Pumpkin Soup and Chicken Caesar Salad

Saturday night's dinner was a bit of a mash together. Nobody wanted anything heavy and the warm day meant nobody really wanted anything hot either. Looking around the kitchen, I decided on making a big pot of pumpkin soup and a chicken caesar salad.

Now remember when I said I don't use actual recipes.... below is all a guesstimate as to quantities used!

I will confess, I love Butternut pumpkin. Rarely will I buy any other variety. I cut up about 1.2kg of Butternut in to approx. 3cm cubes and roasted at 200 degrees for 20-30 minutes until the flesh becomes soft but not baked hard.

One leek sliced finely with a couple of tablespoons of butter in a medium heat saucepan to allow the leeks to soften but not colour. Add two medium potatoes (peeled and diced to 1cm cubes) and 1L salt reduced chicken stock (you can use vegetable if you like.) Add the baked pumpkin and two tablespoons of honey, and bring to a rapid simmer. Leave simmering until you can see the potato pieces starting to crumble in the stock and the pumpkin starts to mush up. Remove from heat, put lid on saucepan and allow to stew in its own warmth for about 15 minutes. Blend to a puree (I find I have to do this in two batches in my blender.)

You can add cream if you wish at this stage, or just a good dollop of sour cream (or cooking Philadelphia) when serving. The dishes in the image are served with chives from the garden.

Caesar salad has never been a favourite of mine. I think perhaps I consumed a dish once with a vile rendition of sauce on it and it put me off the thought of eating Caesar salad for quite some time. But I noticed we had a rather large Cos lettuce in the fridge, and knowing this household, the lettuce would normally go off before it's even looked at.

I decided to make my own version of Caesar sauce - one whole egg, two tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar, two tablespoons of Dijon mustard and four anchovy fillets with some of the oil from the jar all whizzed up in the micro blender. When the mix comes together, add a grind of salt and pepper and slowly drizzle in about a 1/4 cup of good quality light olive oil. Remember, all quantities give and take depending upon how it tastes and works for you!

The salad was simply a stack of chunky Cos lettuce, toasted slices of Turkish bread, shaved parmesan cheese, crispy pieces of bacon, soft boiled eggs, quick cooked slices of chicken breast, anchovy slices and the sauce.

Disfrute de su comida (or something, in Spanish!)