Nayu's Craft Time #298 Soup overload

This is what I'm having tomorrow (image source unknown)

It's been a fairly quiet week, after seeing family on Sunday just rested as the weather's not been brilliant (my body prefers hot weather). I'm seeing a friend for hot chocolate tomorrow much earlier than I'd like, then will do some grocery shopping. Hope to schedule some blog posts up at the start of next week. 

Delicious soup memories!

I know I was going to do a part 2 to my soup discovery with Abel and Cole, but ended up doing the rest of the soups in a hurry so didn't take photos. Trust me they are all delicious! I now have enough soup and other veg I've cooked in the freezer to last until the New Year so no more soup boxes for at least a month. I'm simply  not looking at the recipes because I know I'll want to try them, and I've got no space! 

Just how do they stay on? Taken from my game.

This afternoon I've got some reading and TV watching planned, then back to Pokemon Let's Go Eevee this evening. Eevee is so adorable! Younger family members enjoyed watching the various ways I can ride certain Pokemon, some look less safe than others. Agreed with young family members that suction pads must be used to stay attached to Snorlax!

This looks so cute! Photo source unknown

Nayu's Recipes #14 Souptastic Part 1!

I made this!

Apologies to those who follow me on Twitter - link is on the right if you don't follow me. This post is a longer version on the weekend's tweets. For the benefit of those who aren't Twitter followers (I honestly don't mind if you aren't), over the weekend I was busy soup making, using the soup boxes from Abel and Cole, who don't sponsor me in any way. I'm loving the variety of their soup boxes, which includes 2 soups that for me provides 3 meals per soup recipe. The recipes are easy to follow, prep time can take a long time for me because of my general fatigue level and hand/arm weaknesses, so I do it all first rather than between steps of the soup as is suggested in the recipe.The post took a bit longer than anticipated to put together so it's in 2 parts as I  need to rest today. 

Whereas my recipe food usually has a recipe, because this was provided for me I don't think I'm able to share it with you. It may be on their website though!

Usually I do not cook 2 days in a row because it is super tiring (or should that be souper tiring?!) which is why I haven't blogged this week, but on that occasion it was simply easier to do it. Be warned tumeric can mildly stain your blender jug! I'm careful to take it out quickly but on this occasion the jug didn't fair so well. It's fine though, still works the same. 

Let's start!

The first soup was Persian Herb and Golden Beet Broth with salted yogurt. The melon isn't in the dish so please ignore it! The prep time was on the long side because there was so much to cut up. I think it said to grate the ingredients, but because I was whizzing it up in the blender before serving I didn't bother. A lot of the soups aren't blitzed but I hate lumpy soup, it makes me think it should be a stew or something, so I blitz it. I didn't think the golden beetroot would stain, since it's not the usual purple kind, it did a bit but nothing that couldn't be removed. 

 The tumeric is on the foil - to reduce staining and smells I always cut tumeric and garlic with foil on top of the chopping board. The cooking time was quite reasonable despite all the veg being small, because it needed a lot of simmering to let the flavours develop. It did give me inklings of ideas for future soup 

Not the Splatoon 2 kind of inkling girls!

Next up is what it looked like before blitzing: 

Yummy! Wish technology could provide smells....

then here's what I ate -- the yogurt dressing made it sublime! Next time I will add more beets as it was quite thin, but this is expected because it was meant to be veg in a broth, not a traditional soup. 

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!

 I reused the herb bags for the soup destined for the freezer.

I fully recommend these soups, they are teaching me which flavours go together which is useful for future creations. I mainly stick with recipe boxes in the winter because it although it takes me energy to cook, I know the ingredients are high quality, providing lots of vitamins that everyone needs. That's also why I have the smoothie boxes too, which create 3 smoothies per box. More on them in future posts - I hope you look forward to part 2! Let me know if you've made soup recently, and/or if you've ever tried similar soup organic boxes! 

Nayu's Craft Time #296 Vegetable medley!

a weekend of veggie action! (not my bag)

I've been offline more or less the last few days because I've been busy, rather than being ill. I did the usual groceries on Friday, which is a major task for me so rest is needed. Saturday I then cooked most of the veg for the freezer. While I do buy frozen mixed veg because it's quick and easy to cook, highly important when I don't feel well, I do like to make my own varieties too. I could have done with a pick axe though! Here's the culprit: 

the innocent looking swede! It was for some carrot and swede mash which I used to have a lot when I was younger. Now I know why I don't have it a lot! 

swede and carrot mash looks like this - this isn't my picture. Unsure if it's a traditional English dish or not.

