Split lentil and carrot soup

The sweetness of carrots marries well with lentils and lemon, and the soup comes out a very pretty orange colour. This recipe is intended for a starter – main course lentil soup is generally thicker than this.* 

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 4 as a starter

Ingredients

 

1 large onion 

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp ground coriander seeds

3 medium carrots

3/4 cup split lentils

4 cups water/stock

2 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

Method:

• Dice the onion.
• Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onion. Cover and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, dice the carrots, scraping them if necessary. Add the coriander and cook for a further minute, then add the carrots and lentils and stir well.
• Pour in the water and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Cover, lower the heat and cook for 25 minutes, by which time the lentils should have disintegrated and the carrots should be completely softened. Give them a little longer, if necessary.
• Take off the heat and mash into a purée, using a potato masher or a stick blender. Add the lemon juice and season to taste. Add a little more lemon if you prefer it to be slightly sharper.
• Reheat before serving.

Variations:

• A tbsp of tomato purée makes a pleasant change.
• Add a swirl of cream to each bowl.
• Use lime or orange juice instead of the lemon.
• Garnish with some twists of the appropriate peel.
• Add 1/2 tsp chilli flakes to give the soup a bit of a lift.
  
• * To turn this into a main course soup, double the amount of lentils.
  

Split lentil soup

Warming, filling, nutritious and comforting: lentil soup is one of my favourites. It’s also very quick to make and is ideal for lunch or as a starter when unexpected guests arrive and you have to spread your dinner further than anticipated!

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 4 to 6 as a starter, 2 for a main course

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil OR butter
1 onion 

1 cup split red lentils 

4 cups water 

2 tbsp lemon juice 

salt and pepper

Method:

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan or pressure cooker. Chop the onion and cook it for about 5 minutes until it has started to brown.
• Stir in the lentils, add the water and bring to the boil. If you are using the pressure cooker, cook it for 5 minutes; if cooking conventionally, simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Reduce pressure naturally. Using a potato masher or stick blender, purée the soup. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper and add the lemon juice. Serve piping hot.

• Variations: 
• Add 1/2 tsp cumin and a garlic clove with the onion.
• Chop a carrot and cook it with the onion.
• For a delicious, quick Curried Lentil Soup, add one garlic clove and some diced fresh ginger to the onion while it’s frying. Stir in 2 tsp curry powder/paste just before adding the lentils. Serve with chapatis.

 Note:

• You can make this soup thicker and more substantial by adding another 1/2 cup of lentils.
  

The (Very) Acceptable Ovenless Loaf

 

I came to realise that my vision of perfection (The Perfect Ovenless Loaf) might be difficult for others, as well as myself, to achieve.  Indeed, unless you want square slices of bread (and there are many good reasons for this preference), assembling the necessary hardware might seem more trouble than it's worth.  I've written this post to offer a couple of different options for those of us who want to make bread regularly and don't have an oven, one using a frying pan and one using a saucepan.  Oddly, they produce very different results.

First of all, let's make the dough.  You can use just about any dough recipe for either method.

For a 230 mm/9 in frying pan or a 2 l/1 qt saucepan

2 cups wholewheat flour 

½ tsp salt 

1 tsp instant dried yeast 

1 cup lukewarm water, no warmer than 45°C (110°F) 

½ tsp sugar/honey 

2 tbsp vital wheat gluten

Method:

• Make the dough, following the instructions for Basic bread.  I  recommend using the vital wheat gluten, if you have it, because the cooking process isn't ideal. 
• The dough needs to be a firm one: if it's to soft, the loaf will simply spread itself all over the bottom of the frying pan and that isn't what we are trying to achieve.
  
• Take it out of the bowl and form a roughly circular loaf, which covers a half to two-thirds of the pan base.
  

