Well hello there! Surprised to see me?
It’s pretty obvious that I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the blog recently. To be honest, it’s been lovely to follow other people’s recipes, only cook at mealtimes, and keep my camera hidden out of site. I think my break will continue for a little while, but I couldn’t keep myself from popping in to share this soup recipe with you.
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I think I may have died and gone to heaven.
Not the kind of heaven where you get all your tax dollars back in a lump sum (because, all religion and politics aside, let’s face it: that would be awesome), but the kind where you’re surrounded by watermelon. How thrilled would you be if the reward for a lifetime of good deeds was towering cubes of juicy watermelon everywhere you turned for the rest of eternity? I think I would be pretty pumped. If I’m lucky, my tax dollars will be tucked in there somewhere, too.
Sigh… a girl can dream.
The main surprise here is that I even tried a new kind of gazpacho. Prior to this fabulousness, regular tomato gazpacho was the only flavor ever to grace my blender. My mistake, because I’ve been missing out big time! I was inspired to blend up this batch after enjoying a particularly delicious cup of watermelon gazpacho at a restaurant, and now I’m afraid this may turn into the Summer of Gazpacho. I mean, I can’t think of a single fruit or vegetable that wouldn’t taste delicious as part of a tomato-y chilled soup. Maybe that’s an exaggeration… I haven’t brainstormed very hard. But still, you get the picture: YUM.
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Hiya!
Are you surprised that I want to talk about curry today?
Prooobably not. Curry seems to be all that’s on my mind lately – in popcorn, in peanut sauce, and now in soup. What can I say? I <3 curry. And I especially <3 coconutty curry as a spicy base for a veg-filled soup.
This soup is a mix between authentic (lemongrass, Thai basil, Thai chilies) and inauthentic (quinoa and kale). I hope you guys are OK with that – I know I am. Mostly, I wanted to use red curry as a base for a soup, but then I quickly realized that I wanted to add quinoa and kale to it. Quinoa and kale happen to be my two favorite soup additions. They add such great texture, and I love that they hold up no matter how many times you reheat the soup. (You know the same isn’t always true if you’ve used, say, noodles and broccoli before.) So curry, quinoa and kale it is! A rockstar combo, if I do say so myself.
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Good morning! Did everyone enjoy the Super Bowl last night? Or were you like me, and just there for the food, beer and commercials?
I have to say the commercials didn’t really do it for me this year. I guess car commercials never really do… and there are sooo many of those. The Budweiser Clydesdales, on the other hand, just get me every time. Plus a cute puppy? Yes. That one definitely brought a tear to my eye, but I think last year’s is still my favorite. The one with the guy who raises one of the Clydesdales? Too too cute.
But yeah, I guess I am mostly there for the food and beer.
I made a good Super Bowl dip this year, though of course I didn’t get my act together to give you the recipe ahead of time. Oops? Planning ahead for food holidays is not really my strength, and for that I hope you’ll forgive me. Rest assured I’ll post that dip for you soon anyway. Maybe it can be a… Valentine’s Day dip? Now you know I haven’t planned for that one, either.
But what I do have planned is soup!
A vegan soup chock full of roasted red peppers, thyme, and cauliflower.
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It’s time for another soup! The easiest, peasiest, cheesiest soup in the land.
OK, maybe not the cheesiest. That would probably be this one. Today’s soup is actually vegan… with an optional dumping of parmesan cheese.
I know we’re in Thanksgiving planning mode, and this is not a Thanksgiving soup. That doesn’t make it any less perfect for this time of year, though, because it is a quick and easy pantry soup – perfect for making a big batch of when your next few evenings are going to be filled with holiday prep, or even for throwing together when your family gets into town and you realize that they will be here for days, but you have only planned a single meal.
So yes, my family will probably be seeing this soup next week.
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