The Efx3 Recipe Collection

I don’t have a picture for you, because I ate half the soup and put the other half in the freezer for later, rest assured it was good. This is a vegetarian soup that can be made vegan if you wish, it’s chock full of veggies and great flavor without a lot of salt or fat.

2 small yellow onions

2 large celery stalks

2 Tablespoons butter(30 ml) use olive oil if you are making it vegan

2 large carrots

1 large(or 2 small) potato

1/2 cup(125 ml) frozen peas

1 can(250 ml) tomatoes or 3 fresh tomatoes

1 tsp(5 ml) salt

pinch of pepper

1 tsp basil(5 ml)

1 Tblsp parsley(15 ml)

2 cups vegetable stock/broth(I use “better than bullion”)

2 1/2 cups(625 ml) milk, omit the milk or use soy/rice milk if making it vegan

1 sliced scallion/green onion

Prep time: about 45 minutes

Cooking time: about 1 hour

peel the onion and wash the celery, chop them into small pieces.

Melt the butter in a large stock pot(olive oil if making it vegan) and then saute the onion and celery for 7 to 10 minutes, just until they get soft.

While that is cooking chop the carrot and potatoes into small pieces, also measure out the peas and set these veggies aside.

Now place the tomatoes(fresh or canned) in a bowl and add the spices, smash them about a bit with a spoon so the flavors start to mingle.

Once the onion and celery are soft add the veggie stock and all the veggies except the peas to the pan, bring it to a boil and simmer for 3o minutes, then add the peas and simmer for another 10 minutes. Test to see if the root veggies are soft(potatoes/carrots) if they are soft place the soup in a large bowl to cool a bit.

Once it’s cool enough to handle “wizz” it (small ammount at a time) in a food processor or blender until it’s  smooth as you want it(I left mine just a bit lumpy but you can make it 100% smooth or chunky) return it to the pot and add the milk(soy/rice if making vegan), cook for another 15 minutes just to warm it back up, be careful not to let it boil and scald it. This tasted great before adding the milk so if you don’t want to you can just eat it as is, no milk at all.

Top each bowl with the sliced green onion(I didn’t seeing as I don’t like onion) and eat with some hearty whole grain bread, Mmmm so good.

Ingredients:

800g firm white fish, skinless and boneless (I used 200g smoked haddock, 200g salmon, 400g cod)
570 ml milk
110g butter
50g flour
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 tablespoon of capers or gherkins, chopped (optional but well worth putting in)
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and black pepper to season

Topping/Serving

900g freshly boiled potatoes mashed with 50g butter, 50ml milk and freshly grated nutmeg (in my humble opinion, it should be illegal to mash potatoes without nutmeg)

Around 30 mins to prepare, then 30 mins-1 hour cooking time , depending if you put the potato topping on the pie or serve separatley

400f/200c

Method

1 . Put the fish in a baking tin, season lightly, dot with 25g of the butter and pour over half the milk, bake for 15-20 mins

2. Pour off and reserve the cooking liquid, break the fish into fairly large chunks

3. To make the sauce, melt the remaining butter, stir in the flour. Gradually add the cooking liquid and the remaining milk

4. Mix in the fish, eggs, capers, dill and lemon juice, and check and adjust the seasoning

5. At this point you can put back into the baking tin, cover with the mashed potato and bake for 30 mins, but I prefer to serve the mash on the side.

Prawns or mussels would also be good stirred into this!

just a thought, i bet the crumble topping would be good on this