One Foundation, Two Dishes | This Geeky Kitchen

Six weeks into lockdown and it’s been a fascinating food journey in what I need to eat, what the boy needs to eat, and how we use our food. We now have our regular order down, and we’re having fun expanding our food horizons – potatoes really are awesome!

There are two dishes we keep coming back to, time and again: a soup for lunch times and a pasta sauce – the latter usually coming towards the end of a week cycle in the day(s) before the next order arrives.

Both dishes have the same foundations (onion, carrot and celery), and I thought I’d share both of them for you here – I even managed to work out how to get all the nutrition information using this analyser – amazing for cooks who make it all up on the fly!

Happy cooking, and if you decide to give them a whirl, don’t forget to tag me: @thisgeekytangent.

Serves: 5

This onion is massive, so 1/4 = 1 regular onion.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 carrots, finely chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp minced ginger (I used frozen)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (I used frozen)
• 1 tsp ground corriander
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 145g split peas
• at least 500 ml water, plus extra as needed.

Method

Heat the oil in a pan, then add the onion, garlic and ginger, stirring frequently, until the onion is beginning to turn translucent.

Add the ground coriander, coating the onion well.

shuggle, shuggle

If this is sticking to your pan, add a little water to shuggle it around a bit (technical term) to save all that coriander goodness, then add the carrot and celery. Cook for a few minutes.

Add at least 500ml water and crumble in the stock cube and add the split peas. The amount of water you use depends on your pan and your preferences. I add by eye and use the “as much as you think you need and then a bit more” rule of thumb!

Bring to the boil, then simmer till the carrots are soft enough to blend. This will very much depend on the carrots. I find supermarket carrots, or older ones, soften faster. The ones I used this time were the terminators of carrots and took AGES to soften.

Keep an eye on the soup during its simmering time, topping up the water any time you need. You need enough liquid for blending.

When it’s ready for blending, take it off the heat and blend with whatever you choose – I only have a stick blender, and it works perfectly. You may want to add a little water during blending to achieve the desired consistency.

I usually make this the day before and add a splash of water before heating it up.

Grind over some pepper before eating.

homemade soup with homemade bread = happiness

Optional Extras

Cooked a ham? Throw the leftovers in at the end!

Baked homemade bread? Grab a chunk for dunking (and don’t forget a sneaky bit of butter if you like!)

Eat well, but eat to enjoy!

Serves: 4

This is another quarter of the onion used for the soup

Ingredients

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped (I had a wee extra one to use up)
• 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
• 2 tins chopped tomato (or 1 for two people)
• 2 tsp dried basil (or 1 for two people)
• 2 tsp smoked paprika (or 1 for two people)
• Frozen veg of choice – I use sliced bell pepper

Method

Heat the oil in a pan, then add the onion and cook till beginning to turn translucent.

Add the carrots and celery and cook till the celery begins to soften and the they both begin to colour. Cook for longer if you want the carrot to be softer – I like a bit of crunch.

At this point, as I’m generally cooking for two, I split this veg medley – half remains in the pan, and the other half goes into a bowl to cool down before going into the fridge. I then either use it to make a pasta sauce the next day with less prep time, or as the foundation for something else. All you have to do is re-heat before continuing from this point.

Remember, if cooking for 2, use HALF the chopped tomato, basil and smoked paprika.

After splitting the veg, I add some frozen peppers, straight into the pan. I’d say maybe a handful-ish (a technical measurement). If you’re cooking for four, add more.

The pepper doesn’t take long to soften down, and then you can add one tin of chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp of dried basil and 1 tsp smoked paprika (double if you are cooking for four).

Make sure everything is well combined and heated through, and it is ready to use at your leisure with your pasta of choice!

Don’t forget a little pepper before serving!

Optional Extras

Of course, a little bit of grated cheese never goes amis!

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