It was as hard to cut as the red onion squash (yes it's really called that) I hacked on Sunday for a super tasty soup. 

It certainly wasn't red, maybe the name is because it has the shape of an onion (just an awful lot bigger than standard onions)

They are so hard to chop up! Will get help cutting them in the future, as it did my hands in, though thankfully not so badly I couldn't game. After 3 consecutive days of activity yesterday was spent reading and gaming - I prefer to alternate activity days with rest days, but it's just the way the weekend turned out to have none. Craft hasn't happened because the squash and swede hacking did my weak hands/arms no  favours but I'll be getting back into it by the end of this week. I've several projects I want to get back into ^u^ 

I usually don't talk about what goes on in the news, but please can you spare a thought/prayer for those affected by disasters of any size, although in particular those in Florida affected by the recent hurricanes. Today I found out a friend who I've known over 10 years now is safe, as is her family,  both human and furbabies, but her  home was completely destroyed in Panama City. 

I didn't know much about it, Googled it and it is absolutely awful. It's hard being a continent away. I can't even begin to imagine how horrendous the situation is, having to deal with the immediate infrastructure issues, trying to get her home rebuilt. She does have accommodation, which is something. Natural disasters have always been something that happens to people I don't know, which is awful to hear about but it's harder when it's personal. 

Nayu's Product Review #9 Abel and Cole's soup box

As always thank you for being patient during my non blogging phase. Colder weather = much crankier body. I know I made something the other week, possibly roasted veg. I also cooked up a load of fish for freezing. 

This is an Abel and Cole picture - I didn't buy from them.

I had a mix of my favourite fish salmon fillet; rainbow trout which I haven't had for years which my grandfather used to catch for us so it has a lot of nostalgia (he died a few years ago) whose skin does have a rainbow colour (& I'm one those weirdos who enjoy eating fish skin), then a fish pie mix which I didn't put in fish pie consisting of salmon, haddock or cod, and smoked pollock which is absolutely  delicious! Of course I had to give my darling cat some because she loves fish too. She does tend to be unbothered about salmon - I never give her smoked salmon - but she enjoyed what she had. 

I think this is a picture book, but it is certainly how my body feels about the current weather. Although we've barely had any orange leaves on the trees so technically it is still autumn.

Soup seems like an essential winter food, it is warming, filling, and delicious. I make carrot soup, and other plain flavours, but recently I tried out a soup from Abel and Cole as they did their first soup box of the year. I didn't try any last year, and sadly I'm not sponsored by them (I would love to be!), so I thought I'd give it a try. I'll do it whenever the soup takes my fancy (don't think this week or next week does), but the one I've made was relatively easy to make.It was beetroot and apple with horseradish yogurt! 

Not yet taken a picture with the yogurt sauce on top, will show that in another post.

It made a gorgeous coloured soup which has a beautiful flavour. Mine is different to theirs because I whizzed it up - I don't like lumpy soups which theirs was, it feels more like a stew if it isn't blitzed but that's my personal preference.

This fancy version of their logo was taken from here.

I got everything I needed bar some extra seasoning and olive oil. I like how I even got 1 vegetarian stock cube! I know  from the website some are unhappy because the soups are no longer vegan. I don't think it would be economical for A&C to produce both a vegan soup box in addition to the vegetarian soup box because while veganism is more popular it is still a minority diet preference. Offering a vegetarian soup box means they cater to most people. I also read in the reviews that a lot where unhappy about their being just 2 soup recipes, not 3. A&C responded on the website explaining it meant they could do fancier soups. I didn't have any of them last year, and in all honesty I'm glad they made that decision. I can make plain soup flavours on my own. I use Abel and Cole's recipe boxes occasionally (sadly weekly is a bit pricey for me) because I want to try new flavours, and it means I don't have to buy a lot of ingredients I then won't use, so I'm in favour of fancier soups. 

Example of a soup box taken from Abel and Cole's website.

On to the recipe! I can cook, I don't cook lots because it is immensely tiring on my body, but when I do I enjoy it. I know the basics, but I tend to follow recipes literally. This was a minor issue because it said stir a few times in several parts of the recipe, so I did that...but because I didn't keep stirring more frequently food stuck to the pan in the early stage of the soup. Thanks to the pan it was easy to remedy. I did keep putting in water to help it unstick - I took that into account and adjusted the amount of stock liquid that I made up. It didn't affect the cooking of the veg. 

