Spaghetti Squash Cooked Whole ♥

Okay, I finally get it.

Each time I cook spaghetti squash, no matter how, I'm unimpressed by the taste. Sure, it is easy to cook. Sure, it has virtually no calories. But why waste one's energy on food with no taste?

My sister likes spaghetti squash, however, so she's always puzzled by my reaction. Three times now, she's repeated, "I just cook it for the noodles."

Oh, right! Here's the deal: cook spaghetti squash and then put it under something, just like we would noodles or rice or potatoes. That makes it a virtually calorie-free, carb-free starch. Get flavor from what's on top, not the spaghetti squash itself.

Sisters are smart!

When Adanna mentioned she'd cooked a whole spaghetti squash with great success, this I heard her the first time! I cooked one whole today for lunch, leaving the washed unpricked spaghetti squash in the oven at 350F for an hour. And then I put some peppery-hot lentil soup over top. Perfect.

NEXT TIME How long to cook spaghetti squash? The strands were cooked after an hour but next time I'll leave the squash in longer, say 90 minutes, to see if the strands become more noodle-y with more time in the oven.

MAKE IT A MEAL That's Oven-Cooked Lentil Soup there on top. Yum!

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VEGETABLE RECIPES from the ARCHIVES

~ how to roast a whole butternut squash ~
~ how to roast a whole pumpkin ~

~ more winter squash recipes ~
~ more quick vegetable recipes ~

~ Zucchini Ribbons, another 'vegetable noodle' ~

~ one year ago this week Harvard Beets ~
~ two years ago today Pumpkin Corn Bread ~

SPAGHETTI SQUASH COOKED WHOLE

Hands-on time: 1 minute to start, 5 minutes to finish
Time to table: 70 - 90 minutes
About 3 cups of 'noodles' from a 2 3/4 pound spaghetti squash

1 spaghetti squash

Set oven to 350F. Wash the squash, especially around the stem and blossom ends where bacteria can collect. Place directly on a rack in the center of the oven, setting the timer for 60 or 90 minutes plus whatever time is left to preheat.

When the squash is done, remove from the oven. Holding the squash with potholders, slice it pole to pole. Scoop out the seeds and discard. With the tines of a fork, scrape the flesh to separate the strands into noodles.

Top with something delicious!

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Half Cup: 16 Cal (15% from Fat, 7% from Protein, 78% from Carb); 0 g Protein; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 0 g Mono Fat; 3 g Carb; 0 g Fiber; NetCarb0; 0 g Sugar; 12 mg Calcium; 0 mg Iron; 9 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 0 points

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Eat more vegetables! A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and is the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes, quick, easy, and yes, delicious. Start with the Alphabet of Vegetables or dive into all the Weight Watchers vegetable recipes or all the low carb vegetable recipes. © Copyright 2007

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A Sweet Thanksgiving Pt.3

The third and final sweet treat of Thanksgiving was a spin on the classic Pumpkin Pie.
I find Pumpkin Pie to be a little anti-climatic, possibly because it is not part of my foodie heritage and to that end, Paul is not a big fan of our Christmas Pudding.
It is an interesting nuance of our foodie cultures that we expect certain foods at specific times of the year, otherwise it would seem as though something were missing. For example, I loath Christmas Cake, can't stand it, but I love the stiring and baking ritual of it, the smell of spices filling the kitchen as it cooks.
Likewise, I find the pumpkin/eggy mixture to be a little cloying. One slice is always more than enough. Curiously, I adore Egg Custard Tarts, with their speckly Nutmeg tops, and Pumpkin Pie is merely an orange extension of that ancient tart.
The Pumpkin Pie is steeped in history, just as our Christmas Pud is: the first European settlers (eventually deciding to live on the Plimoth Plantation in New England in 1621) discovering how the American Indians made great use of this fantastically shaped gourd, the Pumpkin, found it incredibly versatile, and used it in both sweet and savoury dishes.
The American love of pies goes back many hundreds of years so it comes as little surprise then that the settlers used simmered pumpkin flesh in a pie of sorts. In those formative days, they would not have had ovens, so they may have filled the hollowed out shells with the flesh simmered with milk, honey and spices. This would have then been baked in hot ashes and produced the earliest variations of Pumpkin Pie, albeit a pie without a crust.
The first mention of a pie crust (or paste) being filled with pumpkin, was in 1651 and not by a Settlement wife, but by French chef, Francois Pierre la Varenne:

"Tourte of pumpkin - Boile it with good milk, pass it through a straining pan very thick, and mix it with sugar, butter, a little salt and if you will, a few stamped almonds; let all be very thin. Put it in your sheet of paste; bake it. After it is baked, besprinkle it with sugar and serve."

