Potages, Soupes, Veloutés
This horribly damp, dark snowy rainy winter has made me think of the magic of soups
in all forms, consistency or appearance. It is the easiest, most satisfying comforting
dish you could make, and believe me you do not need recipes. They take less than
a quarter of an hour to make and fill this horrible hole left by the weather with
warmth and bien-être. Base your soup making on your own taste or your family’s, and
combine various vegetables with some spices, onions, ginger, garlic or herbs. You
do not need to go and buy them specifically. If you feed your family or yourself
conscientiously you will always have carrots, onions, maybe celery, apples or some
left over cheese, mushrooms parsnips, broccolis, courgettes peppers tomatoes (even
tinned!) - fennel, endives, Jerusalem artichokes - really any vegetables you find
which takes your fancy or you have. There are so many ingredients you will think
of, which you can make delicious soups with!
An example would be: (quantities are not rigid!) three carrots, two parsnips one
onion, chopped, sauteed in a little olive oil, add some spice (no more than a good
pinch) cumin, coriander or even a little curry and/or fresh ginger or garlic. Add
enough water to cover them plus 2 inches. Bring to the boil, cook (if cut thinly
takes less time). When cooked, put in the liquidiser with one or more teaspoons of
vegetable dried stock (the Swiss one, pure vegetable) but this also is not essential
as vegetables have a delicious taste themselves; a couple of dessert spoons of dried
milk; (again, not essential but gives a delicious creamy velvety consistency to the
soup, more or less according to taste, pepper, salt when needed - liquidise and eat
immediately.
You can also add cheese in the liquidiser with the soup or add some grated cheese
at the end. You will have a lovely creamy and very tasty soup. You do not need to
add the stock or the milk, it will work just as well but you will have a thick, less
creamy soup and add a bit more salt and pepper. You also don’t need to liquidise
the soup; you can eat it with the pieces of vegetables. I always save the water in
which I have cooked vegetables and use it as stock.
Lentils. They are another amazingly versatile pulse/vegetable. Your can make them
into a velouté creamy soup, you can eat them as a soup with the lentils whole and
as soft as butter, you can have them as a main course or as an accompaniment.
Lentils - all shapes and colours
Lentils are another ingredient I love, and which can be prepared with so many things!
Again, you do not need to follow a recipe, the only thing you have to remember is
to wash them and start them in cold water.
There are many varieties: the Lentils du Puy, similar to the Canadian variety, the
flat green ones, blue black ones etc.
My basic recipe (but you can invent your own!) is chopping one medium carrot, one
medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, two celery sticks (peeled please) two good pinches
of cumin; stir fry in very little olive oil, add 300g lentils; add enough cold water
to cover plus one to one and a half inches above. If you cook it in a pressure cooker
then add a bit more water and bring to the boil, put lid and pressure on and cook
for ten minutes once it starts hissing; turn off and let cool whilst still closed.
If you cook them in a normal saucepan, bring to the boil, then let them just simmer
with a lid, until cooked (20 to 25 minutes). Season once cooked, and add 2 or 3 chopped
peeled tomatoes.
In the pictures on the right, we had them for dinner with steak and kidneys cut in
julienne and again cooked à la minute very quickly with a chopped onion, a couple
of chopped mushrooms and fresh thyme.
With the left over lentils I made a soup for the next day: I could have made a velouté
by diluting and putting it through the liquidizer with a little dried milk and a
teaspoon of dried veg. stock; this time I preferred to dilute them with a little
water. I sliced and cooked two left over sausages, poured the lentils over them,
added a fresh chopped tomato, some chopped basil. It was really super delicious.
Incidentally, the sausages were a left over from another lentil meal, we had lentils
with Toulouse sausages, 95% meat! delicious. You could have duck, lamb ,etc. (we
do not eat lentils for all our meals!)
