Chunky. Thrifty. Homely. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on board. England is known for it's dreary grey days. The greyest and foggiest of these days are called pea soupers, when the fog is so settled and thick that you can barely see a few feet in front of you. This painting is an interpretation of a 'pea souper', with a nod to the lovely misty and ethereal tree paintings of Melbourne's Kathryn Ryan.

Original artwork for Autumn and Winter paintings can be purchased in the Official Art Store. To be kept updated on the availablity of Spring and Summer paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

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The meatless meals recipe

This recipe is an inspired conglomeration of several pea soups I have known and enjoyed. The first was a family recipe for your bog standard Pea and Ham soup. Very flavouful, somewhat missed once I stopped eating meat. The second was another family recipe for a Pea and Mint soup which was interesting for it's enormous use of mint, but not outstanding in itself. And finally there was the Ainsley Harriet cup-o-soup version of Shropshire Minted Pea Soup from when I was working in London. Drinkable in a cup-o-soup kind of a way, it caught my attention with it's unusual spice and tang. Unfortunately this was due to the inclusion of the world famous Worstershire Sauce which contains anchovies and I stopped drinking this once I realised.  But then it was game on to create my own Pea soup which was flavourful like the Pea and Ham, super minty like the Pea and Mint, and tangy and spicy minus the anchovies like the Shropshire soup. Success below!


1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
a few cracks of pepper and salt
500g dried green split peas
7 cups weak stock
2-3 small bay leaves
up to 1 teaspoon hot paprika
1/4 - 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups roughly chopped fresh mint (this is about 36g of leaves or 4 cups unchopped) - err on the generous side

Saute the onion in butter until soft with a little pepper and salt.
Add stock, split peas, bay leaves, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, and two big pinches of hot paprika.
Simmer gently with the lid on until the peas are completely broken down. This means at least for one hour, and preferably, for two hours.
Taste test. Check for heat/spiciness and cautiously add more hot paprika to suit. It's heat will vary depending on it's age (less heat with age). Also check for tartness/tang. Depending on the balsamic vinegar and your tastes, you may want to add more to suit.
Finally, stir in all the roughly chopped mint.


Makes 4 rather hearty bowls.

Delicate. Easy. Quick. Creamy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil and graphite on linen. I have a soft spot for Victorian era or olde worlde looking botannical illustrations. Now this painting is not strictly in that vintage style as I've aimed to loosen it up a bit with watercolour inspired brushwork. The result is rightly a bit more modern, while harking back to an older era where cucumbers were routinely eaten as a sole sandwich filling, and held in much higher regard than they seem to be today.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop.

To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

It can be somewhat odd making soups in high summer, but sometimes that's exactly what you want to eat. Some people enjoy cold soups at this time of year. I don't enjoy cold soup at any time of year. I did, however, try this soup both cold and warm and I can say that it works either way. So if chilled soup is your thing then you can make this and put it in the fridge. If warm (not hot) soup is your preference, this is delightful. It also uses a good quantity of cucumber which I have discovered grows as prolifically as zucchini. Just so you know, not deseeding or peeling the cucumbers turns this into an entirely different and rather ordinary dish. I am generally not in favour of peeling and deseeding vegetables or of creating extra work in the kitchen. In this recipe it is essential. Peel, deseed then weigh your cucumber. It is absolutely worth it.

1 Tbl olive oil

700g cucumber that has already been peeled and deseeded (about 1.4kg whole cucumber), sliced or grated

4 spring onions, chopped

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups stock

2 teaspoons fresh chopped dill

2 avocados

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

black pepper to taste

Soften the spring onion in oil.
Add grated/sliced cucumber, lemon juice, stock and dill.
Heat until the cucumber is warmed through and softened. It doesn't need to be 'cooked'.
Add avocado and white wine vinegar and puree until velvety smooth.
Serve and garnish with more dill.
Add salt and pepper to taste. A generous amount of pepper works well.

Serves 4.

Thrifty. Delicate. Homely. Quick.

Light. Satisfying. Easy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton archival paper.

