Creamy Vegetable Soup Recipe

A Creamy Vegetable Soup is perfect for a cold days. We got everything fresh laying from our fridge to the soup but it doesn’t mean it was somehow bad – on the contrary. This is a very financial soup to make considering that there are always fresh vegetables in the fridge.

Creamy Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
5-6 carrots
1 parsnip
5 potatoes
the white part of one leek
1 onion
100 g cauliflower
1,5 liter water
6 tsp vegetable bouillon powder
1 tsp salt
0,5 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dried basil
hint of white pepper
2 dl soy cream or oat cream (or some other vegetable based cream)

Directions
1. Peel the vegetables. Slice the carrots, parsnip and onion, piece the potatoes. Sauté the onions if you like, but don’t brown.
2. Add water and vegetable bouillon powder.
3. Boil for half an hour, until all the vegetables are cooked. Take 5 dl of water out of the pot and purée all the vegetables. Add spices and lastly add oat cream.
4. Boil the soup quickly and serve. Garnish the soup with fresh parsley, if you like.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Feta-Zucchini Lasagna

Last Saturday we made vegetarian Feta-Zucchini Lasagna for the first time ever and it was so good! Here’s the recipe:

Feta-Zucchini Lasagna

Ingredients:
Lasagna sheets
1 package (about 175 grams) of feta or salad cheese
About 1 cup grated cheese
2 medium or one big (about 500 grams) zucchinis
a ball (125 g) of mozzarella

Tomato Sauce:
1 1/2 onions or 1 big onion
2 medium carrots
2 tablespoons oil
1 can (370 grams) herb-flavoured crushed tomatoes
1 dl (about half a cup) water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1,5 teaspoon herbes de provence

Béchamel or White Sauce:
50 grams margarine or butter
about 1 dl (less than a half a cup) plain flour
8-10 dl (4 cups) milk
pinch of salt
pinch of white pepper
pinch of nutmeg

Directions:
1. Take a rectangle shape casserole or lasagna dish. Preheat oven to about 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Peel and chop the onions. Peel and grate the carrots. Cut the zucchini in half and chop it in a half centimetre pieces.
3. In a pan, heat the oil and sauté the zucchinis lightly.
4. Make the tomato sauce. In a pan, heat the oil and sauté the onions and the grated carrots. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and water in a pan. Add salt, ground black pepper and spices. Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until the white sauce is ready.
5. Make the white sauce. Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour. Add half of the milk stirring constantly. When the sauce is starting to thicken, add the rest of the milk stirring the sauce. Let the sauce come to a boil and then turn the heat lower. Add salt, white pepper and nutmeg.
6. Crumble the feta cheese cubes with a fork into a crumble.
7. Spread white sauce and then tomato sauce on the bottom of the lasagna dish and then a line of lasagna sheets. Then first assemble a layer of zucchinis, then crumbled feta, then tomato sauce and then white sauce. Continue this with the next few layers. On the last layer tear mozzarella on top of everything and put on the last layer of lasagna sheets and cover it with white sauce.
8. Put the lasagna in the oven for 30 minutes. Then cover it with grated cheese and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the surface is golden brown.
9. Let the lasagna to withdraw for a while before serving. Enjoy!

Enjoying the Summer

This summer has been the best so far that I've lived in our new home. I have enjoyed it on the fullest and care free.

On Sunday we went to the city and got ourselves hot sandwiches. My mom ordered chicken-goat cheese sandwich and I ordered Tofu-Tapenade (Tofu-Olive-Tomato) sandwich. We ordered a salad with them. We got home with the sandwiches and went to the balcony to eat them.

 We drank cool white wine with the sandwiches.

The cats were also coming to see what’s going on. 

Later on that day we made sangria and put fresh orange and lemon in it.

Sangria
(makes 1,75 liters)

5 dl (2 cups) red wine
5 dl (2 cups) lemon soda
half an orange
half a lemon
0,75 dl (1/3 cup) vodka

1. Mix the red wine and the lemon soda together.
2. Mix in the vodka.
3. Slice the orange and the lemon (peel them if you like) and mix into the sangria.
4. Stir well and let it cool in the fridge for at least one hour so the fruits can let their taste to the drink.

On Monday I made mushroom pasta for dinner.

And on the next day I made Fresh Tomato And Mozzarella Salad with fresh basil.

During this summer so far I have made great foods and drank great drinks and had fun. I hope that the rest of the summer will be as good as the beginning. I don’t want the summer to be over but the nights are getting shorter and darker and I just want the sunny days last forever...

Turning into a Vegetarian & Spicy Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

I have started to eat cheese after being without it for three years. I don’t know why but I just suddenly did. At times I feel bad about it and I feel like I should stop it again but I haven’t yet... So my veganism is on hold right now. I’m lacto-vegetarian right now. I don’t drink milk or eat yoghurt but I do eat cheese right now. It’s the only thing which I craved while being a vegan so that was my downfall. I did eat soy cheese but that didn’t feel like enough at times. I do think about the animals and the mass production of milk products and maybe this is just a phase.

Today we made tomato-mozzarella salad with fresh basil for a starter. I had never eaten it before. And I have to say that mozzarella tasted pretty good after many years.

Then I made Spicy Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti.

Spicy Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

Ingredients:
1/2 onion
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 red bell pepper
2 medium sized mushrooms
1 can (500 g) crushed tomatoes
10 tiny tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika powder
1,5 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder or salt
5 leaves of fresh basil

Directions:
1. Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Cook the onion in the oil until translucent.
2. Add chopped mushrooms and cook until the liquid coming from the mushrooms is evaporated. Add chopped red bell pepper and stir for a while.
3. Add the canned crushed tomatoes. Slice tiny tomatoes in half and add to the sauce.
4. Add spices and let the sauce simmer in low heat for 5-10 minutes. Lastly add minced basil leaves and stir for a few minutes.
5. Cook the spaghetti and drain. Serve the sauce over the spaghetti or mix it all together. If you like, you can top the dish with cheese. If you leave the cheese out the dish is vegan.