SOUP SOUP GLORIOUS SOUP..

Cold or hot, thin or thick, pale or brightly coloured, vegan or animal broth. Soups come in so many different ways that it is quite beyond her tapping capabilities to list them all!

She makes a soup every couple of days during the winter months and a great deal of them are just made with vegetables, my favourite is a Moroccan style carrot and red lentil soup.

It's very thick as she uses two cups of well rinsed lentils and at least six fat chopped carrots.

Start with olive oil in a big saucepan to which you add a large chopped onion and three cloves of crushed and chopped garlic, fry these gently for about 2 minutes, then add the spices.

Use a teaspoonful of : Powdered cumin, cinnamon, paprika, coriander seeds and an inch of grated ginger and turmeric roots.

Fry everything gently over a low heat and stir well for about 3 minutes.

Add the chopped carrots, continue to fry and stir everything.

Add 1.5 litres of vegetable stock and the lentils, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and puree the soup in the pan. Taste and add salt and pepper.

It's thick and incredibly warming. I love it.. so does she. We give it to our Lebanese friends who live near by. They love it as well and we hope you do too!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 4th, 2019.

YOU KNOW I CAN'T TAP THE LAPTOP.

And she who does has been 'otherwise' engaged.

I don't know why she hasn't written my blog for two months, it's her left foot that is causing her gyp, not her hands, so she should have been tapping away. But she's been in a bit of a blue 'funk', this happens when she's not able to garden.

Alarm and despondency came to town in her left foot. First of all it started in her heel which, when she trod on it, felt as if she had speared by a BIG evil sharp pointy thing.

That has subsequently turned out to be something called Plantar Fasciitis and mighty sore it is too, then a hard sore lump appeared on the outer edge of the foot.. very sore it is too.

After having an mri, it transpires there are several other things amiss in this poor old foot. She's due to start physiotherapy soon.

But, the great news was that there wasn't any sign of a fracture! But enough of this doom and gloom, she's old, things start to go wrong when you're old - poor old bat.

However, it has meant that nothing of any great consequence has happened at the allotments, until they had the results of the mri, she was told not to garden in case it was a fracture, it's mighty untidy.

Almost all the leaves are off the trees and are on the ground, they need to be raked up and put onto the raised beds and covered with thick layers of  horse manure and wood chippings, these will break down and enrich the soil over the winter months.

Mr and Mrs Worm take them down and make themselves a soft bed, which means an excellent harvest next year.

Talking of harvests, she went out there last Friday to collect herbs and four strange vegetables. They were Trombincino Squash and mighty tasty there are too. 

She also pulled a few beetroots, a couple of green onions and picked a large bunch of parsley, it is strange how parsley LURVES this cold weather! Her five big clumps of it are growing like crazy and the taste is strong. 

Just what she needs at the time of year for soup making. We eat a lot of thick soups in the winter, usually vegetable ones, sometimes she may throw in a chicken leg or two but mostly they're made of different vegetables with lots of herbs and spices.

And.. oh yes, coconut milk! As she is allergic to dairy, she now uses coconut oil and milk instead and mighty tasty they are too.

The trick is to find addictive free coconut milk, she uses Biona coconut milk, this is made with just water and nothing else.

Sometimes if she's 'pushing the boat out', she'll soak desiccated coconut in the milk and laksa paste to make a soup reminiscent of her Malayan childhood.

She's off now, not to Malaysia but yumyum HQ to get our supper.

It's a bitterly cold day, luckily we are fortunate to be inside and protected from the weather. Unlike a lot of animals and people around the world whom, through no fault of their own, are being exposed to ice and snow and very low temperatures.

We'll have a large bowl of carrot and red lentil soup which she made this morning. It is very thick as she pureed the vegetables with a hand held blender.

YubbaDubba.. we lurve thick soups, what's not to like, they're just vegetables, herbs and spices with no disgusting chemicals, they warm your gullet and stomach and they're incredibly easy to digest.

Slurpicious, that's what they are.. slurpicious.

We hope that you, wherever you are, have something equally tasty to eat for your supper.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 3rd, 2019.