Sweet Potato Cumin Soup

I've woken up to snow this morning, the rooftops of the terraced houses in front look like a festive card with the hills and trees behind. And from the back, the garden view is a little more lively, with the birds on the search for berries and nibbles. They have been considered, as D has filled the bird feeder with seeds.  No seeds for us though, we have this deep orange, bordering on golden Sweet Potato Soup enhanced with warming spices, namely cumin.  

Ideally I would liked to have put some fresh coriander to the soup as I think it would have cut through some of the sweetness, a little like lemon.  But i cannot remember the last time we had fresh coriander at home; and I will confess its one soft herb, I struggle to grow at home.  Nevertheless, it was still a good soup to eat with homemade bread, albeit from the bread machine.

Its been a busy week and weekend, as i attended a workshop of my accord (not work-related yesterday).  I won't say what the topic was, as it may be triggering for some readers, but it was intense, insightful and valuable to my own mental health and wellbeing.  My only regret was not adding my voice to the discussion; and i wondered why this was and i have been reflecting on this.  Some voices do tend to get lost in a room, even more so on zoom. 

Sweet Potato Tortilla Pie

I am a bit frustrated today. I haven't been blogging much, but today I thought i'd sit down and blog and have noted  problem with my blog. And i wonder if anyone else with blogger is having trouble?!

In the Post section where blog posts and draft posts are recorded. My thumb nail image is incorrect, it is inserted with someone else and some of my blog posts - draft and those posted have been inserted with images that are not mine.  However, outward - it all appears un-affected. Is anyone else with blogger encountered this problem? Please let me know. I have left feedback with blogger, but don't know if they will respond; and if so how long. 

I will leave you with this Sweet Potato Tortilla Pie.

Didi Emmons writes if 'Mexicans had invented quiche, this is the way they might have made it'.  The crust of the pie is made from tortilla filled with eggy mixture enhanced with cumin, coriander, and cheese and roasted sweet potatoes.  

It was extremely light to eat, that I will be making it again

The recipe is adapted from the Vegetarian Planet: 350 Big Flavour Recipes for Out of this World Food Every Day by Didi Emmons.  

Peanut Butter Pancakes and Groundnut Curry with Kale

I am already whimpering at the thought that tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off, I have to return to work (albeit I am still working from home).

The weeks annual leave does not feel enough, that I am contemplating taking another week off in not too long.

I feel like I have hardly done anything worthwhile.  

Then D gently reminded me that I did a lot of learning.  And this is true, I did a lot of reading, I even attended a on-line Cyber School.  We went for a walk and discovered for ourselves the most magnificent tree. I've done some gardening.  I have overslept without feeling guilty.  I have stayed up late and watched some films and documentaries and mostly and more importantly.  I switched off from thinking about work and got to rest and I guess that is what matters. 

Sweet Potato, Sweetcorn and Red Pepper Soup

Again, its another soup made mid week for light lunch at home.

I also found a bag of sweetcorn in the freezer which is due to expire April 2020.  I have no idea how long its been there, but i am glad D went through the freezer contents last week to see what was buried there that had to be used up.  I also found some frozen cooking apple slices, so maybe a few apple crumbles and cakes will appear on the menu.  

This was a lightly spiced  Sweet Potato and Sweetcorn soup enhanced with red peppers. I like a bit of texture, so partly blitzed my soup with a handheld blender. It had a really nice flavour and colour.  The Sweet Potato and Sweetcorn Soup comes from Rachel Demuth Green Seasons Cookbook. you can find the original recipe link here. 

D really loved the flavours of this soup and said, he would be more than happy to eat it again - good job I thought, you have got it again tomorrow for lunch!

I am sharing this  Sweet Potato and Sweetcorn Soup with Soup, Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen. 

Sweet Potato and Blackeye Bean Soup

My toes have been cold. I think i may need to get myself some slippers when things return to some form of normality, as the thick slipper socks just ain't keeping my toots warm.  Feeling nippy also makes me hanker for a good bowl of homemade soup, both to warm my hands which are also often cold and for my belly.  

We have an abundance of sweet potatoes in the house, as one of our back up meals during the working week is often Double Potato Feta Bake, so it wasn't that hard to make soup with what we had at home.  I also have a stash of blackeye beans, so something a little more heartier was called for. 

We are eating twice a day, namely brunch and then supper, but sometimes in between we want something light and its a welcome excuse for us to have a lunch break at home from the solitary work, so soup is a good solution.  