In 1796, some 140 years later or thereabouts, the first American Cookbook was published, American Cooking by an American Orphan (actually Amelia Simmons) and she notes, not one, but two recipes for Pompkin Pudding (sic):

Pompkin Pudding No. 1. One quart stewed and strained, 3 pints cream, 9 beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg and ginger, laid into paste No. 7 or 3, and with a dough spur, cross and chequer it, and baked in dishes three quarters of an hour.
Pompkin Pudding No. 2. One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, allspice and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.

Her charming recipes are very similar to those we utilise today, securing the Pumpkin Pie’s place in culinary history as a true American Classic. However, being a classic simply isn’t enough for some of us and this age-old recipe has to be tweaked, primped and altered beyond all recognition. Enter Ina Garten.
I love Ina Garten and her carefree style of cooking. Her portion diagnostics occasionally leave a little to be desired for those cooking only for 2 or 4, but a little modifications usually reigns them back in.
In her latest book, Barefoot Contessa at Home, she gives us a winning alternative to Pumpkin Pie in the form of Pumpkin Parfait. Whilst she doesn't exactly sell it to me by referring to it as "...certainly not the worst dessert I'd invented," it is in fact much better than you might imagine.
A whippy, light concoction of tinned pumpkin spiced up with nutmeg and cinnamon of course, a whole cup of two different types of sugar (brown and white), whipped, sweetened cream, a good slug of rum, and for gelatin virgins, a gentle primer in the form of a sachet of, well, gelatin.
This is layered up with more whipped cream and ginger biscuits, to form a deliciously creamy dessert that deserves more than one outing a year.
Ina suggests making the Ginger Cookies (recipe in aforementioned book), but being short on time, I bought some Stem Ginger Cookies which worked really well. At a push, Ginger Nuts (Ginger Snaps) would be great too. The dessert is incredibly rich and certainly needs the bite of something crunchy so don’t be afraid to stack up the ginger biscuits.
One last proviso – if you are serving this dessert for ‘special’ guests, don’t do what I did and forget that you don’t actually have any sundae glasses. As you can see, we had to make do with a beer tankard (yes, of course we have those!), a wine glass and a plastic tumbler. We call it ‘homestyle’.
Here’s the recipe, post-Thanksgiving or not, it’s a great way to use up any old cans of pumpkin you might have lying around, or to utilise them big ol’ gourds that you wondered if you could actually manage to grow this year…

PUMPKIN PARFAIT from Ina Gartens’ Barefoot Contessa at Home
Ingredients:
¼ Cup Rum (I used Brandy, which was just as good)
1 Sachet Gelatin
1 x 15oz Can of pure Pumpkin (not pie filling)
½ Cup Granulated Sugar
½ Cup Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Egg Yolks
½ Tsp Cinnamon
¼ Tsp Ground Nutmeg
Zest of One Orange (I omitted this due to lack of oranges)
½ Tsp Salt
1 ½ Cups Double (Heavy) Cream
1 ½ Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Whipped Cream plus more for topping
Box Ginger Cookies (or use your own recipe)
Crystallised Ginger for Decoration (optional)
METHOD:
Place the rum/brandy in the top half of a double boiler. Sprinkle with the gelatin and leave to one side for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, half fill the bottom half with water and bring to a lively simmer.
In a large bowl, whisk the pumpkin, sugars, egg yolks, orange zest, spices and salt. Set to one side.
Place the pan with the rum/brandy and gelatin over the simmering water and cook until the gelatin has completely dissolved.
Whisk immediately into the pumpkin mixture.
In another bowl, whisk up the double cream with a little icing sugar and the vanilla until it peaks softly. Fold into the ochre pumpkin mix.
To assemble, put a thick layer of the pumpkin mousse into the bottom of your sundae glasses (or beer tankards), then a good gloop of whipped cream, then a couple of ginger biscuits. Continue until all of your mixtures are used up. The parfaits will look gorgeously swirled and peachy.
Cover with cling film and chill for at least four hours, preferably overnight.
To serve, top with more fresh whipped cream and crystallised ginger crumbled.
ENJOY!

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Oven-Cooked Lentil Soup Recipe ♥

Today's soup recipe: Hearty lentil soup, slow cooked right in the oven at a low heat. A great option for anyone who doesn't have a slow cooker.

