vegan soup Archives - Vegan Sparkles with Rebecca Weller

Easy Vegan Laksa

Vegan Sparkles — Fri, 10 May 2013 06:57:34 +0000

It can be a bit tricky sometimes, food blogging.

During a particularly lovely bout of daydreaming about exotic places last week, I had an idea – Laksa!

I quickly researched traditional ingredients, brainstormed some changes, told my Lovebug to get his belly ready, skipped to the shops and back, and whipped up a pot with excitement.

Only… the finished product was lacking.

Oh it was okay – Food Hall standard – but life’s too short for just okay food, right? Forget those bland soups and crappy noodles – we want awesome, fresh food that makes us feel nourished and happy to be alive! Sing it with me, sista!

The next morning dawned sunny and bright and I knew what I had to do. Thankfully, when my Lovebug asked: ‘What do you want to do today?” and I replied: “Make Laksa!”, he just laughed and went along with it. He’s pretty awesome like that.

The second time (and night in a row!), the Laksa was magical. Hot, spicy, sweet, tangy and oh so satisfying.

And the best part? You can freeze the spice paste and then next time you fancy a delicious, exotic, daydream-worthy soup, you can just take the paste from the freezer, throw it into a big pot, add the rest of the ingredients, and have dinner ready in less than 15 minutes.

Take that, Food Hall. 🙂

Easy Vegan Laksa

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 15

Total Time 35

Servings 4

Author Rebecca Weller - Vegan Sparkles

Ingredients

2 tbsp Coconut Oil
2 tbsp Sesame Oil or more Coconut Oil
4 cups Vegetable Stock/Broth
3 1/4 cups Organic Coconut Milk
1 tsp Tamarind Concentrate/Paste
50 ml Tamari Sauce or Soy Sauce if gluten is not an issue
50 ml Fresh Lime Juice
2 cups Capsicum/Peppers any colour, cored and sliced
1 cup Baby Corn quartered (or any other Asian veg you prefer)
5 Spring Onion sliced
300 g Firm/Hard Tofu drained and chopped into bite-sized cubes
200 g Rice Noodles any kind you like

Spice Paste

6 Garlic Cloves peeled and chopped
1 inch/2.5cm knob Ginger peeled and chopped
4 Red Chillies chopped (less if you don't like spicy food but the coconut milk really tames down the spiciness)
2 Lemongrass stems white part only, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground Turmeric
5 Kaffir Lime Leaves finely shredded (from a jar is fine if you can't find fresh)

To Serve

1 handful of Bean Sprouts
1 handful of fresh Coriander Leaves chopped

Instructions

Soak noodles in a large bowl of hot water for 30 minutes to soften.
Meanwhile, assemble all Spice Paste ingredients in a food processor and pulse/process until it forms a chunky paste.
In a frypan over medium-high heat, shallow fry tofu in 2 tbsp Coconut Oil until just golden brown. (Don't let it cook for too long or the tofu will become too chewy. This step is optional - you can add the tofu directly to the Laksa later if you prefer but pre-cooking does give the tofu a lovely texture)
In a large pot or frypan over medium heat, stir fry Spice Paste in Sesame Oil until fragrant (a couple of minutes).
Add Coconut Milk and Vegetable Stock and bring to the boil.
Add Capsicum/Peppers, Corn, Spring Onion, Tofu and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Add Tamarind, Tamari and Lime Juice. Allow to simmer for another couple of minutes, then remove from heat.
Drain noodles and divide among 4 bowls.
Spoon Laksa over the noodles, garnish with Bean Shoots and Coriander, and enjoy!

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Rock & Roll Pea & Pesto Soup ♪♫

Vegan Sparkles — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:52:30 +0000

There’s a tiny coffee kiosk near my work that I have a huge, caffeinated crush on. It’s called Cafe Vinyl, it’s attached to a record store, and it pumps out funky tunes while you wait for your order. Tunes I can’t sing along to because I’m not hip enough to know them, but I love soaking up the vibes anyway. Coolness by osmosis. It could happen.

Only three staff can fit behind the counter and they barely have room to turn around, never mind dance but man do they make the best soy cappuccino in the west! Plus the kiosk just looks so damn groovy, you can’t help but feel happy when you’re there. Check it:

Me & Instagram rocking out at Cafe Vinyl

Every day there’s a different soup special. The day I took this picture it was Pea & Pesto. Pea & Pesto? I raised an eyebrow and pulled a face but it did remind me of a Nigella Lawson recipe for Pea & Pesto Soup I’d seen recently. At the time I thought it was a very strange combo but if my barista idols thought it was cool, well… maybe I needed to reconsider.