This Sweet Potato and Blackeye Bean Soup was a well flavoured soup, not just from the sweetness from the sweet potatoes, but also hints from the other herbs, namely the sage.  I haven't had blackeye beans for a little while, so the soft nuttiness added both flavour and melt in the mouth texture.  On the last day of eating and reheating the soup, the sweet potatoes disintegrated completely. 

I am sharing this  Sweet Potato and Blackeye Bean Soup with Soup, Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen. 

Other Blackeye Bean recipes
Aubergine, Black-eyed peas, Pepper and Coconut Pot
Baked BBQ  Blackeyed Peas and Rice
Black-Eyed Bean and Lemon Hot Pot
Black-eyed Bean and Squash Stew with Preserved Lemon
Blackeye bean and Vegetable Crumble.
Cajun Blackeyed Peas with Summer Vegetables 
Ginger Blackeyed Peas

Orange Curry and Orange Ginger Apple Loaf Cake

We woke up early to go to the supermarket to top up on fruit and vegetables, along with other basic essentials. When we got there just before 7am, noticed that had changed the time of opening to 8am. We drove back home empty handed. I must admit, I was a bit anxious. It was my first time leaving the house.  Surprisingly the roads were busy as if we were going into work, which was unusual.  D commented on how busy it was, I stared out of the car window at the windows of the houses we drove past, displaying colourful rainbows. I wasn't sure what this was about, but when I got back home I did a search and learned that pictures of rainbows have started springing up in windows after schools had closed in response to the coronavirus outbreak, and primary schools are encouraging pupils at home to put up paintings to "spread hope". It was genuinely heart warming to see.

No rainbows in my window though...instead in my home was this Orange Cake and Double: Sweet Potato Curry. I say was, as I made it early this week and its all gone. 

Mid March, well before the quarantine  - D picked up a load of oranges to make juice with his manual juice maker, but typically I end up having to find ways of making the most of ingredients he picks up. 

So this egg free Orange Ginger Apple Loaf Cake was one way that I found myself using some of those oranges, but as I went to make the cake I realised that I did not need to use the whole orange - only the zest!  The cake also contains mixed dried fruit, black treacle aka molasses. 

The Double Potato and Pepper Curry with Chickpeas was made to use up what we had in the house. I found the Double Potato Curry a little sweet, so squeezed the juice of half of zested orange into it for liven it up a little.  It definately perked it up a little for my tastebuds. 

The  Orange Ginger Apple Loaf Cake was reminisce of steamed pudding or even closer to malt bread which is dark and squidgy, full of dried fruit. The recipe was adapted fromThe Vegetarian Gourmet: Easy Low Fat Favourites cookbook.  This was nice to eat warm (reheated in the microwave), but by day four it began to feel a bit dense and stodgy so we fed it to the birds, by the following day it was all gone. Nothing at home is going to waste, it rarely did before so I can continue to feel smug in that knowledge. 

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sweet Potato (with Vegan Black Pudding)

I no longer have an allotment plot and presently I don't have much growing in my back garden plot at the moment, so I have decided to trial Riverford Organic Farmers Vegetable Box for a month.

The Riverford Vegetable Box scheme began when Guy Watson began delivering vegetableses locally to 30 friends in Devon. It now delivers around 47,000 boxes a week to homes around the UK.  Riverford delivers to most of England and South Wales.  

I chose the medium vegetable box which has eight organic varieties which was recommended for 2 - 3 people. This week the vegetable box contained: Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Fennel Bulb, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Courgettes, Onions, Oakleaf Lettuce and Tomatoes.  It was hard to know what to cook with first, I finally settled on the Purple Sprouting Broccoli - a seasonal star, I should know I used to grow some and the sweet potatoes.

I decided to make a Warm Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sweet Potato Salad with Hazelnuts that were given to me by a friend. To make this warm salad more of a substantial dish, I finished it off with some sliced of vegetarian black pudding, but that is optional. This certainly made a welcome change from our boring lettuce, cucumber and tomato salad. 

I am sharing this Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sweet Potato Salad with Soups, Salads and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen. 

