Making a pot of soup used to be a fairly cheap thing to do, but with the cost of vegetables going crazy at the moment, finding a recipe that is economical to make, but still tasty is a bit harder. Carrots, onions and potatoes aren’t too expensive so maybe this carrot soup could be one to try.
I don’t think this soup is a very appealing colour, but the flavour should be quite nice. I haven’t made it, but I think I’ll add some bacon when I do. Maybe some bacon pieces on top to decorate it would make it look a bit nicer too.
This is an old 1970s recipe that I used to make for dinner parties in my early years of married life. Inviting friends over for dinner was the way we mainly entertained. Eating out was expensive and none of us could afford that very often. There were a few cooking disasters as we learnt to cook, but they were disguised by the wine and good company. This was an easy and pretty foolproof starter.
It’s sunny, but cold outside today so my mind automatically turns to making a pot of hot soup for dinner tonight. Instead of a thick vegetable one maybe I’ll make a seafood laksa instead. This is a meal in itself full of prawns, white fish, calamari, bean curd and noodles……luscious and bound to warm us all up.
I confess that I’m a soupaholic, the weather only has to be slightly cool and I’m make myself some soup. For visitors I follow a recipe and make ‘proper’ soups, but for myself I make something closer to this old recipe. The big difference between my soup and this is that I just throw everything in (no sautéing) and add a tin of commercial soup – whatever I have in the cupboard. Oh, and I don’t mash or blend it. My end product is a chunky vegetable soup, very filling and great on a cold winter night. Try it and see if you agree!!!!
When I first started making this terrine you couldn’t buy minced chicken, so there was no alternative but to drag out the mincer and process the chicken and veal yourself. Since those days a blender or pre-minced chicken make it a bit easier. I think if you’ve got the time mincing up the chicken breasts and veal yourself is the best option, as you get a better quality mince, but if you don’t have the time give pre-minced a go. The finished terrine tastes really good and is worth the effort either way.
When I found this ‘Meat to press, pot and roll’ article Mum had kept from the Herald Sun in 1993 it reminded me that buried at the back of one of my kitchen cupboards is an old meat press of hers. She used it make it make various potted and pressed meats, which I confess I thought were the same thing until I read this definition.
Mum mainly made pressed meats, usually tongue or beef. The article has this recipe for Potted Beef and Potted Ham and also one for Pressed Tongue. I never liked Pressed Tongue and I have never wanted to make it and doubt that anyone else does either these days so I’ve left it out, but the Beef and Ham recipes sound good. The article also shows alternatives to using a meat press. I’ve used the bowl, plate and brick method and it works really well, guess that’s why Mum’s press is still at the back of the cupboard.
The first time I made this soup I had my doubts as to whether it would work or not, especially as neither my husband nor I like sweet food. But work it does. The sweetness of the pears blends really well with the pumpkin and while it’s not an everyday soup, it is a great dinner party starter.
This is really a basic zucchini soup. The difference is the addition of 2-minute noodles, which it says to put in before you blend. I think it would be much nicer if you add the noodles after blending – what do you think?
When I look at this recipe all I can think of is Mum’s asparagus rolls, that she made for afternoon teas and suppers. They were much, much plainer than these and although we grew asparagus in our backyard, hers were always made with tinned asparagus spears and definitely didn’t have ham or mayonnaise. They tasted good, but I’ve never had much inclination to make them, think I’d give this ‘updated’ version a go though.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 