Pumpkin soup

Halloweens already far behind us and everyone is probably busy with Christmas, but even so I´d like to share this recipe I made around Halloween which also makes a perfect starter for your Christmas dinner. I present you this lovely creamy pumpkin soup!
Note: try searching pumpkin soup in google and you’ll find a million varieties. I found quite a few recipes and decided this is the most basic version that you see in every sort of pumpkin soup. Feel free to use google and add a lot of extra ingredients to make this pumpkin soup more special!



Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin flesh
1/2 union
1 cup vegetable (or chicken) stock
3-5 spoons heavy whipping cream
salt & pepper

Optional:
1 clove garlic
herbs

1. Start with turning the pumpkin flesh into pumpkin purree. You do this by cooking the pumpkin in a pan. Keep stirring, while making sure the pumpkin doesn’t burn. Natural liquids should come out at this point, if not and you feel the mixture is too thick or burns easily, add water or stock.
2. Once you have the pumpkin purree, add the onion, stock and any other ingredients you like.
3. Add the cream at the very last moment and serve immediately.



I love the way this soup is so very creamy. The soup was a tad salty from the stock, very creamy and had the unique taste of pumpkin. It´s a pity you won´t be able to make this soup all year round and we definitely don´t sell them a lot in Holland in the first place. I´m definitely going to try making this more often, perhaps adding more ingredients to see what effect it has. Although I have the feeling, that this soup, however plain it may seem, is already a very nice mix of flavours that really doesn´t need improvement.

Tuna? Yes!

Before I was smart enough to buy small cans of tuna, I had these massive large cans that I needed to use for two or three consecutive days. I quite like tuna, but at some point your imagination is running dry and you kind of end up making the same things over and over again. So apart from dumping tuna in noodle soup or making Tuna salad like in one of my older posts, here are two other suggestions: Tuna melt and Tuna pasta salad.

Tuna melt
Ingredients:
Bun
Cream cheese
1/2 can tuna (in oil)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
A few chives
1/2 Italian salad mix (3 types of lettuce, onions and cherry tomatoes)
Salt & pepper
Cheese

1. Start with cutting the bun in half or take one slice of bread. Spread with the cream cheese.
2. In a small bowl add the tuna with mayonnaise, chives and some salt & pepper to make a tuna salad. Add garlic and herbs if desired.
3. Put some lettuce on the bun (or add this later if you dislike lettuce that’s been in the oven). And spread the tuna salad over the bun with cream cheese. Add anything else you like as well, like tomatoes, paprika or onions.
4. Add slices or grated cheese on top and season with more salt & pepper if you want (just don’t overdo it, remember you can always do this later as well).
5. Put another slice of bread or the other half of the bun on top and pop it into the oven at 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 5-10 minutes when you see the cheese has melted. Tadaa! Bon appétit!

I’ve made ‘tuna melt’ quite a few times before, however I like to call it tuna panini’s because panini’s are definitely my favorite buns to make this with. I also put them in a grill/tosti-machine instead., but essentially it’s all the same and it always tastes different! I like to add or leave out different things every time and just try to work with what I’ve got.



Tuna pasta salad
Ingredients:
Pasta
1/2 Italian salad mix (3 types of lettuce, onions and cherry tomatoes)
1/2 can tuna (in oil)
1/2 paprika
A few chives
Spoon olive oil
Salt & pepper

1. Cook the pasta until it’s done, drain the water and set aside to cool.
2. Cut, slice, chop, wash and drain from olive oil: the tuna, the salad mix and the paprika and mix together.
3. Add the pasta and mix again and season with olive oil, salt & pepper to taste!

For another version of this: leave out the lettuce and add a bit of cucumber, yogurt and mayonnaise. It was my hybrid version of of this tuna pasta salad and tuna salad I posted before. It was delicious!
For this salad I bought a salad mix because buying 1 lettuce was as expensive as the whole salad mix and I didn’t want to pay too much for tomatoes and lettuce (which is all I wanted), because they don’t last long and I don’t really eat them enough. While typing this I realized I completely forgot the corn. I thought it would be really nice to add corn as well, but I obviously missed that now! For next time!