Frying pan bread

 

 

I use a heavy, non-stick alloy pan for this (not Teflon coated!)  But you can also use any really well-seasoned frying pan that you're sure your bread won't stick to.  If your bowl doesn't sit securely on the frying pan, it would be worth getting a lid that fits, preferably one that doubles the useable height of the pan. You also want a fairly deep frying pan, which are anyway more generally useful than a shallow one.

• Put the dough in the frying pan and cover it with your lid or bowl.  Let the bread rise.
• When it’s ready to cook, put the frying pan over a high heat on a flame tamer, and cook for 15 minutes. If you smell burning, reduce the heat, if you can’t smell baking bread, increase it. The flame tamer ensures that the heat radiates across the base of the pan and this avoids spot burning.  Again, use your bowl as a lid.  If the bowl seems precarious and you don't have a domed lid, put on our usual lid and accept that the bread will be flatter than you might have chosen.  This is, after all, an acceptable ovenless loaf.
  
• After 15 minutes, turn the flame down to moderate and cook for a further 20 to 30 minutes.  After 20 minutes, take off the lid and check the loaf.  If the top is still very soft, cook it longer, checking every 5 minutes.  You won't get a hard crust on it.  Once you've cooked it this way a few times, you'll get a feel for how long it takes.
  
• Once the bread feels pretty firm, ie almost cooked, you are now going to spoil this rather nice wee loaf by turning it upside down to brown what was the top.  Even though it's almost cooked, the weight of it will flatten the loaf.  There's not much we can do about that.
• Pop the lid back on, give it about 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.  Rremove the lid and just leave the loaf in place until the frying pan is just warm.  Take the loaf out and cool it on a rack (I use my toaster).

If everything has gone according to plan, you will end up with a loaf of smaller diameter but greater height than the frying pan.  In fact I often see 'artisan' rye breads that don't look very different from how this one ends up.   Regardless, it will be delicious bread, incredibly good value and better than anything a small income voyager can buy unless they're some place where wholemeal bread is subsidised (as it used to be in the Azores, many moons ago).  The major drawback of frying pan bread is that the narrow slices are not ideal for sandwiches. 

 

Note:

• You can make really first-class rolls in the frying pan.  Use the bread recipe above and form it into rolls.  Put them in the pan so that they aren't touching and let them rise.  Then cook as above.  They will spread in to one another, but are easily separated.

Saucepan bread

 

This produces a Very Acceptable Ovenless loaf, and is now my preferred method of making a loaf.  It comes out with a really good crust all round and is of a suitable size for sandwiches.  For this method, you need a high-quality, straight-sided, heavy-based pan that has no hot spots.  Be careful if it has a laminated base - it might not take kindly to being used as an oven.  Although you can use the saucepan lid, the ideal is to use is a non-stick, cast alloy, 150 mm/6 in frying pan.  I generally use this for roasting Indian spices, but have found it very useful for many other purposes.  It doesn't take up much room.  (Mine is made by Avanti - it's a great little pan, but is totally let down by the so-called enamel, which I suspect is powder-coating and stained, irrevocably, the first time I used it.  I wish I'd bought the black version.)  If you use the pan's lid, oil that, too.  The saucepan I think is a nominal one litre/quart pan, but I've given the actual dimensions for the avoidance of doubt.

 

For a 150 mm/6 in saucepan, 70 mm/3 in deep

1 1/2 cups wholewheat flour 

½ tsp salt 

1 tsp instant dried yeast 

1 cup lukewarm water, no warmer than 45°C (110°F) 

½ tsp sugar/honey

 2 tbsp vital wheat gluten

 

Method:

• Grease or oil your pan.  I was given some hemp oil and use that.  It's expensive to buy, but is very thick and is the best I've found for this purpose.  I suppose you could also line the pan with parchment paper to make it easier to turn out the loaf, but you probably won't get any crust on the sides of the loaf.
• Make the dough as above.  This time you can make it slightly softer if you want and I recommend using the honey - the slightly softer, well-rise loaf seems to suit this cooking best.  I always use vital wheat gluten if it's available.
  
