How do recipes relate to gentle living you may ask. Well, in my mission to be compassionate to humans, animals and the environment I am journeying towards veganism. The whys and what fors of that will get their own post, but for now here's a delicious recipe I want to share.
I remember my first taste of celery vividly. A childhood friend's health conscious mother had put carrot and celery stalks into our goody bags at her birthday party. As admirable as her health conscious intentions may have been, this bitter stalk vegetable was disgusting to my young taste buds - bleurgh! Worst. Party bag contents. Ever. I disliked it ever since.
So, you can imagine my reaction to the idea of celery and cashew nut soup...
Cashew nuts = yum. Celery = yuck. Who would have dared to invent such a repulsive concoction! Nevertheless, I silenced my celery hating self and tried it.
Oh, how wrong I was! This is a delicious, creamy soup that is so quick and easy to make.
It has become one of my favourites and has been a hit with friends I have made it for too.
A few words of advice: The last time I cooked this soup, following the death of my trusty ol' reliable hand held blender, I poured it into the upright blender thinking that would work just as well. Perhaps it would have if I had made sure the lid was on properly and hadn't put too much of the mixture in it. I can only guess! Tasty though this soup is, you should know that it's absolutely no good for floors, worktops, your clothes, your hair or your skin. Getting cashew nuts out of your hair is tricky and explaining you got a scar from scalding yourself with soup will impress no-one. Basically, I'm an idiot. Cook and blend your soup sensibly. Don't throw it all over your kitchen!
Here's the recipe:
Celery and Cashew Nut Soup
Ingredients:
- 75g dairy free spread (I like the 'Pure' dairy free spreads)
- 2 heads of celery (a 'head' is a bunch)
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 150g unsalted cashew nuts
- 1.5 litres vegetable stock (I use Kallo organic vegetable stock cubes)
Use a medium heat setting on your hob when cooking this recipe;
hot enough to soften the celery up nicely, but not burn the garlic.
- Finely chop the celery and crush or finely chop the garlic.
- Melt the spread in a large saucepan.
It's preferable, but not essential, to use a saucepan with a lid. - Once the spread has melted, add the celery and garlic to the pan and cook gently for 10 minutes - if your saucepan has a lid, use it at this point as it will keep more moisture in the pan as the celery cooks.
- Grind the cashew nuts finely, either in a food
processor or pestle and mortar.
- Add the ground cashew nuts to the pan along with the stock. Cover with the lid if you have one and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes until the celery has softened.
- Let the mixture cool for a while then use a liquidiser or hand held blender to puree the soup until it is smooth (This isn't a good soup for leaving with chunks in IMO). If you want the soup really smooth, you can pass it through a sieve, back into the saucepan.
- Season with pepper and salt if you feel it is needed (the stock cube will give salt)
and serve with crusty wholemeal bread. Ta da! You're done :)
 |
| YUM! |
There you have it - simple, tasty celery and cashew nut soup!
Give it a try and let me know how it goes :)
Living gently isn't just about others, you need to be good to yourself too! So, in case you're interested in the health and nutritional benefits of celery, according to the websites lovecelery.co.uk (who are clearly completely nuts on the stuff) and juicing-for-health.com it's a good source of potassium, calcium, vitamin C, folate, magnesium, phosphorus and iron. Visit those sites to read more celery endorsing info. You can also read about the health and nutritional qualities of cashew nuts by clicking here.
Hope you like the soup! Remember: putting it in a bowl and eating it is good. Putting it on your floor, work top, hair and body is not!
Haze x
