Coffee Muffins

Bacon, Tomato and Kale Soup

Archive for the ‘Lunches’


Sweet and Sour Pancakes

What happens if you cross Chinese New Year with Pancake Day? Well you get these Chinese inspired savoury pancakes.

Sweet and Sour Pancakes
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Fennel, Orange and Pecan Quinoa Salad

In January most people start to detox a little after all the Christmas indulgences, I say most people because I did not. I ate my way through all the chocolate and cakes, and then bought or made more. While it was amazing at the time I am starting to notice the negative impacts of all my fun and relaxing.

So here we go. First step a healthy lunch for tomorrow at work.

When I thought about healthy eating I thought salad – but lettuce leaves are boring, or pasta but it’s a bit carb-elicious, then Quinoa came to mind. Quinoa is a great source of protein so it is especially good for vegans and vegetarians (although I am obviously neither).

Fennel, Orange and Pecan Quinoa
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Beetroot and Pumpkin Salad

Last night I roasted a huge bunch of vegetables – I plan to use them for all kinds of things over the next couple of days. But I thought I start simply to bring out the great flavours of the ingredients.

Beetroot and Pumpkin Salad
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Cannellini beans, Tomato and Kale Soup

I feel like being rather lazy this weekend, to hibernate away from the cold drizzle. On days where you need the main light on during the peak sunlight hours, I find it particularly difficult to remember that Spring does come. That soon I won’t come home from work in the dark, and that I’ll venture outside without a jacket on – but today that feels awfully far away.

Cannelloni, Tomato and Kale Soup
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Sweet Beet Soup

I make a lot of soups, they are perfect for me to take into work, reheat in the microwave and are healthier than whatever I would normally buy. Often I get questions from my work mates about the soups I bring in, “What’s in it?” and “Where did you buy it?”. But no soup has had quite the response that this one does.

Beetroot and Sweet Potato Soup

My usual soup repertoire of basics like Bacon, Tomato and Kale Soup and Carrot and Coriander Soup smell and taste wonderful but in no way elicit the same eye popping response of this purple Sweet Beet Soup.
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Bacon, Tomato and Kale Soup

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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I am still spending some time with my parents. This however means that more new posts might be thin on the ground for a little while – I haven’t done any cooking or baking in 5 days!

This is a soup I made just before Christmas and it was wonderfully tasty, and so simple. As with lots of good things it came from the necessity to use up things I had to hand and from no specific recipe. The week before Christmas, for me, is a time to try to use up anything left in the fridge or from the veggie box. I still had a plentiful supply of the soup basics: onions, leeks and carrots. Add to this fresh black kale, a tin of tomatoes and some leftover crispy bacon, and you have the makings of the perfect winter warmer.

Bacon, Tomato and Kale Soup
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Spice-rubbed Chicken with Orange and Pomegranate Salad

Last Friday night I made a light dinner, this would be perfect for a main course of a large meal, or as a lunch. I didn’t immediately think that the orange would work with curry spices but it really was a fantastic flavour combination. And super healthy.

indian_chicken_withOrange
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Sushi : Daring Cooks

In keeping with the Japanese theme this month, I am going to be going all minimalist on you and keeping the words short. And yes it has everything to do with me running late, and my blog being rather temperamental these days.

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

More details on the recipe can be found at the Daring Kitchen Sushi [PDF].

Bag of Sushi Rice
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Scottish Soup : Cock-a-leekie

Cock-a-leekie is a traditional Scottish soup, so much so that I rather OD’d on it as a kid and for years afterward I couldn’t face the sight of a tin of Baxter’s Cock-a-leekie soup. However recently I have come to realise that

  1. Just because I didn’t like something as a child, does not mean I won’t like it now.
  2. Just because I don’t like something that’s mass produced doesn’t mean I won’t like it when I make it.

So I decided it was time to give this old Scottish favourite a go myself. Cock-a-leekie isn’t a particularly attractive soup, getting nice photos of it I think is difficult, with my photography skills it’s an impossibility, but I gave it a shot anyway.

Cook-a-leekie Scottish Soup
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Grilled Vegetable Pizza Toasts

Not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination, but this a quick dish that uses mainly store cupboard ingredients but can use up leftover meats and vegetables.

ingredients
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