• Put the dough in the pan and press it down to fit.  Put the lid on and let the bread rise.  One of the nice things with this method, is that you can easly put the pan in the sun! 
  
• When it’s ready to cook, put  flame tamer over a high heat and place the pan on it.  As soon as you smell burning, reduce the heat to moderate.  You want to be able to smell the bread baking, but you don't want to burn the base.  Condensation will form inside the lid - very apparent if you have a glass lid - which is why this loaf turns out quite differently: it is partly steamed.  The crumb will be quite a lot softer than that of the frying pan bread.  The same applies if you're using the frying pan lid.
  
  
  
  
• Cook for a total of 30 minutes and then take the lid off and gently press the dough to see if it's firm. If not, give it another 5 minutes and try again.  I can't really be much more specific because cookers (and pans!) vary so much.  Once you've cooked it this way a few times, you'll get a feel for how long it takes.
  
  
  
  
• Once the bread feels almost cooked, take hold of both handles firmly, and invert the pan over the frying pan.  Now brown the top in the frying pan for 5 minutes or so.
• Alternatively, if you are using the pan lid: ease it off the loaf (hopefully, it won't have risen so much that the dough stuck to it) and lower the heat right down under the flame tamer.  We now want to brown the top of it.  Turn the pan upside down, carefully.   If your pan is non-stick, really well greased, or you've used parchment paper, the loaf will slip out of the pan.  Put it down carefully, return the pan to the heat and put the loaf back into the pan upside down. Put it back over the heat with the lid on for 5 minutes or so.  If, as usually happens to me, the loaf is still stuck to the pan, place the whole lot  over the flame tamer for about 5 minutes.  Hopefully, the loaf hasn't risen above the pan, because in this case it will burn.  If that's the case, you might want to put it on your toaster, or simply forgo browning the top. 
• Once the loaf is browned, shake it out of the pan and put it to cool it on a rack (I use my toaster).  If it's reluctant to come out, leave it to cool down a bit and try to persuade it out by running a knife, with a rounded end around the loaf.  If you leave it too long, the sides and bottom of the loaf will go a bit soggy.  Don't tear it up getting it out.  If the worst comes to the worst, you can always dry it out over the toaster.  Again, you will soon learn the way that suits both your pan and your cooker.

This loaf comes out much higher than the frying pan loaf and is more suited to sandwiches, and toast.

Minestrone soup

The name ‘Minestrone’ has become something of a catch-all for a tomato, vegetable and pasta soup. I don’t pretend that the following version is any more authentic than most, but it certainly is attractive and full of flavour.  Even if I weren't a vegetarian, my Minestrone would always contain beans and recipes which don't, seem very odd to me, because white beans are so often used in Italian peasant food, which is surely what this is.  Cannelini beans would be first choice, but if you can't buy them, any white beans will do.  Even borlotti beans would do, if you have those, also being popular in Italy. 

 

Non-vegetarian recipes call for bacon, but I've seen more than a few which are strictly vegetarian. Ideally, one would chop in a stick or two of celery, but I don't find this a good voyaging vegetable, because you buy so much at a time.  Even in a fridge, I suspect it doesn't last forever, so I suggest celery seed as an alternative: it's a shame that you can't just buy three or four sticks of celery at a time! This soup makes for a great and filling meal with chunks of freshly-baked bread.   

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 4 to 6 as a starter, 2 for a main course

 

Ingredients

at least 2 tbsp olive oil
2medium onions or one large
2 garlic cloves
1 carrot

1 small potato 
1 stick celery OR 1 tsp celery seed

1/2 tsp fennel seeds 3 cups water

2 tsp Annie's Mixed Herbs OR 1 tsp rosemary + 1 tsp thyme

1 tsp sweet paprika  

1/4 cup white beans, soaked in 1 cup boiling water for an hour
1 cabbage, cut into ribbons
a piece of Parmesan cheese rind

