Challenge #44: Extremely Orange Warming Soup

[miss_s_b]

This is suitable for towel day because it's great for putting in tupperware to be stashed in your hitchhiking sack alongside your bottle of Old Janx Spirit to be warmed in a petrol station microwave at 3am, and also because it's the kind of orange you normally only see in 80's BBC scifi special effects.

It's suitable for vegetarians and has a reasonable amount of protein :)

You will need:

• A slow cooker;
• A chopping board and knife;
• an orange zester (or the fine side of a box grater);
• Some form of whizzer: I used a stick blender;
• Optionally, a juicer, although I used my hands;
• 6 carrots;
• 6 oranges;
• An onion;
• 100g red lentils
• 600ml veg stock;
• 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 an inch of fresh turmeric (1/2 tsp ground if you can't get fresh) for colour, and about an inch of fresh ginger;
• salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

• Roughly chop the onions, ginger, carrots and chuck them in the slow cooker.
• Juice and zest the oranges directly into the slow cooker.
• Add all your other ingredients and switch it on to low.
• Come back in 8 hours and whizz it up till smooth.
• Eat straight away, or store in tupperware; freezes well.

If you want to fancy this up for a starter or something, serve with a blob of extra thick cream or natural yoghurt and fresh chopped coriander leaves on top of it, and buttered, fresh baked crusty bread.

Challenge #45: Salad and salad dressings

[miss_s_b]

It's been roasty around here the last few days and I therefore want to eat cold things. Given me your favourite salads and salad dressings, please :)

Kale with tahini dressing

[cosmolinguist]

Abel & Cole, who I get my veg box from, have a great recipe search so you can type in whatever ingredient you want to use up or don't know what to do with, and that's how I found this recipe.

I used to be a bit intimidated by kale when it turned up but now I'm excited to see it, as it's an excuse to make this dressing. It'd work with spinach or any dark leafy greens, but I now associate it with kale.

You will need:

• Knife/chopping board
• Measuring spoons/jug
• Whisk
• Big bowl
• Big pot and stove if you're cooking your greens

Ingredients for the dressing:

• 4 tbsp of tahini
• 4 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of water
• 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
• 2 lemons, zest and juice*
• 3 garlic cloves, finely minced**
• Salt and pepper
• A pinch of chilli flakes or chilli powder, if you like

* when I don't have lemons, 4 tbsp of juice from a bottle is fine
** one of the things I like about Abel & Cole recipes is that they don't pretend a single clove of garlic is sufficient for everything; three is enough for me as someone who really likes garlic but you could always use more or less if you prefer

(The original recipe also calls for 2 tbsp of red wine vinegar, which I've always ignored because I can't cope with much sourness and the lemon is enough for me, but feel free to try that if you'd like!)

The A&C recipe is a bit more complicated, suggesting you add the garlic and half the lemon juice/zest directly to the cooked greens, but I just whisk all the ingredients together in a big bowl while the kale is on the stove, and then drain the kale and add it to the bowl.

Prepare the greens however you like. The recipe suggests simmering it for just a minute. Kale is one of the few vegetables I boil, otherwise I find it too tough, so I remove the stalks, chop it finely and leave it for however long it takes me to mix up the dressing. If I used spinach I wouldn't cook that at all.

The result is great by itself as a side, or I add halloumi, chickpeas, lentils and/or chopped nuts for protein, and sometimes other salad-y stuff, like veggies or couscous. Meat-eaters could have chicken or lamb or something with it.