Does this soup look worth trading, say, for apple pie?

That was the deal, a piece of American Apple Pie for the recipe for this oven-cooked lentil soup, all in fun, of course, since the recipe holder (hi, Rass!) was getting pie anyway and the pie-maker (me) often swaps recipes with Rass and his wife, dear family friends for more than 50 years.

And Rass' lentil soup is a good one! It takes some knife work to get started, then is left in the oven for a perfect five hours. What comes out is perfectly cooked, hot and hearty, steamy and spicy, utterly delicious. It's perfect for cold winter days.

MAKE IT A MEAL Soup and hot bread, yes? Think about pairing the lentil soup with Weeknight-Easy Rolls.

OVEN-COOKED LENTIL SOUP

Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Time to table: 5 1/2 hours
Makes 10 cups

1/2 pound smoked ham, cubed
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon, cut in small cubes (the bacon in my fridge was iffy so I skipped it, but know from tasting Rass' own soup that bacon contributes to the soup's heartiness)

2 tablespoons olive oil (I'd recommend skipping this if using the bacon but Rass cooks the bacon in the oil)
1 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 green pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, sliced thin in 'coins'
14 ounces canned diced tomato
14 ounces canned tomato sauce
1 cup red wine (Rass fills one of the cans halfway, then sploshes it around to rinse)

1 cup lentils (Rass uses brown lentils which are softer and a little bit creamier, I used what was on hand, black lentils from Trader Joe's which are 'meatier' and hold their shape better but are less creamy)

2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley (I skipped this)
Salt & pepper to taste

4 cups beef bouillon (I had some beef broth on hand, mixed it with chicken)

Turn oven to 250F.

In a large oven-safe pot such as a Dutch oven, start cooking the bacon, add the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic as they're prepped, stirring often to distribute the fat. Then, as Rass says, "Chuck everything into the kettle, stir it up and put into the oven (covered) for five hours."

Hmmm. As I read his instructions carefully now, I realize that Rass doesn't cook the onion-celery-etc with the bacon but instead cooks the bacon on its own, then "chucks the rest in". Rass makes a mean lentil soup, you won't go wrong with his method!

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Cup, made with bacon & olive oil - Per Serving: 261 Cal (51% from Fat, 19% from Protein, 30% from Carb); 12 g Protein; 15 g Tot Fat; 4 g Sat Fat; 7 g Mono Fat; 20 g Carb; 7 g Fiber; 4 g Sugar; 31 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 884 mg Sodium; 27 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 6 points

Per Cup, made with bacon but without olive oil - Per Serving: 237 Cal (46% from Fat, 21% from Protein, 33% from Carb); 12 g Protein; 12 g Tot Fat; 4 g Sat Fat; 5 g Mono Fat; 20 g Carb; 7 g Fiber; 4 g Sugar; 31 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 884 mg Sodium; 27 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 5 points

Per Cup, made with olive oil but no bacon - Per Serving: 157 Cal (26% from Fat, 25% from Protein, 50% from Carb); 10 g Protein; 4 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 3 g Mono Fat; 19 g Carb; 7 g Fiber; 4 g Sugar; 30 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 696 mg Sodium; 12 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 3 points

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MORE LENTIL RECIPES
~ Lentil Salad with Tomatoes, Dill & Basil ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Two-Way Lentil Skillet ~
~ Lentil Soup Vincent ~
from Kitchen Parade

NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

Eat more vegetables! A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and is the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes, quick, easy, and yes, delicious. Start with the Alphabet of Vegetables or dive into all the Weight Watchers vegetable recipes or all the low carb vegetable recipes. © Copyright 2007

