Two Soups for the Price of One

Been making a lot of soups at the moment, messing around with tried and tested recipes and finding new ones.  Below are two of my current favourites.  They may look very similar, but they do taste rather different.

Spicy Parsnip Soup

Taken from Weight Watchers and altered slightly

Serves 4 WW Pro Points 4 each

500g parsnips

1 tbls olive oil

2 tsp ground cumin

1 onion, chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 ltr stock, from cube

Fresh chives, sniped for garnish

Peel the parsnips and cut into chunks, put them on a baking tray and cover with oil and cumin. Place in oven at 180oc for 20mins.

Put the roasted parsnips into a stock pot with the onion, pepper and stock.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and using a hand blender, blend as much as you wish.

Toss in chives and serve. (Pic served with 1/2 fat creme fraiche - not pointed)

Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Soup

Serves 4 Est. Pro Points 4 each (5 if using creme fraiche)

1 BNS

2 mediun sweet potatoes

6 cloves garlic

1 tbls olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp chili flakes

2 tsp dried sage

1 orange

1 tbls honey

1 ltr stock, from cube

2 tbls half fat creme fraiche - optional

Pre heat oven to 180oc.  half the BNS and scoop out seeds, place this and the sweet potatoes on the baking tray and bake for 1 hour.  Remove and cool slightly.

Heat oil in a pan and add the onion, saute till translucent.  Add chopped garlic, sage, coriander and chili flakes.  Remove the skins from the BNS and sweet potatoes, roughly chop and add to the pan.  Pour oven the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, add the zest and juice from the orange and honey, season as required. Use hand blender to puree as much as wanted.  Serve with a little creme fraiche on top.

Slow Cooker Forelegs of Lamb

Mooching around the meat counter I came across something I had not seen before, foreleg shanks of lamb. Slimmer and less meaty than a hind shank but also a fraction on the cost - 5 for £5.  So home I went and dragged out the slow cooker for a take on this recipe

Slow Cooker Forelegs of Lamb in Red Wine & Chorizo

5 forelegs of lamb

1 onion chunky chopped

1 glass of rioja

200ml beef stock

20ml balsamic vinegar

1 can of chopped tomatoes

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

4 cloves garlic, peeled & halved

2 cooking chorizo, sliced

handful frozen peas

S&P

Chuck everything, except peas, into the slow cooker and mix about and whack on high for 7 hours.

Remove the shanks and place on a baking tray in the oven for 10mins at 180oc, to crisp up slightly.

Pour the sauce into a pan and reduce, whilst skimming off the fat.  Toss in the peas and season to taste, possibly add a drizzle of honey to sweeten if required.

Lay the lamb on a bed of mashed potato and liberally pour over the sauce.  Yum.

The meat was so tender it fell off the bone and in general was more satisfying than having cooked it in the oven.

Mince Pie Cookies

Whilst mooching around the foody blogs I came across this recipe from Recipe Rifle and imediately though mmmmm, must try this out.  So that very evening when I got home from work, on went the oven and the cupboards were opened to reveal that I did actually have all the ingredients!  What came out of the oven approx 30 minutes later was utter heaven, hubby thought they were utter heaven too and so to save ourselves from their absolute sheer decadence and obvious huge calorific values I valiantly gave them to his work colleagues to finish off.  But I do not dispare I will be making these with my nephews over the Christmas period, I know they will adore them too.  Credit where credit is due I believe that the original recipe is from Jamie Oliver, but have not tracked this down yet.

Mince Pie Cookies

Makes approx 25

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature

140g sugar

1 egg yolk

Grated zest of one orange or other orangy citrus fruit

300g plain flour, sived

411g jar of fruit mincemeat

Set oven to 180oc/GM4 and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.  Add the egg yolk and zest, combine.  Sift in the flour and fold through about 3/4's of the mincemeat.  Stir until it starts to come together into a dough.

Pull biscuit sized lumps from the dough and pop them onto the trays, not too close together as they will spread.  Press down to flatten into cookie shape, dab a little of the remaining mincemeat onto the top of each cookie.

Pop into the oven from approx 10-15 minutes, until they are golden and still a little chewy in the middle.

Wonderful warm, but just a delicious cold the next day from the cookie jar.

Oven Roasted Squash with Leeks & Cheese

Whilst idly watching Hugh F-W and his latest Veg programme, hubby and I were taken with the individual roasted squashes he cooked, they looked fantastic and having got several little squashes in an autumn display in the kitchen just going begging for something to be done with them I knew exactly what that would be.  I am sure the recipe is in Hugh's latest book or on the website, but I codged together the ingredients as below.

Oven Roasted Squash with Leeks & Cheese

Serves 2 WW pro points per serving 9

2 small-medium squashes/pump, lids sliced off and seeds scooped out, trim the bottom is needed so it sits flat.

2 leeks, thinly sliced

80g strong Cheddar, grated

100g half fat creme fraiche

small knob butter

2 tsp oil
1 tsp dried thyme - optional (well I forgot to add it and it did not miss it)

Preheat the oven to 180oc.

