What Sup: Carrot, sweet potato and garlic soup

With cold weather in Cape Town this week, I went out and bought a selection of vegetables over the weekend to make soups. My first soup, a sweet potato soup with onion dumplings.
You will need the following for this soup:
2 bulbs garlic
About 3 cups diced orange sweet potato
2 large carrots peeled and finely grated
1,5 chicken stock/or veg stock if you prefer
Start by frying garlic in some olive oil,add stock potato and the grated carrot.Simmer until potatoes soft and smooth with a blender or food processor. Serve with onion "dumplings".

Onion Dumplings: 150g wholemeal flour, 1 egg whisked, 6tbs olive oil,- very finely grated onion and 2 tsp chopped fresh oregano. Beat flour and egg, squash grated onion into little balls (the secret with the grated onion is to squeeze out as much liquid before forming ball). Coat onion in the batter before frying till golden brown.

What Sup: Broccoli and Stilton soup

You will need:
Olive oil
6 spring onions finely chopped
600g broccoli (I used frozen as it has a mild flavour compared to fresh)
70g oatmeal (this might sound like an odd ingredient but thickens the soup and adds a creamy texture)
The combination of broccoli and oatmeal make a surprisingly light and delicate soup with huge health benefits!
750ml skim milk
750ml stock (veg or chicken stock)

Start off by heating the oil and sweat spring onion for about 5min. Add broccoli and stir gently for few min, add oatmeal still stirring for another 5 min. Pour milk and stock into the pot and cover, simmer on very low heat for 20 min and season to taste. Smooth with hand blender or food processor and garnish with the Stilton cheese and some chives.The Stilton will melt into the soup adding a strong smokey flavour.

What Sup: Potatoes, peas and lime with mayo and mint dressing

Great as a side dish with any meat! You will need: olive oil, 2 limes, 2 tbs mayonnaise (the best you can find), 5 large potatoes (peeled, diced and boiled), 1 cup cooked peas and fresh mint leaves.

The trick with this is to add the dressing while the potatoes are still warm so that they absorb the flavours.

In a bowl add mayo the juice of 2 limes and a little zest from 1 lime. Add half cup of olive oil, salt and pepper and whisk together. Taste the dressing before you pour it over warm potatoes and add more lime or oil till you have a good balance of flavour. Lastly add the chopped mint leaves and the peas. Let it cool to room temperature before you serve.

What Sup: Butternut and caramalised onion tarts

These could be served as a starter or made larger for a main portion.
you will need rolled puff pastry, cut into squares( you could experiment with size and shape of pastry to put your own creative touch on the dish). Place squares 2 cm apart in oven proof nonstick dish.  Use a fork to squash the edges and form a crust.

In the middle of the pastry place cooked butternut (this can be cooked in microwave while you work with the pastry). I used a little nutmeg, salt and rosemary to flavour butternut. In a pan fry up one large onion in butter till brown add a little brown sugar and remove from heat when it starts to caramelise. Place onions in centre of pastry with the butternut. Cover the top with a white sauce and bake at 200 degrees for 20 min.

White sauce: 1tbs butter, 1 tbs flour, half cup of milk season with salt, garlic and black pepper.

Melt butter and add flour to form paste. Add the milk and heat. Stir till in sauce thickens and pour over the butternut and onion before baking.

What Sup: Creamy butternut, spinach and feta pie with green beans and garlic new potatoes

Butternut and spinach pie

This is my version of a "diet" pie, if such a thing really existed! Instead of having loads of pastry, I use only a small amount on top of the filling. I used a delicious heathy filling of creamy butternut, spinach and feta.

You will need the following to make the pie: bag of baby spinach (sounds like alot but it shrinks when cooked), butternut (1 cup diced and roasted with nutmeg), feta, onion,rolled puff pastry. you will also need the following to finish the sauce: milk, flour and marg to thicken the sauce.

To make this filling fry onion in olive oil and add spinach leaves, add the roated butternut (if you are lazy or dont have the time to roast butter nut microwave on high for 4 min). Add half a cuo of milk and stir. Simmer for 2 min.
Make a paste with 1 tsb marg and 1tsp flour and add into mixture slowly till the sauce thickens.



Spoon mixture into small ovenproof dish, add the feta pieces and top with a pastry. Bake till pastry golden brown.



Side dish: Green beans, mint leaves, onion, thick slice of ham and chicken stock powder. Baby potatoes can be boiled and coated in a little garlic butter or olive oil.

Fry the onion and add ham, fry till ham is crispy and add green beans and chopped mint leaves as well as the stock powder. Simmer on low heat till the beans are cooked.



What Sup: Creamy tomatoe, rosemary and roast chicken pasta

I had a little chicken left over from the roast on Sunday so instead of making chicken and mayo I decided to use this in a pasta sauce instead.
You will need the following ingredients to make the sauce:
1 cup roasted chicken shredded (you could be lazy and use Heinz canned chicken or smoked chicken instead)
3 tbs Olive oil
1 and half cups baby tomatoes cut in half
Garlic and chillies to taste
Rosemary finely chopped
1 tin onion and tomato mix
Half a cup reduced fat cream
Secret ingredient is 2 tbs sherry added right at the end with the cream
Pasta- any type of noodle will do, I used spaghetti

Drizzle the olive oil in a pan and fry the following for 2 min: garlic,chilly, rosemary and roasted chicken (shredded). Then place the tomatoes in the pan so that the juicy side touches pan, this will make it easier to make the sauce as you need to squash them flat to release juices.

Once you hace sqashed all the cherry tomatoes add the can of chopped tomatoe and onion and simmer till it reduces and sauce is dark red in colour. Remove from heat and add cream and sherry. Stir in cooked pasta till it is coated in sauce and garnish with a little left over rosemary.