It says it takes about 40 minutes which I believe includes preparation which is done between stages of cooking. I am not the best judge of this because due to a weak body I take longer than a healthy person to prepare food. It took me 40 minutes to prep everything: I did it in advance because I struggle doing more than 1 thing at a time and I hate feeling under pressure of keeping an eye on food while then prepping the next ingredient. Cooking time was definitely under 1 hour but I'm unsure of the actual time. It was a good 2 hours before I was finished. 

I'm super happy with the results. While I cook for myself, my family had a taste and like it so much they plan on making some. There was some amusement when I realised I'd eaten it without the yogurt dip (horseradish mustard, chives, Greek yogurt) so I quickly had a few more spoonfuls with the yogurt mix - it is divine! A brilliant combination. I'm trying to work out how to replicate it: I don't eat horseradish sauce that you buy in a jar because I no longer like sauces like that (at least in jar form. Home made might be ok). I'm fine with buying and using mustard, I need to investigate how else I can get horseradish. I have to stress how absolutely yummy the mix of the sauce and the beetroot soup is. It tastes of beetroot (obviously), I was a bit wary of having apple and celery in but they aren't instantly recognisable because they are mixed in the soup. 

I'm looking forward to making the second soup probably at the weekend, it's a roasted butternut squash which uses coconut milk (I think), coconut flakes for topping in a tiny pot, plus a tiny jar of harissa which I've never used before. I genuinely love the range of food Abel and Cole provides through their organic box schemes, I've tried their smoothie boxes which are a firm favourite: they helped me eat mango more. I only like it in small doses, but trying their smoothies means I eat it more often than I used to (which was virtually never). If there are problems with an order they fix it quickly with a replacement item in the next order. 

Best organic yogurt EVER!!!!! (& I love my yogurts)

 This happened to me for a watermelon this summer which I did mention on this blog, and more recently a yogurt that should have been in date was definitely out of date before being opened. This led to me trying the River Cottage Yogurt which is unbelievably tasty! Give them a go if you haven't already, they deliver to most places in the UK (I think. Definitely in England at least). Their website is here. 

I'm trying to schedule another post in a few days because I then won't be able to blog until the weekend because I'm seeing friends tomorrow and Friday so need Thursday and Saturday for resting up. 

Before I forget, in relation to the first picture of this post I'm planning on making pumpkin pie soon! More on that in a future post. 

Previous Nayu's Product Review posts includes Yeo Valley Baobab Yogurt. Search for the rest using the Nayu's Product Review keyword in the right hand menu!

Nayu's Recipes #6 Nayu's Quick and Easy Mushroom Soup

If you want you could leave the soup unblended, like this, but I like smooth soup so I hit the blender! (not literally!)

Finally I can share my mushroom soup recipe! I did initially look online for a recipe, but after getting the gist of what goes into mushroom soup, and wanting a smaller quantity than most recipes created, I made it up myself. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, possibly less but I can't remember the exact time.
Note: this is an unsponsered post, any links and brand mentions are because I like the products the company provides and wish to share them with you.

Winging it worked out extremely well for this dish. The silky smooth texture (thank you Vitamix!) teamed up well with the subtly, buttery flavour of mushrooms. Here's what I did, with the full recipe at the end post.

I took a small smidge of butter,

My onion looked about this size.

used it to gently fry a small chopped onion. 

Since they were going in a blender I roughly cut mine into slices

I then the entire organic portion provided by Able and Cole added the super tasty mushrooms which are delicious raw and cooked, and I think are underated in cooking. I cooked them for a few minutes with the butter and onion mix. 

Also delicious cold from the fridge as a drink!

Next I tipped in enough milk and some water to cover the mixture.

The essence of life

I crumbled in an instant stock cube for flavour, 

Other brands are fine too!

a bit of flour to thicken it,

Flour isn't just for baking bread and cakes!

Use as much or as little as you like!

then added a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and let the mixture simmer for a while. 

Yummy!

Once I judged it ready I tipped it into the blender, whizzed it up & voila! Mushroom soup ^o^

Simple, plain, wonderfully tasty!

Mushroom soup is often creamy: I didn't add any cream, but it was better than any tinned soup which I've tasted. Here's my recipe! 

