Welcome! + weekday lunches #1

Welcome to the first instalment of Procrastiveg, where I show you things that I've cooked (usually while I'm supposed to be doing something else). True to form, I've got a 2000 word case study due tomorrow at 5pm and I may or may not have started writing. It's fully-researched though...

Due to the fact that I can be quite poor at time management (as we've already established), for the last month or so I've been making lunches on Sunday afternoons which I eat throughout the week. I do this because eating vegan out and about is not only tricky, but expensive. Why spend $10+ on sushi one day of the week when I can spend $30 on groceries and make balanced, nutritious and filling lunch for all five days?

The first week I made shepherd's pie with lentils, mushroom, peas and spinach served with baked sweet potato, cauliflower and lemon garlic kale. Second week was tofu quiche with mushroom, capsicum, spinach and kale, with broccoli and lemon garlic kale on the side. Third week was my super hearty vegie soup (with pearl barley) - this is a staple of mine, so the recipe will definitely appear here as long as my attention span holds out. Last week was (vegan) hokkien noodles with mushrooms, capsicum, wombok, pak choy, baby corn.

This week, I kept things (relatively) simple and put together some 

Asparagus & Pea Soup, with Garlic Croutons and Herby Roast Potatoes.

This recipe was largely derived from Minimalist Baker, but the potatoes were ad hoc. It's a beautiful recipe, and I was actually surprised by how delicious the soup was! It is incredibly simple to make, with only a few ingredients and short cooking time. Here's the recipe, with my slight tweaks:

Grocery list:

• 3 x supermarket bundles of asparagus
• 3 cups frozen peas
• 5 large cloves garlic
• 2 shallots (the mini-onions, not spring onions)
• 3 average-sized potatoes - Dutch Creams are ideal for this
• 6 slices or so of supermarket bread (I used Coles Multigrain)

And if you don't have all this already:

• 500ml (that's 2 cups) of vegie stock - I use Massel (one stock cube = two cups)
• 2 and a half cups of almond/soy milk - unsweetened
• 1/2 lemon's worth of juice, or a few big squirts of bottled lemon juice. Bottled lemon juice is so useful! Buy the little lemon-shaped Sicilian ones if you see them.
• Italian herb mix
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Let's get started!

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Wash the asparagus and chop off the ends, as well as any bits that look too tough.
3. Lay them out on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Spray with olive oil, and grind salt and pepper over the top. Roll them around a bit to coat in oil and seasoning.
4. Put them in the oven with a timer for 15 minutes. Start peeling and chopping the potatoes into smallish chunks.
5. Put the chopped potato into a bowl with a 2 - 3 tablespoons of olive oil, a good shake (let's say 2 teaspoons) of Italian herb mix, and grind some salt and pepper in. Put in a teaspoon or two of garlic powder for good measure. Toss, making sure all the potatoes are evenly coated with seasoning and oil.
6. Spread the potatoes out on another oven tray, and chuck them in the oven. These will stay in pretty much until you've finished the soup - you can leave them be (turn down the oven to ~140C if you're worried you'll forget) and pull them out when they're nice and crispy.
7. Chop the garlic and shallots nice and fine.
8. Heat a big pot on the stove over medium heat - this is important otherwise your garlic will go brown before the onion cooks. Add three tablespoons of oil, and wait for this to start to shimmer. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until the shallots are translucent (two minutes or so).
9. Add the stock, almond/soy milk and the frozen peas. Simmer until the peas have thoroughly defrosted and everything is well-combined.
10. Once the asparagus has finished roasting (this should have happened by now) pull them out of the oven and chop each spear into three pieces - put the bottom two pieces into the pot, and reserve the tips for garnish.
11. Use a stick blender/Bamix to blend the soup (no need to take it off the stove, but turn off the heat) until it is smooth and creamy. Turn the stove back on and heat it through, turning it off when it starts to bubble.
12. Add a few squirts of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper to taste. If you feel like it needs more of a savoury kick, add a teaspoon or two of garlic powder. Put the lid on and set aside.
13. Chop the slices of bread into rough cubes and place in a clean bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together ~1/2 cup of olive oil, 3 teaspoons of Italian herb mix, 2 teaspoons of garlic powder and salt and pepper. Pour this mixture over the cubes of bread and mix it with your hands. Add more salt/pepper/garlic powder.
14. Spread these out on an oven tray - I would put down some new baking paper if you're using the same tray as the asparagus and put them in the oven. Check on your potatoes while you do this.
15. Turn the croutons after about 10 minutes, and leave them in another 5-10 minutes, or until they're golden brown and crunchy.
16. Serve up your soup with asparagus spears and croutons on top. If the potatoes are ready, have them on the side, or just snack on them while catching up on online news like I did.

If you live alone like I do, there should be some leftovers. Put the soup in tupperware and bag up the croutons! The potatoes probably won't last the night (i.e: you'll eat them all). 

NB: Minimalist Baker says that their recipe is 4 serves - the quantities listed here are about 1.5x the original recipe and I still only got about 4. Maybe my servings are larger than theirs...

Yum! Now you too can make delicious green soup for the week instead of studying and feel good about the fact that you're saving money and being (relatively) healthy.