Week 17: Zucchini chilli

This week, we're making zucchini chilli:

[again with the screenshots! I keep forgetting the screenshots]

This is a very healthy vegan recipe! Yes, it uses many of the same ingredients as last weeks recipe, but... well, actually, it's purely because tomatoes were on sale at my local supermarket. Also, I'm trying to fit one vegetarian or vegan dish into my diet per week, and this one seemed like a great choice!

Zucchini chilli

Ingredients (3-4 portions):

2 zucchinis (ca. 600 g)

2 red chilli peppers, finely diced

4 tomatoes (ca. 400 g)

70 g tomato puree

2 onions, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika powder

1 tblsp sugar

Basil to taste

In a dash of vegetable oil, sauté the onions, garlic, chilli peppers with the cumin and smoked paprika for 5-8 minutes until the onions are soft. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes in chunks. Add the tomato chunks, seeds and all, and the tomato puree to the onion mixture. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down, cover the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Cut the zucchini in bite size chunks. Add the zucchini to the chilli. Give it a good stir, then cover again. Leave to simmer until the zucchini is done, about 10 minutes. Remove the lid and keep at boiling point to allow excess moisture to vaporize. Stir in the sugar. Taste and adjust seasoning (basil, salt, pepper, chilli powder). Serve with plain rice. Enjoy!

Extra recipes: Citrus poultry with almonds and roasted parsnips

So, last week this blog was featured on two websites, which is great! I got a lot of lovely comments and I want to thank you all for reading. Also, welcome, new followers! I hope I don't disappoint. Please also leave feedback on recipes you've tried, so that I can improve them (they worked for me, of course, but that could be a fluke! A sample size of 1 isn't the most reliable).

To thank you all, I've decided to publish two extra recipes today: we're making a full meal with citrus poultry with almonds and roast parsnips!

So there you are, having people over for dinner and thinking 'X likes parsnip, I'll make roasted parsnip! And that's a GW2 recipe, two birds with one stone!'. But then you think, 'You can't make an update with just roasted parsnip... I'll know, this citrus poultry with almonds thing sounds good, I'll do that too.' And you're cooking away, and people at the table are chatting... and waiting... and waiting a bit more... because the parsnips take longer than expected and you can't turn the heat too high under the chicken or the almond/ginger paste will burn. So by the time you finally have dinner ready, you don't even care about taking decent pictures for the blog anymore, you just want to eat.

That's my excuse for these terrible pictures and I'm sticking with it. (still beats using hair lacquer and glue to pretty up the food)

The GW2 illustration looks like a roulade has been made of the chicken. I rarely work with quantities of meat large enough to make a roulade, and I find that unless it's a special occasion or you're having to feed 12 people at once it's not really worth the effort. So I didn't bother with that and just used regular chicken breasts. If you're one of those people who colour-coordinates their meal even when cooking for themselves, you're going to have to serve the parsnip with some beef and the citrus poultry with something green. I only colour-coordinate at Christmas and Easter, so I just go by taste. And I love both of these! Best served with a nice boiled waxy potato. 

Citrus poultry with almonds

Ingredients (4 portions):

2 whole or 4 halve chicken breast (or whatever quantity of chicken breast you usually serve for 4 people)

50 g almonds

2 cm fresh ginger

25 g butter

30 g flour

grated rind and juice of 1 orange

grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon

milk

Peel the ginger and cut into strips. Put the almonds and the ginger in a food processor and blend until it is a rough paste (add a drop of vegetable oil if necessary). Rub the mixture into the chicken and pat on the remaining mixture. Cover tightly with cling film. Leave for 20 minutes up to 1 hour.

In a pan with a thick bottom, melt the butter. When the butter has stopped bubbling, add a tablespoon of flour. Stir well until all the flour has been absorbed. Continue doing this 1 tablespoon at a time until all the flour has been added to the butter. Keep stirring for 1-2 minutes over medium heat. Add the orange and lemon zest and juice. Stir well until the juice has been absorbed by the roux. Now add a splash of milk and stir until it has been absorbed. Continue doing this, just a splash at a time, until the sauce is the desired consistency. I like to leave mine quite thick, but you can make it into a delicate thin sauce for pouring over the chicken. Cover the pan and turn off the heat.

Rub (don't wash!) the excess ginger-almond paste off the chicken. Fry the chicken in a shallow frying pan over low-to-medium heat, flipping regularly and covering it with a lid for the last 5 minutes or so. Reheat the sauce just before serving, stirring it well. Serve the sauce either on the chicken or on the side. Enjoy!

My sister's citrus cream sauce
For a different take on the citrus cream sauce, try my sister's recipe. Works well with both savoury and sweet dishes!

Ingredients: 
20 g butter
20 g flour
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
250 ml milk
Salt or sugar

Melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the lemon and orange zest and stir for 30 seconds. Add the flour and stir until all the flour has been absorbed. Stirring continuously, add the fruit juice and milk a bit at a time. Season to taste with salt or sugar depending on wheter you use it for a savoury or sweet dish. My sister serves it with quail, with roast potatoes and caramelized carrots. Yum!