14 oz/400 g tin of crushed tomatoes

about 20 lengths of spaghetti

coarsely ground or cracked black pepper

optional Parmesan cheese or "Parmegan" cheese to serve

Method:

• Heat the olive oil in the pressure cooker.
• Chop the onions and garlic and cook over a fairly high heat until they’re starting to brown. If you are using it, add 1 tsp salt.
• While this is happening, dice the carrot, potato and the celery. Add to the other vegetables, together with the celery seed (if using) and the fennel seed, and cook until they are aromatic - about 5 minutes.
• Add the dried herbs and paprika and toss the vegetables to ensure that they're mixed well. 
• Pour in the water, the beans their water, and bring to the boil. Pressure cook for 10 minutes. Reduce pressure gradually. 
• When you can safely remove the lid, add the cabbage to the pan. Return it to the flame. If you’re using the Parmesan cheese rind, cut this into small dice and add. 
• Empty the tomatoes into the pan and mix them in. 
• When the soup is boiling once more, lower the heat to a simmer, break the spaghetti into 25 mm (1 in) lengths and add this. Stir to separate the pieces of pasta.
• Gind in a generous amoun of pepper. Minestrone also responds well to ½ tsp of cracked black pepper. Taste after a couple of minutes to see if it needs more salt.
• Cook until the spaghetti has softened – you can bring it back up to pressure for 3 minutes if you wish.

Serve with chunks of bread and, if you have it, plenty of Parmesan cheese.

 

Notes:

• Don't be mean with the olive oil and use a nice, peppery one if you can get it.
• The rind from the Parmesan cheese adds a wonderful depth of flavour, which vegans will have to do without.  However, probably most small-income voyagers will have to do without it, too and indeed, even if you have lots of money, Parmesan cheese, complete with rind, is often difficult to source.  In the days when I ate Parmesan, I used to enjoy eating the piece of rind in the soup, but most people apparently take it out before serving.
• If you don't have crushed tomatoes, use whole ones and crush them yourself. 

Variations:

• Ideally, this recipe would include green beans. I tend to eat soup in cold weather, when green beans are expensive and/or hard to come by.  But they certainly enhance the soup.
• Some recipes call for red kidney beans, but I find that they make the soup too dark,  By all means use them if that's what you fancy!
• Use black-eyed peas or chickpeas, if you have no white beans. The black-eyed peas won't need soaking first. Or you could use a can.
• Most recipes call for a bay leaf.  I can never taste them, myself, but feel free to add one, with the rest of the herbs, if you like them.   
• Replace the cabbage with kale or Swiss chard/silver beet.
• You could also use the leaves from a cauliflower, instead of cabbage.
• Broccoli florets, added at the end would go well, but not if you're intending to reheat the soup for another meal.
• Use another type of pasta, such as elbow pasta, or alphabet, but keep to small shapes so that you don't overwhelm the soup with it. 
• Add tomato purée for a richer flavour, especially if your canned tomatoes are a bit watery. 
• If you miss the bacon flavour from traditional Minestrone, use smoked paprika instead of the sweet.  
• A couple of mushrooms, sliced are also a pleasant addition.
• Add a tsp of mushroom stock powder for more flavour.
• Add chopped pepper to taste
• Use chopped tomatoes in purée for a thicker soup.
• Add 1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
• Fresh tomatoes are also great, if they're available and have plenty of flavour, but in cold weather, canned will probably be a better choice.   

You will find many other recipes for soup here 

 

Edited 19/08/26

 

Mushroom soup

 

Mushroom soup is lovely and because mushrooms are often something of a luxury, is worth making with extra love and care. There are several variations on the theme, which I give below. The initial recipe is adapted from one of Rose Elliot’s and produces a very elegant concoction, ideal for entertaining. The ones that follow are a little more down to earth.

Butter gives a richer flavour than olive oil.