I got my boogie on in the kitchen to create it. I may not dance to the hippest tunes but my enthusiasm is one hundred percent funky town, baby!

It is therefore with great pleasure that I present to you… a very special performance by Pea & Pesto Soup!
*and the crowd goes wild*

Inspired by Nigella’s Pea & Pesto Soup Recipe and the cool dudes at Cafe Vinyl.

For 3 large bowls:

3 – 4 cups vegetable stock
500g frozen peas
2 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
1/4 cup filtered water
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (optional – or more filtered water)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups fresh basil leaves
3 tbsp pine nuts (plus more for garnish)
Squeeze lemon juice

In a saucepan, bring 3 cups of vegetable stock to the boil.
In the meantime, combine EVOO/filtered water, nutritional yeast, garlic, basil, pine nuts and lemon juice in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Add frozen peas and spring onion to the vegetable stock saucepan and allow to simmer for about 7 minutes.
Remove saucepan from heat and allow to cool until it’s safe to add the contents to the blender.
Blend soup and pesto mixes until well combined and hot. Add more vegetable stock if you prefer a thinner soup.
Pour soup into bowls, garnish with pine nuts, and enjoy!

The verdict? They were both right on the money. It tastes incredible and is so easy to make! Who knew green soup could be so rock and roll? Not Nigella, I bet. She’s too busy making love to the camera.

Rock on.

The post Rock & Roll Pea & Pesto Soup ♪♫ appeared first on Vegan Sparkles with Rebecca Weller.

Creamy Potato and Pesto Soup

Vegan Sparkles — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 08:36:27 +0000

HELLO Green July! *cue glitter and streamers*

To celebrate the start of a very healthy, sparkly month, I decided to start and finish the day with green liquid! Genius, no? I just hope I don’t turn green. 😉

Last weekend some friends hosted a pizza party and made an incredibly simple and delicious vegan pizza – topped only with potato, rosemary and sea salt. I was too slow with the camera, but trust me, it was GOOD. So good that it got me to thinking about a potato-herby soup combo and hey pesto, here is the result!

For 3-4 servings:

3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp vegan margarine
4 cups (1 litre) vegetable broth/stock
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
2 cups fresh Basil leaves
1/2 cup Pine nuts
Squeeze of lemon juice

In a large saucepan, heat vegan margarine and saute onion and garlic for a few minutes.
Add potatoes and cook for a few minutes more, then add vegetable broth and simmer until potatoes are soft.
In a blender or food processor, combine basil, EVOO, nutritional yeast, pine nuts and lemon juice and blend until smooth.
Blend the potato soup in batches until smooth and return to the pan.
Stir the pesto into the potato soup, season with salt and pepper, and enjoy!

It tastes even better the next day too, once the pesto flavours have spent more time infusing their green goodness.

Happy Green July, everyone! xx

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Cashew Cream of Mushroom Soup

Vegan Sparkles — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 04:28:51 +0000

Did you think vegan creamy soups couldn’t get any better than Pistachio Cream of Broccoli Soup? Me too! Oh, we were both so very, very wrong. I finally perfected the quantities for this soup (making much mess along the way) and it was so worth it! It is incredible! Seriously. And my Year 10 Home Economics teacher told me I’d better marry well so I could hire a personal chef. Hmph. If only she could see me now… 😉

This recipe makes enough for two large servings but if you’re wise you’ll make a double batch. It smells so amazing during all that bubbling and infusing time that your neighbours are sure to drop in ‘just to say hi’ and you don’t want to be the meanie who keeps all the delicious vegan food to themselves now, do you? Of course not.

Cashew Cream of Mushroom Soup

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 1 40

Servings 2 -4

Author Rebecca Weller - Vegan Sparkles

Ingredients

450 g / 1lb fresh mushrooms sliced (I used a mix of Portobello, swiss brown, and button mushrooms)
1/2 small brown onion peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp vegan margarine
4 cups vegetable broth/stock
1 cup cashews
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried oregano

Instructions

Place cashews in a bowl of water and leave to soak.
In a large pot, sauté the mushrooms, onion and garlic in vegan margarine for 3 - 5 minutes, until onions are translucent.
Reduce heat to medium low and add the vegetable broth. Cover and allow to simmer for 45 minutes.
Drain and rinse cashews and add them to a blender with half a cup of water. Blend until smooth and creamy.
Add the cashew cream and dried herbs to the soup pot, stirring well to combine. Allow to simmer for another 20 - 30 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper, serve with crusty bread, and prepare for a flavour sensation.

Guaranteed to bring all the boys to your yard.

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