thursday recipe: cauliflower and mushroom soup (dairy free)

As regular readers know, my family and I are travelling up the east coast of Australia heading to Cape York. We are currently in Byron Bay staying with our dear friend David, who much to Sol's amazement, is vegetarian. "Oh come on mum, Uncle Dave has to eat more than just vegetables?!!" was Sol's comment. I am enjoying the creative challenge of coming up with vegetarian dinner ideas that appeal to my carnivorous child.

Winter is here and soup is perfect for the cool nights. Soup can also be a great way to feed your (reluctant) family a wider variety of veggies. Cauliflower and mushrooms are definitely not on my boys list of favorites but when Pete spotted that beautiful cauliflower in Dave's shop we decided on cauliflower soup for dinner.

This recipe is very quick and simple. My 7 year old who is always willing to at the very least taste foods made his way through a decent serve of this, he didn't love it but he gave it a good go and that is all I ask. Sol fell asleep before dinner, he has been on a very early cycle for some months now and it is very challenging!

I hope your family enjoys this soup. I served toasted sesame spelt bread with raw garlic butter alongside. Raw garlic is good preventative medicine.

Cauliflower and mushroom soup

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower, chopped into small pieces

4 shallots or 1 medium size brown onion, finely diced

8-10 field mushrooms, chopped into small pieces

1 cup filtered water with 4 teaspoons organic stock powder or, 1 cup homemade stock 

1 cup of chopped fresh parsley

toasted sesame seeds for garnish

1 tablespoon butter or ghee

To make

Melt butter or ghee over medium heat in heavy based pot. 

Gently cook shallots or onion until transparent.

Add cauliflower, mushrooms and stock or water.

Bring to boil then reduce to simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables soft.

Puree to desired consistency.

Stir in parsley.

Serve and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

back to basics: meatballs

Yesterday it was loss and grief, today a quick bowl of meatballs. That's real life though isn't it? Unpredictable and through all the big stuff it is the simple stuff that steadies us. Like meatballs.

Earlier in the week I wanted to prepare a quick dinner. I went to our local fruit and veg shop that sells a limited range of organic meat, mince was all there was so mince for dinner it was. What to do with the mince? Spag bol seemed a bit obvious, so I decided on meatballs because we don't have them very often and the boys enjoy them when we do.

This meal is simple and quick I promise. I took a shortcut and used a jar of Spiral Foods basil and garlic pasta sauce, it is a good one because it is 100% real food.

Ingredients

500g organic beef mince
1 jar Spiral Foods basil and garlic pasta sauce
1 tin organic crushed tomatoes
1 small carrot, finely grated
1 small zucchini, finely grated
1/2 small onion, finely grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
a pinch of ground cinnamon
a pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
finely grated rind of a small lemon (optional)

To make

Wash your hands well and use them to mix all of the above ingredients together well in a bowl.

Roll mixture into balls just a bit smaller than a golf ball.

Put pasta sauce and tomatoes in a large pot, bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer then add the meatballs and cook on a low heat uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

I served the meatballs and sauce as is in a bowl, with a side of mixed lettuce and a piece of buttered millet sourdough for mopping up sauce. You could of course serve with spaghetti or a side of steamed veggies.

Simple and delicious. I hope your family likes this too!

back to basics: roasted vegetable salad

Are you caught in the trap? The trap of feeling like you have to come up with something new, something different, original every day to cook for your family? Or the trap of wanting to cook things that your children will eat and resisting cooking with what you have for fear they won't eat it? Well, fear not. As with so much in our modern life we could take a whole lot of pressure off ourselves if we followed the KISS principle and Keep It Simple Sista.

You know the story, you look in the fridge or the pantry and wonder 'what am I going to cook for dinner?' When there's only a few ingredients it can be tempting to think, 'I just need a few more ingredients to cook something that the family will eat' then you go out and buy those few and ingredients plus a swag of other foods you didn't intend to buy.

If you have some vegetables, some herbs/spices and protein you can make a meal, you don't need to go shopping and if you are thinking 'hmmm but X won't eat that' just cook the meal with what you have and give it a go, I'm guessing there will be at least one element of whatever dish you serve that each member of your family will enjoy.

For dinner last night I had taken out some flathead fillets from the freezer, what to have with it? In the fridge we had carrots, leek, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and cabbage plus potatoes in the cupboard. A roasted vegetable salad was perfect to go with the fish.

I chopped up the veggies into chunks and roasted them in the oven in melted butter and mixed dried herbs. While they were roasting I crumbed the fish, rolling it first in gluten free plain flour, dipping it in egg and then rolling it in rice crumbs. Then washed some mixed lettuce leaves that Pete picked from a local farm. Once the veggies were done I pulled them out to cool before tossing them through the salad leaves and heating the pan to cook the fish.

Pete whipped up a salad dressing using his 'whatever we have in the fridge and pantry wants to go together' recipe. In this case it was apple cider vinegar and a dash of sesame oil.

Good food doesn't need to be fancy or complicated, from just a few ingredients you can create a really wholesome nutritious meal. By working with what you have you minimise waste, save money (& time and petrol driving to the shops) and this mama thinks that teaching our children to appreciate what we have rather than seeking more or something different all the time is a good thing.

Of course if you have menu planning down pat you'll have all this covered, but even then remember it is ok to get back to basics, keep things simple and give things a go that last month someone didn't want to eat but this month they might.

How is the dinner hour at your house? Clean plates? Fussy eaters? Are you doing handstands to get them to eat good food? Tell us in the comments.