Another abstract exploration, this time it's my more usual fascination with combining colour, texture and pattern. This painting explores some of the transparent techniques of watercolour and is ruled by the essential corn kernals, the colours of the actual soup and the  tendrilly patterns of the egg in the broth.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, mailing list subscribers get first dibs on new artwork. Yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

A lifetime ago when I still ate meat, my super-favourite-must-have in every visit to a Chinese restaurant was Chinese Chicken and Sweetcorn soup (when I eventually discovered Hot and Sour soup there was decision chaos but that's another story). Some dishes just hit the spot every time. Obviously in this lifetime that dish has been off my menu. I finally got around to figuring out how to make a vegetarian version that is the equal in tastebud satisfaction, no fowl tactics required. This is it.

At least 20g dried shiitake mushroom (don't trust what the weight on the packet says, measure it yourself. I've been caught out, and not quite enough of this ingredient makes for a washed out soup)

1.8L water

2 teaspoons salt

2 cups corn kernals (2-3 cobs of corn), either whole (good) or partly crushed/blended (great)

2 large pinches ground white pepper
4 tablespoons dry or medium dry sherry
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 beaten eggs
2 spring onions, chopped fine
up to 1 tablespoon sugar to taste, depending on the sweetness of the corn

Gently simmer together the water, dried shiitake mushroom, corn kernals and salt for at least 30 minutes. Be careful, if this is boiling it tends to boil over. Simmer gently.
Add pepper, sherry and sesame oil. Bring back to a simmer.
Mix the cornflour with just enough cold water to form a paste. Add this in a thin stream to the soup, stirring constantly. This will thicken the soup. If the cornflour is added slowly enough and the stirring is constant enough, lumps will be avoided.
When the soup has thickened, remove from the heat.
Stir in the beaten egg in a thin stream. It will cook instantly.
Sprinkle with spring onion.
Taste for sweetness. Sometimes the corn lacks sweetness if it is not at the height of it's season. If a pinch of sugar added to the pot improves/intensifies the taste, then cautiously add sugar until you are satisfied with the balance of flavour.

This makes enough soup for 4.

Chunky. Satisfying. Homely. Thrifty.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on Crescent Museum RagMat board. This is museum quality board, 100% cotton, made to withstand time.

Abstract Expressionism. A very sixties style of painting. The typical working method is to stand before the canvas and start and let the ideas bubble up from the subconscious while painting to make themselves known. It's not unusual for the artist to only figure out what they painted well after the piece is finished.  This method has had a huge impact on many current artists. The paintings tend to be very abstract and are meant to invoke emotion in the viewer. That's my understanding anyway.

I went about trying abstract expressionism, holding the idea of ministrone soup in my mind while aiming for the particular style of layered large shapes. I was particularly taken by this image by Pamela Scott, available here. It was exactly what I wanted to achieve - a balance of large abstract colour shapes with a retro sensibility.

I have to admit that it was a hundred times harder than it looked. If you like the ministrone soup painting, snap it up, it's a true one off. I won't be working in this style again in a hurry.

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The meatless meals recipe

This ministrone is the genuine article. Though I'm sure there are as many variations on ministrone as there are Italian cooks. This version was originally from the Italian mother of a friend from the distant past.  I'm sure I've put my own twist on it in the intervening years, but I honestly don't remember what was original and what adjustments I may have made. I've cooked this so many times over the years so it's sure to have evolved. My suspicion is that the lambrusca instead of any red wine is my personal twist.

1 cup cooked or 1/3 cup dried cannellini beans
1 cup fresh or 1/3 cup dried whole green peas
7 cups stock
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 stick celery, sliced
1 largish onion, chopped
8 tomatoes rough chopped or around 600g tomatoe puree
optional 1/2 cup of any leafy green roughly chopped
optional 1/2 chilli, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup uncooked macaroni
optional and highly recommended 1 cup sweetish red wine (something like lambrusca is fabulous)

Warning. You will need a big pot.
For dried beans and peas, soak them overnight in the stock and then simmer for 1-2 hours with the celery, carrot and onion until the beans and peas are soft.
For cooked beans and fresh peas, just simmer these together with the stock, celery, carrot and onion for 40 minutes.
Then add the tomato, leafy greens, basil, oregano and chilli. Cook for 10 minutes.
Add the macaroni (and frozen peas here if you are cheating) and cook until the pasta is tender.
Add the red wine and heat through.