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A Sweet Thanksgiving Pt.2

The second of our Sweet Thanksgiving desserts, Banana Cream Pudding, holds a very special place in my heart for two reasons. Going way back to my childhood, a stripped down version of Banana Cream Pudding, sliced banana smothered in packet custard. A virtually instant and gratifying finish to a homely meal. I feel particularly fond of Banana Custard because it is my grandfather’s favourite pudding; in fact anything with bananas is his favourite. My grandad was the one who first showed me how to slice a banana before peeling it, and afterwards he would have to feign mock surprise as I demonstrated my new trick to him.
The second reason I am so fond of Banana Cream Pudding is that the true ingredients of the dish, Vanilla Pudding and Nila Wafers remind me of my first road trip to the US with my then-to-be husband, Paul. We put on pounds travelling around US, eating Nilla Wafers from the box and scooping out various flavours of Pudding with our our already Cheetoe-orange strained fingers. I later returned to the UK with boxes of powdered pudding in all sorts of lurid flavours and broken Nilla Wafers that hadn’t entirely survived the manhandling of the luggage handlers.
I hadn’t eaten banana custard OR Nilla wafers OR pudding for some time and Paul had requested that his Mom send us a box of the wafers over in a large care box containing several now-well thumbed issues of Gourmet Magazine. Suffice to say, the request for Banana Cream Pudding was soon demanded but I was given one proviso: I cannot use custard, I have to find a recipe for Vanilla Pudding. Just between me and the UK readers, custard is a fairly good representation of Pudding, particularly if you make it really quite thick, or use a cartoned brand (they keep forever – literally – in the pantry).
However, in this instance, I conceded and found a recipe on the Nabisco (home of the Nilla Wafer) website. Pudding is easy to make, flour, sugar, milk, egg yolks whisked up in a double boiler until the lumpy gloop turns smooth and thickens. It is then liberally, generously blanketed over sliced bananas and Nilla Wafers (there is no UK substitute for these – and, even though I am a biscuit connoisseur, I cannot think of a similar alternative. Some of those fancy Breton-style Butter rich shortcake biscuits would be just as yummy though), covered with Meringue and flashed briefly in a hot oven to brown. I thought that a sweet meringue topping would be too much sugar so replaced this with another childhood favourite, Dream Topping.
Dream Topping is our nearest equivalent to America’s Cool Whip, an amazing demonstration of what a evil genius with a craving for whipped cream but no refrigerator and open access to a cupboard full of chemicals, can produce. Both Dream Topping (a powder that you whisk up with milk) and Cool Whip are airy creams, with no hint of dairy flavour and a slightly sweet demeanour. I find both of them completely alluring and perfect for this already calorie laden pudding.
You can, of course, use regular whipped cream or go for the meringue option.
For a real retro treat, here’s how to whip up Banana Cream Pudding:
BANANA CREAM PUDDING
serves at least 6-8
Ingredients:
5 Bananas, peeled and sliced, sprinkled with a little 7-up or lemon juice to stop them browning
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Plain Flour
Pinch Salt
3 Egg Yolks (reserve the whites for meringue topping, if making)
2 Cups Milk
½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Box Nilla Wafers (or similar buttery-style biscuit)
Whipped Cream or a Sachet of Dream Topping or Cool Whip (if not making the meringue)
METHOD:
In the top half of a double boiler, whisk together the flour, sugar and pinch of salt. Then whisk in the milk and egg yolks. Place over the bottom half of the double boiler (which will need to be quarter filled with water and brought to a brisk simmer).
Whisk mixture for 10-12 minutes, or until thickens.
Pour a little of the mixture into a heatproof serving dish, layer with the Nilla Wafers or biscuits, then a layer of sliced bananas.
Repeat this layering twice more, ending with the Pudding.
If you are going for the cream topping, slather all over the top and decorate with some more Nilla Wafers and slices of banana.
If you want to make the meringue topping, whisk the egg whites until stiff, pour in a quarter of a cup of sugar and whisk until stiff and glossy. Spoon over the pudding, taking care to cover over all the edges and bake in a pre-heated oven (175c) until browned, about 15-20 minutes.
Spoon into large bowls and straight into mouth.
Enjoy!

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A Sweet Thanksgiving Pt.1

Just because Paul and I ‘eat sensibly’ during the week doesn’t mean that we don’t treat ourselves at the weekends. And this weekend was no exception. In fact, I probably went a little OTT with the sweet treat, making not one, not two but three puds!
OK, so one of them had to be made for Paul’s pumpkin Thanksgiving treat. The other two, well, I just felt like making them.
Here then, is the part one of our Sweet Thanksgiving Weekend one off series: Cafe Sperl's Plum Squares.
The recipe, taken from Diana Henry’s wonderful Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, has been tempting me for some time. I haven’t done a lot of baking for a while and this recipe seemed like a gently re-introduction into the fine world of blending cream, sugar and flour to produce something sublime.
This recipe involves a vanilla scented shortcrust base that is easily whipped up in the food processor (although could be mixed up by hand), chilled for half an hour and then pressed into a baking sheet. It is then topped with stoned and halved plums or damsons, sprinkled with a generous amount of sugar and baked until fruit is verging on sweet, sticky collapse. The fruity shortbread is then glazed with hot apricot jam, left to set and cut into squares.
Aside from the dazzling, gem-like finish, this is otherwise a fairly unassuming looking cake/biscuit(?), with a flat base. Once you bite through the sticky tart and sweet fruit into the fragrant crumbly pastry, you are transported (with a bit of imagination) to a baroque-style café in Vienna, sipping hot chocolate and watching children sweep by in velvet coats on ice skates.
There is something timeless about these simple sweetmeats, so easy to make and yet incredibly complex on the taste buds.

