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Monday, October 11, 2010

Veggie soup with homemade gnocchi - Meat free monday recipe


My mom has recently decided that meat free mondays is not a bad idea. So I was happy to discover when we went shopping that what she had in mind was a heart vegetable soup which we packed full with everything from peas, to spinach, baby corn and more (no potatoes).

Something didn't sit right with me and I was sure it was missing something but I just couldn't place my finger on it. Then, while browsing through Meeta's "What's for Lunch Honey" archives I came across this recipe. I immidiately called my mom and asked her to buy some gnocchi to add in. She agreed but first had to rush home so the domestic worker could go home and then she would go shopping. I got home shortly after her and while discussing things I decided that it would be quicker and tastier to make our own gnocchi.

This was the perfect opportunity to go to my list of "recipes I have to try" and one of them was JamieWhoSA's gnocchi recipe. I didn't have sweet potatoes but loads of lovely woolworths organic potatoes.

The soup was my mom's creation but its a basic vegetable soup, flavoured with louvage and parsley, below though is my slight variation on JamieWho's recipe. I was so lucky to have some really awesome ingredients on hand.



What you need:
6 small organic potatoes
1 jumbo free range egg
2 cups stone ground white bread flour
pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste (the stone ground flour has no salt in it)

What to do:
Peel the potatoes and boil in some salted water until soft. Mash well. In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients until you get a warm soft dough.Cover with a tea towel and leave for 5 minutes. Roll the dough out into a sausage shape (I did it in batches), then with a sharp knif cut pices from the sausage. I then rolled them into blobs (very technical I know) and pressed them gently with a fork. In the meantime boil up some salted water and put the gnocchi in. When they are ready they float to the top.

To add a little edge to mine I grated parmesan on them as they came out of the water instead of adding it directly to the soup.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Ready Steady Cook, The winners!



On Friday I tallied the votes and found my winner, I told the twittervese so. What I didn't tell anyone else was who my winners were....muahaha

This has been a great experience and I couldn't have done it without the enthusiasm and participation of the bloggers involved. For those who didn't win please know that you did a great job and it was a tough job for the judges :)

Let me just state that I kept myself out of this one completely, I had no say in the final decision, even when there was a tie to break I quickly recruited a few extra judges :)

So without further time wasting here they are:
In a resounding first place is Lisa from Captured and Nibbled 
Coming in second was Marisa from The Creative Pot
Third place goes to Tara from C'est la Vie
and the fourth place goes to Jessica from Tiny oven Adventures

The winner of the best photographed dish is Lisa from Captured and Nibbled 

Thank you soooo much for all those who participated I had fun hosting :) If anyone would like to host the next one please let me know :)