Monday, January 2, 2012

She-Ra, Near Death Experiences & the Evolution of the SuperSoup

Hello one and all - well, well, well boys and girls (as Uncle Gaybo would say) WHAT a day I've had. It started off quite well, with an episode or two of the eponymous Princess of Power, or She-Ra to give her her full title. She-Ra was a Saturday morning staple of my childhood and Himself very kindly got me a DVD of some of the best episodes for Christmas (JOY!) so I've been working my way through them gleefully while on my holidays. And don't worry, there will definitely be a post on this lady coming up soon!

Anyway, I finally staggered downstairs to be greeted enthusiastically by the two mutts and one husband. 'Husband'- says I - ' Did you take the bow out of the dogs hair?'. Husband replied rather emphatically that he had not. 'Hmmmm', says I. Cue frantic searching of the entire house for the missing bow, only to realize rather belatedly that Miss Phoebe the dog must have eaten it. The vet is practically on speed-dial, so a quick phone call assured us that the missing bow would inevitably make an appearance and there was nothing to worry about, as it was relatively small and would be sure to, ahem, pass with no problems...however, this did not prevent Little Miss Phoebe from assuming an expression of utter despair and acting as if she was about to be martyred all afternoon (or until someone rattled her bag of treats. That seemed to have an instant uplifting effect)

After the stresses of the morning, I decided that I needed something healthy, packed with nutrients and as comforting as a big squidgy hug for my dinner. Something that a superhero would quaff before an epic battle perhaps. A quick check of the vegetable drawer confirmed my suspicions that this area of the kitchen had been completely and utterly neglected during the 2011 FatFest (or the week between Christmas and New Year's as it's known to everyone else). The following ingredients caught my eye, so inspired by my cartoon-watching earlier in the day, I decided to make a SuperSoup.


I chopped up the above (2 sweet potatoes, 1 regular potato, 1 apple, 2 onions, 2 parsnips and around 8 carrots), drizzled them with sesame oil, seasoned them with black pepper and threw in three cloves of garlic for good measure. Aww pretty.


I literally flung them in the oven (as I was in the middle of watching The Empire Strikes Back - nerdgasm alert) at around 180 degrees for an hour, or until they got all charred and caramelised and generally yummy.


These guys got added to a litre and a half of vegetable stock (gluten free of course) and I simmered them for around 10 mins, before chucking them into a blender and serving with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of black pepper - and it was pretty darn tasty, even if I do say so myself!


So there you have it! She-Ra, a near death experience and the evolution of the SuperSoup - and I bet you thought I had gone slightly barmy with the title of the blog post (I'll pretend I didn't hear that, you at the back!)

Ciao for now peeps...


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