Warm Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sweet Potato Salad with Hazelnuts
Serves 3 - 4 as a starter; or 2 - 3 as a main dish
Ingredients
2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and chopped into bite size cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
250g purple sprouting broccoli
3 tablespoons hazelnuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Sprouted alfalfa for garnishing
Optional: vegetarian black pudding
For the dressing
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon maple syrup (or honey)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200oc.
Toss the sweet potato cubes with the oil and spread onto a baking tray.  
Roast for 20 minutes, remove from the oven, gently stir and return it to the oven until soft and beginning to brown around the edges.
Steam the Purple Sprouting Broccoli as you would do asparagus, until tender.
Drain of excess liquid. Transfer to a bowl. 
Put all the dressing ingredients into a small bowl and whisk well. 
Pour over the steamed purple sprouting broccoli and gently stir with a spatula to coat well.
To serve
Evenly distribute the Purple Sprouting Broccoli between the plates.
Then pile on the sweet potato cubes and sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Finish off with optional: alfalfa and cooked black pudding. 

If I have tempted you to try a Riverford Organic vegetable box, then please visit the Riverford website. The Riverford website is very extensive and has a FAQ to answer your questions in relation to having a vegetable box delivered to your front door.  For those of you who live overseas there may be something similar happening in your country; or there is always the farmers market. 

Riverford in South Wales is run by Jon and Janet Mier.  You will often find them and their knowledgeable staff at food events across Wales.  If you would like to keep up to date with news from Riverford South Wales, then follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  

Disclaimer: I was kindly given the medium vegetable box worth £14.85 by Riverford South Wales, in return for a plant based recipe using seasonal and organic vegetables from the box.  All views and opinions are my own. 

Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata bites

I made these Black Chickpea and Sweet Potato frittata Bites over the festive period. 

I had some friends coming over for a few hours, so wanted to make some light bites and nibbles for them which included these Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata, which was sliced into bite size pieces.  Its both sweet and savoury.  You can see the studded black chickpeas and orange sweet potato chunks with a flicker of red here and there from a red pepper.  It was nice to nibble. 

As usual, I made way too much of this Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata bites. I wanted to give some to my guests to take home, but they were on their way somewhere else, so I ended up giving it to D to take into work the following day for his lunch at work.  He very much enjoyed it.  

I would like to add this is perhaps one of the easiest recipes to veganize by substituting the eggs for chickpea flour.  In fact, I may do that one day. 

By the way have you noticed that the food on my blog this week has been mostly burnished brown colours?!  

Vegetarian Quorn 'Chicken' Vindaloo

I actually started writing this blog post when it was day four of snow.  It was when we had the extraordinary weather starting with a blast of cold from Siberia which was dubbed as 'The Beast from the East' then followed quickly by blizzards, strong winds, drifting snow and a storm.  This was then followed by a rare phenomenon of freezing rain.   The snow outside our front door was just over 3 foot high. I think this may be the worse I have seen it in my adult life and made more difficult because we live in the valleys.    Then we saw more snow this weekend which left us stuck at home as the roads were treacherous to drive on.  And apparently  that is not the end, as I have heard that Easter weekend welcomes a a cold Arctic blast from Scandinavia. I cannot wait for Spring to properly start. 

All I can say is Thank goodness for having dried goods and some stuff in our little freezer.  

This is not a sponsored blog post

Vindaloo is traditionally made with pork, but this version is substituted the chicken breasts with Quorn 'chicken' fillets .  In fact, I think its better to make this dish a day in advance, as the Quorn fillets became succulent by absorbing  and taking on some of the flavours from the sauce. 

The flavours in this vegetarian Vindaloo were interesting, and why would it not be with spices like star anise, cinnamon stick, black peppercorns and then white wine vinegar for piquancy.  It was also hot, but its not a volatile vindaloo - still  I have to confess the older I am becoming, my tolerance of chili is dwindling. Would it be terrible of me to admit, that my desire of chocolate is almost non existent, but that is another topic.

Disclaimer*: I have been using Quorn products well before blogs became PR and  monetary commodities.  This is not sponsored blog post, I have not been given this product free or paid by Quorn in any way.  
Adapted from this recipe.

Creamy Sweet Potato Rice Pudding with Mango Pearls (Vegan)

Its been snowing since the moment  I woke up and as I type this and look out the window, the snowflakes are still falling albeit slowly.  I went out into the garden briefly, the snow was soft and slushy.  I saw some people with children walking up the lane with sleighs to go up in the hills.  Its not for me.  I have never really liked the snow, even when I was a child - I really disliked playing snowballs, all that cold ice trickling down ...even the snow angels don't sing to me. I am hoping the snow will remain slushy and melt away and not freeze and turn to ice over night, as driving to work tomorrow in the early hours will be dangerous as many parts of the UK have been issues with an Amber Weather Warning.  I hope your all safe and warm, wherever you are. 