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 4 for a starter, 2 for a main meal

 

Ingredients

 

3 cups mushrooms

1 small onion

1 garlic clove

1/2 tsp tarragon

1 tsp green peppercorns, crushed

2½ cups water

(vegan) milk

4 tbsp butter OR 2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp flour

salt

freshly grated nutmeg

hot sauce/cracked black pepper

2 tbsp sherry

Method:

• Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and put them in a large saucepan, together with the quartered onion, garlic clove, tarragon and green peppercorns. Add the water and bring to the boil; leave to simmer for at least 10 minutes to create a stock.
• Pour the liquid through a sieve into a measuring jug and make up to a litre with the milk. Discard the mushroom stalks, etc.
• Put half the butter/olive oil into the saucepan and, when it melts, stir in the flour and mix it for a few moments. Remove the pan from the heat, pour in the contents of the jug and stir until everything is thoroughly blended. Make sure that all the flour and butter mixture is cleared away from the corners of the pan.
• Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring continually. Lower the heat and continue to stir for another 2 or 3 minutes to cook the flour. Put to one side.
• Slice the mushrooms and fry them lightly in the remaining half of the butter. When they’re softened, add them to the milk mixture in the saucepan.
• Reheat to a gentle simmer while carefully seasoning with the salt, nutmeg and hot sauce/cracked black pepper
• Simmer for a further 3 or 4 minutes to let the flavours blend. Better still, make the soup several hours before you need it and let it stand, with a lid on, until you want to eat it. Reheat just to boiling and serve with a dollop of sherry in each bowl. 

Variations:

• For a simpler and quicker soup, dice the onion and garlic and fry it in the butter until soft. Chop the mushrooms and cook them for a few minutes. Add 1 tbsp cornflour, 2 cups water and 2 cups milk. Stir until the cornflour is dissolved and then add the tarragon and green peppercorns. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, season and then simmer for 5 minutes. You can still serve this with the sherry!
• Try making a Lentil and Mushroom soup: Add half a cup of whole lentils.  Use a standard onion, garlic clove, half the butter or olive oil, the tarragon and green peppercorns, 4 cups water and seasoned salt. Fry the vegetables, add the tarragon and green peppercorns, then throw in the lentils and cook under pressure for 10 minutes. Mash the soup with a potato masher or stick blender and then season with the salt.
• For Mushroom and Potato soup: use a chopped onion, 3 cups sliced mushrooms, 4 chopped potatoes, a litre of water, salt and pepper. Fry the vegetables, add the water, bring to pressure and cook for 5 minutes. Mash lightly to thicken the soup and season. You can substitute milk for up to half the water if you want; or stir in cream after the soup is cooked.
• Use brandy instead of sherry

Notes:

• While this soup is also good with oyster mushrooms, I don’t recommend cremini, portobello or Swiss mushrooms, which make the soup too dark.
• To make this soup gluten free, use 1 tbsp cornflour instead of the flour.
  

Italian mushroom soup

This is definitely a special-occasion soup, calling as it does for mixed mushrooms and French bread. No prizes for guessing that I love mushrooms! Try finding ceps and oyster mushrooms Even if you can’t find anything particularly exotic, this is still a delicious soup, served in an attractive manner.

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

Serves 4

 

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
6 cups mixed mushrooms
1¼ cups milk
3¾ cups water
8 slices rustic or French bread
3 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves
3/4 cup finely grated cheese preferably Swiss (See notes) 

salt and pepper

Method:

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the chopped onion for a few minutes until softened.
• Roughly chop the mushrooms.
• Add them to the pan, stirring so that they’re all covered with oil.
• Add the milk and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 5 mins.
• Stir in the water and bring up to simmering point.
• Toast the bread.
• Mix the garlic and butter together and spread on the toast.
• Put two pieces of toast in the bottom of each bowl and pour the hot soup over.
• Top with the grated cheese and serve at once.

Notes:

• I can give no suggestions for a vegan equivalent of Swiss cheese, unless you happen to be in a very large town, or somewhere sufficiently cosmopolitan to have a wide range of good, vegan cheeses. This is very unlikely, I’m afraid.