So about a few months back now. Ben Jackson from BBC Radio Leicester asked me to join their team of Foodie-Maniac Food Friday Cooks. Straight away I Jumped at the chance! I immediately couldn’t wait to get on the show!
Now I’ve already been on the show which aired on the 7th of March. That was with Ed Stagg who was filling in for Ben that day. I did a “revamped” version of my Chicken and Veg pie, which I will put on here soon.
I first wanted to Share with you the dish which I did this Friday just gone, the 21st of March. There’s a few reasons why I chose to do this recipe. Firstly, was that it was using up things in the fridge and store cupboard ingredients. Second was its great for people who have colds at the moment! It seemed to help Ben’s out a bit! And Finally its healthy and Cheap! Ok that was four…
This is my Thick Spiced Moroccan Soup with Garlic Flatbreads. It got a nickname of Sunshine Soup!
If you would like to have a listen to me doing this recipe with Ben, take a look here…
BBC Radio Leicester with Ben Jackson and Me on Food Friday 21st March 2014.
Thick Spiced Moroccan Soup (Sunshine soup) with Homemade Garlic Flatbreads:
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
Soup:
– 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
– 1 Onion Diced
– 2 Small Celery sticks chopped including leaves
– 3 Medium sized carrots peeled and chopped roughly
– Sweet Potato, Peeled and Chopped into rough chunks. (I used a white variety from Asian stores which is purple on the outside but you can use the Orange variety.
– Half a Butternut Squash chopped into rough chunks.
– 1 tsp of Ground Coriander and Cumin mix (I used a company called Spice Kitchen for most of the dry Spices)
– 1 tsp of turmeric, (Spice Kitchen)
– 1 tsp of Chilli Powder, (Spice Kitchen)
– 1 tsp of Garam Masala, (Spice Kitchen)
– A Thumb Size amount of fresh Ginger finely chopped or grated if you prefer.
– 1 large clove of Garlic finely chopped
– A 3 cm piece of Cinnamon bark, (Spice Kitchen)
– Just over half a tin of chopped tomatoes (250g)
– 1 tbsp of Tomato Puree
– 1 Chicken Stock cube/Gel pot or Veg if Vegetarian
– In total about 500ml of water added to the Soup a bit at a time.
– 150g of Pre cooked Pearl Barley
– 250g (just over half a tin) of Butter beans
– 2 Handfuls of Fresh Spinach
– Chopped Fresh Parsley.
– Salt and Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Flatbreads:
– 200g of Plain Flour
– Warm Water just to bind
– Salt and Ground Black Pepper
– Sprinkle of Garlic Powder for each Flatbread.
Soup Method:
– Fry off the Onion in the Olive oil.
– Add your Celery, Carrots and Sweet Potato and start to sweat down for about 5 mins.
– Then add your Butternut Squash to the Soup mix and stir through.
– Add your Dry spices, Ginger and Garlic and cook for a further 5-10 mins to allow the spices to coat all the Vegetables.
– Next to go in are the Chopped Tomatoes, Tomato Puree, Butter Beans and stock with about 300ml of water to cook down for a further 10 mins.
– Add your Pearl Barley and allow that to simmer away nicely whilst you get on with the FlatBreads. Always check in-between if your soup needs a bit more water adding.
Flatbread Method:
-Take your 200g of Plain Flour, add salt and pepper and start to add a drop of warm water to it to bind to form a firm dough.
– Knead the dough only a couple of times.
– Stretch out into a thick sausage-like shape about 2 inches in width and divide into 5 parts.
– Roll the 5 parts of dough into a ball, add a sprinkle of your Garlic powder, roll again and then Roll out your dough as thinly as possible with a Rolling Pin on a lightly floured surface.
– Heat up a dry frying pan and once the Pan is very hot add your flatbread dough. You will then start to see it puff up and brown.
– Repeat the process with all the other dough balls.
– By now your soup will be ready to add the Spinach and any other seasoning required.
– Blitz your soup only with a few pulses as it needs to be thick.
– Add your fresh chopped Parsley.
– Voila! Ready to Dunk in with your FlatBread!
ChezJ9 