I have decided to share with you a Amber Warming Creamy Sweet Potato Rice Pudding with Mango Pearls. 

This Amber Warming Creamy Sweet Potato Rice Pudding with Mango Pearls was most welcome.  The mango pearls of course are optional.  When it bursts in your mouth, the sweet mango flavoured liquid offsets the creamy texture of the rice pudding, in the way a syrup would.  In case your wondering about the mango pearls, they were actually were given to me by my family.  The flaavoured mango pearls are also known as popping Boba balls bursting juice when they explode in your mouth. 

Sweet Potato Rosemary Scones (vegan)

You may not be able to see the flecks of green, but I assure you there is some finely minced rosemary in these Savoury  Sweet Potato Scones.   Take a bite and you will not just taste it, but get a gentle waft of it.  

I made these Savoury Sweet Potato Scones over the weekend to accompany a Stew and they worked very well, as these scones are a little on the dry side, but I guess that can be the nature of scones yearning for a spread of some sort to uplift it further.   

Another reason for making these scones was that I had some plant based milk in the fridge that needed using up.  

And in case your wondering, why heart shaped?! Well, I could not find my round scone cutter, so had to use the closest size which was in the shape of a heart. I need more hearts in my life. 

Sweet Potato Fudge with Cacao Nibs (vegan)

Like the  vegan and vegetarian meatballs, I am having a thing about fudge at the moment.

In recent days, I have made beetroot fudge, chocolate fudge and now these vegan tiger orange coloured Sweet Potato Fudge Bites with Cacao Nibs.  

Creamy Carrot and Sweet Potato Rice Pudding with Blood Oranges

Some of you may remember last month I made a Beetroot Rose Rice Pudding, my husband loudly asserted You can make that again!  Well I have been looking for a reason to make  a variation of it again and it came with the Food 'N' Flix  hosted by Wendy at A Day In The Life on a Farm. The movie chosen this month is The Martian. 

I had not watched it, so we picked it up when we were in Bath, Somerset for the day.  I watched it that evening.  The Martian is about an astronaut  Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) a Botanist who is accidentally presumed to be dead and is left by his crew on Mars.  When he wakes up, he realises he is all alone and has to survive.  He embarks on a journey, a journey of survival where he attempts to grow potato crops on a land where nothing grows, biding time for his colleagues to come and rescue him.   Here is a trailer to the movie if you have not watched it.  

The most obvious food reference was of course to potatoes and yes, I cook with potatoes a lot, sweet potatoes that is.  I took my inspiration from the myriad and bursting shades of orange, rust, bronze, marigold, clay, sandstone found  in the landscape of the planet, from the rockery to the grainy dry sand.  

I decided to make a Creamy Carrot and Sweet Potato Rice Pudding with Blood Oranges.  I have to thank Coffee and Casseroles for spotting the oranges in the movie about 29 minutes into the movie, there is a bowl of oranges on the table behind two actors in an Earth scene, as I blinked and missed them, but I  felt I just had to incorporate them into my dish too, Thank you once again.

Vegan Sweet Potato and Kidney Beans Seekh Kebabs

Promise this vegan Sweet Potato and Kidney Beans Seekh Kebabs are is my last sweet potato recipe for the month.

Seekh should not be confused with 'Sikhs'.  Sikhs are the disciples of God who following the teachings and writings of the Ten Sikh Gurus.  Seekhs are skewers, albeit wooden skewers around which the minced meat or mashed vegetables and or beans are moulded around to resemble a sausage like shape and then grilled or given the full smoky charred Barbecue treatment.

These red brick coloured Seekh kebabs were a little on the mushy side like old fashioned veggie sausages, but they were perfectly spiced which made them more enjoyable. 

I am sharing these Sweet Potato and Kidney Bean Seekh Kebabs with  Healthy Vegan Fridays hosted by Rock My Vegan Socks and V Nutrition and Confessions of a Mother Runner and Whisk and Two Wands for Meatless Monday.

Enjoy this song by Praiz featuring Chidinma Ekile called 'Sweet Potato'.  Its sweet.

Sweet Potato and Kidney Beans Seekh Kebabs
Makes 8 skewers
Ingredients
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon oil