More soup and curry!

What can I say- curry and soup are two of my favourite things! I’ve been eating the soup nearly each day for lunch; it’s thick, hearty, healthy and delicious.  I’ve had the curry twice this week as well- it’s definitely one of the best curries I’ve ever made.  Both of these recipes freeze/ defrost perfectly, so get any leftovers into the freezer for a quick microwave meal later in the week.

I also made a detox pasta dish this week which is a dish that uses very little pasta but is stodgy and heavy because of the amount of veg!  It’s hearty and filling without being a total carb overload.

Vegetable and Lentil soup

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced

2 sticks of celery, 150g of carrots, 200g sweet potato- all diced

150g dried lentils

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

800ml vegetable stock (about 2 stock cubes made according to instructions)

Some chilli flakes (about ½ a teaspoon) if you fancy giving the soup a bit of a kick.

Method:

If using a soup maker, place all of your prepared ingredients into the flask and select the ‘smooth’ setting. The soup is ready and blended in 20 minutes.  Add a splash of milk and give it another blend if you feel the soup is a bit too thick.

If cooking in a pan, fry your onion with the chilli flakes until softened. Add the rest of the vegetables and fry for ten minutes.  Throw in your lentils, tinned tomatoes and stock, then bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables and lentils are cooked. Allow to cool a little before blending.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry

I got this recipe from Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’.  It’s the first recipe I’ve cooked from this book and was really good.  Best of all, it’s done in the slow cooker- I cooked this on a Saturday, meaning that once the curry was on, I was free for the rest of the day! 

Ingredients:

500g chicken (the recipe says 700g so use this amount if you want to make a huge batch)

2 stalks of lemongrass- simply just throw this into the slow cooker whole and then fish out when the curry is cooked.

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

A 3cm knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

5 tablespoons mild curry powder (yes, 5 tablespoons- I did wonder but it tastes great)

250ml chicken stock

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into chunks

1 large carrot, peeled and sliced

400ml can of coconut milk

1 onion, diced

2 tablespoons of cornflour, or chia seeds if you are making a gluten free version

2 spring onions, chopped

Method:

  Place the chicken, lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce and half of the curry powder into the slow cooker.  Leave for an hour to marinade, or just carry on preparing the dish.

Mix the remaining curry powder with the stock and add to the slow cooker along with all of the remaining ingredients.  Give it all a good stir and cook on 'low' for 8 hours.

30 minutes before the dish is finished, stir through the cornflour or chia seeds to thicken your curry.   Serve with either brown rice or nann bread.

Detox pasta soup

I found this recipe years ago in a magazine- think it may have been a Gizzy Erskine recipe. Either way, I love it!

Ingredients:

Olive oil

150g pancetta

1 onion, diced

2 carrots and two sticks of celery, sliced.

2 leeks (white parts only) sliced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

½ teaspoon of chilli flakes

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 litre of chicken stock (2 stock cubes made according to instructions)

1 400g tin of cannellini beans

150g whole wheat fusilli

Method:

1.        Heat the oil and fry the pancetta until golden. 

2.       Add all of the vegetables, garlic and chilli and fry until the vegetables have reduced in volume by half. 

3.       Stir in the tomato puree and add the tinned tomatoes, chicken stock, beans and pasta.  Simmer for around 30 minutes until the veg/ pasta is cooked.

Hope you enjoy these recipes.  Remember- I might be a ‘skinny bitch’ according to some, but eating real food like this and exercising simply allows your body to be its natural shape which is the result I have.  Obesity is a massive health risk, so better to be slim and healthy rather than treating your body like a dustbin and filling it with piles of rubbish!  Happy, healthy eating!