Category Archives: winter

Roasted winter vegetable soup

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Roasting the vegetables gives this soup a delicious flavor, as the veggies caramelise and develop a depth of flavor that boiling just doesn’t achieve.

I’m a bit casual with ingredient quantities – this recipe doesn’t require precision measuring (and I kind of made it up as I went anyway), so don’t worry if you have more or less of something. You can make this as thick or as thin as you like, simply by adjusting the amount of stock you add.


Serves 6

About 500-600g sweet potato
1 large parsnip
1 medium swede
2-3 large carrots
1 large brown onion
3 medium tomatoes
5-8 whole cloves garlic, unpeeled
2-3 tbs olive oil
¼ cabbage
2-3 stalks celery
1 to 1.5L chicken or vegetable stock
½ cup chopped fresh herbs of choice*

Preheat oven to 180C.

Peel sweet potato, parsnip, swede and carrots and cut into chunks about 3cm square. Peel onion and cut into quarters. Quarter tomatoes and remove seeds and pulp. Place the prepared vegies into a large baking dish and add the olive oil, mixing well – using your hands works best, but a spoon will do if you don’t like to get mucky.

Place baking dish into oven and bake for about 40 minutes, then add whole garlic cloves and return to the oven for an additional 40 minutes.  The exact cooking time will depend on your oven, which veg you use and the size of the pieces. Move the veggies around in the pan a few times during cooking.

Meanwhile, slice the cabbage and celery and place in a saucepan with the stock. Bring to the boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until veggies are tender. Remove the pan from the oven and squeeze out the roasted garlic from the cloves, discarding the skin.

If your saucepan is big enough, tip the roasted veggies in with the cabbage & celery, add the herbs and use a stick blender to puree the soup, adding extra stock or water if it’s too thick. Alternatively, you can use a traditional blender and blend the veggies plus stock in 2 batches. Return to the saucepan and heat, stirring to mix well. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with a blob of Greek yoghurt and some extra chopped herbs sprinkled over.

* I scrounged whatever was available in the garden and ended up using rosemary, oregano and parsley. Thyme and/or sage would work well too.

** After removing the roasted veggies, if pieces have stuck to the bottom of the baking dish, pour a little of the stock in and scrape the brown bits off the pan, then add them to the mixture to be blended – these are the most flavoursome parts!

Chicken, leek and mushroom pie

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Lovely winter recipe, just perfect for a cold night.

Serves 4

600g chicken thigh fillets, skin removed and fat trimmed
2 tbs olive oil
2 leeks, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced into 1cm slices
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 medium potato, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
About 12 button mushrooms, sliced thickly
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tsp flour
2 tsp water
1/2 cup thickened cream
1 sheet frozen ready-rolled puff pastry

Dice the chicken, heat half the olive oil in a pan and cook till browned and almost cooked through. Set aside. Heat the remaining oil and cook the leeks, potato and garlic until the leeks begin to soften. Add mushrooms and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Add the stock and wine and bring to the boil. Mix flour and water together and add to the pan, mixing well. Bring to the boil once more, stirring to ensure no lumps form, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. The liquid should be reduced and quite thick by this time – if not, simmer a bit longer. Add the cream and stir through, then transfer the mixture to a deep pie dish. Cover with the defrosted pastry and trim to fit. Cut vents in the pastry, crimp the edges, and brush with milk or beaten egg. Optional: sprinkle 1-2 tsp poppy seeds over the pastry.

Bake at 200C for 25-35 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.

If you want to reduce calories in this recipe, substitute light evaporated milk for the cream, halve the oil and use a non-stick pan. You could also leave out the wine and use extra stock or water, but the flavour will change slightly.