I’m completing two of November’s Food Revolution Ambassador Monthly Challenges today – working with slow cookers and making something starting with the letter “N” ! First up, let’s talk slow cookers. I know we often think about using a slow cooker for something like chili or stew but how about a soup? Normally when I make a soup, I like to sauté the onions and garlic with some spices and herbs before I cook the veggies and add the stock. It’s mostly for this reason that I don’t use a slow cooker for soup much of the time – why dirty more pots and pans than you need to? The other night, though I found myself with all the ingredients on hand for a fabulous cold-weather soup (and no lunch planned for the following day!) but no time to stay up and cook it (well, unless I wanted to stay up until after midnight) so I chopped all the vegetables roughly and stuck them in the slow cooker on low overnight (about 7 hours). Result? Soup ready to blend in the morning with a lovely flavour simply because it took so long to cook. It was even better the night after!
- 30g butter
- 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 level tablespoons curry powder (I used a mild one)
- 300g peeled and chopped butternut squash
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 small apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
- 6 cups (750mls) vegetable stock or water
- (optional) 4 tablespoons 35% (whipping) cream
- Place all ingredients except cream in a slow cooker, stirring to make sure the curry powder is evenly distributed.
- Cook on low for 7 hours (it might not take this long but this is a great one to make overnight!)
- Allow to cool before blending with an immersion (stick) blender or in a regular blender/ food processor.
- If you like, stir in the cream to finish.
- Serve with warm naan.
What better to serve a mild curried soup with than freshly made naan? The perfect match (and, bonus – it starts with the letter N so it counts as one of the monthly challenges this month too!). I’ve never made naan before but it didn’t seem that complicated. I found Aarti Sequeira’s recipe on Food Network and it looked pretty do-able so I went with that. The dough took just a few minutes to come together, I let it rest for 2 hours then formed the naan. These cook on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet in just about 2 minutes each!
Then you brush them with a little butter, sprinkle then with coarse salt and wrap them in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest. These tasted JUST like “real” (i.e. restaurant or store-bought) naan – I know they look a little too charred but hey, from scratch naan – my first attempt? Not too bad huh?
It went perfectly with the soup. Comfort food at its finest.
I’m submitting this to November’s Simple and in Season over at Feeding Boys.
US/Canadian readers – Win a copy of Mastering the Art of French Eating! Ends November 25th 2014 6pm EST. Details here.
Canadian readers – Win a copy of Street Food Diaries! Ends November 25th 2014 6pm EST. Details here.
I really must make a soup in my slow cooker! Trouble is i’m so impatient that I tend to make soup right before I want to eat it… I’m particularly loving your home made naan breads.. amazing! Thanks so much for joining us for this month’s round of Simple and in Season.