Serve with big chunks of crusty bread.
Feeds at least 6.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. It should be fairly obvious that this painting is strongly influenced by Japanese printmaking. In case you're wondering, the greenery is mizuna and the water pattern is common to Japanese art.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

There are four styles of ramen and all of them rely heavily on the quality of the stock to taste great. When you look into recipes for ramen stock it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly the extraordinary lengths many chefs go to for flavouring their stocks. Think multiple animal carcasses simmered for days! I'm yet to come across another vegetarian stock that looks worth trying or one that is so quick to make from scratch. I assure you, this tastes great, and I am pleased to prove (at least in my mind!) that it is not necessary to cook with fish/chicken/pork to make a succulent ramen stock. The key is to use TWO stocks. Go veges!

Vege stock:

85g (2 handfuls) of finely shredded chinese cabbage

1/2 onion, finely sliced

4 sticks celery, chopped

Put all these in a pot with 3 1/2 cups water and boil for 20 minutes with the lid on. Discard the veg at the end. This will make 3 cups of vege stock.

Shoyu ramen:

2 cups seaweed stock

3 cups vege stock

ramen noodles for two (140-160g dry)

1 teaspoon sherry

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Suggested toppings: 

1 spring onion, chopped

2 handfuls spinach

cracked black pepper to taste

bamboo shoots

2 hard boiled eggs in slices

tempeh slices

So begin by preparing the stocks and cooking the noodles so they are ready to eat.

Hard boil the eggs if you are having these as toppings and get all your toppings ready.

When the stocks are done, saute the ginger and garlic in a big pot in the sesame oil to take the edge off them.

Add both stocks and the sherry, salt, sugar and soy sauce to the big pot, mix and bring back to the boil.

Put the cooked noodles in the serving bowls.

Add the stock mix.

Add toppings and serve.

This recipe feeds 2.

Unusual. Chunky. Spiced. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on linen. In looking into Ecuadorian art I was delighted to find a style of artwork which stems from rock art. Rock art rocks my socks off, so I was pretty happy with this but I had no luck in finding culturally appropriate symbols. The symbol in this piece is from a petroglyph (rock carving) in the Mojave Desert in the USA. Try as I might (and I really did) I couldn't find much in the way of icons of any sort, even deities, much less potato or avocado or plant related from Ecuador. Peru, yes; Mexico, yes; American Indian, yes; Ecuador, ah ah. This one was chosen because it looks like a plant and I was wanting to celebrate the Ecuadorian plant staples of potato and avocado which still manage to grow high up in the Ecuadorian Andes in winter.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

In the hunt for ethnic inspiration for tasty winter soup I stumbled across the notion of an Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup with avocado. It sounded a lot more appetizing than anything I could possibly do with turnip, celeriac, onion or brussel sprouts. I checked it out and immediately began salivating. Then I dashed up to the shop, grabbed all the ingredients and made possibly the most addictive soup I have ever had. It helps that I could happily make a meal of any of the main ingredients on their own, so put them together and as far as I am concerned, magic happens. This is adapted from the recipe by Laylita on her blog, Laylita's recipes and is filling enough to qualify as a main meal.

1.5kg potato (about 10 medium sized), chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or hot paprika or chilli powder
7 cups weak stock
1 cup milk
300g white or chinese cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup cottage cheese
50g fresh coriander, chopped fine
200g feta cheese, crumbled
3 avocados, sliced or diced
hot sauce (or chilli sauce/powder to taste mixed in 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar per bowl)

Melt butter and soften onion with garlic, cumin and cayenne.
Add potato pieces and stock and boil until potatoes are very well done.
Roughly mash the soup.
Reduce the heat to prevent this boiling over then add the milk and cabbage.
Cook gently until the cabbage is done to your liking.
Add cottage cheese and coriander. Mix thoroughly.
Remove from the heat.
Serve with half an avocado and a handful of feta in each bowl.
Add hot sauce to taste.

