This weekly post is aimed at offering some simple recipe suggestions to the subscribers of Adelaide Food Connect weekly fresh produce boxes. It can be a challenge to deal with the same seasonal produce week after week and I hope to help inspire with fresh ideas. The link to the list of contents for all the boxes is here.
It’s the end of another week and we are now officially over the “hump” of winter, with the celebration of the winter solstice yesterday – our days will now gradually begin to lengthen, although we have a long way to go yet folks. I was thrilled to find parsnips in my box this week and will be celebrating with a big roast over the weekend.
I spent a bit of time cooking last weekend and some of you who saw my Facebook posts were keen check out the recipes which I promised to share today – so here they are, as promised, although at the cost of a spinach recipe this week.
First up was a very simple Moroccanish carrot and red lentil soup.
Carrot and Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 50 ml olive oil
- 4 medium carrots, cubed
- 200 gms red lentils
- 1-1/2 litres chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
- sal & pepper
- lemons
Instructions
- Heat oil over moderate heat and saute onions and garlic until soft and golden.
- Add carrots and continue to saute until they are just beginning to change colour and caramelise a little. This helps to bring out the sugars in the carrots, making the soup richer and sweeter.
- Add lentils, stock and cinnamon stick. Bring to boil and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes until the lentils and carrots are soft.
- Remove cinnamon stick and puree soup with a stab mixer or cool it and put it in a processor and whizz until smooth.
- Return to pan, add cumin, coriander and season to taste.
- Reheat over gentle heat until hot, but not boiling.
- Serve, adding a good squeeze of lemon juice to each bowl.
Number of servings (yield): 6
I also made a cake which was an old favourite, shared with me by a friend more years ago than I care to remember, that I had completely forgotten about. It popped back into my head last weekend when I was searching for ways to use up my glut of lemons. It is quite rich, but seriously good – and especially wicked with an extra drizzle of pouring cream over it.
Lemon, Apricot & Ginger Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 185 gms butter
- grated rind of 1 lemon
- 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 chopped, dried apricots
- 1/3 cup chopped, crystalised ginger
- 3/4 sour cream
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
Instructions
- Grease and flour a 20cm Baba or ring tin.
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Cream butter, rind and sugar until pale and fluffy, add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
- Fold in apricots, ginger and sour cream.
- Sift flour and bicarb together and fold into mixture.
- Spread evenly in prepared tin and bake approx 1 hour.
- Leave in tin for 10 minutes, before turning onto cake rack to cool.
- To serve, dust with icing sugar.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s)
Yum! That soup sounds great, as does the cake. 🙂
I absolutely love carrot soup and cannot wait to try it with red lentils – fabulous idea and the cake, well that’s just got my taste-buds dancing about.
🙂 Mandy
That is a perfect sounding meal for me – soup and cake – what could be better especially for now in wintry Melbourne !
Erin, Mandy & Kate – this is the perfect Sunday evening meal, although the thing I love about this cake is it’s versatility. I can (and have) eaten it for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I’m sure the fruit in it makes it a form of health food. 😉
Oh I could go a bowl of the soup, sounds so yummy. Perfect for the freezing cold weather we are experiencing here in the Berra. I wonder, do ya think that peach would work? Im not an Apricot fan at all.
Anna – Dried peach would work, but wouldn’t have the same tang as it’s a little bland. You could just beef up the ginger instead, maybe?