Recipe Mushroom Soup with Sumac Roasted Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The recipe comes from the Middle Eastern Vegetable Cookbook with a few changes to make it closer to my tastes. We served it with caramelised onion rice & polenta cakes.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 sprigs of thyme
750g mushrooms, chopped
1.5L vegetable stock
2 tbsp tamari soy sauce
salt & pepper to taste

For the Sumac Roasted Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaped tbsp sumac
1/2 tsp fine salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion and carrots. Sauté for several minutes, then drop the temperature slightly so as not to burn the garlic, add the garlic and thyme and continue cooking for around 10 minutes until the carrots and onions are soft.
2. Add the mushrooms (and if necessary more olive oil) and cover with a lid. Cook for around 10-15 minutes until the mushrooms are soft and releasing their juices.
   
3. Add the vegetable stock, now simmer gently for another 20 minutes or so.
4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to a safe temperature (this is a handy point to stop if you need to). Remove the stalks of thyme and liquidise the soup until smooth.
   
5. Add the tamari soy sauce (to taste) and any seasoning needed.
6. When almost ready to serve, heat the remaining oil (for the sumac roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds) in a frying pan to hot. Add the sumac, salt and black pepper and allow to sizzle until fragrant.
7. Once fragrant, add the seeds and roast until t hey start to brown and pop. Remove from the heat and sprinkle over the soup as it is ready to serve (with bread or caramelised onion rice & polenta cakes).

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

This is gorgeous. I can almost taste the flavors exploding out of the picture! And, I did at first think that the cakes were Moroccan flatbread (partly because the little squares look a lot like the flatbread I just made). But now, I have two recipes to try sometime soon.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

This is gorgeous. I can almost taste the flavors exploding out of the picture! And, I did at first think that the cakes were Moroccan flatbread (partly because the little squares look a lot like the flatbread I just made). But now, I have two recipes to try sometime soon.

if you make the rice cakes, don't be tempted to make them too thin and cut too many from the mixture. That recipe should make between 10-12 rice cakes of about 5cm square. If you make them too thin, they take on a different texture and become more chewy than scone like. they should be about 1cm thick once they have rise a touch in cooking.
Also the rice must be really well cooked because otherwise it will 'exploded' when you griddle them. The only real thing I can guarantee about the rice cakes is that the recipe is never boring because the cornmeal can be switched out with spelt, rye, polenta, semolina or even almond meal and the rice with any grain you want, so whole spelt, freekeh, black rice, red rice, wholegrain rice, barley, pearl barley, etc... and the self raising flour can be any self raising flour, though at least 50% white does keep for a lighter rice cake.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

if you make the rice cakes, don't be tempted to make them too thin and cut too many from the mixture. That recipe should make between 10-12 rice cakes of about 5cm square. If you make them too thin, they take on a different texture and become more chewy than scone like. they should be about 1cm thick once they have rise a touch in cooking.
Also the rice must be really well cooked because otherwise it will 'exploded' when you griddle them. The only real thing I can guarantee about the rice cakes is that the recipe is never boring because the cornmeal can be switched out with spelt, rye, polenta, semolina or even almond meal and the rice with any grain you want, so whole spelt, freekeh, black rice, red rice, wholegrain rice, barley, pearl barley, etc... and the self raising flour can be any self raising flour, though at least 50% white does keep for a lighter rice cake.

Good tips, and things I probably would have had to find out the hard way if you hadn't mentioned them.