I used some frozen plums left over from late Summer, but you could also use slices of pear or apple, fresh blackberries, greengages or gooseberries. The fruit doesn’t need to emit too much liquid as it cooks, lest you should suffer a soggy bottom, although a light dusting of fine cornmeal (polenta) on the base before you layer up the fruit should soak up too much ooze if you really fancy trying it with strawberries or raspberries.
A simple, sweet treat that can be made the day before you want to serve it, looks just as charming served casually with a cup of tea or coffee as with a generous slug single cream for a decadent pudding.

CAFE SPERL'S PLUM SQUARES (from Diana Henry's Roasted Figs, Sugar Snow)
Ingredients:
200g Plain Flour
100g Butter, not fridged
175g Caster Sugar
Salt
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
675g Plums or other soft fruit, de-stoned if necessary
2 tbsp Sugar
200g Redcurrant or Apricot Jam
METHOD:
To make the base, place the flour and butter in a food processor fitted with the plastic blade and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and salt, mix again.
Add the egg yolk and vanilla and process until it forms a rough ball.
Scoop out of the processor bowl, form into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for half an hour.
Preheat oven 180c.
Halve the plums and de-stone.
Into a lined baking sheet 8 x 12" square, press the dough out.
Press the plums into the dough rectangle in rows, making just one layer.
Sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons of sugar and bake for 35-45 minutes until the fruit is soft, sticky and caramelised. The pastry, where exposed, should be a golden brown colour.
Leave to cool.
Melt the jam with a little water and brush generously over the fruit. It should be gleaming and glossy.
Leave to set, then cut into 3" squares, larger or smaller if you'd prefer.
Enjoy!

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Kitchen Parade Extra: Cranberry Apple Crisp ♥

Hello from cold and snowy (and glorious) northern Minnesota where on Thanksgiving Day, the dawn temperature was about zero (yes, Fahrenheit) and ice diamonds fell from clearwater blue skies much of the day. Today, soft snow began to fall about noon, especially magical as people gathered to sing carols and light the town Christmas tree. It's no wonder I've got winter on the mind, you'll see the evidence in this week's recipe in Kitchen Parade for Cranberry Apple Crisp which also makes up in 'diet', 'topping' and 'crumb pie' versions. It's a lovely combination of sweet and tart, a wintry take on fall's favorite.

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SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my Mom started writing for our family newspaper when I was a baby. Today it's published in my hometown newspapers in suburban St. Louis and features 'fresh seasonal recipes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences'. Want to know more? Explore KitchenParade.com, including Kitchen Parade's Recipe Box!

WHY DOESN'T THIS POST ACCEPT COMMENTS? Because I hope that you'll click through to the actual column and comment there!

E-MAIL & RSS SUBSCRIBERS You may subscribe to Kitchen Parade directly, then you'll receive the complete column and recipe directly in your In Box or RSS reader. Just sign up for Kitchen Parade via e-mail or Kitchen Parade via RSS.

A Veggie Venture is home of the Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and award-winning vegetable inspiration from Asparagus to Zucchini. © Copyright 2007

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The Puddings Start Tomorrow!

