Broad Beans Nil Points

Dinner was a bit of a let down tonight it has to be said. I wanted to use up the broad beans from the veg box, and decided to try a variation of this broad bean bruschetta on the Good Food website. The recipe worked pretty well. Instead of the suggestions on the website, I blanched the beans and added them to 1 crushed garlic clove, 1/2 a squeezed lemon and some finely chopped parsely as neither I or DH are that keen on mint. I then piled the mashed bean mixture onto some slices of bread and warmed them through in the oven. So far so good. After they'd cooked, I managed to lose half of DH's topping on the top of the oven, darn. They tasted OK, but were a bit fiddly to eat. I served the bruschetta with some pan fried haloumi and onions and salad. Have to say, I'm not that keen on broad beans and feel quite sick now, but that could be from the rapidly quaffed kir I had alongside my dinner and the 2 teaspoonfuls of marmite I ate afterwards!

Have celery, chinese leaf and corriander to use up tomorrow so I think DH will be back into eastern fusion food tomorrow, much to his delight ;-)

A(nother) new blog...

Well given that most of my tweets/FB updates consist of food related items, I thought I would take the plunge and start a food blog. It may work, it may not! But if nothing else it will help me to track what I have been cooking and how it turned out. Plus I enjoyed keeping the blog about Canada and I have been investigating blogging at work recently too.

So here goes...

Tortilla Soup

Here is the recipe for the yummy tortilla soup I created last night. It was based on a delicious bowl of soup we had at Toronto airport in August and I was pretty pleased with the end result I concocted last night!

Ingredients
For the soup
1 tin toms
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 can drained and rinsed black (turtle) beans
1 can drained and rinsed kidney beans
1 can drained and rinsed sweetcorn
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cocoa
1 tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
salt and pepper

For the garnish and salsa
1 ripe avocado, diced
large handful corriander roughly chopped
1 red onion, diced small
small pot soured cream
Plain/salted tortilla chips

Method
To make the soup blend the onion, garlic and tomatoes in a blender. Add to a large pan with the vegetable oil and heat for a few mins. Add the oregano, chilli, cocoa, salt and pepper, stock and beans/sweetcorn. Cook for about 5 mins or so until heated through.

For the salsa, combine the avocado, onion and corriander.

To serve ladle soup into shallow bowls and finish with a dollop of soured cream in the middle. Top with a large spoonful of the salsa and serve with tortilla chips on the side.