Recipe: Roasted Vine Tomato and Basil Soup

It's sweltering hot here at the moment (about time too!) and I really didn't feel like cooking (or writing) this evening. I fancied something light and fresh, and came up with this recipe, which made use of the lovely tomatoes and onions I received in my weekly veg box.

Photo by Zed.Cat

Roasted Vine Tomato and Basil Soup

Serves 1

4 medium vine tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 large clove garlic
half a handful of fresh basil leaves
1/4 pint stock (yeast-free)
olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Place in a dish, skin side up. Peel and quarter the onion, add to dish with clove of garlic (leave whole). Drizzle over a good slug of olive oil and season with pepper. Place in the oven for around thirty minutes until the tomato skins are wrinkly. Leave to cool for a few minutes.

When cool enough to handle, slip the skins from the tomatoes. Place tomato, onion and garlic, along with the juice collected in the bottom of the dish, into a blender. Whizz the mixture with half the stock until smooth. Add the basil and whizz until chopped.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan and stir in the remainder of the stock. Reheat gently over a low heat. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve with sourdough toast. Very tasty. :)

Veg box!

I've taken the plunge. After months of weighing up the pros and cons (mostly pros - smaller carbon footprint, seasonal veg, supporting local farmers), earlier this week I ordered an organic mini veg box from River Nene. And it arrived this morning...

I was so excited!! In my box this week I got new potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, onions, carrots and wet garlic, all covered with dirt and clearly fresh out of the ground - hurrah!

Eh?

Wet garlic?

What's that?

It's fresh garlic, as opposed to the dry stuff we're more used too.

I had a lovely day turning the contents of my box into delicious meals. First of all the carrots went into a yummy Carrot & Coriander Soup for lunch and, this evening, a tried out one of the recipes supplied with the box, Wet and Wild Garlic Risotto (I omitted the white wine and wild garlic, and replaced the parmesan with grated ewe's milk manchego). It was seriously garlicky, but absolutely delicious. The wet garlic is lighter in flavour and sweeter than dry garlic - more like a cross between a leek and spring onion. And with all that garlic and onion this recipe must be a super-Candida fighter. Woo!

Can't wait to see what I get in my box next week!

Recipe: Chilli and soy-glazed chicken with garlicky-herb couscous

Devised this for tonight's dinner. Very tasty. Very quick. Very garlicky! Should be kicking the arse of that candida as I type. ;)

Chilli and soy-glazed chicken

(serves 1)

1 free-range, organic chicken breast
soy sauce
lemon juice
chilli flakes
freshly ground black pepper
sesame oil

Trim and cut the chicken into goujon-sized strips. Make a marinade of soy sauce, lemon juice (just a splash of both), a sprinkle of red chilli flakes and black pepper to taste. Add the chicken and coat well in the marinade. Leave to infuse for a few minutes. In the meantime prepare the couscous (see below).

Heat the oil in a small pan. Shallow fry the chicken until the marinade has formed a glaze over the chicken (and the chicken is cooked).

Serve with couscous (see below) and a green salad.

* * * * *

Garlicky-herb couscous

(serves one)

1 portion of couscous (cooked according to the instructions on the packed)
1 clove of garlic, grated
handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely.
olive oil

Stir a dash of oil, the garlic and parsley into the couscous. Leave to stand (covered) for a few minutes to ensure that the garlic and parsley is warmed through.