Vegetables – Page 38 – Myfrenchkitchen

A quick, simple and healthy Monday night dinner. Followed by fresh kiwi’s for dessert. This soup, like all other soups, can be either served blended smoothly with added cream/milk for a creamy version, or served chunky and rustic, topped with croûtons.

Broccoli, leek and tomato soup

5 leeks
1 shallot
coconut oil
4 tomatoes
a big head of fresh broccoli
1 cube organic vegetable stock
500 ml hot water
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
freshly squeezed lemon juice
extra milk/cream

Peel and finely chop the shallot. Sauté in a pan with some coconut oil/olive oil.
Peel and clean the leeks, add to the shallots.
Rinse the broccoli, add to the pan along with the leeks and shallot.
Cut a cross in the skin on the top of the tomatoes, leave in boiling hot water for a minute, remove and peel off the skin. (I leave the skin on) Chop and add to the vegetables.
Dissolve the stock cube in the hot water, pour over the vegetables and let simmer gently until tender.
At this stage, you can either leave the soup chunky and just taste and rectify seasoning, add some lemon juice and grated nutmeg.
For a creamy soup, blend the vegetables with a blender until smooth, add some lemon juice, salt and pepper and grated nutmeg to taste and pour in some milk/cream to your liking. I use 2% milk for a lighter version.
Serve with a crusty bread and a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg.

Serves about four people

One filling, one pie three ways.

Using different little pots/containers, you can create an interesting array of pies. I used different sizes and shapes of ramekins and little flower pots and ended with some individual little potpies. Because we’re in the festiv season, I used foie gras along with the turkey for the filling as well as cubes of boudin blanc (milk/white sausage) and black truffles from Perigord. For the small mini pies, I omitted the foie gras, since it gets too oily once the foie gras is heated, making the small pies too soggy. It can be replaced with chicken livers and a cubed smoked cheese sausage for some stronger flavour.

Turkey and foie gras pie.

about 400g turkey filets
80 g bacon
200 g store bought puff pastry
1 large onion, quatered and sliced
150 g mushrooms
1 white sausage (optional)
100 g uncooked foie gras (optional)
1 truffle
1 organic chicken stock cube
1 egg yolk
parsley, salt and pepper
sherry vinegar

Cover the bases of the pie containers with the puff pastry. Cut some circles to cover and some fun shapes to decorate. Place on an oven tin and set aside in the fridge.
Sauté the sliced onion in some olive oil until tranclucent , remove to a plate and keep aside.
Cut the turkey filets into bite size pieces.
Brown the turkey meat and the bacon in the onion pan, remove to a plate and keep aside.
Sauté the mushrooms in the same pan over high heat, until just wilted. Mix with the meat and onions, season and keep aside.
Deglaze the pan with about 150ml of chicken stock, with a liberal drizzle of sherry vinegar. Remove from the stove and add the truffle juice.
Remove the skin of the white sausage and cut into cubes.
Cut the foie gras into cubes.
Finely chop the truffle.
Fill the pies with the turkey mixture, top off with some sausages and foie gras, sprinkle with truffle and chopped parsley and a light drizzling of deglazed sauce. Brush a little egg yolks over the seams, cover with a pastry circle and lightly “pinch” the edges together.
Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, essential for the pastry to puff up during cooking.
Just before baking, brush the pies with egg yolk and bake the cold pies in a hot oven at 230 deg. C for 20 to 25 minutes.