I want to thank all the bloggers who took part in this challenge. At the beginning, I was not going to take part. But, Paula was going to have her ingredient list ‘orphaned’ so I decided to participate. I love making food with a random set of ingredients and so this challenge is a pleasure for me. I made Turnip And Spinach Soup for this. Paula challenged me to use the following 7 ingredients:
- fresh spinach
- fish – fresh or frozen, freshwater or saltwater
- berries – fresh or frozen
- cheese – Gruyere or Emmental
- Portobello mushrooms
- quinoa
- turnips, parsnips or rutabaga – or any combination of the three
Together with the 7 ingredients, I had devised quite an extensive pantry list of ingredients the participants could use – based on the original challenge I did, and I asked each blogger to add an ingredient. These were as follows:
- Milk/Cream
- Eggs
- Flour (or a flour substitute)
- Lemons
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Chillies
- Fresh Herbs
- Dried Herbs
- Dried Spices
- Sugar (or a sugar substitute)
- Butter/margarine
- Salt
- Pepper
- Oil – any of your choice
- Vinegar
- Pasta / Noodles / Rice
- Tinned Tomatoes
- Tinned Chickpeas
- Chocolate / Cacao
- Stock
For starters I decided to do a turnip and spinach soup. This was easy, and perfect for the night I decided to make my ready steady cook meal, as the heatwave had broken and it was raining.
Turnip And Spinach Soup
Ingredients
- 10 mls olive oil
- 1 large turnip, cut into a large dice
- 250 mls stock
- 250 mls water
- 0.625 mls ground nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 80 g baby spinach
Method
- heat the oil over a medium heat in a soup pot
- add the turnips and stir well, until they are starting to cook
- add the stock, the water, the nutmeg and the seasoning
- bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes
- blend until smooth
- add the spinach and bring back to the boil
- blend again, adjust the seasoning and serve
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
To see what all the lovely challengers did, click the linky below
I haven’t eaten quinoa either, is it similar to cous cous? nice idea to coat the fish with it.
Did you get the pectin?
It is not that similar – maybe between barley and cous cous – Dave loves it but I could give it a miss! I didn’t get the pectin – I can get 70g directly from Earth Products for R37 as opposed to the chemist charging R76 for 100g
if you’d like to cut me a slice of the chocolate and berry swiss roll, I’ll be waiting in Newlands for it…just by the rugby stadium 🙂
*sends lock and go container over* 🙂
Wow Tandy, what an impressive menu! You are most inventive!
🙂 Mandy
thanks Mandy 🙂
Nice Job Tandy your so creative! I especially love your Mushrooms with Spinach and Gruyere. I am in the mood for some savory fare today.
I will definitely do the mushrooms again 🙂
Waw! That were fab idea & great invented recipes! Your recipes & ideas rock, Tandy!
I especially love the quinoa coated hake goujons! That’s my style of eating! Yum!
thank you so much Sophie 🙂
What a great meal – I´d enjoy every single element of it!
and I would love having you here to enjoy it 🙂
Wow! A fabulous banquet indeed, Tandy. Those spinach mushrooms made my mouth water. 😉
Thanks AD, they are worthy of a second go 🙂
I’ve also never eaten or cooked quinoa, and now my curiosity is peaked! Particularly with the fish. Wonderful recipes that you concoted. well done !
thanks Claire! I am going to do more with the quinoa as I have a packet of it to use 🙂
Very good, I still haven’t gotten around to do this challenge.
hope you have some time to do so 🙂
Thank you for hosting it this time around 🙂
It was a pleasure 🙂
I love the spinach one! 🙂 Yum!
Thanks Jen, me too 🙂
What a round up. I still need to make those mushrooms.
I need to make them again as well 🙂
Mushrooms loiok divine!
thanks Cams xxx
Look at all those wonderful dishes. I especially like the quinoa and fish, that gives me lots of ideas… thanks Tandy 🙂
I hope to read some lovely quinoa recipes on your blog for some ideas 🙂
These recipes are like vegetarian heaven. The swiss roll is making me droll over my keyboard.
thank you so much! I never even thought of the vegetarian aspect to these dishes 🙂
I was a goner when I read fresh spinach. I just LOVE fresh spinach and knew you were going to do something incredible with it.. and of course you did :). Love the soup. And that chocolate roll.. yummy and divine. LOVE IT
thanks so much Kay – I really had a great set of ingredients to work with 🙂
Ooh! I was hoping you would use portabellos and then stuff them! Perfect – and stuffed mushrooms is one of my favorite starters or “pick-up” recipe for a buffet. The spinach and turnip soup really intrigued me! That’s something i never would have thought of in a million years, and gives me all sorts of good ideas! On thinking about it, it actually might make a very good cold soup for summer as well, maybe substituting a bit of sour cream for the stock!
You did a grand job with a rather odd assortment of ingredients! Such a good job! Thanks for offering me the opportunity, and putting up with my lack of photos. I also did not realize that I could add a pantry ingredient, which makes me feel better about the Jell-O in the watermelon ice! However, i notice that I did add some wine to the risotto – so sorry! Actually it is almost impossible for me to cook without it! I guess that makes me a wino of sorts. I don’t drink it as much as I cook with it. That makes me a winook or a cowino? Oh well – I’ll try to do better next time – if there is a next time. . .
I tried the soup cold and I really enjoyed it! Thanks for taking part – that is what counts the most 🙂