We love soups in winter and this is a nourishing comforting bowl to warm the soul. Feel free to make it vegetarian by using vegetable stock and make it vegan by using vegan cheese, use beef stock instead of chicken if you have a preference, I’d even go as far as saying use Oxo or Bisto if that’s your choice.
I’ve used some basic vegetables here, onions, garlic, carrot and leek so again you can add or swap using whatever veg you have in at the time.
NOTE: Prep time doesn’t include soaking the barley
Barley and vegetable soup
Carrot, lentil and miso soup
Autumn through to winter always gets us craving for a bowl of soup, miso is an ingredient we have embraced the past few years and always have some in the fridge, it sits happily there for ages and it’s very good for you. The inspiration here came from a book called ‘Miso Tasty’ by Bonnie Chung and it will teach you every thing you need to know about Miso.
Hot and tangy aubergine
Hot with the chilli and tangy from the tamarind, this is a great quick and easy way to serve up 1 aubergine, perfect for two as part of an Indian feast. As the aubergine brown in the oil it really picks up the flavour of the fennel and nigella seeds, feel free to only use one spice if that’s all you have and if you can’t find any tamarind paste then you can always substitute with lemon or lime juice
Shami Kebabs – Lamb Kebabs with cinnamon
These are adapted from a beautiful book called ‘Tasting India’ by Christine Manfield. Traditionally the mixture is kneaded, slapped and pounded against the sides of a bowl to soften and therefore tenderize it before shaping into patties, the food processor here does all that work for such a small amount of paste.
Kimchi hummus
Hummus Kimchi, Korean style hummus, I’m not sure how best to describe this, it was simply born out of a fridge forage of which we had some chickpeas left over from making a curry, half a jar of homemade kimchi and some gochujang paste so why not mix it all up and see what happens? Inevitably it turned out absolutely delicious, who would of thought about blending tahini with kimchi?
If you have access to an Asian supermarket look for rainbow prawn crackers, they are great for dips.