Keeping cosy
This is the week of the BIG SOUP. Soup chock-a-block with vegetables.
Soup with barley. Soup to fill you up and power you forward. Yep, winter
soup. You may not need it today, but when that cold wind blows, dig out
the soup pot, get chopping and make a big pot of it. Soup is restorative,
warms you through to your bones and can be a one-bowl meal. I like to add
barley. It reminds me of my mum. And I can never make a tiny pot of this
soup – it’s soup to share. BIG SOUP
If you’re unfamiliar with barley, read up on it here. Barley It adds
protein – and inexpensive protein at that – and gives the soup body. Then
there is the barley itself, chewy little nutty nuggets swirling through
the soup. Glorious stuff!
You don’t have to confine barley to the soup pot though. It makes a great
salad with roasted vegetables – think fennel, carrot, pumpkin, beetroot,
that sort of thing –dressed with a gutsy tangy dressing; check the recipe
for Baked Vegetables with Sizzled
Haloumi for an idea.
I love the simple
Barley Pilaf with Tomatoes featured
this week. It has few ingredients but you can taste them all. A pilaf is
similar to risotto, slowly absorbing broth as it cooks, though it’s
easier to make because you don’t have to stir it. You can keep the end
result quite sloppy, like a traditional risotto, and serve it in a pasta
bowl, or serve it firmer if it is to be served on a plate to accompany
meat or vegetables (remove lid from saucepan towards end of cooking to
let the rice dry off). It’s delicious and nutritious and inexpensive
(barley is way cheaper than risotto rice). The point here is that
sometimes we convince ourselves that by spending more money on products
we’ll get a better meal. Look to whole grains and staple vegetables and
cook them from scratch to help the weekly food budget go further.
I don’t mean to harp on about barley (well, okay, I do) but have
you heard of
black barley? It’s
hulled barley, barley with only the tough outer husk removed, leaving all
the nutritive parts intact. Read about it here.
It’s a holiday weekend coming up, and I’ve got a few suggestions
from the archives to keep you cooking. I simply love
Chicken Curry with Tomatoes.
It’s just the thing if you’ve got friends coming around. And Blueberry & Apple Brazil
Nut Crumbles make a mighty fine end to a winter’s meal. Yes,
you can use frozen blueberries in these little cuties. Looking for a
substantial snack, good anytime after sport or a vigorous walk, or
something for a light lunch with salad? Try Leek & Bacon Tartlets.
There are heaps of recipes to chose from on Shared Kitchen now, and if
you haven’t had a look for awhile, flick through to the Home page and
click on Recently Posted. I keep recipes in there for several months so
it is easy to see what has been added by scrolling through.
And if you haven’t booked a get-away for this weekend, and feel like one,
we still have some spaces on our Te Whau Lodge foodie weekend.
Te Whau Lodge The
sun is set to shine Sunday and Monday so it is bound to be a gorgeous
weekend here on the island. FYI Waiheke Island is 2-3° warmer than
Auckland, and drier, too.
Cheerio!
Julie
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