Creamy basil pesto dip from scratch

Mmm, don’t you just love fresh basil? It’s definitely one of my favourite herbs and I’m pretty sure I could eat pesto for months and not get sick of it—especially fresh, homemade pesto! Perhaps the only thing I love more is sushi, which I’m munching on while writing this lunchtime update.

I wish I could say that this basil was from my own garden, but alas I seem to be struggling to coax anything to grow except for my two gorgeous zucchini plants. Ah well. Summer has been taking its time arriving in Australia, so perhaps there is time yet for oodles of home-grown veggies and herbs!

This basil pesto dip was so easy to whip up before having guests over, and tasted great the next day too. The best part is that it isn’t made from pre-made pesto, so you have control over all of the ingredients and can adjust them to your taste. Enjoy!

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Edited: November 6th, 2011

Cheesy Cauliflower Soup

Ah the life of a food blogger. I must have taken three different sets of photos for this soup, to finally settle on this photo which needed more than a little Photoshopping (and yes, that’s a recognized verb in my browser) in the end. It looks okay… yet somehow I feel like I’m in a photography slump lately, and perhaps that’s the reason for the infrequent postings this last month or so. Work has been quiet and I’ve had more than enough daylight to take those lovely window-lit photos mid-afternoon that other food bloggers rave about… and yet I look at my plating and composition and feel thoroughly unsatisfied. Argh!

Some exciting news however is that I found a great eBay deal on a Canon Speedlite 430ex external flash for my lil’ Rebel—and while it has not revolutionized my photography literally overnight, sigh—I do look forward to having a bit more flexibility in the kitchen. There’s a lot to learn and I’m looking forward to it!

Anyway, this cheesy cauliflower soup is a Jamie Oliver-inspired dish from his Ministry of Food cookbook. It’s a brilliant thing! The average foodie might pick it up and see all the basic recipes and go, “What do I need this for?” but it’s just darn useful. A few of my favourite recipes have come from it—check out my basic steamed rice, meatballs, and carrot feta salad, all of which were inspired by Ministry of Food.

The bragging rights for this soup are a bit special for me. Our roommate Tom—a chronic carnivore and unfoodie—isn’t a fan of soups and is only borderline on stews. The poor boy has been at home the last couple weeks sick with mono—with a slight silver lining being that his throat has swollen so that he can eat nothing but soup! It’s hardly a pleasing situation, but at least I had an excuse to perfect some recipes.

Upon serving up a dish of this soup, he immediately turned to me and went, “This is bloody good!” …so there you go. A soup to please even the most discerning of soup skeptics. Enjoy! (more…)

Edited: August 7th, 2011

Tomato Soup – Homemade & Healthy!

I love tomato soup. It’s just so wonderfully comforting and filling, and is a wonderful vehicle for consuming a large number of grilled cheese sandwiches (one of my favourite pass times!). This tomato soup is, if I do say myself, a gorgeous and slightly more grown-up version of the traditional “from a can” stuff that you probably had as a kid. And it’s ever-so-satisfying to the tastebuds as well as the stomach—the addition of red lentils makes this soup heartier and more filling.

Another great thing about this soup is how quickly it can be made; I literally threw it together in fifteen minutes, then just had to let it simmer for a little while. If you have nothing but tinned goods in your pantry but need something warm and filling, this fits the ticket admirably! Consider replacing the tinned diced tomatoes with fresh tomatoes, about 2-3 per tin, depending on their size. The soup would also be wonderful with a handful of fresh basil leaves, blended in or as a garnish.

Enjoy this hearty and delicious soup!

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Edited: May 17th, 2011

Roasted Vegetable Crepe Cake

Let’s talk about crepes again, shall we? My love affair for crepes continues—and this roasted vegetable crepe “cake” is just one of the various recipes I’m sure I’ll be posting on the blog. This is actually quite a similar recipe and process to the roasted vegetable tortilla stack, another great vegetarian option for dinner. The versatility of this kind of recipe is something to be appreciated, since you can use any blend of vegetables to your liking… and let’s be honest, anything held together primarily by cheese has got to be good. Right? Right. It’s certainly my cooking philosophy!

You’ll need to have made a batch or two of crepes before making this cake, and they will all need to be roughly the same size and shape. When making your crepes, consider what size they’d need to be to fit comfortably into a round baking dish, too—they should fit snugly, without too much of a gap and without having to curl up too much on the sides. You could probably bake this free-standing if you had to, but I certainly recommend spending the $10 on a simple springform pan since it’ll make your life a lot easier!

On another note, I’m sad (and you probably are too, right?) that I haven’t been posting more recently. Life has just been busy—darn life!—and combined with Easter holidays, time seems to be whipping by without me getting a chance to write things up. Horrible! But hopefully I’ll be back posting more regularly again now that things have calmed down a bit. There’s a bit of good news too—our new roommate is gluten intolerant, so you coeliacs will be getting a whole lot more attention! Turns out that cooking gluten free isn’t as hard as I thought it would be; you just have to be mindful of ingredients that might have wheat products in them that you might not realize (like soy sauce, or stock powder, who knew, right?). Anyway—on with the recipe!

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Edited: April 26th, 2011