Creamy Broccoli Soup

January has been an eventful month. My aunt visited us. Since it was her first time in Singapore, some major sight seeing happened. And we all got to eat some awesome sambhar, avial and some great southie goodies. She left for Bombay last week and now its back to regular routine and catching up with things at school, painting and blogging.

Though getting my kids to eat a majority of the vegetables has never been a problem, I always try and find new ways to get good stuff in. And sometimes certain circumstances also force you to try new recipes :) The circumstance here being that my hubby has had his wisdom tooth extracted. As he is on semi solid diet, I thought a soup would be a great idea.

Broccoli is one vegetable that we all love and usually we do roasted or boiled broccoli. But this time thought I could do the classic cheese sprinkled broccoli soup.

Here is a quick way to get it done.

You need:

• 2 heads broccoli cut into flowerets
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 medium carrot diced
• 2 sticks celery diced
• 1 pod garlic coarsely chopped
• 1 cup full fat milk
• 300 ml water
• 2 tbsps. olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
   

Steps:

• Take the olive oil in a thick bottom pot and add the garlic and onion. 
• Saute for a few minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and water. Allow it to come to a boil.
• Season with salt and pepper as per taste.
• Cook for 5-10 minutes until the broccoli is tender.
• Allow it to cool slightly for about 15-20 minutes.
• Add the milk and using a hand mixer or a blender, puree the contents.
• Check seasoning and reheat if required. 
• Serve warm or at room temperature with a generous sprinkling of cheese.

 

 

 

 

Notes:

• You can use low fat milk as an alternative.
• It is a thick soup. If you would like it thinner, add more water or milk as per your taste.
• You can use vegetable broth instead of the water.

 

Carrot Walnut Cake

I ate this cake for the first time at my friend, Sanjivni’s home. Sanjivni actually writes an excellent blog called “Experiments in the Kitchen” and I am a big fan of her desserts. Sanjivni’s carrot cake came with a yummy cream cheese frosting. What I loved best about the cake was that it had loads of carrots in it without you actually knowing it was there. What a great way to fool my kids and get them to eat the good !!!! That was the first thought that came to me :)

My kids are very kind to me. They like plain cakes and reject any cake that has any kind of frosting on it. Makes life very simple for me.

I have made this cake numerous times and it truly sells like hot cakes ;)

You need:

• 1 cup walnuts - roasted and coarsely chopped
• 2.5 cups firmly packed finely grated carrots
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 tsps pure vanilla extract

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180degrees C. Butter a large cake pan 10" x 2.5" size. You can also line the bottom with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder.
• Beat the eggs until frothy, for about a minute, in a stant mixer or with a hand mixer. Add the sugar in slowly and beat for about 3-4 minutes till it is thick and light colored.

• In a steady stream add the oil and then the vanilla extract.
• Add the flour mixture and beat till just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Fold in the grated carrots and chopped nuts with the help of a rubber spatula.

• Pour the batter into the prepared bowl and bake for about 40 mins in the middle rack of the oven. Check with skewer inserted in the centre to know if the cake is done.

• Remove from the oven and allow to cool. After about 10-15 minutes, invert the cake onto a wire rack and allow to cool.

Notes:

• You can toast the walnuts for about 8 minutes in the oven until slightly brown and fragrant. Allow it to cool well and then chop coarsely.
• I used a bundt pan (9" x 3.5") to bake the cake. I got approximately 25 slices.
• For details on how to frost this cake, please refer to the original recipe here on the joyofbaking.com website.
• I have also halved the recipe and baked the cake for about 25 minutes and it was equally perfect.
• If you like your cake a little sweeter, you can add an additional 1/4 cup of sugar, as mentioned in the original recipe. We do not like our cakes very sweet, I have therefore reduced the amount of sugar in my recipe.