Crossplanet

Here is my favourite salad of the moment, plain and simple: corn-salad, 2 or 3 sliced mushrooms, some garlic, parsley to make it nice, a few drops of olive oil and soy sauce. As simple as that!

As good as it may be, one must confess that cabbage soup isn't very sexy... Inspired by a friend who gave a new look to his leek-and-carrot soup, I have tried a new combination to turn the cabbage soup more appealing. And it works: with ginger and coconut cream.

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1 small green cabbage

1 big onion 

3 carrots

4 small potatoes

1 tbsp of ginger paste

1 glass of ccount cream

1 tbsp of garam massala in seeds

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1. Fry the spices in olive oil, chop the onion and fry it too.

2. Add the carrots and potatoes cut into small pieces. Cook for about 10mn.

3. For each cabbage leaves, cut off the spine, and cut them into stripes. Add them to the vegetables and 1 liter of water. Add the ginger paste (or fresh ginger finely chopped). Cover and cook for about 15mn.

4. When the vegetables are cooked, mix with a liquidizer. Add the coconut cream and mix again.

Here is a recipe, half-way between a soup and a complete dish, a well-balanced recipe mixing cereals, dried vegetables and greens. And it's delicious!

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1 cup of long grain rice

1 cup of red lentils (coral)

1 small can of chick peas

3 or 4 handfuls of fresh spinach

Pieces of brocoli (optionnal) 

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic gloves 

1 cube of vegetable broth 

2 tsp of garam massala, in seeds

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1. Heat some olive oil and fry the spices, then the onion and garlic.

2. Add the rice and lentils, stir to fry them a bit, then add 1,5 liter of water and a cube of broth. Cover and cook for 10mn.

3. Add the chick peas, and the brocoli if you have some, cook for 5 mn.

4. Cut the spinach leaves in stripes, add them at the end (they don't need to cook, staying in the hot water will be enough).

5. That's all, folks! 

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Regarding the spices, I like tu use garam massala because it's a mix of cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and laurel. This time I've also added one piece of starred aniseed, and I think that made the difference.

Back to the soup season and time to try some new recipes. Here is one for my friend Teresa, who doesn't like pumpkin so much, a thick velvety soup, with a taste of cheese.

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1 kg of pumpkin, cut in cubes

2 potatoes

2 onion, cut in rings

150 g of blond lentils 

200 g of blue cheese 

3 garlic gloves 

1 dl of cream

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1. Heat some olive oil and fry the onion and garlic.

2. Add the pumkin and the potatoes. Cook for 10mn, stirring regurlarly.

3. Add the lentils and 1l of water. Cover and cook for about 40 mn.

4. When cooked, mix with a liquidizer. Add the cream and the blue cheese, mix again. Serve with pieces of crusted bead.

With the spring comes back the time of cold soup, vegetable juice and gaspacho of all sort.

In the last weeks I have tested new combinations of raw vegetable, using the blender at different speed so that the texture is different. Sometimes with bigger chunks, more like purée, sometimes more like soup. I make one bottle (approx. 1 liter) of the preparation, and I have it fresh and ready all day long in the fridge.

For one bottle, the base is always the same: 2 or 3 tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, 1 onion. Then I add everything that comes to my hand: lettuce, parsley, fennel, spinach, green or yellow pepper, maybe a spoon of ginger paste, etc. I add also about 2 glasses of wate, some olive oil, salt and pepper, blend it and enjoy!

Here is another indian recipe, perfect for winter, when you feel like cocooning at home. It's not difficult but it takes quite a long time to cook (around 3 hours). I like to do it on Saturday or Sunday morning, while cleaning the house. Depending on how late I start, it's ready for lunch or for brunch.

Since it takes a long time to cook, it's better to make a big quantity of it. My cookbook even says that it's a recipe for ceremonies or restaurants! The ingredients hereunder are for 6 servings, but I usually double them and I then freeze individual portions.

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250 g of whole black lentils ("urad dal sabat")

115 g of red beans

4 cloves of garlic, cut in halves

4 cloves of black cardamon, slightly smashed

2 leaves of laurel

1 stick of cinnamon

115 g of butter (or ghee) 

1 1/2 tbsp of ginger and garlic paste

2 tbsp of tomato sauce 

1/2 tsp of chili powder 

1 tsp of sugar

150 ml of cream 

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1. The evening before, put the lentils and beans to soak for the night in differents pots.

2. Drain the lentils and beans. In a pan put the beans with twice their volume of water, let them boil for 10 mn, then drain.

3. In a muslin pouch, put the garlic, the cardamon, the laurel and the cinamon.

4. In a big pan, put the lentils and beans with twice their volume of water, add the pouch of spice, cook for about 3 hours, taking out the foam if necessary and stirring once in a while. Every 15 min, smash the lentils with a spoon against the border of the pan. At the end, the dish should have a rather thick aspect. Add some salt in the end.

5. When almost done, take out the pouch of spices and let it cool down.

6. In a saucepan, melt the butter, fry the ginger and garlic paste for a minute, add the tomato sauce, chili powder, sugar and salt, cook for about 5 min. When the pouch of spices is cool enough to be handled, squeeze their juice into the tomato sauce.

7. Mix the sauce with the lentils, add the cream and cook for 10 min more.

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NB 1: it's important to salt the lentils only when they're almost cooked, otherwise they dehydrate and become indigestible. 

NB 2: to get full benefit of the iron and proteins contained in the lentils, eat them with green vegetables (a salad) and C-vitamin (an orange for dessert for example).

Raïta is a side dish that goes with every indian meal, it's the equivalent of salad. There are raitas of every kind, with vegetables or fruits, always mixed with yogurt.

My hindi teacher invited me for lunch a few weeks ago, and made me discover this wonderful combination of apple and basil.

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1/2 apple

8/10 leaves of fresh basil

1 yogurt

salt, pepper, 1 tsp of sugar 

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1. Cut the apple in small squares, cut the basil leaves in small stripes

2. in a bowl mix well with yogurt, add salt, pepper and sugar.

Last night after reading your comment, I've adapted a pumpkin soup receipe to make it more "Teresa-friendly". I hope you'll like.

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250 g of pumpkin, cut in cubes

1 onion, chopped 

1 carrot, cut in rings

1 portion of creamy cheese (Vache qui rit)

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1. Heat some olive oil and fry the onion, till it's a bit brown.

2. Add the carrot, cook for 5 mn, then add the cubes of pumpkin. Add a little bit of water, so the pumpkin won't stick. Cook for about 15mn, the pumpkin becomes tender and starts to melt.

3. Add more water, enough to cover the vegetables and a bit more. Cook for 10mn, then add the cheese, cook for 5 mn, till it melts. Temper with salt and pepper.

4. Mix with a liquidizer and that's it!

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You can serve it in a nice bowl, with some parsley to make it nice and colourful.

Feeling like trying a new receipe, I didn't choose an Indian one, but for once one from Martinique, sweet and spicy.

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450 g of pumpkin, cut in cubes

2 tomatoes

1 onion, cut in rings

2 garlic gloves 

2 tsp of curry powder

3 cloves

1 tbsp of currants

1 lemon

1 tsp of sugar

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1. Heat some olive oil and fry the onion and garlic.

2. Add the cloves and curry powder, cook for 2 mn.

3. Add the pumpkin, tomatoes, currants, sugar, the lemon juice and some water.

4. Cook for about 1/2 hour, stirring regularly. Add salt and chilly. Serve with rice.