soup

Yiouvarlakia (meatballs in egg & lemon soup)

Posted by annauk1 on November 7, 2019

Posted in: Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, meat, mince, pork, rice, soup. Leave a comment

It’s grey and drizzly here today, perfect weather to make yiouvarlakia.

These are real comfort food for me, taking me straight back to childhood. To my Mother’s kitchen ❤️

Serves 4-5

500g minced pork

1 cup short grain or pudding rice

1 onion, puréed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1tsp dried mint (dill is more traditional, so use that if you prefer)

Simply get stuck in! Mix all the meatball ingredients together and shape into 16 golf ball sized meatballs.

Bring 2 litres (approximately!) of chicken stock to a boil, throw in one finely chopped carrot, then turn down to a simmer.

Place the meatballs carefully into the stock and cook for 20 mins.

Slake a tbsp of cornflour with a little water, then slowly add a ladleful of the simmering stock, pour this mixture into the pot of meatballs, stirring carefully so as not to break them up.

Beat 4 eggs in a bowl, with the juice of two lemons, then as is traditional, while beating the egg and lemon mixture, carefully add 2-3 ladlefuls of the hot stock, before adding it all back into the pot.

One of my earliest cooking memories is of my mom making avgolemoni soup, carefully drizzling ladles of the hot stock into the egg and lemon ❤️

And there you have them, yiouvarlakia in egg and lemon soup. Proper comfort food for the soul.

Quick & Easy Pea and Ham Soup

Posted by annauk1 on February 18, 2014

Posted in: easy, soup. Tagged: ham, peas, pesto. 5 Comments

This is the soup that happened when I’d been out all day, no idea as to what to cook, but quite a well-stocked fridge, freezer and cupboard (for a change!)
I’ve mostly blogged it so that I don’t forget what I used and can make it again. Lovely stuff.

Pea and Ham Soup
Serves 3-4.

1 medium leek, sliced
1 large potato, peeled and chopped into chunks
1tbsp (approx) butter
2cups of frozen peas
2tbsp fresh pesto (or 1tbsp jarred ready-made pesto)
1 litre chicken stock
180g ham hock meat, shredded (Waitrose sell a lovely shredded ham hock!)

1. Fry the leek and potato in the butter for a few minutes until softened slightly.

2. Add the frozen peas, pesto and chicken stock.

3. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

4. Take the pan off the heat and blend with a stick blender until smooth.

5. Stir in half the shredded ham.

6. Serve in bowls, topped with the remaining ham and a drizzle of double cream.

Soup for Needy Souls

Posted by annauk1 on January 5, 2014

Posted in: Christmas, Nigella, soup. Tagged: bacon, Chestnuts. Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but soothing, restorative soup is a much needed welcome change from the excesses of the festive season. Ok, it is a tad muddy coloured and perhaps not very visually appealing, but how can I begin to even explain the complexity of the tastes involved? The way the nutty, grainy chestnuts complement the savouriness of the vegetables and the smoky saltiness of the bacon, my Boxing-day family, still full up from the previous day’s over-eating, loved it.

Quietness ensues, I can hear spoons clinking against bowls, satisfied oohs and aahs. All is right with the world. It was even worth the scrum around the vacuum packed chestnuts in Asda 😉

Thank you Nigella. A much loved recipe.

chestnut Soup with Bacon Crumbles: (adapted from Nigella Christmas)

1 onion

1 leek

3 carrots

2 sticks celery

3 tbsp garlic oil

500g red lentils

3 litres vegetable or chicken stock

500g vacuum packed chestnuts

125ml sherry

salt and pepper.

for serving:

small bunch of parsley

1tsp garlic oil

10 rashers streaky bacon.

1. Finely chop the leek, carrots and celery (I used my small processor)

2. Heat the oil and add the chopped vegetables, cook for about ten minutes on a medium heat until softened a little.

3. Add the lentils

4. Add stock, bring to a boil, turn heat down a little, simmer for 40 mins until lentils are soft.

5. Add chestnuts, liquidize soup.

6. When you want to eat the soup, add the sherry and heat, add salt and pepper.

7. Finely chop the parsley and fry the bacon in the oil

8. Sprinkle each bowl with bacon and parsley.

9. Serve and enjoy.

Psarosoupa (Fish soup)

Posted by annauk1 on February 9, 2012

Posted in: Cypriot recipes, fish, Greek, soup. Tagged: Fish. 20 Comments

I’m lucky enough to have unlimited access to beautiful, fresh fish, which is delivered daily to my workplace. I’m usually fast asleep when I hear the fish man delivering his wares at ungodly hours of the morning. Sea fresh cod, haddock and plaice are readily available to me, so I really have no excuse not to be using them more often. Healthy, nutritious and low in fat:

Fresh Cod

I was reading through a few blogs today when Elpiniki’s post caught my eye and being as I hadn’t even started planning the evening meal, it didn’t take me long to put 2+2 together and decide to make Elpi’s soup. I did change a few things, so here is my version of psarosoupa:

Elpiniki’s Psarosoupa
Serves 3.

