You do know what a sad vegetable is, don't you? It is a vegetable that is past its' best.. a little limp or not perhaps as dark green as when you bought it, those remains of a head of calabrese.. a beetroot that is soft and crinkly, a clove of garlic with a green shoot.
Whatever it is.. they will make a splendid soup! A real potage of delicious tastes.. it could be made of carrots which are not as hard as nails but with an onion or two, a clove of garlic, a small chunk of fresh ginger root and some potatoes or some left over rice or mashed potato, whatever you have that lurking in white chilly larder or frosty cupboard.. fridge and freezer for those of you who are unfamiliar with my names for these things.. you will have something that is warming and nutricious.
Take a large saucepan, a good dollop of olive oil, chop up an onion or two and two cloves of garlic, soften them in the oil over a low heat, then chop or slice and add the rest of whatever vegetables you have. Fry them gently, then add seasoning and lots of cold water to cover the vegetables.
Put the lid on the pan, turn up the heat but not too high and allow the soup to hubble-bubble for at least half an hour until all the vegetables are soft. Get your liquidiser out, scoop out the vegetables (she uses a small Chinese wire scoop for this) and a little of the liquid, put them into the liquidiser and give them a burst or two until they are a smooth puree.
Put the puree back into the remaing liquid, adjust your seasoning and add the cooked mashed potato or rice, or dried bread cut into chunks, stir it well and allow it to simmer for about five minutes.
Slurp-the-durp.. she's just made a large pot using carrots, beetroots, celery, some very 'sad' looking spinach and a few purple sprouting brocolli spears that were certainly past their best! There were also a small handful of very tired looking mushrooms and a large chunk of calabrese stalk. Shallots, garlic and root ginger with pepper and salt were added as well.
Hubble-Bubble it went and although it didn't look very appetising, being rather dull khaki in colour, it was deliciously slurpy and just what she needed after having had a BIG injection given to her this morning by Mr.Dentist at 11.15.
We don't mind having it again for supper tonight, she'll take a couple of ladles and add half a chorizo sausage and some cooked freekeh which she remembers is sitting in frosty cupboard. So that's what you do with sad vegetables, for it is a easy, quick, tasty dish.
The sun has come out now, it's been a miserable day and half of the market stalls were not there. Poor Scotland and the north had snow yesterday! It was dry down here in London but chilly and that bad Mr.Jack Frost bit her big Basil plant up on the stairs last night, poor plant, it was looking very sorry for itself this morning.
She's got work to do, I'm dozing on sitting room door. I'm not biting the evil collar ALL the time now but I do when I think she's looking.. to prove my point.. grrr.
GeeGee Parrot.
April 29th, 2015.
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