April 2017 – The GF Vegetarian

At the beginning of this year, I decided that in 2017 I would take a break from social media. So I deleted my Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter… Well, that’s all I had. I thought I wouldn’t last a week. Missing all my friend’s food, animal and passionate posts about what everyone else is doing wrong and they’re getting right. But, as it turns out, I haven’t really missed it at all. It’s forced me to engage with people in real-time and by real-time, I mean face to face. I do feel a little out of the loop though, the ole “details are on facebook” no longer applies to me and I actually have to go out of my way to find out things others can just check on their feeds. Determined not to give though.

Although I left in an attempt to be more productive with my time, I’ve actually found that really I just find new things to distract myself with. Mostly, however, it feels like a good move, I feel private.

I Know the weather is still warm but it’s good to get a few hearty soup recipes under the belt for winter. This is my little twist on the popular potato and leek soup. My secret twist is… I added beets, ssshhhh.

Soup Ingredients

4 medium brushed potatoes
2 large beets
1 medium leek (sliced)
2 heaped teaspoons of veg stock powder
1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
2 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of soy or almond milk
A handful of chopped chives
1 fresh squeezed lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of Nuttelex

Let’s Cook!

Potato and Beet Prep

Turn on oven to 250° (fan forced).
Wash the potatoes and beets, wrap in aluminium foil and place in the oven for around 1 1/2 hours or until the potatoes feel soft.
Once ready, remove the skin off the potatoes and beets (it shuld come away easily once they are cooked) and put aside.

Soup

Melt two tablespoons of Nuttelex in a fry-pan on a medium heat, once the Nuttelex has melted add sliced leeks and saute the leeks until they are soft.
Next add the garlic and saute that with the leeks for about 5mins.
Next add the veg stock and 1 cup of water, allow the leeks, garlic and stock to simmer for around 10mins.
Next place the cooked beets and potatoes in a large saucepan with the 1 1/2 cups of milk and mash the them together till the potatoes are well mashed and combined with the milk (the beets will stay a little chunky)
Throw in the chives and leek mixture along with an extra cup of water, juice for a whole squeezed lemon and salt and pepper (to taste).
Whisk the soup for a minute with a hand held beater or processor but not too long so it still has some chunky beats.