So I used to be a little more cautious in the kitchen. I would usually follow a recipe exactly, and seldom would I veer off it, especially if I knew I liked it to start with. It's hard to experiment, especially when you are worried you might mess up a good thing!
I have a yearly guest -- my friend Christine who visits each summer from Egypt, and she's fabulous company. One thing I adore about her is that she likes to lick her plate clean... both literally and figuratively. She *hates* wasting food, and I caught her many times these past few weeks pondering over the CSA basket wondering what she could concoct out of it.
We had pesto, stir fries, soups and salads. We had marinaras and primaveras. Zucchini loaves and raw carrots. Mmmm. Raw carrots. We meant to make carrot cake but the carrots got eaten too fast. :)
We found ourselves with leftover wine some days, and it adds an amazing flavour to sauces! Who knew???
I have taken a page from her book, and I've started to add leafy greens to a lot of stuff... whether or not the recipe even calls for it. Smoothies, even! I just made a big pot of my Harira soup (quite possibly my favourite soup ever) and just veered off recipe to add handfuls of greens to use them up and add iron to the dish. I've done it once before and it tastes just as good (if not better!) as if you don't add them at all. I love it!
I am also adding other things I find in my kitchen. I just added pearl barley to this batch. Extra lentils. Garlic this time. All the parsley in the basket!
I just made a double sized batch to freeze, as I'll be having surgery in a few weeks and I want a freezer full of pre-made meals. Soup is exactly what the doctor ordered!
In case you missed the recipe for Harira last year, here it is again. And feel free to add whatever else you like to this. It's hard to ruin. :)
Modified Harira Soup
I have a yearly guest -- my friend Christine who visits each summer from Egypt, and she's fabulous company. One thing I adore about her is that she likes to lick her plate clean... both literally and figuratively. She *hates* wasting food, and I caught her many times these past few weeks pondering over the CSA basket wondering what she could concoct out of it.
We had pesto, stir fries, soups and salads. We had marinaras and primaveras. Zucchini loaves and raw carrots. Mmmm. Raw carrots. We meant to make carrot cake but the carrots got eaten too fast. :)
We found ourselves with leftover wine some days, and it adds an amazing flavour to sauces! Who knew???
I have taken a page from her book, and I've started to add leafy greens to a lot of stuff... whether or not the recipe even calls for it. Smoothies, even! I just made a big pot of my Harira soup (quite possibly my favourite soup ever) and just veered off recipe to add handfuls of greens to use them up and add iron to the dish. I've done it once before and it tastes just as good (if not better!) as if you don't add them at all. I love it!
I am also adding other things I find in my kitchen. I just added pearl barley to this batch. Extra lentils. Garlic this time. All the parsley in the basket!
I just made a double sized batch to freeze, as I'll be having surgery in a few weeks and I want a freezer full of pre-made meals. Soup is exactly what the doctor ordered!
In case you missed the recipe for Harira last year, here it is again. And feel free to add whatever else you like to this. It's hard to ruin. :)
Modified Harira Soup
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