Curried Carrot Soup by The Fat Foodie
Now that the days are getting colder I have a hankering to have soup for lunch on a regular basis. There’s nothing like a good steaming hot bowl of soup to warm you up from the inside out, especially when it’s accompanied with a generous smattering of crispy well-seasoned croutons, so this curried carrot soup really hits the mark for me.
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Corned Beef Soup by The Fat Foodie
The weather’s been overcast and freezing for days now, requiring us to put the heating on to combat the thick layer of thorn-like crisp frost that’s coating the world outside. It seems weird to feel so chilly when it’s only late November, but the other day I decided something warming would have to be on the cards for lunch after nipping out to bring in my frozen washing (which I had to break as if it was made of strong cardboard in order to fit it back in the washing basket).
I had a rummage around in the fridge and cupboards, but no inspiration struck. However, a glance in the freezer unearthed a carton of Mum’s family-famous corned beef soup, a hearty meal-in-a-bowl that’s guaranteed to warm a person up from the inside out. As Mum would say, her corned beef soup is a soup that really ‘sticks to your ribs’.
I remember having this soup one evening in late autumn when I was a young teenager. We lived in Dumfries and Galloway (the part of Scotland with the highest rainfall level on a yearly basis) and on this particular day my Dad had swung by in the car after he’d finished work to pick me and my brother up from school on his way home because the rain was so heavy that it was falling to the pavement and then bouncing back up to knee level. After relishing the warmth of the car we arrived home and, after changing out of our sodden school uniform and getting into our nightwear and dressing gowns, we joined Mum and Dad in the kitchen for dinner. The relief and excitement I felt when I realised that we were having Mum’s amazing hot corned beef soup for dinner was overwhelming and I remember feeling sorry for some of my friends whose fathers demanded a full, roasted meat-centric dinner every evening and being wholeheartedly grateful that I was blessed with a family that could come together over a simple cooking pot full of soup.
One question I get asked all the time is what low FODMAP stock I use because a lot of the stock cubes which are on the supermarket shelves contain onion and/or garlic. Some people who eat a low FODMAP diet can find that their systems are okay with a small amount of onion and garlic, such as the quantity found in stock cubes. However, others cannot tolerate it in their diets at all. There are a couple of options if you’re very sensitive to onion or garlic though.
The first is Massel ‘s Vegetable Stock Cubes
Corned beef soup is really easy to make and it’s packed full of flavour. You can adapt the vegetables to suit whatever you have on-hand to use up in the fridge. For instance, if you have them to use up, turnip, the green tops of leeks and parsnips work well in this recipe. It’s perfect served with a generous slice (or two) of nice, fresh, yeasty bread slathered in plenty of good salted butter.
As a rule, I don’t really like brown sauce, but in this case I can highly recommend adding a little dollop of HP Sauce to your bowl, as evidenced in the photo, because it adds a lovely deep, fruity, vinegary note to the soup. Regardless of whether you add the HP sauce to your bowl or not, as my Mum would say, after a bowl of this soup ‘your cockles will soon be warmed up’.
Ingredients:
2 tins of good quality corned beef
3 large carrots
3 potatoes
2 or 3 gluten-free vegetable stock cubes (to taste) (I use Casa de Sante’s low FODMAP Vegetable Stock Powder)
1.5 litres of hot water
Method:
Chop up your vegetables into bite-sized pieces (or grate them) and put them in a large soup pot
Add enough hot water so it just covers the vegetables and bring to the boil.
Chop up your corned beef and add it to the pot.
Simmer gently until your veg is cooked and then add the stock cubes one at a time, tasting after stirring each one in to make sure you don’t over-season the soup. (You might not need all 3 stock cubes, depending on your personal taste.)
After simmering it for a wee while longer serve it with good gluten-free bread and butter.
Corned Beef Soup by The Fat Foodie
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Vietnamese Pho Soup by The Fat Foodie
Sometimes if I’m having a day off I don’t mind investing quite a bit of time in preparing a dish because it feels like a mindful and relaxing task, rather than one filled with tedium, so when I saw this Vietnamese pho soup in the new Happy Pear cookbook
My stepson and in-laws came to visit as I was finishing making this soup and, after they all had a bowl, each one of them said they had really enjoyed it. It’s packed full of flavour, to the extent that if you try to use less stock it’ll be too strong, but if you make it as directed you can’t go wrong. And, as an added bonus, it’s also got a generous serving of vegetables in it so it’s really healthy. I added dried seaweed into my soup pot too, which is a superfood because it contains a great many minerals and trace elements, such as iron, calcium, magnesium and folate, along with B vitamins.
One question I get asked all the time is what low FODMAP stock I use because a lot of the stock cubes which are on the supermarket shelves contain onion and/or garlic. Some people who eat a low FODMAP diet can find that their systems are okay with a small amount of onion and garlic, such as the quantity found in stock cubes. However, others cannot tolerate it in their diets at all. There are a couple of options if you’re very sensitive to onion or garlic though.
The first is Massel ‘s Vegetable Stock Cubes
Although it does take some time to prepare the ingredients at the start, once they’re done it’s just a case of throwing everything into the soup pot bit by bit. You can then enjoy a fantastic Vietnamese pho soup bite by bite.
Ingredients:
1 tsp asafoetida powder
A thumb-size piece of fresh ginger (chopped finely)
1 tbsp. of dried seaweed (re-hydrated in some cold water)
250g oyster mushrooms (finely sliced)
4 carrots (diced)
120g bok choi (finely sliced) – known as pak choi in the UK
2 tbsps. of vegetable/sunflower oil
5 tbsps. tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
2 tbsps. sesame oil
The juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. of golden syrup
2.5 litres of vegetable stock (I use Casa de Sante’s low FODMAP Vegetable Stock Powder)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
3 cloves
200g rice noodles
For the optional garnish:
100g beansprouts
1 tbsp chopped chives
Pickled ginger
Sliced fresh chilli
1 lime (cut into quarters)
Method:
Prepare your ingredients as directed in the ingredients list.
Pour the vegetable oil into a large soup pot and put on a high heat.
Once the oil’s hot add the ginger and mushrooms and fry for 5 mins, stirring regularly.
In a cup, mix together the tamari/soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice and golden syrup. Add to the soup pot and cook for 3 mins.
Add the vegetable stock, carrots, asafoetida powder
Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally.
Five minutes before you’re ready to eat the soup, add your ramen noodles and pak choi into the pot and stir occasionally.
Once your noodles are cooked, divide the noodles and soup between your serving bowls and garnish with whatever you fancy. Serve with a lime wedge on the side.
Vietnamese Pho Soup by The Fat Foodie
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