Courgette and cumin soup

Are you still struggling with a glut of courgettes? Then you will be so grateful for having an abundant harvest when you try this soup.

You may feel that courgette soup is a bit weird, maybe a little thin and watery or flavourless. Fear not - this super easy soup tastes absolutely amazing and is so simple to make that your glut will disappear in a flash as you bulk make and freeze in portions for later on in the year, a tasty reminder of warmer days on a chilly winters evening! It's thick and creamy but still dairy free.
Cumin is a very popular spice in our house, being a key ingredient in many Mexican, Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. Slightly peppery and distinctly aromatic, cumin adds a wonderfully deep and seductive flavour to dishes and works amazingly in this soup. Whilst there are some nutritional goodies tucked inside, cumin's great coup is it's positive effect on the digestion.
Cumin has been used traditionally in Ayruvedic medicine in India for centuries as a digestive aid and expeller of gas, quite handy if you eat a mainly plant based diet! Special phytonutrients not only help stimulate gut motility, so moving things along inside the intestines, but can also stimulate the secretion of digestive enzymes in the pancreas to aid digestion and the assimilation of nutrients. I visited an Ayurvedic day spa whilst living in Bangalore (my synchronised Ayurvedic massage was quite an experience - definitely not relaxing!) and was presented with lukewarm water seasoned with cumin seeds before lunch as a digestive aid. It was rather enjoyable once I'd got used to. In fact, the aroma of toasted cumin seeds always brings back fond, if funny, memories of that day.
So why not give this a go and spice up your courgette glut with this tasty aromatic soup - your gut will love you for it!
Courgette and cumin soup 

1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large potato, diced
1 large stick celery, chopped
3-4 large courgettes, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
sprinkle of celery salt
750mls vegetable stock
salt and pepper
To finish - soya yoghurt, toasted cumin, parsley
Heat a dash of oil in a large pan and sauté the onion and cumin seeds for 5 minutes or so until the onion has softened and the seeds are lightly toasted. Add the potato and celery and cook for another few minutes, then stir in the courgettes and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly so the vegetables don't stick.
Pour in enough stock to cover the vegetable, don't just use it all in one go as the courgettes release a lot of water and may make the soup too thin. Add the celery salt and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all the vegetable are soft and the aroma smells rich and gorgeous. Season with salt and pepper to taste and leave to cool slightly.
Blend the soup until smooth, add more of the stock if it's too thick, then reheat gently. Toast some more cumin seeds to garnish if you wish and serve with the toppings or a good glug of extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy.

Chilli sweetcorn baked polenta

Here's my next instalment of 'what to do with lots of sweetcorn and courgettes at the end of a good summer?' series. This dish is focused on sweetcorn, and is a double corn recipe using both fresh off the kernels with dried and ground corn.
Polenta is one of those products that can delight or dismay, depending on how it's cooked and the texture. I had never really tried it until I went along to an Italian cooking demo whilst living in India. Yes, you read that right! It might sound a bit random, but there was a great Italian restaurant (called Toscano) in the mall next to our housing compound, run by two French brothers. I know you'd expect them to be Italian, but hey, in that's how things roll in the awesome global mix that is Bangalore! It was a bit of an expat retreat serving familiar European dishes with an Indian kick (i.e.; lots of chilli) and pizzas that kept the kids more than happy.
As it turned out, I couldn't actually eat the finished polenta dish they were demonstrating as it contained breadcrumbs, which was a shame but avoiding deep fried food is never a bad thing really. But what I did learn was how to prepare it from scratch and how to maximise flavour without overloading it with butter and cheese, perfect for the dairy free diner.
The top bit of advise, as always, was the simplest - keep tasting until you get it right, and use good quality ingredients. I've since lost the recipe demonstrated that day, but I was so glad to see how to make it, plus I gained valuable tips on what to do, and not do, in cooking demos!
I used to get quite confused about the difference between polenta and the ground maize used for Mexican dishes and featuring on mainly American recipe sites. Basically, polenta is ground cornmeal, just slightly more coarse with less of the healthy outer grain removed, so theoretically should contain more fibre and nutrients, but modern processing methods may make that assumption defunct! In the US, it's often frowned upon as some cornmeal is made from genetically modified corn, plus different coloured corn contains less nutrients. If you want to know more, check out this article to help make things clearer http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-cornmeal-and-polenta-word-of-mouth-211404
The good thing about polenta is that it's gluten free, so useful if you need to be careful, and still has a useful amount of fibre to help transit the sugar content through. It can be used as a base for other dishes like cakes, bread or crunchy coatings, as well as just made up in it's own right.
The nutrition in this dish really comes from the fresh corn kernels - those bright yellow buttons are packed with phytonutrients that are good for the eyes and contain anti-oxidants, as well as a load of insoluble fibre that the friendly bacteria in your gut just love to munch on. I used this as an accompaniment to a courgette based chilli dish and they complimented each other perfectly, but you could serve it with a fresh salsa, avocado dip or fresh summer green salad - any rainbow dish will do, for lunch, dinner or a snack. So why not give this a try and let the sun shine from your plate!
Baked sweetcorn chilli polenta

2 cobs of sweetcorn
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
200g polenta
750ml vegetable stock
1 heaped teaspoon ground oregano/Italian herbs
1 red chilli finely chopped or 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed chilli
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºc. Grab a 23x30cm baking tin, grease and line with baking paper.
Next, cut the corn off the cobs. Heat a dash of olive oil in a medium sized pan and sauté the corn for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time so it doesn't stick. Add the garlic and cook for a minute, then add the polenta and cook for a minute, stirring continually. Slowly pour in the stock, stirring constantly with the heat on low so that it steadily thickens without sticking to the pan. You need to get rid of all the lumps. It's ready when the texture is smoother and no longer grainy. This takes about 10 minutes or so - be patient and have a cup of tea to hand to keep you going! It should become really thick, but not so thick you can't move it around, so add a little more stock if needed, but don't go mad otherwise the mix will be too loose. When you're happy with the texture, stir in the herbs, chill, baking powder and nutritional yeast if you're using. Season with salt and pepper and mix really well to make sure everything is combined. Taste and add more flavour as needed. Your could stir in a little extra virgin olive oil as well at this point but it's not essential.
Spoon the mix out into the prepared baking tin and smooth down the top so it's equally spread out - a bit tricky as it's so sticky. With the recommended size tin, it should be about 5cm thick. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until a dark golden crust has formed. Remove from the oven, rest in the tray for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack to firm up. Once it's cool enough to handle and set, peel off the baking paper and cut into shapes. If it needs warming up, pop back in the oven to warm though for a few minutes and serve. Enjoy!