Whole30, day 14: Lunch in the sunshine!

Today, I believe, was the first day of spring. We're not quite there yet, but after months of frost, rain, storms and dull grey weather, today was bright and sunny. And I loved it! I wanted to take in as much sun as I could and had my morning coffee outside in the garden. It was a little chilly, I have to admit, and in the shade it was just cold, but I just had to sit outside and enjoy the sunlight. It warmed up a little, and at one o'clock it was warm enough to enjoy lunch outside in a t-shirt. So I did...

If you've read more of my posts, you know that I love all things curried. Today I decided on a very easy curry soup, with some leftover ingredients.

Whole30, day 6: Bone marrow, beef & vegetable soup

I woke up today at 06:30, refreshed, awake and feeling just fine. I slept like a baby for 8 hours straight. Last night I was really tired, so I had planned on sleeping in today, but I guess my body had other plans. Could this be the diet, or is it just coincidence?

For breakfast I had a big mug of peppermint tea, tomato and avocado salad and two scrambled eggs. After that I took a quick shower and went to the market. I bought a bunch of fresh vegetables, smoked mackerel and a few pounds of haddock that was on sale. After that I went to a plain old supermarket to buy meat (that's hardly ever sold on Dutch markets). I whipped up a salad for lunch with daikon, a bit of fennel, kohlrabi, a bit of paleo mayonnaise and smoked mackerel.

Creamy Fennel Soup

The best thing about vegetable soups is, that they're such an easy way of getting loads of vegetables in, without having to feel like a ruminant. I love making these soups for an easy and quick lunch, or as a starter to a lovely steak and salad.

Roasted tomato soup with beef shank

I used to do a vegan version of a roasted tomato soup. But since I'm eating meat again, I updated my old recipe. And for the better, I have to say! This soup is amazing. The base is a bone stock, made from beef shank. Then flavored with roasted tomatoes and herbs and finished with super tender shank meat and a good dollop of heavy cream. Roasting the tomatoes gives them loads of extra flavor.

If you make this soup using the home made shank stock, it takes quite some time to make, but it's really cheap (because shank, at least in my country, costs next to nothing compared to other stewing cuts), easy and very, very (did I say very yet?) tasty! Of course, you can take a short cut with a beef stock cube, and some sausage. But try roasting tomatoes for soup, that's really worth the effort!

Soto ajam

"Soto ajam" means chicken soup in Indonesian. This is going to be a lengthy recipe, but if you're short on time, there is room for a few short cuts. Like using stock cubes, and chicken breast meat. But, as with almost everything else, it's way better if you make it from scratch. This is my favorite way of making chicken soup. Typical Asian ingredients, like lime leaves, lemongrass and ginger, make this soup incredibly flavorful. The stock is rich and fatty and...oh, please, try this recipe. It is SO worth it!

Jerusalem artichoke soup

For a while now I've been intrigued by Jerusalem artichokes. I have seen them lying around, but never got around to buying them. Last week I decided that I no longer would want to be intimidated by these little roots, and decided to buy 2 pounds. And then, of course, I started wondering...how can I cook them to perfection.

So I went on the internet and started snooping around for recipes. I learned that Jerusalem artichokes' (according to Wikipedia, also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambur) best friends are thyme and smoke. I decided to transfer my artichokes into a creamy soup. So this recipe is the result of my first experiment with these tubers. It has a soft flavor, which is hard to describe. I loved it, the boyfriend was not so much in love (but he doesn't like tofu either, so who are you going to believe?). So if you can get a hold of these tubers, you might want to give this soup a chance.