Makes 6 chunky, filling bowlfuls.

Warming. Easy. Thrifty. Aromatic.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin.

Although the basic ingredients for this soup are ones that I think are very English, the added spices send the end result to a different part of the world. When I made this for friends the consensus was 'South American'. And so in looking for painting inspiration I researched the patterns and folk art of South America. If it looks rather 70's to you, it may be because that was the time that orange in designs and Mexican folk art were popular.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

We used to be fed a mash of carrot and parsnip as a side when I was a kid. It was an unusual change from our staples of boiled or roast veges and one of the few ways I actually enjoy the taste of carrot. In trying to concoct a recipe that has carrot as a main flavour (I was thrown down a challenge!) I remembered this parsnip and carrot mash and thought it would make a great soup. Yep. It does. And it's another way I can stomach carrots which are close to my least favourite vegetable.

1 large onion, chopped

1 tablespoon butter or oil

1 teaspoon cumin powder

2 teaspoons coriander powder

5 cups stock

4 pinches hot paprika

1 pinch dried thyme

1 bay leaf

about 185g carrot, diced

about 185g parsnip, diced

1 3/4 cups or 270g cooked chickpeas

Melt butter. Soften onion with cumin and coriander.
Add all the other ingredients.
Simmer on low, lid ON, until everything is nice and soft.
Remove the bay leaf. Puree.

Warms 4.

Hearty. Easy. Thrifty. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic and oil pen on canvas. As the bay leaf is the key to this dish, it is also the subject of the artwork. If you have a bay tree you'll know that the leaves are so much richer, glossier and have far more character to their flavour than their dried equivalent. I wanted to try and capture the simplicity and depth of both the look and taste of the fresh bay leaf. A bit of pop fun seemed to be the best way to do this.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This recipe is actually a two for one deal! There's the base recipe and a delicious variation. Both are incredibly simple and I quote, 'bloody delicious'. The bay leaves are essential.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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1 tablespoon oil
2 big (green cooking) apples, cored and sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup red split peas
1/2 cup barley
2 large/4 small tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
4 -5 cups stock
salt to taste

Fry the onion and apple pieces in oil until the apple is quite soft.
Add all the other ingredients bar the salt.  Cook gently with the pan LID ON until the barley is soft and plump.  This will take at least an hour.  Watch that the soup does not catch on the bottom of the pan.  Add more stock or water if necessary.
Salt to taste.
Makes 4-5 bowls of very thick soup.  Some may insist that this is a stew.  I don't care what it's called.  It's one of my favorites.

Quick. Easy. Versatile. Homely.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 24cm collage of cotton, paper, pen and gouache. Inspired by seeing asian vege bundles ready to sell that were all wrapped up in newspaper at asian grocery stores, and by the brush and ink style of traditional painting in countries such as China and Japan.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This is a really easy way to get a general oriental flavoured vegetarian stock. Another unrelated way is to use the water used for rehydrating shitake mushrooms, which is worth keeping and freezing as it retains a lot of flavour.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Quick. Easy. Versatile. Homely.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 24cm collage of cork, fabric, paper and pen. The inspiration for this was the patterns that are used in sewing. The connection for me is that this stock is the basis for so many dishes, just like a sewing pattern is the basis for so many garment creations. And also that this stock is so very versatile and adjustable depending on what you have in the fridge, just as a garment pattern can be nipped and tucked and adjusted for a personal fit.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

Onion, carrot and celery are the base ingredients for a great homemade vegetable stock.

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Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Hearty. Chunky. Satisfying. Warming. 