400-500g fish fillets (I used the large piece of cod you see above)
1 potato, peeled and finely cubed
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
2 sticks of celery, finely sliced
3 spring onons, finely sliced
Half a cup of rice
1 vegetable stock cube
salt & pepper
fresh parsley
Olive oil to taste.
Juice of half a lemon.

1. Place about 1 litre of water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, add the vegetable stock cube and the potatoes, carrots, onions and potatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are half cooked.

2. With a slotted spoon, remove some of the vegetables with a little stock, blend with a stick blender to a puree and set aside.

3. Add the fish which you have cut into large chunks to the soup in the pan along with the rice, simmer for 10-12 minutes until both the rice and fish are cooked.

4. Add the pureed veg back to the soup and stir, add salt and pepper, parsley and olive oil and lemon to taste.

5. Your soup is now ready!

Enjoy!

Happy cooking from my kitchen to yours…..and thanks to Elpiniki for the inspiration!

Happy New Soup! Errr, I mean, Year!

Posted by annauk1 on January 14, 2012

Posted in: Nigella, Nigella Express, soup. 24 Comments

I know…..I know…..

It’s the middle of January and my poor blog has been somewhat neglected of late.
Fear not, I have been cooking and baking but just haven’t had the time to come here and share it with you.

I hope you’ve not turned away from me dear reader, because I want to share with you my very latest obsession…

Soup.

Yes, soup!

I’ve not really been much of a soup person, fearing that the family will feel that they’ve not really been fed.
Apart from the obligatory Soupa Avgholemoni.

Obligatory, that is, for a good Greek girl like me.

But these soups have proved to be filling and warming and just darn tasty! Perfect for the Wintery, cold months.

I made Nigella’s lentil and chestnut soup on Boxing day and apart from it’s murky appearance (More than one person thought that I’d made some kind of curry sauce to go with the Boxing day buffet) It was received warmly and enthusiastically by everyone.
The crispy bacon really makes this soup.

Nigella’s pea and pesto soup from her book ‘Nigella Express’ is another soup we enjoyed, this time all I had at home was jarred pesto, not the nicer fresh pesto, but still, it was a great soup. Sorry Nigella.

Another soup from ‘Nigella Express’, the ‘Minestrone in minutes’, to which I added some small cubes of cooked ham, went down well too…

As did the Sweetcorn chowder, also from ‘Express’.

It seems the ‘odd soup out’, but in no way any less tasty, is this soup from the Waitrose website.
A deliciously creamy Ham, leek and Butter Bean soup.

You can find the recipe HERE.

So, you see, I’ve been busy….. making soup!

It’s nice to be back.

See you soon.

Rice, egg and lemon soup…The Cypriot cure-all soup

Posted by annauk1 on November 17, 2011

Posted in: Chicken, Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, rice, soup. 16 Comments

I was searching through my blog and could not believe that I’ve not shared the recipe for the most famous Greek Cypriot soup of all, the one we were all brought up with, the one that cures all……the one that my family will definitely want to know the recipe for one day…….

Soupa Avgolemoni (Rice, egg and lemon soup)

While Mr. Greeklish hasn’t been able to work and I’ve been covering his shifts, who was going to cook? So, I wrote the recipe down step-by-step and can you believe it? HIS soup was voted better than mine by him AND my son and daughter…..

*Harumphhhh. Walks off in an almighty strop*

How you begin depends on whether you want boiled chicken to accompany the soup, we generally cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and add it to the soup, it’s really delicious like that!

If you do, cover your chosen chicken pieces (1 per person should be ample) with cold water, add a generous amount of salt, bring to the boil, skim off the scum and simmer for approximately 40-45 mins, so that the chicken is perfectly cooked. I always add a stock cube to mine.

If you don’t want chicken (or you don’t eat meat) you can use just stock cubes – chicken or vegetable, in approx 2 litres of water.

Anyway, once the chicken is cooked, remove from the stock and simmer 1 heaped cup of washed long-grain rice in the stock, for about 10 minutes, so it’s just cooked.

Turn off the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat together 3 eggs with the juice of 2 lemons. (If you like things very lemony, like we do, you may need three! But start with two as you can always add more later.

Now, very slowly, trickle ladlefuls of the stock, in to the egg and lemon mixture (what you’re trying to do is to slowly increase the temperature of the eggs before adding them back to the stock so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs!) while continually stirring.

When you have added about half of the stock to the egg-lemon mix, slowly pour back into the rice-stock mix.

