Algarvian tomato soup with a Swedish twist

How's your summer? Over here it's going fast, too fast! Even the strawberry season is early this year, does it mean that we'll get early fall? Hope not!

Coming home from vacation is always a little special. You realize that you are back in your everyday-ness, which is not bad at all but you don't want let the vacation feeling go. Not yet :)

This tomato soup brings me back to Algarve, the southern part of Portugal. Amazing place, breathtaking beaches and landscape, nice people. In Algarve, they seem to know what good food is about. If you happen to spend your vacation there some time, don't expect anything pretentious. It's a simple&fresh concept. We didn't have anything that we haven't eaten before but speaking for myself, it's been the best (restaurant) food I've had - at most of the places. 

Algarvian cuisine is full of fresh ingredients. They don't bother making their own aioli for exemple, but they do bother using fresh vegetables for their vegetable sauces, soups and fish/meat dishes. One ingredient that is typical for this region is piri-piri, a sort of small chilli peppers. You get them anywhere in the world but I couldn't resist taking some home with me as a souvenir. 

In this soup I tried to combine the fresh tomatos with basil and piri-piri together with the Swedish "gravad lax" which stands for pickled raw salmon or dill-cured salmon. It worked! Feta cheese is not necessary, but it will please you :)

Algarvian tomato soup with a Swedish twist

7-8 tomatoes

1 onion 

1 - 2 cloves of garlic

organic vegetable stock

dried oregano 

fresh basil

(sea) salt

ground black pepper

granulated sugar

1-2 dried piri.piri

olive oil

feta cheese

"gravad lax"

fresh basil

bread or a pie crust

1. Boil enough water to pour over the tomatos.

2. Chop the onion and garlic.

3. Peel and chop the tomatos.

4. Use olive oil to roast the onion, garlic and tomatos. Add vegetable stock, season with salt, black pepper, crushed piri-piri and sugar. Let simmer for a while. Add basil and oregano.

5. When the tomatos are cooked through, puree the soup until semi-smooth or smooth - as you wish.

6. Serve in a bowl and garnish with salmon, feta and some basil. 

This feta-salmon-basil tart made a perfect company for the soup. And a filling, tasteful, vacation-like lunch for me :)

Rucola, avocado and pea soup

Another soup experiment. I just love green, creamy soups without using the actual cream. Avocado is creamy and silky, rucola is spicy, peas are sweet. Blend these together and you'll get a very special something. 

  

Rucola, avocado&pea soup

You'll need:

100 g rucola
1 avocado
50 g peas (frozen or fresh)
0,7 l organic vegetable stock
salt
lime/lemon juice
chilli (optional)


Method:


1. Prepare the vegetable stock and cook the peas. I cooked the frozen peas in the stock until boiled. Let cool slightly.
2. Peel the avocado and remove the pitch. 
3. Place in a blender together with rucola, peas and stock. Blend until smooth.
4. Season with salt, lime juice and chilli and blend one more time.
5. Ready to serve.


Have a nice time everyone! I'll see you in june :)

Roasted carrot and beet soup with zucchini

Is there anything better and more comforting than a bowl of a really nice and rich soup? Don't think so! Especially when the thermometer is showing no less than -20...brrrh!
Thanks to my friend Matka and her sensational food experiments I gave it a shot and tried to make a soup of roasted vegetables. Ever since I've been experimenting with different vegetable variations of the soup. In Matkas recipe is the soup made of roasted carrots and red onions.

This soup helped me "survive" the last two days of detox :)
PS I used very little cream and the soup was still delicious!

Roasted carrot and beet soup with zucchini
(makes 4 portions)
500 g carrots
1 big or 2 small beets
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
5 dl vegetable stock
1,5 dl single cream
dried rosemary and oregano
salt and black pepper
1/2 lemon
1 zucchini
squash seeds (optional)

Method: 
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Peel and clean the carrots and beets.
2. In a bowl, stir together oregano, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss with vegetables until they are coated. Spread evenly on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes.
3. Prepare the vegetable stock meanwhile.
4. Put the roasted carrots and beets into a blender with a little bit of the vegetable stock and two cloves of fresh garlic. Puree until smooth.
5. Mix with the rest of the stock in the pan, add the lemon juice, rosemary, cream and cook thru. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Roast the zucchini rings in the pan with a table spoon of olive oil until golden-brown.
7. Garnish the soup with the zucchini rings and some squash seeds.

Look at the color and thickness of the soup, I just must say I love it! :) 

Have a lovely day!

A as in avocado

I didn't know the taste of avocado until I was about 25 years old. We were having dinner with friends in a cosy mexican restaurant in Prague and had guacamole among the dishes we ordered. I remember there was a "mexican" restaurant in my home town Nitra, but I don't remember anything made of avocado on the menu! :) Today avocado is a often on my menu. My two favorite recipes, a soup and a dessert with avocado, follow:

Avocado soup with lime and chilli

Ingredients: (makes about 3 portions)
2 avocados
1/2 liter vegetable stock
1 lime, juiced
1 clove of garlic (optional)
chillipepper (fresh or dried)
sea salt

Method:
1. Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Spoon the avocados into a blender and puree together with a little bit of the semi-cold vegetable stock.
2. Add chilli, lime juice, garlic and the remaining vegetable stock. Blend until smooth.
3. Season with sea salt and serve.

Trust me, it's wonderful. I make this soup very often and I never get tired of it :)

Recipe adapted from 500 soppor, den enda bok med soppor du behöver by Susannah Blake.

Avocado mousse

 Avocado in a dessert? Oh my, it's so surprisingly good! I can only recommend because even Andreas, who is not an avocado fan, liked it!

Ingredients: (makes 2 portions)
1 avocado
zest and juice of 1/2 lime
100 ml heavy cream
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar

Method:
1. Cut the avocado in half, remove the seed and peel. Mix the avocado together with the sugar, lime juice and zest until smooth. Use a handheld blender.
2. Whip the heavy cream and blend it into the avocado mix.
3. Cool for about 2 hours before serving. Yummie! :)

Recipe adapted from Höstens goda mat, Ica Kvantum.