pea soup comfort

Tags

autumn, comfort food, cooking, food, healthy, home made, pea soup, recipe, soup, stew, vegtable

There is nothing better than a hot plate of soup when it’s cold and wet outside, and when the soup is thick and stewy it is just pure bliss.

Since I live on my own I often just buy a tub of fresh soup as I don’t want to be eating the same dish all week long. While they mostly are yummy and filled with vegetablely goodness they do tend to be more on the slurpy side, lacking that little bit of bite and substance.

So yesterday I took the wooden spoon into my own hands and stirred up a batch of pea soup, one of my favourites. Since I didn’t have a recipe, and I was too lazy to google it I decided to make it up as I went along and was delighted with the result.

I chopped up some onions, added a handful of cubed bacon and braised them in the pot. Once they had simmered nicely and the onions where clear I took the mixture out of the pot and put it to the side. Then it was time for the peas.

I bought a large glass of fresh peas in my local shop, added some broth, a bit of salt, a tad of pepper, some garlic and a good handful of a soup mix (lentils, split peas and barley) and let it cook.

While the soup was bubbling away I chopped up two carrots. After about ten minutes my hand blender blended everything together while still having a stewy consistency. Finally I added the onions, the bacon and the carrots and let the soup simmer away for a little while (until the carrots were soft).

Once all was done I poured myself a large bowl of soup and enjoyed every comforting spoonful and I am delighted that I made enough to enjoy more of the scrumptious soup today.

stews and accidents

Tags

accidents, food, quotes, stew, thoughts

The today I made myself a stew, and not to toot my own horn, but it was delicious. Beef stewed in red wine with carrots and onions over some potatoes really is the perfect comfort food on these grey January nights

The problem however was that the pot I was using isn’t the best and a thick crust of ‘close to being burnt’ debris got stuck at the bottom. I knew when I started it could be a possibility but ignored my intuition and was left scrubbing a pot that I may need to get rid of.

As I was scrubbing away I couldn’t help but think about accidents, or unexpected occurrences that seem to interrupt our days, some days seem to be constantly interrupted by unexpected events, not only costing us time but often our last nerve.

For instance on Tuesday I was working at my desk and half an hour before it was time to brave the dark cold wet that had taken over Dublin my full cup of tea decided to topple and spill. Small rivers of tea drenched my desk, my clothes and a puddle of the hot brew gathered around my socks. Luckily for me the tea had cooled off a bit so I wasn’t burnt. But all my paperwork was ruined and I had to get changed, with only a few minutes to spare I arrived in college annoyed and all because of a cup of tea.

But then maybe, if I hadn’t been preoccupied I would have paid more attention to where I put my cup and nothing would have happened. So while those little accidents do annoy us we are often the ones that make them happen. So maybe we should see those little accidents as reminders to be ‘mindful’, as little hints to refocus and not let our autopilot take over too much.

And if all else fails, thankfully a hot bowl of stew can make most thinks better!

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

Aristotle