Roasted parsnips

Ingredients (4 portions):

800 g parsnip

3 tblsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Peel the parsnips, remove the end, cut in quarters lengthwise and remove the hard core. Cut into thin fries. Place in a baking tray, sprinkle over the oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat evenly. Cover with aluminium foil and roast in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes, giving it a good stir about halfway through. Remove the aluminium foil and roast for another 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Week 4: Tomato soup

This week, we're making a lovely tomato soup!

Tomato soup is just one of those perfect dishes for everyday cooking. It's healthy, it's tasty and it's easy to make in large quantities. This particular soup is also a perfect exercise for toning the arms, because you have to keep stirring and stirring and stirring the roux, which essentially starts out as a ball of dough. Do not plan a dish made with a roux and a dish you have to knead dough for on the same day.

Below, I've given both the regular GW2 version of tomato soup, as well as instructions on how to change it into an easy vegan tomato soup. You can use cream, milk, sour cream, or whatever milk/cream product you fancy. I used milk, because the roux already makes the soup quite thick and creamy. 

 

Tomato soup

Ingredients (6 servings):

800 ml poultry stock (from a cube or homemade) or vegetable stock for vegan version
800 g tomatoes
1 tblsp sugar
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
100 ml cream, milk, or sour cream*
50 g butter*
60 g flour*

With a knife, make a shallow cross on the bottom of each tomato, just so it punctures the skin. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for 20 seconds and then immediately remove them and place them in a bowl with cold water (add a few ice cubes to keep it really cold, if you like). When they've cooled down, after a minute or so, take them out of the water and peel off the skin. Cut the tomatoes in chunks, discarding the watery seeds and the core.
Chop the onion and the garlic cloves. Heat a bit of vegetable oil in a pot and gently sauté the onion for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for a further 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and turn the heat up. Bake for another 5 minutes, then add the poultry stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and transfer the soup to a bowl or food processor. Puree the mixture until it's smooth and drain through a sieve.

For the easy vegan soup: Heat the soup through, add the sugar and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

For the full GW2 version: In a large pot with a thick bottom, melt the butter over medium heat, until the butter stops bubbling but do not let it turn brown (we're making a white roux). Sieve part of the flour into the pot and stir well. Keep stirring until all the flour has been absorbed, then add the next portion of flour. When all the flour has been added, keep stirring until the roux is one firm ball. Next, add a cup of tomato soup and stir well until the mixture is smooth and even. Continue with the next cup of soup until all the soup has been added.
Heat the soup through, add the sugar and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir the cream in just before serving, or pour a little bit of cream in each individual bowl. Enjoy!

*: leave out these ingredients for the easy vegan soup

Tip: Other herbs and spices that work well in this soup are paprika powder (smoked or regular), fresh basil or a dash of chili pepper.

Week 1: Kale soup

First week, and we're making kale soup!

They say kale is an extremely healthy vegetable - but who cares about that, really, when it's so delicious! I don't know if/how they eat kale in other countries, but here, it's usually mashed with potatoes or made into a rather lovely stew with pork and/or chorizo. However, it also lends itself well to soups, as you'll see. The GW2 version is vegan, which comes in handy... if you want to serve it to a vegan, I suppose.

You can make your own vegetable stock by boiling 1,5 liters of water with chopped carrots, celery, onion and salt for about an hour and then straining it, but you can also take the lazy/practical way  out (like I do) and use stock cubes. If you are making stock from scratch, you can just add the herbs in with the vegetables and strain them out before moving on to the soup proper.

Kale soup

Ingredients (8 servings):

1.2 liters vegetable stock

300 g kale, finely cut

1 large or 2 small potatoes

1 large or 2 small onions

1/4 tsp dried or 1 sprig fresh rosemary*

1/4 tsp dried or 2 leaves fresh sage*

1/4 tsp dried or 1 sprig fresh thyme*

2 bay leaves

Salt, pepper, oil

Chop the onions. Heat a bit of oil in a large pot and gently sauté the onions until they are translucent. Add the stock and the herbs and bring to the boil. Add the kale - if it won't all fit in the pan, be patient, as the kale will shrink when boiled and you'll be able to add the rest then. Peel the potatoes and chop into 1.5 cm cubes. Add to the pot. Boil on a low heat for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the bay leaves. With a handheld blender or in a food processor, puree to taste - I prefer my soup to be fairly chunky, but you can puree until completely smooth at this stage. Slice the smoked chicken breast, add to the pot and warm through. Season to taste. Garnish with some extra smoked chicken breast

Tip! For a bit of extra bite, add some shredded smoked chicken breast (as in photograph) or some diced chorizo! Dice 100 g of chorizo sausage and fry it (without oil) until crisp. Remove from the pan and place on some kitchen towels to absorb the extra fat. If you like, you can sauté the onions in the fat left in the pan and then transfer them to a large pot to make the soup.

*: If you don't have this, don't fret: the recipe works without it too