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Lemon and white bean soup with pasta and spinach

Its cold, its rainy and my mum has gone. She came to visit for the last few days as she is on half term and it was so good to see her. May was so thrilled to wake up (at the crack of dawn) on Saturday and discover that her ‘bestie’ was in the spare room. She spent all day playing with my mum, showing off all her tricks and toys. There was a lot of cuddling and chatting and coffee drinking. We hung out at home, had a little Christmas shopping trip into town and ate cheesecake at Mio.

We took mum to the playpark and let her fret as May threw herself headfirst down the slide (its her new trick). I loved having her here. We drank sneaky glasses of champagne in the evening and watched ‘The extra Slice’ that she had downloaded for me. We did jigsaws and I asked her a million baby questions. Most of all it felt good to hear her say ‘don’t worry, your doing a great job’ whenever I panicked about something. We miss her already!

If today needed something it was a little bowl of hygge. Hygge is such a buzz word right now but to me it is just a Nordic feeling that can’t really be translated and is something that you live. I grew up with ‘hygge’. Hygge is a way of making things cosy, its also a greeting, a feeling and a polite way of saying it was nice to see someone. It is so many things. Its the candles that you light, or the cake that you bake. It is a thick jumper on a cold day, or that feeling when you sit cupping a mug of hot chocolate. It is being with friends and not being able to stop smiling. It is the familiarity of a certain chair or a perfect spot to sit and read. For me, today, it was this soup.

I needed something warm in my stomach, something that was simple and quick to make but that felt cosy and homely. This soup did the trick. It is so easy to make and the ginger gives just enough heat to keep you extra warm in this crazy cold autumn weather. I used spinach but you could also use kale or Swiss Chard, butterbean or chickpeas could sub in for the white beans too.

Ingredients
1/2 white onion finely chopped
Juice 1 lemon
Zest half a lemon
1 tin white beans drained
3 handfuls spinach
2ltr vegetable stock
80g dry pasta
Small piece (half thumb) of fresh ginger peeled and minced

Method
Place the onion into a large pan with the ginger and lemon zest and soften in oil until translucent
Add in the vegetable stock
Simmer for 10minutes
Add in the pasta and cook until al dente
Remove from the heat and add in the beans, spinach and lemon juice
Season with pepper and serve
Top with parmesan if you fancy

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Butternut squash soup with cumin, ginger and crispy butternut

When I was making this soup I was thinking about the food I eat. I grew up eating the simplest of foods. I was reminiscing about how simple the food was when we were little. We ate rye bread with a slice of goats cheese and pepper every day for lunch. No packed lunch boxes, our open bread sandwiches were wrapped in brown paper and sealed with an elastic band. We got an tangerine or an apple as our pudding. There were no special drinks just the water fountain at school. Treats were baked at home or a simple raisin bread bun from the bakery. We had weekly meal planners on our fridges and dinner was cooked at home. Breakfast was porridge or homemade muesli with plain yogurt and berries. Bread was thick and dark and wholesome.

Eating whole, fresh, natural food isn’t a fad to me. It was the way I was raised and is the way that I understand. It is the way I know how to nourish myself and those around me. It isn’t anything revolutionary or exciting. It is just stripping away, holding back and making the most delicious combinations. It is eating food in its natural, unrefined state, not because someone tells me to, but rather because its best that way. Its food as energy, love, togetherness and nourishment. Its the opposite of a diet, its eating more of the good.

This soup is simple. It is based on one vegetable that is in abundance at this time of year. Butternut squash packed with nutrients known as carotenoids which are often shown to help protect against heart disease. Butternut boasts very high levels of beta-carotene which your body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for healthy eyes and a strong immune system. This soup uses ginger to give the soup a little bit of heat and also to help keep us winter fit. I love this butternut soup served with crispbreads or chunky slices of sourdough. If you are extra hungry then simply add in some cooked butterbeans or chickpeas for an added boost. The crispy butternut peel takes the place of croutons..extra delicious, extra nutritious. To make the butternut ‘croutons’ all you have to do is simply rub the peel with a little coconut oil and then roast in the oven for 10 minutes at 180C.

Ingredients
1 medium butternut squash – peeled and diced
1 onion
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp grated ginger
1ltr vegetable stock

Method
Place the oil into a large pan with the cumin seeds
Over a medium heat stir the cumin seeds until they begin to pop
Add in the diced onion
Stir for a few minutes until the onions just begin to soften
Add in the butternut squash and stir for a minute or two
Add the stock and stir well
Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes before adding in the ginger and simmering for a further 5 minutes
Place into a blender and blend until silky smooth

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