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas. The Ukrainian folk art of egg decorating, known as Pysanky, interpreted as a bowl of soup.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

As you may well be aware, Borscht is a Slavic recipe that celebrates beetroot. What's there to get excited about when it comes to beets? Well, the Oracle at Delphi (of Greek mythology, not of software companies) claimed that beetroot was second only in mystical potency to horseradish, and that it was worth its weight in silver. Beetroot contains betaine, which in other forms is used to help treat depression, and trytophan, which is that woohoo-feel-good chemical in chocolate. If these aren't enough, in many cultures there is the belief that if a man and a woman eat from the same beetroot they will fall in love... A pretty good outcome from a Meatless Monday? This recipe is my adaptation of the Borscht in The New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups.

500g raw washed beets, grated

500g red cabbage, finely shredded

360g potato, diced small

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 tomatoes, pureed or diced fine

125g butter

1.2L strong stock

1 medium onion, grated

1 carrot, grated

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon raw sugar

Put the beetroot, cabbage and potato in a large pan with the tomato, vinegar, HALF the butter and all the stock.

Simmer for one hour.

In another pan, melt the remaining butter and saute the carrot and onion until golden.

Add to the beets.

Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the sugar.

Makes 6 very red bowls.

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Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Quick. Easy. Versatile. Light.

These could also be called Chinese Vegetable Pancakes. The reason they aren't is that I discovered just how many different types of Chinese vege pancakes there are out there and none of them were quite this one.  

These crepes are just right with a side of leafy greens in soy sauce and garlic, just like my Chilli Greens but minus the chilli, and plain steamed rice.  Or choose any stirfried veges or tofu you like as toppings. These are so versatile.  Use what you have in them and eat them with or without other dishes. The extra sides makes this a meal. On their own they make a great snack. Also, try a topping of your favourite asian sauce. We have a stash of a Chinese chilli sauce that is a bit sweet and sour and filled with peanuts and cured tofu. Sounds gross, but I swear it's addictive on these pancakes.

By the way, the optional ingredient purslane pigweed/little hogweed is a weed in the West, not a cultivated vegetable, and you will probably have to go gleaning for it. So for all you free foodies,  this recipe's for you. Don't stress if you're a supermarket person, spinich, chives or silverbeet work very well too.

1 cup plain flour

3/8 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon plus half as much again)

1 beaten egg

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 1/4 cups milk or unsweetened soy milk

1/2 cup water

splosh of sesame oil

1 spring onion, chopped fine

1-1 1/2 cups fine chopped leafy greens (include some garlic chives if you can, the flavour is wonderful)

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix.

Slowly add the wet ingredients into the bowl (a whisk is very helpful here) to make a smooth creamy batter.

Then add in the spring onion and leafy greens. Purslane, garlic chives, spinach, silver beet etc all work well.

Fry the batter in 4 batches until golden brown on both sides in a pan oiled with sesame oil. A pancake is ready to turn when bubbles appear on the surface.

This recipe will make 4 pancakes about 8" or 20cm diameter.

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Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Hearty. Filling. Chunky. Thick.

A super duper easy and filling meal for Meatless Monday! Join the movement to cut out meat one day a week for the benefit of your own health and to help our planet too. And I add, your hip pocket.

Everyone has their favourite soup, and for a long time, mine was cream of mushroom. I'd never had mushroom soup any other way. But by the time it came to me cooking my own cream of mushroom soup, I was over it. These things happen. But I love mushrooms, and so I was determined to find another way. Only a few trials later, I hit the mushroom soup jackpot. This recipe is very hearty. In fact, you could easily call it a stew.

1 tablespoon or more of butter

1 onion, diced

500g mushrooms, sliced very thick

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup or 125ml dry sherry

2 fist sized potatoes, diced small

1/2 cup or 100g pearl barley

5 cups or 1.25L weak vegetable stock (be careful here, it is easy to overdo the salt. Remember there is already half a teaspoon of salt in the soup. Err on the side of caution as more salt can be added at the end if necessary)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley stalks

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

Melt the butter in a pot on a medium to high heat.

Add the onion, mushrooms, salt, rosemary and garlic.

Fry together, straining off any liquid into the stock. The aim is to get as much flavour as possible into the mushrooms at this point, so fry for as long as it takes to get them golden brown.

Throw in the sherry, stand back and stir. It should hiss a lot.

