Spring vegetable soup and stuffed portobello mushrooms

Posted by petra08 on May 9, 2014 · 25 Comments 

It has been a hectic week and I had very little time to think about food. I have cooked what was in my fridge, larder and freezer hardly leaving the house. Today I made a conscious effort to actually go outside and take a proper lunch. I walked past the veg monger and saw that besides having delicious looking asparagus, the broad beans had also arrived! In Italy they have festivals in honor of the broad beans, they serve them just picked so you shell them yourself and you eat them with fresh, soft peccorini cheese, one of life’s simple but oh so delicious pleasures!

 

I cant get the peccornini cheese here but I decided to get some, they are still small and very tender.

 

 

We have some growing in the garden but being so late planting they are a long way off. I got a couple of locally grown tomatoes and a bunch of asparagus, also local. There is a benefit in living in what is called the garden of England!

 

 

I picked up a few portobello mushrooms for dinner and decided to stuff them for a vegetarian dinner. I am off to the ball tomorrow and need light foods, a bit late to think about perhaps but hey, better late than never!

 

As I was thinking about what to cook I decided to do a soup for starter, nothing big, just enough to tease the taste buds. This is a super simple soup that only requires a minimum of cooking.

 

Asparagus and broad bean soup

preparation time 5-10 minutes

cooking time 10 minutes

serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 4 broad beans
• 2 dl or 1 cup vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp cracked bulgur wheat
• chives or chive flowers
• 1 mint leaves
• salt & pepper to taste

Peel the asparagus stems and cut off the tips. Slice the stems and place them in the vegetable broth. Add the bulgur wheat and bring to a boil. Turn the heat off once it is boiling and leave for 10 minutes. Peel the broad beans and add them to the soup before serving with the chive and the shredded mint.

 

 

While waiting for the soup to cook I did the stuffing for the mushrooms.

 

Feta cheese and cashew stuffed portobello mushrooms

preparation time 5 minutes

cooking time 20 minutes

oven 170C or or 340F

serves 2

Ingredients

• 4 portobello mushrooms
• 1 pack of feta cheese
• 4 radishes
• 1 tomato
• 1 good handful of cashew nuts (not salted)
• 1 carrot
• 1 red chilli
• 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 pinch of seasalt
• ground pepper to taste

Peel and grate the carrot, chop the tomato and the radish. Finley chop the chilli and crush the garlic. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

 

 

Lightly toast the cashew nuts and then give them a rough chop.

 

 

Last add crumbled feta cheese and mix. Remove the stem of the mushroom and stuff them with the filling. I would have chopped up the stems but I had a lot of filling.

 

 

I was thinking of using meat for the mushrooms but it turned out we didn’t miss it at all.

 

 

The feta cheese was lovely and crispy and the mushrooms cooked through. The cashew nuts added texture and the mustard seeds a lot of flavor.

 

 

I cut up some fruit for dessert. 

 

I won’t have time to cook anything else this weekend so I am taking this to the lovely Angie, author of the beautiful blog The Novice Gardener‘s blog challenge, Fiesta Friday! This week it is co hosted by Selma, Selma’s Table and Juhls, The Not So Creative Cook. If you have cooked something come and join us!

 

Filed under Allotment/Veg, Asparagus, Broad beans, Bulgur Wheat, Carrot, Chilli, Feta cheese, Garlic, Herbs, Main course, Mango, Onion, Orange, Recipe, Starter, Tomatoes · Tagged with asparagus soup, portobello mushrooms, stuffed mushrooms