Chickpea dumpling soup

Kale season. I do love my kale and don't even need an excuse to buy it anymore. If it's stocked in the produce aisle, one or two bunches go straight into my kart.

This is a modification of a recipe that I make quite regularly, since I was gifted Homestyle Vegetarian (published by Murdoch Books) for Valentine's Day back in 2009. It's definitely homestyle but has a little bit of kick with some cumin, coriander and chili. This rather simple tomato soup is transformed into a hearty fall meal when chick peas, chick pea dumplings and kale are added.

Another great thing about this recipe, is that you can make it out of basically what you already have in the pantry. I always have flour, onion, garlic, canned tomatoes and various canned and dry beans in my pantry. The addition of anything fresh and a little grated Parmesan go a long way into making this soup presentable for guests as well.

Ingredients: 
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, diced
cumin, coriander and chili to taste
vegetable bullion
3 cups cooked chick peas
2 cans tomatoes
1 cup of flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
30g cold butter
4 tbs grated parmesan
3 tbs mixed herbs province
3 tbs milk
Optional: Bunch of kale, chopped

Soften the onion, garlic and spices in the olive oil in a saucepan. This should take only a few minutes. You can add the kale and wilt it at this point. Add the chick peas, tomatoes, veggie bullion and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.

While the broth is heating, make the dumplings. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and mix together in the dry ingredients with your hands until there is a coarse crumble. Mix the herbs and the Parmesan. Finally, mix in the milk lightly enough to combine the dumpling dough. With your hands, shape the dumplings into small balls, keeping in mind that they will double in size once boiled.

Add the dumplings to the soup to boil for about 5 minutes until puffed. Serve immediately.

Tip: Only add the dumplings you want to eat in that serving and spare the other uncooked dumplings for later. Re-cooked dumplings can turn to mush if boiled multiple times.

Autumn Abundance Fiesta Pasta

Lately some really colorful seasonal vegetables have been abundantly harvested and affordable in larger quantities. I have been on a bell pepper kick right now, along with zucchini and tomatoes. With a little leftover pasta, I pan fried some red onion, yellow bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, whole, sliced carrots (leftover from the julienne vegetables of sushi making) chick peas and capers. I tossed all this together with a little olive oil, oregano, and red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and this really hit the spot. Fresh, a lot of nutrients from different vegetables, and filling. In this one-serving dish, I used a little leftover pasta from the night before, and it was just enough to fool me into thinking I was having a big meal, when most of what I was eating was vegetables. It didn't weigh me down at all and I felt great afterwards ;)

Easy Salsa

Cinco de Mayo is upon us. Ok so this is aparently a holiday only celebrated in the US even though it commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French at the battle of La Pueblo on this day in 1862. I'm always cheering for the underdogs (though the Orioles' losing streak is getting a little old), and I can't say I'm anti-France (although I should be making my own 'freedom fries' soon), but hey, go Mexico!

Thanks for giving us another random holiday to excuse getting drunk on a weeknight. And with tequila no less! Arriba!

Nevermind that it's snowing in Helsinki today- I may need to ease up on the drinking, after a long Vappu weekend, so instead of posting a recipe for the perfect margherita, here's some salsa for ya :)

2 pints cherry tomatoes, quartered

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 red onion, diced finely

a handful of fresh coriander

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

I just combined all these ingredients in a dish and left in the refridgerator over night to marinate. I'll probably be making some quesadillas to go with since nothing will stop me from finding an excuse to melt some cheese :)

Yellow Tomato Salsa over a Smokey Quesadilla

I love these cute little yellow 'cherry' tomatoes, because they're so colorful and they have a nice sweet tanginess that reds don't. Problem is, what to do with them? These are a relatively new food commodity to me, so I am hesitant to do too much experimentation until I start to have a taste for them. So for this recipe, I adapted something from one of my favorite food blogs, the Gluen Free Goddess, for a tasty roasted salsa recipe. This woman's a great writer, photographer, and obviously she must be a pretty good cook. If she were vegetarian, I'd be down-right devoted. For anyone out there who's a celiac, I highly recommend.

Making the salsa was so easy because there's really only two steps: chop all the ingredients, and put them in the oven to roast.

• 1 kg yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 large red onion, diced
• 1 cup canned sweet corn
• 2-4 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 3 tbs dry white wine

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Toss all ingredients together.
3. Bake for about 35 minutes, stirring once half way through, until tomatoes are becoming slightly browned.

Enjoy chilled with chips, or on a quesadilla. I recommend with smoked cheese, it goes well with the roasted flavor. If you like cilantro, chop some fresh and mix with the salsa when it's cool. Otherwise you can use some other fresh herb. I used parsely.

Chunky Cheesy Tomato Soup made Easy

Mother nature decided to step it up a notch this past week. If we Helsinkians were starting to get a little too comfortable with mediocre winter weather, She certainly set out to give us a rude awakening. And being that it's only mid-February, there's plenty of winter time still before us. In fact, being that there are so many words in Finnish for 'snow', I'm surprised these long winters haven't been broken down into sub-seasons. If I would invent them now, I might start with the windy-wet winter (part I), icy-dark (part II), soup-subseason (part III), sunny-slow-thaw (part IV). I now dub this soup season!

So inspired recently by a conversation with my friend E, I decided to make some fresh tomato soup. We were just chatting about what to do with leftover Koskenlaskija and she mentioned that it's delicious in tomato soup, so I had to try.

• 1 lbs fresh tomatoes or two cans of peeled diced tomatoes
• 4 cups vegetable bullion
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 tbs tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• basil and oregano
• Koskenlaskija cheese, cubed, to taste (optional)- can be substituted for another soft meltable cheese (suggestions welcome) or cooking cream.

1. If using fresh tomatoes, first, blanch the tomatoes by cutting a small x in the bottom of the tomato and cover lightly with water. Bring to a boil for several minutes. Drain and rinse with ice water.
2. Cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil for several minutes in a large dutch oven or pot. Add salt pepper and herbs and cook for a few more minutes.
3. Add the stock, carrot and potato and turn the heat down. Cover.
4. Now that the tomatoes have cooled a bit, peel the skins off. (or just open the can!) Add to the broth. Simmer, 30-45 minutes until everything is tender. Or longer if you have the time. The flavours will set nicely.
5. Add the tomato paste and cheese. Without the cheese, the soup is still nice and creamy, thanks to the potato. But the cheese gives a nice smokey and rich taste. Even just a little goes a long way.
6. Blend about half of the soup in the blender and return to the rest of the soup.

Thanks E, for giving me a new way to incorporate Koskenlaskija into my recipes. It's nice cheese with a subtle yet distinct flavor, and it's not always easy to imagine where to add this. But I'm determined not to waste any of it!