Inspiration for a healthy soup

I've been uninspired lately. Winter comes along and it becomes difficult to be inspired. Difficult to find the motivation to cook healthily, to look after myself and to be the active person my summer self is. As you can tell, me and winter are not the best of friends. There's no doubt about it, winter does bring with it some gems - particularly in the Northern hemisphere. England is in some ways made for winter with its cosy pubs and comforting food traditions. Pies, sausages and a multitude of culinary delights that are bad for you come into their own in the winter. All so good, but I've found it hard to be inspired to cook anything particularly interesting.

But the other day a friend from back home wrote on their Facebook page that they had made a salad inspired by one I had posted on this blog in the summer. That inspired me. It's pretty epic that people actually read this and that so many friends have gone out of their way to tell me how much they enjoy it. Thank you. And thank you for inspiring me.

Soups are the epitamy of winter food. And there are an infinite number of soup recipes out there. Some of them are super interesting. All energised, I decided to make a healthy yet hearty soup. I'd seen a recipe for a ginger broccoli and white bean soup a while back on Hemsley and Hemsley. They are two London based sisters who provide basically high class ready made meals to the rich and famous and write for Vogue. I love their stuff.

I had some leftover cavolo nero so I made some kale chips to pop on top of the soup, finished off with toasted cashew nuts. It was warming but fresh. The boys didn't even realise I was detoxing them!

Broccoli, ginger and white bean soup with spicy cavolo nero chips

For the soup
1 large head of broccoli (or 2 small heads)
2 large onions, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
3-4 inches of peeled ginger chopped
juice of 2 limes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1200ml of chicken stock
2 cans of white beans - I used cannellini
4 handfuls of coriander, roughly chopped or torn
large handful of cashews, chopped

For the chips
small bunch of cavolo nero or kale
1 tsp chilli power
olive oil

Heat oven to 180 degrees.
Toast the chopped cashew nuts in a dry pan and set aside.

Chop the stalks of the broccoli and set aside then roughly chop the heads.
In a big pot heat a tablespoon of cooking oil. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and cayenne pepper and gently saute for 5 mins.

Add the broccoli stalks and about 3/4 of the stock.  Simmer for 8 minutes.

While this is cooking make your chips. Chop the cavolo nero into thick strips and lay out on a baking tray. Drizzle over olive oil and cover the cavolo nero with the oil using your fingers. Sprinkle over the dried chilli and put it in the oven to bake for about 5-8 minutes or until just crispy.

Add the broccoli heads to the soup, the beans and the coriander. Cook for 5 minutes. Cool slightly before blending. Add more water during the blending process to get the right consistency.

Add lime juice and season with salt and pepper.

Pour soup in bowls and arrange the kale chips on top. Sprinkle over toasted cashews and serve.

Serves 6 - enough for a family or for leftover lunches!

Mexican dinner party

I've cooked dinner for people before; simple dishes with limited stress and preparation involved. But a couple of weekends ago Dave and I hosted our first proper dinner party. The start of our dinner party careers perhaps? I hope there will be any more to come. I definitely need the practice! I completely underestimated how much effort would be involved in cooking Mexican for 8 people. Oh boy.

The dinner party was the third in a series of dinner parties a bunch of us New Zealanders are hosting in London. It's a come dine with me type scenario, so as ridiculous as it sounds, we mark each other at the end of the night. On the whole its all just a bit of a laugh. But we wanted to win of course. We decided on a Mexican theme and set about devising our menu. We found what seems to be the only Mexican supermarket in London run by a very well spoken elderly English couple in a pretty poor East London neighbourhood to purchase essential ingredients including Mexican beer.

