Soup from salad

Soup from salad – love your leftovers!

Leftover dressed salad? Don’t bin your leftovers, turn them into a tasty soup!

We made this wannabe Borscht soup using leftover Sweet Winter Warmer salad (see our blog for the recipe):

 Method

For each portion of salad, add:

200ml stock (we used Marigold Swiss Vegetable bouillon organic reduced salt)

Place your leftover salad into a pan, add the   stock, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and blend with a hand blender. Season to taste and serve with a sprig of mint. Simple!

Tips

This method can be used for most leftover green leaf salads.

Stock adds the important extra flavour here, so use your favourite!

Aronia berry protein truffles

Ingredients – makes 8 largish truffle balls
120g dried figs – hard part of stalk removed

30g raw cacao powder 

50g Almonds

50g cashews

30g dried Aronia berries

2 tblspn of coconut oil

Method

Put all the ingredients apart from the coconut oil into a food processor. Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan over a low heat. Once melted add to the other ingredients in the processor. Pulse until all the ingredients bind together. Take a handful at a time of the mixture and using your hands form into balls and place on a baking sheet. Once all the mixture has been used pop into the freezer for 20 -30 minutes to set.
Satsumas – work on 1 per person remove as much pith as possible

1 tblspn of orange blossom honey per satsuma
Place the required amount of satsumas into a saucepan add the honey. Over a low heat melt the honey and continue cooking on a low heat for about 2 mins. Remove and pour over the set Aronia berry ball.

Star Ingredient

Aronia berries are packed with nutrients and antioxidants – superfood in a small and tasty package!

Lemon garlic prawns with Turmeric vegetable rice

Serves 2

Ingredients for the prawns
180 g raw prawns
2 cloves of garlic  – chopped
4 tblspn of rapeseed oil
Handful of fresh parsley – chopped
Juice of 1 lemon

Ingredients for rice
Basmati rice  – 60g per person
2 inch piece of fresh turmeric – grated
1 courgette – diced
6 salad onions- sliced
10 button mushrooms – sliced
100g fresh spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic
Handful of fresh parsley – chopped
2 tblspn of rapeseed oil for frying.

Method for the rice

After soaking rice place rice in a pan with water (according to the instructions on the packet) and grate the turmeric into the pan. Cook according to the instructions on the packet.  Next, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the courgettes and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes stirring all the time then and the salad onions and cook for a further 2 minutes still stirring. Add the garlic and stir in for about a minute. Add the rice and spinach to the pan and fold in the spinach leaves gently. Cook for a further 5 minutes or until the spinach has wilted.

Method for the prawns

Heat oven to 170c

Line a baking tray in foil and lay the prawns on the tray, spacing them evenly. Heat the oil and garlic in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Once the garlic starts bubbling remove and pour mixture over the prawns ensuring they are all coated. Squeeze over the lemon juice leaving a little behind for serving and place in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with the fresh chopped parley and the remaining lemon juice.

To serve

Plate up the rice, add the prawns, and enjoy!

Tomato Bake With Nutritional Yeast Crunch

Serves 4 as a side

Ingredients
8 large tomatoes
6 cherry or pomodoro tomatoes
8 tblspn of nutritional yeast
100g cashew pieces
100ml of avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
12 sprigs of fresh thyme 2 for garnish
2 cloves of garlic
Juice of 1 lemon

Method
Pre heat oven to 170c

Place tomatoes in an ovenproof dish. Drizzle with some of the avocado oil and set aside whilst making the crunch. In a food processor place the nutritional yeast, cashew nuts, lemon juice, garlic and remainder of the oil and pulse until crunchy consistency and all ingredients are mixed. Spread evenly over over the tomatoes. Bake for 20 mins. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining thyme.

Serve with poached or grilled white fish and a crisp watercress salad.

Star Ingredients:
Nutritional Yeast – never heard of it? Or a long-term convert? Nutritional yeast is a gluten-free, vegan food made from deactivated yeast, and a great source of B-vitamins, folic acid, selenium, zinc, and protein. It has a cheese, nutty flavour, and is a tasty vegetarian/vegan alternative to Parmesan cheese. It can also be sprinkled on soups, salads, stews to add flavour. You should be able to find it in your local health food store, or large supermarket. Do check the ingredients label before you buy, and for added health benefit look for nutritional yeast fortified with vitamin B-12, which is not naturally occurring in plant foods.

 

 

Thyme – has a long history of use in the diet, dating back at least as far as the Romans, and is a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C and iron. It is one of natures top anti-oxidant foods, and is excellent at supporting the immune and respiratory systems as well as the digestive and nervous systems. Flavoursome too, why wouldn’t you include thyme in your diet?