Leek, potato, zucchini and kale soup

This would have to be one of the quickest and easiest veggie soups to make. I made this one on Sunday night with the intention of freezing a batch, and eating the rest for work lunches.

You can pretty much make up your favourite combo of veggies, as I did here. After a day spent lazing about the house on Sunday post-massive-birthday celebrations (post on that feast to come) I wandered up to the organic co-op on Oxford Street to get a re-hydrating coconut and some vegetables for the week. Most of which then became my delicious soup. I noticed the texture was incredibly creamy, I would attribute this to the type of potatoes, so always try to go for better quality.

Ingredients
3 x leeks (sliced)
1 x small brown onion (diced)
2 x Russian garlic cloves
4 x large dutch cream potatoes
2 x zucchini
1 x carrot
1 x natural veg stock cube (or make your own)
olive or grapeseed oil
enough water to cover ingredients
himalayan sea salt

Sautee the leeks, onion and garlic in some oil until they soften. Add the peeled and roughly chopped vegetables in, cook for two minutes and cover (only just) with water (or home made veggie stock). Bring to the boil, then simmer on low heat until all the vegetables have softened. Remove some of the liquid and set aside. Blend the vegetables in the saucepan with a stick blender and add in leftover liquid until you get the right consistency. In this instance it turned out that I added all of the leftover liquid back in. Season to taste.

I just finished eating the last portion for lunch at work today with some Sonoma Quinoa and Soya toast with leftover pesto! Delish-us x

Simon's Mushroom Risotto Stuffed Capsicums

Last night I went to cook dinner at Birdie’s house after work. Birdie is my best friend Sarah, who is expecting a baby and gets very tired at night. So I offered to go over to her house and cook instead of us going out (which would often lead to trouble anyway). She’d already bought all the ingredients, so when I got there after work all I had to do was pour a wine and get started.

This stuffed capsicum recipe was passed on from my friend Simon. They are a little time consuming, as most risotto’s are, but worth the effort! What I love about them is they’re a little retro – I couldn’t help exclaiming all night – “oh look they’re so 80’s” and they smell like pizza when they’re baking in the oven. Mmmmmm. The risotto can be eaten on it’s own which is what we did when we devoured every last morsel out of the saucepan! No it didn’t spoil our dinner, we ate all of that too. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic
Brown onion
Swiss brown mushrooms (we used 2 punnets) sliced
Pine nuts (toasted)
Olive oil
1.5 cups arborio rice
Rocket (for the risotto and side salad)
White wine (for risotto and drinking!)
Goats fetta
Vegetable stock (we used the large tetra pack variety but you can make your own)
Frozen baby peas
Pecorino (grated)
4 large red capsicums (tops cut off washed and de-seeded)
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Sautee sliced garlic, onions and mushrooms in oil until soft. Set aside in a bowl. Toast the pine nuts and set these aside also. Heat oil in saucepan and stir through the rice until coated, add a dash (or so) of wine and let this evaporate. Start adding ladles of stock and stirring through. After 5 mins add the bowl of ingredients. Keep stirring and adding stock. At 18 mins crumble in fetta. Season and add peas. Keep stirring and adding stock until about 22 minutes. Add rocket and pinenuts and test the rice to see if it’s almost cooked. Stuff the capsicums with risotto and add the pecorino on top.
We placed the capsicums in a muffin tray to try keep them upright. It didn’t really work! Bake until the pecorino is golden brown and your kitchen smells like pizza! Serve with a side of rocket and pecorino salad tossed lightly in balsamic and olive oil. Yummy.