Dave worked tirelessly the week before on the grand finale - a piñata. Reconnecting with the craft  loving child within was brilliant. This is until the home made glue Dave whipped up turned mouldy and made our entire room smell like we'd left a bunch of rotting bananas under the bed. I was too busy to notice - creating the menu:

Home made tortilla chips with pico de gallo (salsa) and guacamole with classic margaritas

~

Soft tacos: tequila lime prawn; chicken tinga and Yucatecan 'pulled' pork

~

Carne asada (roast beef in a Mexican marinade) served with home made refried beans, salad and green rice

~

Margarita cheesecake 

Making tortilla chips from scratch was tricky. The masa flour used to make the corn tortillas was pretty hard to deal with. I couldn't roll it out - too much water and it turned to quicksand, not enough and it cracked. In the end I ended up patting out tortillas with my fingers. But the end result was not too bad. Crunchy chips with a pico de gallo - enough salt and jalapeno to get a thirst on. The margaritas were sour enough to dry the mouth but we quickly made up some sugar syrup and all was redeemed. 

But then real disaster struck us. I'm still getting used to the oven in our new place and I had the oven on grill instead of bake. The pork which was supposed to be pulled was still raw and the beef overcooked. Thank goodness I'd had a few margaritas and a tequila shot by this stage or I think I would have cried. So much planning and preparation all for it to be ruined by a stupid mistake. We threw the pork shoulder into a pot along with its marinade and cooked it till it was edible. The tacos ended up being pretty tasty all things considered. 

We smothered the beef in a char-grilled tomato salsa I made but no-one was fooled! Never mind, the refried beans were delicious - I was pretty proud of what I had achieved with that one.

Dave's margarita cheesecake with a salty pretzel base was delicious. We then worked off our dinner by smashing the heck out of Dave's piñata. 

I'd put so much effort into the party and had such high expectations about the food I would create but really didn't matter. We had a great night because we had fantastic friends at our table. We also really enjoyed ourselves. I think the tequila helped too! Next time I have a dinner party I'll take a leaf out of Donna Hay's book and keep it simple. 

I thought I'd share the recipe for the chicken tacos and the re-fried beans as they were my favourites of the night. Warning: the refried beans should probably be illegal. They are not healthy but are so blimmin good!

Many limes and lemons went into the making of this dinner party...

The trio of soft tacos

Like my mo?

Refried beans 

2.5 cups dry beans - I used black beans

1/2 chopped onion

1-2 finely chopped garlic cloves

3 tbsp bacon lard/drippings

1/4 cup water

salt 

cheddar cheese

sour cream (optional)

Wash the beans then put in a large pot and cover with water. Simmer until cooked - about 2.5 hours. Drain and set aside. Return the large pot to the heat and add the lard, then add the onion and garlic. Stir constantly for a minute or two. Add the beans and water. Simmer for a minute or two. Add a pinch of salt. Then either mash the beans with a potato masher or use a hand processor. You can add a little dollop of sour cream at this point if you want to make it more creamy. Or water would be fine too.

Serve in a bowl with a sprinkle of grated cheddar cheese. 

You can keep leftovers in the fridge and use for days after.

Chicken tinga tacos

For the flour tortillas:

4 cups flour

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp butter

Put flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and mix well. Work the butter into the mixture with your fingers. Add 1.5 cups of warm water and stir until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead about 20 times. Place the dough in a bowl. cover with a clean tea towel and set aside for 10 mins.

Divide the flour into each pieces. Roll into balls and then roll out into 12 inch rounds. 

Heat a cast iron pan over medium to high heat. Cook each tortilla for about 1 minute each side until they blister and brown in parts. Wrap in a tea towel to keep warm. 

For the chicken tinga:

2-3 chicken breasts

1 small onion finely chopped

1 chipotle chilli/1 tbsp chipotle paste 

150 grams chopped tomatoes

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 bay leaf

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp coriander

optional: half a small chorizo finely chopped

juice of 1 lime

Poach the chicken breasts on a low heat with the bay leaf and a pinch of salt until cooked (about 15-20 minutes). Remove the chicken and reserve the cooking water. 

In a pan heat a tablespoon of oil and add the onion and garlic. Saute until soft. Add the chorizo and spices and stir. Add the tomatoes, chipotle  and a few spoonfuls of the cooking water if it needs more moisture. Cook on a low to medium heat - stirring continuously - for 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice. 

Serve with avocado and fresh coriander.