Thai-flavoured lentil pumpkin soup - Thai geïnspireerde linzen pompoensoep (GF-DF-SF-V)

Today I want to share with you this very nice Thai-flavoured pumpkin lentil soup.

It’s soup-time for me; to keep me warm and my intestines happy I make a soup every 2 or 3 days; it’s like making a smoothie in spring and summer, but hot.

The flavour in this soup comes from the herbs I cook in the soup: galangal, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass, without those 2 you cannot cook a Thai dish!

When you have the ingredients at home (you can freeze the kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass stalks, not the galangal because it looses its flavour) it’s a very easy and simple soup to prepareJ

Voor mijn Nederlandse lezers: Onderaan staat de Nederlandse versie van het recept!

Thai-flavoured pumpkin lentil soup (4-5 pers)

1 l water

4 kaffir lime leaves

4 slices of galangal

1 big fat lemon grass stalk

8 stalks of coriander

1 pierced red chilie, when you want some heat, but when to eat with children leave it out and sprinkle some chilie flakes after serving, for the heat lovers.

1 medium onion, chopped in 8

1 clove of garlic, chopped roughly

½ cup red lentils 

500g cleaned and cubed butternut squash

200g cleaned and cubed carrot

4 tbsp tamari or light soy sauce

250 ml coconut milk

1-2  tbsp lime juice

1. Pour the water in a soup pot and bring to the boil.

2. Make a bundle of the lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime leaved and coriander stalks, bind with a piece of thread. Put in the water.

3. In the meantime clean and chop the vegetables.

4. When the water boils add all vegetables and the red lentils and cook softly till everything is tender, about 20 minutes.

5. Remove the herbs from the soup, add coconut milk and tamari and blend your soup till smooth.

6. Taste and adjust when necessary.

7. Serve with some sprinkled coriander and lime juice.

8. Enjoy!!

Thai linzen pompoensoep (4-5 pers)

1 liter water
4 kaffir limoen blaadjes
4 schijfjes galangal
1 dikke stengel citroengras
8 korianderstengels
1 rode peper, met mes ingeprikt als je van pittig houdt, maar als je voor kinderen kookt eruit laten en je eigen soep besprenkelen met chiliflakes
1 ui, in 8 stukken gehakt
1 teen knoflook, grof gehakt
1/2 cup/ 125 ml rode linzen
500g schoongemaakte fles- of andere pompoen, in blokjes
200g schoongemaakte wortel, in blokjes
4 el tamari of lichte soyasaus
250 ml kokosmelk
limoensap
korianderblaadjes
chiliflakes

1. Breng 1 liter water aan de kook in een soeppan.
2. Maak van de kaffir lime blaadjes, galangal, korianderstengels en citroengras een kruidenbuiltje,met een touwtje en voeg aan het water toe.
3. Maak alle groentes schoon.
4. Als het water kookt, voeg de groentes en rode linzen toe en kook alles zachtjes, ongeveer 20 minuten, tot de groentes gaar zijn.
5. Haal het kruidenbuiltje uit de soep en voeg tamari en kokosmelk toe.
6. Proef en pas de smaak eventueel aan.
7. Serveer met een kneep limoen en wat gehakte verse koriander en eventueel wat chiliflakes.
8. Geniet!

buckwheat apple muffins (GF- SF- V)

On this really gorgeous sunny november friday I just got the impulse to start blogging again.
It was never on my mind that my summer break would last till now, but it just happened ;-)

First I went to Thailand with C. and we had such a great time with our old and new friends; we discovered some new upcoming areas in Bangkok, made a lot of pictures, ate the best food, since we now went to dinner with our Bangkok friends who know the best places to eat out. We went to the coastal area near the Birma border, which we visited as well. 
After coming back to Holland 2 of our best Thai friends came to Rotterdam and stayed with us for a week!! We had so much fun, it was their first time in Holland  and seeing your own country through the eyes of a visitor is so refreshing. We had a holiday too!!

By the way, I did a Thai vegan cooking class!! I will blog about that another time.

As you can see time went by (and Blogger is doing strange things again??)

For my health I did an elimination diet for 6 weeks to find out that potatoes are triggering my immune system and develop inflammation in my joints. It was not too hard, the diet, pure vegan for 4 weeks and after that introducing all foods again. It kept me quite occupied and I fell ill rather badly after introducing potatoes. But now I am feeling much better and I want to stick as much as possible to a vegan diet. I will eat an egg, some yoghurt and a piece of salmon from time to time, because I can feel rather weak and then I know that I need a little extra.

Since 2 years I am a member of a great yoga community on the internet and just this week I started sharing recipes there as well for the members. When you're interested you can check out on YouTube where Melissa West, my yoga teacher, shares weekly free yoga videos!!
I am really excited about this new adventure. It boosts my creativity and so I am back blogging and sharing with you again.

2 Weeks ago we did an at home yoga retreat in the weekend and I contributed with these tasty vegan muffins:

Buckwheat apple muffins (SF-GF-Vegan) (6-8)

dry ingredients:
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp tartaric acid baking powder
1 big tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt

wet ingredients:
1 cup applesauce
1 large mashed banana
2 tbsp ground flax seeds in 2 tbsp water, let sit for 2 minutes
2 tbsp agave syrup or honey orother sweetener,or leave it out completely
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat your oven on 180 degrees C. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. 

In a big bowl mix the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In a smaller bowl mix the wet ingredients. If using coconut oil, softly melt the oil with the cinnamon, before adding to the applesauce and banana mixture.

Scoop the wet into the dry ingredients and mix quickly and well with your spoon.
Spoon the batter/dough into the prepared muffin pan, sprinkle each one with some chopped walnuts and bake these delicious muffins into the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. Let them cool before you remove them from the pan.

boekweit appel muffins (SF-GF-V)

 droge ingrediënten:
3/4 cup boekweitmeel
1/2 cup amandelmeel

1 tl wijnsteenzuur bakpoeder
1 flinke tl kaneel
1/4 tl zeezout

natte ingrediënten:
1 cup appelmoes, vers gemaakt
1 grote rijpe banaan, fijngeprakt
2 el gemalen lijnzaad, in 2 el water 2 minuten geweld
2 el agave siroop, honing of andere zoetmaker, kan ook weggelaten worden!!
2 el extra virgin olijfolie
1 tl vanille extract

1/4 cup gehakte walnoten

Verwarm de oven voor op 180 graden C.
Bekleed een muffin pan met papieren vormpjes.

Meng alle droge ingrediënten in een grote kom. Zet even apart.

Meng in een kleinere kom de natte ingrediënten goed door elkaar en giet deze bij de droge ingrediënten.
roer snel door elkaar en schep een flinke eetlepel in elke muffin vorm.
Strooi wat gehakte walnoten op elke muffin en bak deze heerlijke herfstmuffins in het midden van de voorverwarmde oven ongeveer 25 minuten. Laat afkoelen voordat je ze uit de vorm haalt.
Geniet ervan en laat me horen wat je ervan vindt!