Ingredients

Please note the quantities are estimated as I 'winged' the recipe. Adjust the quantity according to your own preferences,

butter, a small matchbox sized amount 

onion, egg-sized chopped into little cubes 

white mushrooms (any kind can be used) about 2 fists worth 

milk, 3/4 of a cup 

water, 1/4 of a cup 

vegetarian stock cube, x 1 (I think meat ones could be used if you prefer them)

plain flour, 1 tablespoon 

salt and pepper, a little of each 

How to Cook

Total time: 30 minutes, depending on how well you like some of the ingredients cooked.

Put the butter in a saucepan until it melts, stirring occasionally. 

Add the chopped onion, and keep stirring as they cook for a few minutes.

Tip in the chopped mushrooms, and keep stirring as they cook for a few minutes. 

Add milk and water to cover the mixture. 

Add the stock cube, flour, salt, and pepper then let the mixture simmer for several minutes. How long you leave it is entirely up to how cooked you like your ingredients. The flour will thicken the soup so keep stirring until any lumps have dissolved.

Please follow the instructions in  your blender - not all blenders can take hot liquid, in which case either wait until the soup is cool before blitzing it, or blitz it after it warms up a bit, then heat it up for eating after. I'm fortunate that my family has a Vitamax blender which creates silky smooth soups (hence this soup's title) but any blender will do the job. 

Place mixture in blender, and blend to your preferred thickness. 

Place in bowls and enjoy!

I hope you've enjoyed today's recipe - I'd love to hear if you try it out for yourself!

This is obviously not going to happen after making my recipe, but I spotted it while searching for cooking images and it made me laugh, especially as I've used still images of this cat in previous posts. Picture source.

Nayu's Recipes #5 Nayu's 3 P Soup

An ideal bowl of mint pea soup!

Due to blogging this morning (playing catch up with a few not entirely straight forward posts/emails), at the time of writing this post I haven't done any craft. That's not going to stop me from posting! I thought I'd share with you the Pea Pesto Soup I've made for lunch, which is super tasty, and adapted from this BBC Good Food recipe. 

The humble pea which comes from a pea pod is packed full of nutrients surprisingly including protein!

I adore peas. I adore mint pea soup, which I had a lot one year but it's expensive to buy, so I thought I may as well make some. I can't be doing with a recipe that requires cream (I don't have any on standby, and although I have some frozen I shall be freezing the leftover soup so definitely can't refreeze the cream), a recipe one  which takes ages to make as it will make me tired, and I can't even make one with mint in because I don't have any to hand. 

Wonderful pesto, sadly mine isn't made by hand

What I do have is an open jar of pesto! Pesto doesn't last forever, is super tasty, and in my view goes well with peas. 

This may already feature in your kitchen cupboard

Pea soup includes stock - I'm using a famous vegetarian stock cube from Oxo. 

That's pretty much it on the ingredient front, nice and simple. Now I'm off to make it! 

Pre-blitzing...

All whizzed up!

It's so tasty!!! It's 3 P soup because it has Peas, Pesto, and sweet Potato. 

You can leave the skin on this sweet potato! Mine was pre-cooked.

I wanted a bit more veg in it, so dug around in the freezer and grabbed a pre-portioned (by me) bag of veg. It had peas, sweet potato and a secret ingredient...

No tomato was used in the making of Nayu's 3 P Soup!

Mozzarella! A few chunks of this cheese made it extra delicious. We'll ignore the fact it's an 'M' food since Nayu's 3 Ps + 1 M Soup sounds more like a maths equation than food, and I'm not fond of maths, no offence to the subject.  

Time to give you the super easy recipe which you can adapt according to what veg you have, what flavours you want! 

Ingredients

 

Peas, 3 and a bit fists 

Sweet potato= 1 fist 

Mozzarella = 3 small chunks 

Stock cube = 1 

Shop bought pesto = a golf ball sized dollop 

Boiling water = just enough to cover the veg in the saucepan (I used a small pan. If you like soup thicker, use less.) 

How to cook 

Put vegetables and cheese in a saucepan. 

Add enough boiling water to cover the veg (see note in ingredients) 

Sprinkle in the stock cube. 

Put in the pesto. 

Stir well. 

Let the soup cook until hot (or however well cooked you like your veg). 

Pour into blender and blitz until at required consistency 

Please follow the instructions in  your blender - not all blenders can take hot liquid, in which case either wait until the soup is cool before blitzing it, or blitz it after it warms up a bit, then heat it up for eating after. I'm fortunate that my family has a Vitamax blender which creates silky smooth soups, but any blender will do the job. 

I'd love to hear what your favourite soup is, and if you try my recipe! Future soup flavours will include mushroom and butternut squash! (Not together)

My favourite cartoon cat likes to cook!