THE Nicest Pumpkin Soup

1 small Pumpkin
4 small Onions
2 medium Sweet Potatoes
Olive Oil
Vegetable Broth
Garlic Purée
Pepper

Dice the pumpkin, onions and sweet potatoes. Stir fry them in a pan for 5 minutes with some olive oil and garlic purée. Add vegetable stock and water to cover the veg, bring to the boil and then simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft. Grind in some pepper to taste, then put everything into the blender.

Result - two portions of amazingly sweet, comforting, yellowy, homely, warm, mushy goodness. It's so creamy and light it's hard to believe there's no soya milk or cream in it!

I also made Gerry some Sweet Potato Chews of my own:

I sliced them raw and put them in the oven at 140 degrees for almost 3 hours. They were really good, I ended up stealing some from him, and he went CRAZY over them, begging for more (hence the blurry photo)! I will have to wait for the ones I ordered to arrive in the post, to see what kind of texture they are meant to be. They are meant to be a veggie alternative to rawhide, so they are meant to take a while to chew, but mine were gone in an instant - maybe because they were too small (they shrank a lot as they were dehydrating). I'll have to experiment more...

Burgers, Pasties & Some Culture!

Today I went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art to see two exhibitions of works by Spanish painter Ferran Garcia Sevilla, and Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa. Both were very interesting, especially Garaicoa's architecturally-inspired paper creations, so I'd recommend a trip to IMMA to see them if you're at a loose end around Dublin one weekend in the near future.

On the way back I decided to call into Blazing Salads to pick up some food to review for the blog. I was planning on buying some of their ready meals. I would not normally buy any sort of ready meal as I prefer to cook from scratch, so I know what has gone into my meal and know that it will be healthy... of course this would not be a problem with Blazing Salad's excellent standards of cuisine, but when I saw the price they charge for this privilege I decided I couldn't really afford to get a few meals when they were over €7.00 each! Instead I opted for the Sweet Potato Burger and the Butternut Squash Pastie. Neither were listed on the website as I thought they would be, so I do not have a list of the exact ingredients. At just over €2.00 each they were good value and filling. I preferred the pastie to the burger, as I found the burger to be a bit blander than I expected. However the butternut squash in the pastie made it sweet and juicy, and it was the perfect size. Pasties are normally quite greasy, but this little wholemeal-pastry-encased delight was nothing but healthy :)

I also picked up a couple of their frozen soups to review over the next couple of days. One is a Ukrainian broth with beetroot, beans and parsnips, whereas the other is an Indian spiced butternut squash soup. A large pot costs only €3.90, and you can get them already heated in store for lunch, along with a slice of their sourdough bread. All their soups are vegan and I had trouble choosing which ones to buy. I can't wait to try them as they look adventurous and intriguing!