When all the sherry has evaporated, add in all the other ingredients, saving the parsley leaves until later.

Simmer gently with the lid on for 30-40 minutes until the barley is tender.

Stir in the parsley leaves and serve.

Makes 4-5 bowls.

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Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

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Easy. Homely. Liquid. Gold.

Once upon a time I worked in a cafe. Actually, I've worked in a lot of cafes, restaurants and bars in my time. Flexible hours and free food. Suited me at the time. Anyway, this recipe (reduced from industrial to domestic quantities and tweaked to remove an enormous quantity of cream) is from one of the cafes that I once worked in. If I could remember which one out of the gazillion it was, I'd mention it. Anyway, this soup pretty much stayed on the menu all year round, in amongst an otherwise shifting selection. It's a delicious autumnal soup. An easy and yummy way to use up some of the kilos of excess pumpkin around at this time of year.

PUMPKIN SOUP

1 tablespoon oil or butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large or 2 small tomatoes

1 large garlic clove, partly crushed

6 cups/1.5 L vegetable stock

1 butternut pumpkin (800-900g), seeded and chopped into inch sized pieces.

half a cup/100g red lentils

2 generous teaspoons of honey

1 cup milk or soy milk

2 tablespoons cornflour

salt to taste

Saute onion in oil or butter until soft.

Add chopped tomato, stock and garlic. Bring to the boil.

Add honey, lentils and the pumpkin. Did you know you can leave the skin on? It tastes just like, well, pumpkin. And the seeds can be saved and dried for snacks.

Lower to a simmer and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours.

Puree or mash.

Mix cornflour and milk and add to the soup. Stir until thickened. Do not boil.

Salt to taste.

Makes 6 bowls.

Light. Quick. Easy. Delicate.

Enoki mushrooms, in case you haven't tried them, are a bit like the mushroom equivalent of noodles. They are easily found in asian grocers and are quite delicate little 'shrooms, in looks and in taste.

This recipe is another super quick one to cook. And as a bonus, it can work as a soup or as a meal in itself.

splosh sesame oil

100g enoki mushrooms

75g smoked tofu or similar, cut into thin slices or cubes

6 cups or 1.5L vegetable stock

2 cups chopped leafy greens (approx 100g)

2 spring onions, cut fine

soy sauce, white pepper and salt to taste

To make this into a meal, cook enough ramen noodles for two ready to add at the end.

So, saute the enoki mushrooms in the sesame oil for a few minutes to give them some extra flavour.

Then add the smoked tofu and saute a little as well.

Finally, add the stock and chopped greens and boil for a few minutes.

Serve into bowls (already filled with hot cooked noodles if you're making a meal instead of a soup), adding the spring onion on top.

Season with soy sauce, white pepper and salt to taste.

Makes two big bowls.

+++

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+++

Tangy. Hearty. Warming. Chunky.

Food painting artwork

30x30cm gouache on canvas. Inspired by the Campbells tomato soup cans of the very famous Andy Warhol.

When I was little and went to the football with my dad, we always seemed to end up taking a thermos of tomato soup with us. It was revolting tinned stuff that I wouldn't usually enjoy eating but after sitting in the cold for an entire afternoon, it was just wonderful. This tomato soup recipe is just as hearty and delicious and doesn't require the eater to be damp and hungry for it to taste great. And it's an easy way to use up some of those gazillion tomatoes that have grown over summer.

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, diced small

3 bay leaves

3 whole cloves

2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon sugar

4 cups or 1L medium to strong vegetable stock

1kg fresh tomatoes, diced small

1-2 cups cooked, tinned or fresh (but not dried) beans such as borlotti, haricot, cannellini etc

black pepper to taste

All the ingredients need to be finely chopped as there is no pureeing. This is a chunky soup.

Melt the butter and oil together.

Saute the onion in the oil and butter until soft.

Add all the other ingredients.

Simmer very gently for an hour with the pot lid on.

Remove the bay leaves (and cloves if you can find them).

Serve with cracked black pepper.

Makes 4-6 bowls.