I hope you liked it! Enjoy!

Kitchen notes: Keepers

As you might know I’ve been cooking for myself for a few weeks now already. There’s a lot of recipes I tried and things I failed on. There's a few things I'd definitely would never make again (take bacon for instance) and some things that I could do daily (take spaghetti). Here’s a few of the recipes I decided to keep:

Panroasted chicken with Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar

You’ll be needing: chicken, sesame seeds, caramelised balsamic vinegar.
How to’s: Put the chicken in a pan and cook it with sesame seeds and a bit of the vinegar. Sprinkle vinegar over when done.
Notes: Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar is heaven. I’ve cheated on this and not actually made it myself but bought it like this, but I will definitely try making it myself one day. The sweet but vinegar-like taste definitely suits the chicken.



Pasta olio (or whatever)

You’ll be needing: pasta, herbs, garlic, oil, salt&pepper
How to’s: Cook the pasta, bake the garlic lightly, mix everything together.
Notes: I’m not a fan of the oil I bought, which is really the main ingredient in this recipe. Buy oil you like the taste of or this will definitely fail. When done well, it’s a really nice side dish.



Filled mushrooms

You’ll be needing: mushrooms, chimichurri (or pesto), cheese
How to’s: Fill the mushrooms with chimichurri and add cheese over it. Pop in the oven for a bit.
Notes: This is really nice as a luxurious sidedish. My mom makes this every Christmas or special dinner. It is one of the easiest things and it tastes nice as well.



Bacon with chimichurri dressing and fried potatoes

You’ll be needing: bacon, chimichurri (or pesto), potato, oil and salt
How to’s: Fry the bacon in a pan with oil, top with chimichurri. Fry potatoes in a pan with oil and add loads of salt (this it bad).
Notes: This is definitely not one of my healthiest dishes, but it was really nice anyway. Everyone has to love fried potatoes. The chimichurri (or substitute with pesto if you don’t have any and don’t want to make it either) give the bacon a lot of extra taste.



Mushroom cream spaghetti

You’ll be needing: spaghetti, garlic, mushrooms, cream cheese, salt & pepper
How to’s: Cook the spaghetti and bake the garlic and mushrooms in a pan. Add the spaghetti to the mushrooms and cook for a bit longer then add cream cheese and let it melt. Take off the fire immediately and add salt & pepper.
Notes: Love, love, LOVE this recipe. I have a thing for mushrooms. Somehow they appear in every recipe I make. Really love the creamy taste to the spaghetti as well. I have to test other recipes though. It might work better with something like whipping cream, or a different cheese. Might make this a weekly thing.



I have all the time in the world here to cook whatever I want (at least until the essays start getting closer) and I have a whole kitchen for myself (if I start cooking very early or very late). It's amazing. However, I don't have all the money in the world and I should really start thinking of a way to manage it. For now, I will just enjoy all the food.

Carrot cake Smoothie

Yes, it exists! Well, now it does. Since I decided to make a smoothie with the ingredients I had left from preparing a carrot cake. I really liked the taste of it as well. Since I didn´t add any of the sugar, vanilla essence, maple syrup, etc. yet it was quite healthy as well!
Okay, so it doesn't look as good as you might want it, but what do you expect? Carrots, dates and raisins don't blend into the most beautiful colours. I promise, though, that you will completely forget about what it looks like once you taste it!



Ingredients:
Handful grated carrot
2 spoons raisins
2-3 dates
1 spoon grated coconut
bit of orange zest
3-5 spoons apple juice
(Greek) yogurt

1. Put all the ingredients except the yogurt in a bowl and leave to soak for a bit.
2. Add the yogurt to the bowl and mix.
3. For an unhealthier version: add sugar or maple syrup and vanilla essence. Walnuts also go with this very well.

I still have a lot of recipes waiting for me to type them all out. I was thinking of writing a post on kitchen notes, since most of them are just 2-step recipes with horrible pictures (my photographic skills decreased since I’ve been in Belfast), but still quite worth writing down. At the very least I need to remember the recipes I make so I can keep improving and find the perfect recipes!