Kiss Me I'm Vegetarian
St. Patrick's Day is right around the o'corner! Are you ready? With your Guiness and your green-vegetable-based culinary offerings? If not, rest assured that I am Irish by marriage, and I've got your back.
First up, we have Creamy Spinach Soup, from the BBC's "Good Food" website. If you live in Ireland, it is all well and good that the measurements for this recipe are in metric. For Americans, though, I have converted it all into, ummmm, whatever the non-metric measurements are called. Here is the whole recipe.
I served the soup and the broccoli tots with Pillsbury crescent rolls, which are neither Irish nor green, but people like them anyway. I don't know why I took such a terrible photo of Emma's plate of food, with the roll skulking behind the soup. Sorry about that, but you get the idea.
You are going to think I am making this up, but I swear I am not: last night I had a dream that I ate an entire roasted chicken.
In my waking hours, I haven't actively missed meat. Often the meat items on a menu look more appealing to me than the vegetarian ones, as do the meat recipes in my cookbooks and on the cooking websites I use. But when I'm eating the meatless dishes that I eventually order or cook, I never think to myself, "I'd rather be having chicken." It is all about having those tasty vegetarian things in front of you, which is a prime purpose of this blog.
Final note for today: after great success with mixing skim milk and vanilla coconut beverage for my beloved hot chocolate, I had the same great success mixing skim milk and vanilla almond milk. Take the night off, cows. (I know, I know, that's not how cows work.)
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| This person is genuinely Irish by heritage, unlike me |
First up, we have Creamy Spinach Soup, from the BBC's "Good Food" website. If you live in Ireland, it is all well and good that the measurements for this recipe are in metric. For Americans, though, I have converted it all into, ummmm, whatever the non-metric measurements are called. Here is the whole recipe.
Creamy Spinach Soup
Serves 4+
Ingredients
3 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium potato, peeled and chopped into chunks
15oz (2 cups) vegetable stock
2.5c milk
1lb fresh spinach, washed if necessary and roughly chopped
finely grated zest of half a lemon
freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
3 tbsp double cream, to serve
Method
Melt the butter in a large lidded saucepan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently for 5-6 minutes until softening. Stir in the potato and continue to cook gently for 1 minute. Pour in the stock and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the potato starts to cook. Pour in the milk and bring up to a simmer, then stir in half the spinach and the lemon zest. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the spinach has completely wilted down. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
Pour the soup into a blender (preferably) or food processor, add the remaining spinach (this will keep the soup bright green and fresh tasting) and process until silky smooth – you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your machine. (The soup may now be frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost in the microwave or overnight in the fridge. The soup may lose some of its vibrancy on freezing, but the flavour won’t be impaired.) Return to the pan and reheat. Taste and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. You may like to dilute the soup with a little extra stock if too thick. Ladle the soup into bowls and swirl in the cream.
Don't hate me for being an over-achiever, but I made my own vegetable stock. You can, too! It isn't hard, and it makes any recipe taste so much better than if you used the canned stock. Here is Mark Bittman's recipe from "How To Cook Everything," which I believe I have previously noted is my bible.
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| Don't accidentally make the recipe for shrimp stock! And look, I've had this bible for over 20 years! Which is amazing since I'm only 29. |
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| In addition to what's listed in the recipe, you can throw in other veggies languishing in your fridge. For this stock, I've added green beens and mini-zucchinis. |
To go with the soup, we have another festively green recipe, "Healthy Baked Broccoli Tots," from the "Gimme Delicious" blog. I have made this a mazillion times. Tots are always the answer.
I served the soup and the broccoli tots with Pillsbury crescent rolls, which are neither Irish nor green, but people like them anyway. I don't know why I took such a terrible photo of Emma's plate of food, with the roll skulking behind the soup. Sorry about that, but you get the idea.
You are going to think I am making this up, but I swear I am not: last night I had a dream that I ate an entire roasted chicken.
In my waking hours, I haven't actively missed meat. Often the meat items on a menu look more appealing to me than the vegetarian ones, as do the meat recipes in my cookbooks and on the cooking websites I use. But when I'm eating the meatless dishes that I eventually order or cook, I never think to myself, "I'd rather be having chicken." It is all about having those tasty vegetarian things in front of you, which is a prime purpose of this blog.
Final note for today: after great success with mixing skim milk and vanilla coconut beverage for my beloved hot chocolate, I had the same great success mixing skim milk and vanilla almond milk. Take the night off, cows. (I know, I know, that's not how cows work.)
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