Your soup is now ready to eat!

We like ours thick and creamy, but you can always add more water if you think it’s toooo thick.

Also bear in mind that it will thicken as it stands.

Ground black pepper goes really well atop your lovely soup.

‘Throw it all in the slow cooker’ soup!

Posted by annauk1 on July 9, 2011

Posted in: Family recipes, First attempts, Pulses, soup. 7 Comments

Do you use a slow cooker?
I’m asking you because it seems to me that slow cookers are a bit like the ‘marmite’ of the small kitchen appliance world….one either loves them or hates them.

There doesn’t seem to be an in-between.

I love mine.

I’m aware of it’s limitations, but I try and work with them as much as I can and give it a gentle, helping nudge along the way.
Treat it (the ingredients) properly during their pereparation and your slow cooker will reward you with hearty, warming meals, notably flavourful soups and stews.

I was reading the ‘Claytons blog’ and Coby was, this time, making a ‘freestyle’ soup.
Coby has a basic soup ‘recipe’ which she varies depending on what she has in the house and of course, what she feels like eating that particular day!
If you read my comment to her, you’ll see that ‘freestyling’ a recipe actually scares me. I worry that what I will end up with will be neither delicious nor pleasing to the beholder.

Coby’s soup post is here.

But, I decided to be brave and give it a whirl in my slow cooker. This is what I ended up with..

A really gorgeous, nutritious, colourful, filling soup, which we really enjoyed!

The first thing I did was to soak a handful of dried Porcini mushrooms in a little marsala, put to one side.

Anything you can do to add more flavour, DO.
Think savoury.
Think frying off the vegetables and chicken to give them an appealing appearance and more flavour and to aid hugely in the cooking process!
Think TASTE.

I began by sweating off in a little olive oil, some chopped onions (2), garlic (2 cloves, grated), carrot(1), celery (2-3 stalks) and yellow pepper(half).
When they had softened, I poured them straight into the slow cooker. In the same pan I fried off some chicken thighs (4 skinless and boneless) , which I’d cut into small pieces,when the chicken was golden, but before it was ready to come off the heat, I added a couple of slices of chopped up bacon and fried them together for a few minutes. This also went into the slow cooker.

I’d already put (at a guess) about a litre of stock in the slow cooker, made by adding a couple of teaspoons of Bouillon powder to some boiling water.
After throwing in the veggies, chicken and bacon, also add the mushrooms and the marsala, 1 tin of butter beans (or what ever pulse you like) and 1 tin of chopped tomatoes.
Strain the marsala through a tea-strainer though, as little gritty pieces tend to collect in the bottom of the bowl and you don’t want those of course.
Add a little salt (Bear in mind the stock already contains salt) pepper and about a teaspoon of dried, mixed herbs or whatever you have at home.

I put mine on ‘high’ for about 5 hours…

Let your slow cooker work it’s magic. And you will be repaid with empty bowls.

Now doesn’t that gladden the heart?

Thanks Coby for the inspiration!

Louvana (Yellow split pea soup)

Posted by annauk1 on May 19, 2011

Posted in: Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, Pulses, soup. 7 Comments

Louvana is a traditional Cypriot soup, usually made during lent or at other times of fasting as it contains no meat or dairy products. It’s a delicious, nutritious, filling soup made with ‘louvana’ which are small, yellow split peas.
I’d heard of this soup many times before, but had never made it and then while we were in Cyprus over Easter, for some reason talking about food again..(Who? me? never!)…louvana was mentioned by my husband’s niece while we were out one night. My ears immediately pricked up and I asked her how it was made, it seemed to be easy enough.
Sooooo, I brought some louvana back from Cyprus with me (It’s a dried pulse, sold in packets)

It’s a habit I’ve got!!
Forgive me.
Bringing food stuff back off holiday with me…would you believe me if I told you that one of our suitcases contained only foodsfuff?!

Anyhow, I spent most of today at the hairdressers and needed to make something quick for lunch – so louvana it was!
There’s no need to soak the peas as they cook easily.

Recipe serves 4-6. (Depending on how hungry/greedy one’s eaters are)

250g louvana or yellow split peas
2 stock cubes, vegetable if one is fasting/vegetarian. Chicken if not, though one could also use a home-made stock if it is available.
1 mug full of long grain rice, washed
1 onion, peeled, halved and sliced finely
a little olive oil for frying onion
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper.

Simmer the louvana in plenty of water to which you have added the two stock cubes.
Ten minutes before the louvana is perfectly tender, add the rice.
While the rice is cooking, fry the onion slices in the olive oil until golden-brown.
Add to the soup, along with the lemon juice, a little salt and pepper.
When the rice has cooked, the soup is ready.

Louvana can be served very soupy, or more like a soupy risotto, depending on what you prefer.