooked fresh pumpkin puree
1-2 green chilies, roughly chopped
1ltr bone stock {or vegetable stock}
75g low fat cream
Salt to taste
Olive oil {or butter}
Method:
Heat the olive oil or butter in a large heavy bottom pan. Saute the chopped onions and garlic for a few minutes until fragrant.
Add the pumpkin puree, green chilies and stock, and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Season with salt, add the low fat cream. Blend once cool enough. Adjust seasoning if required.
Season with freshly ground black pepper and fresh coriander leaves, sunflower or pumpkin seeds maybe a drizzle of cream.
