The best soup in the world

Well, hello there. It's been a while since I posted something. 

Frankly I have been busy neglecting my health by working and studying. 

But now spring has arrived and I have more time and energy to put on deliscious and healthy food.

First harvest in the garden comes from weed, the nettles. Use gloves and a scissor to pick them, you surely know why. Nettles makes a perfect tasty and healthy soup, filled with vitamins and minerals.

Nettle soup

Pick 3 L lightly packed nettles. Wash them in the sink with lots of water.

Boil a large pan with water and boil the nettles a few minutes.

Drain off the water, but save it to water the plants (great fertilizer)

Chop the nettles finely in a blender

Take the large pan and melt a large piece of butter (or coconut oil)

Whisk down 3 tablespoons of flour in the melted butter

Add 2-3 liters of boiling water while stirring

Add vegetable broth (3 chunks or 1 dl liquid)

Add the nettles and boil for 5 minutes

Give the soup some spices, pepper and chili

Eventually add salt.

Serve with egg halves

Vegetable salt

Hello there!

I miss a real herb garden. It's not that there's lack of space, the case is that I don't have the time to finish the building of it, a stone wall that will preserve the heat from the sun for the herbs to thrive. 

In the garden I had before this one, I had a bed for my herbs and made a very tasty herb salt every year.

This blog gave me the idea of making a salt of vegetable. It's in swedish, sadly for you foreign readers, but she has many great ideas about growing and cooking vegetables.

Anyhow, here's my version of veggie salt

1 onion

a couple of kale leaves

a bunch of tips from the sugar snaps

a grab of nasturtium leaves

A big bunch of basil leaves (the only herb)

two chilis (not the hot ones)

and a grab of maché lettuce

see photo below.

Mix all the ingredients above in a blender and pour 200 ml salt while still blending. The salt will absorb the juices and preserve the tastes of the greens.

Dry the salt in the owen with the door slightly open, the temperature should not be higher than 50 degrees Celsius. Store in nice glass jars.

This salt goes to everything and add a lovely taste to any dish. 

Hot and sweet tomato marmalade

It looks like two cans of sunshine and it's not far from the truth. This marmalade is easy peasy to make and you only need three ingredients to make it.

First of all, you need tomatoes. This tomato is a Russian outdoor bush tomato. It is easy to grow in buckets and it gives you plenty of golden mild tasting tomatoes.

Then you need a chili fruit. Just one. This chili is not very hot so I used a large one. If you use a hot chili, use only half of the fruit. The red one at the bottom was picked for this marmalade to give it some red decorative dots.

Recipe

1 kg peeled yellow tomatoes cut to pieces

1kg sugar with pectine (marmalade and jam sugar)

1 chili fruit finely choped

Add everything in a saucepan and boil on medium heat until the tomatoes "falls apart". Remove carefully any foam and pour in clean cans. 

I'm so happy for this years growing season. All my vegetables has been growing very successful this summer. Usually at least one wont thrive. The warm weather with watering everyday did the trick. Here's my bed with kidneybeans ready to be picked, enclosed by nasturtiums.

My sugar snaps has grown all the way up in the apple tree. It's over 2m height and still gives me crispy, sweet and stringless snaps. This is the best sort ever it is called English saber (but translated)

 This is how I treat my vegetable beds when the crops are harvested. I turn the tops and soil with a fork and mix it with grass clip.

 Do you grow your own veggies? 

Taking care of the harvest

It has been a great summer for my lemontree this year. I planted it in a huge pot and it growed wildly. I haven't seen any budding lemons though even if we got lots of flowers. Maybe it put all energy to grow branches and leaves. 

Anyway the branches became to long so I cut a few off and put them in pots to see if there will be any new lemontrees. Wouldn't those become a great christmas gift or birthday present?

 The leaves in front of the pots will be stored in the freezer. Yes these will be excellent for adding a hint of lime in a stew. You know you can buy those dried lime leafs in asian food stores? These are the same but when you put them fresh in the freezer you save all the essential oils for the stew. I get some clever ideas sometimes ;-)

Another clever idea when you get too many zucchinis. Chop them up and put them in the freezer. I chop them in slices and cubes. The slices are a great topping on a home made pizza.

I don't buy much canned or frozen vegetables during the winter season when I grow and store the excess my own.

Tea blend

Maybe a bit late for posting this. But if your garden is fresh still there is time to pick leaves for a tea blend.

Last years blend were only made of black currant leaves and raspberry leaves but this year I added rose leaves both flower and bush and flowers from red clover.

The leaves are poured over a oven tray with a parchment paper on. Let the leaves dry in room temperature on an airy space. Store the leaves in a tin can (not airtight). This will be my brew in the darkest months of winter when I need a sip of summer memories.

C-vitamin rich black currant juice

Another fluid post. As I don't get many berries this recipe is excellent for bringing out the best and most of  the small amount. 

You get a ruby coloured drink when mixing 1:4.

200 black currant leaves

1 L black currant berries

1 organic lemon in slices

600g sugar

2 L

Bring the water to boil with the sugar added. Pour the hot fluid over the rest of the ingredients, cover with a lit and let it stay in a cold place for 3 days. Strain and store in the freezer.

Cooling slushie

I recently posted this refresher on my other blog. For you who don't read it I post it here as well because I can't recommend it enough to you. It is soo soothing at a hot day.
A watermelon slushie. It's so easy and refreshing.

Cut watermelon in cubes, throw in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. I buy whole melons and freeze the excess. If the cubes are deep frozen, let them soften for about half an hour. Put them in a blender and mix until you get a smooth slushie. If you like add water or soda.