The joy of soup is in its relative simplicity, quickness and the instant gratification you get from the very first spoonful.
But, when I tell my Mother that I’m cooking soup for tea, she’s quick to point out: “how on earth will Paul be full on that?”
I have noticed that certain people from a certain generation feel that meat and two veg is the only meal you can serve your hardworking husband when he gets home from work.. After all, a strapping young man like that needs his nourishment.
What most people don’t know about Paul though, is that he was a vegetarian in his youth and in college survived on a diet of boiled rice and soy sauce. For which I thank him profusely.
Our conjoined lives are made that much easier by our non-committal to a raging, carnivorous desire to eat red meat garnished with the odd overcooked sprout or soggy carrot. We don’t spend our evenings gnawing on ribs and tossing the bones to our drooling, anticipatory hounds, or nibbling chicken wings clean, cartilage, tendons and all.
That’s not to say that we don’t have our moments. On next weeks menu is Oxtail Soup, made with one of the most gelatinous, meaty and flavoursome parts of the bovine beastie. And any leftover meat I plan to throw into a hearty Mulligatawny Soup.
But for last nights meal we tucked into steaming bowls of Green Thai Curry Soup, bolstered generously with Mange Tout, shredded chicken breast, French Beans and Beansprouts.
And that’s the thing about soup. You think it’s never going to be enough, but as you reach the bottom of the bowl, scooping out all the best bits that have sunk to the bottom, concealed like buried treasure beneath the pale green broth, you start thinking: “I couldn’t manage another bite. Well, maybe a couple of peanut M&Ms.”
For those of you who are Thai Green Curry virgins or have only used the stuff in jars, I would suggest that you try to make your own paste. Most ingredients are readily available from your local supermarket now and it keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge in a seal tight container (I keep mine in the little coffee/spice grinder I make it in), and in fact, improves over time, becoming more mellow and flavourful. At a push, the jarred pastes are generally quite good.
One final note: the vegetables and meat recommended are just that: a recommendation. We use what we have lying around. You could use prawns instead of chicken, or one of those mixed seafood selections (just remember to put them in at the very last moment lest the squid turn into rubber). Thinly sliced beef or pork would also add a good flavour to the soup. And just for the record: the meat is entirely optional. Vegetables could include fresh thinly sliced Shiitake Mushrooms, baby corn, Bok Choi, Aubergine, Courgette or perhaps even some diced squash. I also place some Straight to Wok noodles in the bottom of the bowls and pour the soup over the top. You could boil up some regular dried noodles if you’re not a fan of the Straight to Wok ones.
TIP! A way to make the soup even more nutritious and savoury is to add half a block of creamed coconut to a pint of boiling chicken/fish/vegetable stock and then stir in a tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter. Whisk together well then add to the paste where you would normally add the coconut milk.
THAI GREEN CURRY SOUP
serves 4-6
Ingredients:
Paste (from Nigel Slater's Appetite)
4 lemongrass stalks, tougher outer leaves discarded
2-6 green chillies (the 3” long ones), deseeded or not depending on your heat tolerance
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2" galangal or ginger, peeled
2 shallots or half a small white onion, peeled, cut in half
4 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chopped lime zest
1 tbsp nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
½ tsp ground black peppercorns
Curry:
1 Tin Coconut Milk
400ml Chicken/Fish/Vegetable Fish Stock
500g Vegetables: baby corn, mange tout or sugar snap peas, halved Green Beans, Beansprouts, Diced Aubergine (nb: If you are using Aubergine, I would recommend frying it off with the meat before you add the paste, otherwise it just doesn’t taste that great), sliced Shiitake Mushrooms etc.
500g sliced Chicken (I used breast but thighs have a better flavour)/raw Prawns/thinly sliced Beef or Pork
3 Tablespoons Groundnut Oil
1 Tablespoon Nam Pla
Juice and Zest from 1 Lime
Half a Bunch of Chopped Coriander
Seasoning to Taste
METHOD:
To make the paste, throw all the ingredients into a spice grinder and whizz until fragrant and smooth. You may need to add a little more lime juice to get everything to cohere. Alternatively, you could probably do this in a blender or, the worst possible scenario, in a pestle and mortar.
To make the curry, heat the oil in a wok or shallow frying pan. Fry off the meat (i.e. chicken, beef, pork or aubergine if going for the vegetarian option) until browned on all sides. Remove to a plate.
Turn the heat down to medium and add a little more oil if the pan seems dry. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of your freshly made (or jarred) Thai Green Curry sauce. It will sizzle but then start to simmer. After a couple of minutes it will smell deliciously fresh and fragrant.
Pour over the coconut milk and stock or coconut/peanut butter mixture and bring to a brisk simmer. Leave to mingle for 5-10 minutes then add the Nam Pla, Lime Juice and Zest, browned Meat, Vegetables and half the chopped Coriander. Leave to simmer for another 5 minutes.
Taste for seasoning. I always need to add a little salt and pepper but you may not need to.
If you are using prawns or seafood add them now and simmer for a couple minutes more.
To serve, ladle into deep bowls and sprinkle with the remaining chopped Coriander.
You can also make this into a more substantial meal by adding a little cornflour dissolved in cold water to thicken it and serving with Jasmine Rice.
Enjoy!

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