Pea & Ham Soup

Before stirring the meat in. I used yellow split peas. Next time I think I'll try to find green ones for the colour.

An amazing slow cooker recipe for pea and ham soup from a friend of ours. We made it over the weekend and it was well-received by all except Miss 2... she struggled with the texture I think but had 3 spoonfuls with the promise of yoghurt to follow! Despite that, I think it is a fantastic recipe. It can also be done in a pressure cooker or on the stove top but you'll have to work out your timings for them.

1 cup split peas (yellow or green), washed and soaked overnight

~8 cups water

1 (~700g) ham hock (a ham shank is better I think but harder to get)

1 chopped onion

Pepper & salt (usually the ham is salty enough but I added a tsp of chicken stock powder)

2 chopped carrots

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

a chunk of pumpkin, chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled & chopped

You can add other soup vegetables like celery if you like.

Place eveything in the slow cooker (include the water that the peas were soaked in as part of the 8 cups and add more if you need to so that you cover everything in the slow cooker) and cook on low for about 7hrs or until the meat is falling off the bones.

After it is finished, remove the bones and as much of the meat as you can. Blend the soup (you don’t have to, but I prefer to. You can just give it a good stir and it will mostly break down anyway but still stay a bit chunky – depends how you like your soup). Chop the meat into small pieces and put back into soup. Stir and season with pepper again if you think it needs it.

Morrocan Lamb Shanks

This is a fabulous recipe from www.taste.com.au

I haven't tested this on the children yet, but I think they would like it because of the sweetness of the dates. I would serve it on rice or potato (or maybe even polenta if I was up for the challenge) for them rather than the couscous (it is made of wheat).

Click here for the recipe.

Hearty Beef Casserole

I forgot that I loaned my slow cooker to my Mum and had planned to do one this morning - oops! So, I googled for a beef casserole recipe you can do in the oven and this should work perfectly and it will be ready when we get back from swimming lessons.

Hearty Beef Casserole (click this to link to the original recipe at Best Recipes - there's some good ideas on the comments section)

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 tsp garlic, crushed
1kg chuck steak, cubed 2.5m
2.5 tbsp gf plain flour
2 cups allergen free beef stock
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 carrots sliced
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup corn kernels
3 bay leaves
1/3 cup chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 160degrees celcius. Heat 1 tbsp oil over medium heat in a stove-top safe casserole dish. Add garlic and onion and cook until soft. Remove to a plate.

Toss meat in flour and season with salt and pepper. Increase heat to high and add 1.5 tbsp oil to the dish and then add half the meat.

Cook, stirring until browned. Remove to plate and repeat with the rest of the oil and meat. Remove to plate.

Add 1 cup of stock to the dish and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the flour mixture on the dish. Then add everything into the dish. Bring to the boil, cover and place in oven.

Bake for 1.5-2 hours or until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in parsley and serve. I plan to serve mine with rice but mashed potatoes is suggested on the original recipe.

Use only 1 cup stock if using a slow cooker.

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

A great recipe from Julie's blog that we have tried a few times. The kids don't really like many orange vegetables currently but the adults loved it and it will be a good one for the future. I love how coconut cream makes things creamy without the dairy!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup
This recipe serves 6 people.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 teaspoons curry powder
• 1.2 kg sweet potato, diced
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 large apple, peeled and grated
• coconut cream and crusty bread, to serve

Method:

• Heat oil in fry-pan. Cook onion and garlic 3-4 mins or un til tender. Add curry powder and stir for 1 min
• Add onion mix, sweet potato, chicken stock and apple to the slow cooker
• Stir to combine ingredients
• Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours
• Turn slow cooker off and blend with stick blender until soup is puree and smooth
• Serve with 2 tablespoons coconut cream (per bowl) and bread.

(If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can simmer all ingredients covered for 30+ minutes, or until sweet potato is cooked, then blend and serve as above)

Chicken Drumstick Casserole

I did this in the slow cooker. It was tasty but not spectacular. It smelled great while it cooked. I served it with rice. Served 2 adults, 2 kids.

1kg chicken drumsticks (the large variety)
4 medium potatoes, large dice
2 1/2 large carrots, large dice
1 onion, quartered (you could chop, but my kids don't eat onion so I can still get the flavour but not end up with it in their dinner more easily when I cut it like this)
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp freshly ground pepper
0.5 tsp thyme (I used dried but I'm sure fresh would be better)
0.5 tsp gravox powder (the gluten free version. It says it contains milk products but that is only dextrose, a sugar, so doesn't contain the milk protein - I think!)

Place in slow cooker and cook on low for ~7hrs or high for ~5hrs. I had to do high but slow is usually better.
Serve with rice and more vegies if you can.
Variations - I think celery would go quite well in this recipe and I was tempted to put a green capsicum in it but it had gone bad...