Tons of food and a bigger bump

November somehow disappeared from the Earth, mainly because of sleepiness. Half sleeping for consecutive days makes life just fly by. However, my brain still seems busy as I have the craziest and at times scariest dreams ever - a common side effect of the hormones that are currently occupying my body.

Between sleeping I've not only tried my best to cook and eat, but also document some of my culinary adventures. Let's have a look.

Breakfast; by miles the best meal of the day. One with wholegrain walnut buns and one that was actually more like a dessert. I'd already had yoghurt as a first meal, peanut butter toast a few hours later and then this. It's just how it goes when you wake up starving three times throughout the night.

I was given a bag of homegrown Jerusalem artichokes and learned some new useful stuff. I grated a couple of them to use in potato cakes and roasted the rest with potatoes and lots of garlic. Interestingly they were really gluey, but tasty. Highly recommended.

And yeah, I made that soup again and served it with homemade bread. I just can't get enough.

One nippy Sunday afternoon I went to a charity shop in the Northern Quarter and finished the journey at my favourite restaurant. Apparently they've got a new menu that I just have to check out. Something to add to my imaginary postnatal to-do-list.

Stir fry is exactly the kind of food that's suitable for a sick and nauseous stomach, therefore I ended up having it more than once during this month. Though on one of my better days I finally managed to make a good whole wheat pizza dough, which has been a rather long and sweaty process. I've experimented and failed on a couple of occasions so the satisfaction level was like: enormous.

I paid my neighbour Teatime Collective a visit and had a gorgeous dark chocolate flapjack. Another day I went to another local cafe and had another sort of dark chocolate. The sort of luxury you can allow yourself when you're on maternity leave and not asleep.

One Friday Jon made a dinner of roasted beetroots, sweet potatoes and halloumi with butter fried asparagus and a beetroot dip. Oh, love. And finally, last Saturday we had tacos. Every single time I have it I wonder why I don't eat it more often. Many years ago back in Sweden, when I used to visit my family over the weekends, it was always served on the Friday of my arrival. A very nice tradition if you'd ask me.

Although it's impractical at times (and bigger than the photos tell) I'm slowly starting to become one with this bump. I've also entered a much more relaxed mental phase of the pregnancy where most of the troubles and worries are blown out the window. Finally I can enjoy it to its full extent and grasp what that wonderful blooming is all about.

Roasted Pepper and Green Lentil Tomato Soup with Feta Cheese Dip

Here's another one of those dishes that pretty much cooks itself. I guess you've figured out how much I like being lazy sometimes, or just busy with other stuff than cooking.

This soup requires about 5 minutes of preparation, 30 minutes of cooking and another minute to plate up. So simple, yet even more delicious.

Potato, red pepper and red onion

Roasted pepper and green lentil tomato soup

Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 30 min
Serves 1 (hungry)

1 small/medium potato
1 red pepper
1 red onion
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tin (400g) peeled plum tomatoes
1/2 dl green lentils
2 dl stock from 1/2 vegetable stock cube

Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Chop the potato and pepper into cubes and cut the onion into wedges, and place them in an oven tray. Cover the vegetables in olive oil, stir and place in the oven for about 30 min, until they've gone a little brown and soft.
Pour the tomatoes into a hot sauce pan and mash everything into the sized chunks you want, and add the lentils and vegetable stock. When the mix is boiling, lower the heat and leave it to simmer under a lid.
When the vegetables are ready, mix them with the tomatoes and lentils.
Plate up with the feta cheese dip on top (recipe below).

Feta cheese dip with chilli flakes

Feta cheese dip

3 tbsp yoghurt
50g feta cheese
1/2 tsp chilli flakes 
1/2 tsp black pepper

In a small bowl, mix the yoghurt, chunks of feta cheese, chilli flakes and black pepper, and stir. Keep it refrigerated until the soup is ready.

Roasted Pepper and Green Lentil Tomato Soup with Feta Cheese Dip

Green Pea Soup with Mint

Good morning November. It turns out, the October round-up was pretty popular, perhaps I should use the p-word more often? Or maybe it was the 'b' one...?

Anyway, despite nausea I finally got around to make that soup I was on about last week. Making a soup of green peas, leek and cream had been on my mind for a while. I had an idea of not adding much salt or pepper because I wanted the flavours from the vegetables and cream to really come through. I also added a few new potatoes, for texture rather than taste. And inspired by Joshua Brook's mushy peas, I added a generous amount of dried mint - next time I might try fresh.

Remember I've said before that I am easily pleased but not so easy to impress? Well, that concerns my own cooking more than anything. There are always at least a few things to improve until next time, and I'm not late to point them out. With this dish however, I found myself sitting on the floor shouting out "THIS IS GORGEOUS" before my dinner partner even had time to try it.

I should mention, I wasn't the only one finding it a success. If you imagine the perfect symbiosis of creaminess and freshness, This Is It. Texture, flavours, smell - all of it so smooth and simply amazing.

But enough of the bragging, let's get on with the cooking.

Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 25 min
Serves 2

1 large leek
3 small new potatoes (or one large)
2,5 dl frozen peas
1/2 vegetable stock cube
4 dl water
2 dl cream
20g butter 
1 tbsp dried mint
1/2 tsp each of salt and black pepper

In one pan (or kettle), bring 4 dl of water to the boil, add the stock cube and let it dissolve.
Heat a large sauce pan and add the butter. Chop the leek and potato and place them in the pan together with the peas. Stir for about 2 minutes.
Add the vegetable stock and cream to the pan, and stir.
Finally add the mint, and season with only a tiny amount of salt and black pepper.
Leave to simmer under a lid for 25 min.
Mash the ingredients, stir and serve with wholegrain bread and cheese on the side.

Delicious green pea soup with leek, potato, cream and mint

Butternut Squash, Red Lentil and Broccoli Soup

Hello soup Monday. If you've got any leftovers from making the pasta I posted last week, this is a perfect soup to make today, and if not, it's still a pretty good one. Enjoy. 

Butternut squash, red lentil and broccoli soup with lemon juice

Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 25 min
Serves 2

1 butternut squash
1 large onion
1 dl red lentils
50g broccoli
1 vegetable stock cube
1/2 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Bring 6 dl of water to the boil and mix with the stock cube.
Peel the butternut squash and rinse the seeds. Chop it into smaller pieces.
Chop the onion and broccoli and put them, together with the butternut squash, in some olive oil in a medium hot pan. Stir for a minute.
Pour the water over and aadd the lentils. Season with salt and black pepper and stir.
Leave under a lid for about 20 min.
Mash the soup if you want it smooth.
Add the juice from the lemon.

Sweet Potato, Lentil and Leek Soup

So, autumn is finally here. Jumpers, hats, waterproof boots, candles, homemade breads and soups. UK is supposed to get cooler by the end of the week so what better way to keep warm than by making simple, nutritious and delicious soups?

Sweet potato, lentil and leek soup

Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: 25 min
Serves 2

1 dl red lentils
1 large sweet potato
1 leek
1 garlic clove
1 vegetable stock cube
6 dl water
3 tbsp natural yoghurt
Olive oil
Black pepper

Chop the leak and garlic finely and the potato into cubes.
Put olive oil, leek, garlic and black pepper in a pan on medium heat. Stir until they've got a bit of colour.
Boil 6 dl of water and mix with the stock cube.
Pour the stock into the pan, then the potatoes and lentils.
Cover with a lid and leave on low heat for 25 min.
Mash everything (or leave as it is if you prefer a lumpy soup).
Stir in the yoghurt and serve.