Baby it's cold outside

Since it was a frosty -10°C in my part of the world when I left home yesterday morning, I decided that I would have a nice, hot soup for dinner.

It has to be said, though, I'm not a big fan of soup. There are a few I like (e.g. the creamy veggie soups my mom makes, or the spicy sweet & sour veggie soup you sometimes find at Chinese restaurants) but most soups do nothing for me.

And in all the years, I never made soup myself. So I thought it would be best to go for something simple and decided on a creamy cauliflower soup, which turned out lovely (whereas the pic didn't).

What you need:

- 1 large head cauliflower

- 250ml soy cream

- about 2 tablespoon veggie stock of your choice

- salt, black pepper, nutmeg, granulated garlic, and sugar for seasoning

Clean the cauliflower, put it in a large pot with about a litre of water, put the lid on and boil/steam it till it's soft, then take the pot off the stove.

Break up the cauliflower with a fork or potato masher then briefly puree it with a hand-blender (all still in the same pot with the cooking water). Add the soy cream, the veggie stock, a dash of sugar and the other spices to taste.

Put the pot back on the stove (low heat this time), let it simmer for a few minutes, and add some more water if the soup's too thick. Taste and add more spices if necessary.

I had the soup with some roasted breadcrumbs, which I seasoned with nutritional yeast, salt, black pepper, and granulated garlic (and if you add herbs like basil or oregano, this goes well with most pasta dishes too).

Enjoy!

Feeds at least 3 people, or more if you serve bread with it.

I have absolutely noooo food in the house!

Do you sometimes find yourself uttering that very sentence, despite an overflowing shelf/fridge/freezer?

Well, I frequently do. So the other day I decided to postpone shopping for two days and live of what was still in my kitchen. How hard could it be?

I didn't do a full inventory but amongst the food stuff I had at home were:
- regular tofu
- smoked tofu
- a pound of organic potatoes
- canned green beans
- two large onions
- a nearly full pack of Wetabix
- a litre of soy milk
- wholewheat toast
- margarine
- strawberry jam
- peanut butter
- sushi rice
- two packs of nori
- a pack flour
- half a pack wholewheat spaghetti
- a pack of spelt pasta
- a pound of frozen mixed veggies
- three frozen portions of homemade chili

As you can see, I definitely wasn't going to starve anytime soon.

I can't remember what I had for breakfast those two days, but I reckon that was were the toast and jam came in. One dinner was covered by the chili, the other was simply skipped (because I had slept through half the day and only managed to fit two meals into the time I was awake).

On the first day I had mashed potatoes with roasted onionsfor lunch, which probably sounds rather dull but is actually yummy, filling, and also a childhood comfort-food for me.

On the second day, I simply spooned the left over mashed potatoes on a baking sheet and threw them into the oven for half an hour to get somewhat oddly-shaped croquettes. I don't recall on what temperature I had the oven but apparently it wasn't high enough, as the croquettes weren't as crispy as I had hoped. But they were still very tasty and went well with the green beans and smoked tofu cubes (just heated those in a small skilled with a bit of oil, seasoning them with salt, black pepper, and the tiniest dash of sugar).

I would have loved to share some pictures of those dishes with you but unfortunately the one thing I really was out of were batteries.

So, have instead a picture of my loved-by-every-omni-I-ever-fed-it-to lasagna:


(why yes, it's round)


I hope everyone is well and had nice holidays.