Heat oil and butter in a pan, add the leeks and fry gently until soft.

Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Into a bowl add the leeks, cheese and creme fraiche. Add S&P and thyme if adding. Mix together.

Pour into the hollow squashes.

Replace lids and pop into the oven for 1 1/2 hours

You will have wonderfully brown squashes and the softest squash flesh imaginable along with the most delicious cheesy-leeky mix.  It was a really warming comforting meal but be warned it was super filling.

Spiced Red Cabbage with Horseradish Cream

I made this recipe last night, fully intending to have loads left over to use the next day, but it was so delicious that hubby and I scoffed the lot!  It is definitely a recipe to be added to the Christmas meal this year, just the right amount of sweet and sour and low in calories.

Spiced Red Cabbage

Serves 4 as sides

1 red cabbage, core removed and shredded

2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly

2 red onions, sliced thinly

2 tbls soft dark brown sugar

2 tbls red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves or all spice

Horseradish Cream

2 tbls half fat creme fraich

2 tsp horseradish sauce

Pre heat oven to 150oc

Prepare the cabbage and rinse in a colander, the small amount of water clinging to the cabbage with help the cooking. Turn out into a lidded ovenproof dish.  Mix in the onion, apple, sugar, vinegar and spices. Cover and place in the oven for 2:30 mins.  Checking every half hour to stir and make sure that it has not dried out, add a little water if necessary.

Mix together the creme fraich and horseradish sauce and serve on top of the cabbage.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

Dank, dreary, cold and wet evenings require a bit of comfort food.  But what to have that will quell my comfort requirements, but also remain within my weight watchers points.  I came up with the following recipe which hits all the right spots.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese.

Serves 2 heartily 13 WW Pro Points per person with an option for 16 Points

1 Medium BNS, halved and the seeds scooped.

100g dried pasta, cooked

80g cheddar cheese, full fat.  (To reduce the points used half fat, but having tried half fat cheddar, I realise life is too short to bother with it.)

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

100ml Skimmed milk

4 streaky rashers bacon, smoked, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

Handful mushrooms, sliced

Optional: 1 half fat mozzarella ball for 3 points per person

Heat the oven to 180oc and place the BNS on a baking tray and cook for 25 minutes.  Once cooked remove and cool slightly then peel off the skin and roughly chop.

In a frying pan, use a couple of squirts of 1 cal oil spray and gently fry the onion, bacon and mushrooms.

In a saucepan add the milk, mustard and half the cheddar and whisk until heated and slightly thickened, add water or more milk to increase volume if required.

Add the BNS, bacon, onions and mushroom mixture to the pasta in an ovenproof dish and mix together.  Pour over the cheese sauce and mix again. sprinkle the remainder of the cheddar and mozzarella if using over the top and put into the oven for 15 minutes until golden and hot.

Pile into a dish and om nom nom.

Slow Roast Lamb Shoulder with Rioja & Chorizo

Whilst viewing my Twitter feed it was mentioned that one of the ladies I follow had tried this recipe from BBC Food website, it sounded delicious so I thought I would give it a go.

I could not find any lamb shanks so I substituted half a lamb shoulder, the twitterer said that next time she would reduce the amount of Balsamic vinegar used, so I took note and reduced it. 

The result was a wonderful unctuous sauce, not too strong but with punchy flavours of wine and garlic, softened with the sweetness of honey coating a soft and tender piece of lamb which melted off the bone.  Served with loads of fluffy mashed potato and cabbage a real autumnal treat on a cold Friday night with a glass of the remaining Rioja.

Slow Roast Lamb Shoulder with Rioja & Chorizo

Taken from Lorraine Pascale's Rioja Braised Lamb Shanks with Chorizo & Garlic

Serves 3-4

1/2 shoulder lamb

12 floz Rioja wine

6 floz Balsamic vinegar

1 bulb garlic, cut horizontally

2 bay leaves

2 tsp paprika

Small handful black peppercorns

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

10floz beef stock

4 oz chorizo

1 large red onion, cut into wedges

2 carrots, chopped

Dash honey to taste

Oil for frying

S&P

Heat oven to 150oc.  Season the lamb with S&P. Pour oil into heavy bottomed pan and set on high heat.  Brown the lamb all over, remove from pan and put to one side. 

In the same pan, pour off excess fat if too much.  Pour in the wine and balsamic vinegar and boil for 5 minutes.  Add the lamb, garlic, bay, paprika, peppercorns, half the rosemary and stock.  Cover and bring to the boil.

Once boiling, place the pan into the oven and cook for 2 hours, turning the meat after 1 hour.

Remove from oven and add the chorizo, onion, carrots and honey (I used about 1 tbsp) and the remaining rosemary, return to the oven and cook for a further hour or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.

Remove the meat and veg and keep warm.  Place the pan over a high heat and boil till thickened for 5-10 mins.  I did at this point drain off some of the fat from the lamb.

Serve with mash and greens of your choice.