One of my fond memories of serving was the time I asked my customer if he wanted “soup or salad” with his main dish. He replied “sure, I’ll try the super salad”. I suddenly realized I needed to reword that question and lead with the salad, as to avoid any further confusion! But while we’re on the topic of soup and salad, let me tell you that these are two of my favourite things to eat of all time every day. Both can be made up with so many versatile and seasonal ingredients that the options really are endless. I’m more partial to a puréed soup but will throw the occasional broth-based soup into the mix! Just this week I’ve made a Sweet Potato and Curry soup and a White Bean and Chicken Soup (Recipe here) because it’s been a cold start to Spring.
Sweet Potato Curry Soup (recipe below) with Supergreens salad mix
White Bean, Chicken and Kale Soup
Salads are something I make with 90% of our meals and I always throw together my own salad dressing. I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I used a store-bought dressing. Homemade is just so much tastier, and you save on all those nasty preservatives too. For a quick salad, all you need is a few herbs of your choice, salt and pepper, oil and vinegar. My go-to quick dressing looks something like this:
All I do for this simple Greek salad is sprinkle salad with basil, oregano, garlic and onion powder. Then I drizzle olive oil and cider vinegar and toss. So simple.
Check out the recipe for the Soup here:
Sweet Potato Curry
Serves 4-6
*this recipe started out as baby food, and it was so delicious and creamy with just the potatoes and curry when feeding it to Parker that I added some other ingredients and soupified it!*
2 large sweet potatoes
4 cups vegetable broth (5 cups of you like a thinner soup)
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 white onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Plain Greek yogurt (optional)
Toasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Poke holes with a fork in sweet potatoes, lay on foil covered baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat up 1 tbsp oil in large pot over med-high heat. Add onions, ginger and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes until onions are soft and translucent.
4. Cut sweet potatoes in half and scoop out insides, and add to pot.
5. Add curry, salt and pepper, and broth.
6. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 5 minutes.
7. Use an immersion blender to purée soup, or add all into an upright blender and purée.
8. Serve and top with Greek yogurt and toasted pumpkin seeds
