Dimly Lit Soups for One

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hello!! this is my blog dedicated to all kinds of zero waste cooking. please don't let the terrible lighting of my photos detract from the fact that i kinda do know my stuff when it comes to making kitchen waste into delicious things. i make broth primarily as a way of using up kitchen waste to make something healthy, so my broth recipes are probably a little different to other ones that you might see out there.

expect videos on things like DIY paneer, how to make a v rich broth from vegetable scraps, vegetable fritters made from whatever's looking sad in your vegetable drawer, and even some natural fabric dyes made from leftover fruits and vegetables!

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vegetarian mushroom broth recipe incoming!

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BROTHPOST #4: easy freezy potato cakes (vg 🌱)

these are a bit time consuming to make but are really handy to have in the freezer!! they go great with soup :) this recipe makes about 8.

as per, this is a really versatile recipe that I actually made to use up whatever's looking wilted and sad in your fridge, so all measurements are pretty roundabout and feel free to sub out any of the veg. and the potato can easily be replaced with regular potato if you don't like sweet potato! regular holds together better, whereas sweet potato cakes tend to be a bit softer. ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes. I used about 1.5kg I think! 2 leeks, sliced 500g or so carrots, chopped 6 cabbage leaves, also chopped ~300g flour, or breadcrumb (I like to use blended/ ground up rye crackers) 3 eggs supplies: ziplock freezer bags baking paper or kitchen foil, cut to the size of the ziplock bags

start by grating the sweet potato - this takes a while, so you could probably (?) mash it and use that... not tried that yet, but I'm sure that would work

2. slice up your leeks, carrots n cabbage - it helps to have equal amounts of each. a good rule for these is 1:1:1 ratio of each veg to 3 parts starch (sweet potato in this case)!

3. heat up about tbsp oil; you could also use tallow or any fat you prefer

4. once it's hot, cook your veg; I start with carrots, as they take the longest, then add the cabbage, then the leek.

5. add in half of the sweet potato and let it all cook together. you generally don't need any extra oil here, as the water from the veg effectively steams it all; you can cover it at this stage to help it cook along.

6. once it all looks soft, add the remainder of the sweet potato, cover it, and let it cook until it's soft and smells good (30mins on med heat works well!)

7. in the meantime, whisk up a batter of x3 beaten eggs and 300g flour. you can get pretty creative here with what constitutes as flour; I used self raising as it's what I had to hand, but in the past I've used stale bread or crackers ground up in the blender (rye is the best imo, and healthiest!) to use up odds and ends.

8. chop up your cheeses, too; I've got feta and goat's cheese! (side note: I always thought that goat's cheese *was* feta, but apparently not? the goat's cheese tastes different to feta, and apparently feta can be made with cow's milk. who knows)

9. your potato-veg mix should be looking and smelling pretty good by now! put it into a bowl, add salt and pepper, and let it all cool (otherwise it will cook your egg batter!).

10. once it's all cool, add the mixture to the batter gradually, one medium-sized scoop at a time, with small amounts of the cheese too so that it distributes evenly.

11. continue until it's all nicely mixed!

12. put a sheet of baking paper or kitchen foil onto a kitchen surface and dollop those bad bois on. I used a ladle and flattened it out with a spatula for a sort of burger patty shape / size. baking paper is the better choice here, but foil was all I had to hand so that's what I used!

13. this part requires a little patience. wrap the edges of the paper around the patties and shimmy them into a ziplock bag without picking them up (otherwise they'll fall apart!).

14. freeze overnight, air fry for 10-15 mins on each side with a little olive oil, and you're good to go!

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went on a rampage and made 5 litres of soup and 25 potato cakes no ragret.

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brothpost #3: BEET SOUP

this pretty purple-red soup is SO good for swelling (i drank lots of it post jaw surgery) and is super easy to make! and as you can see, it also is*very* photogenic when paired with guac and homemade paneer on toast

recipe: the soup

2 medium beets

1 onion

500ml broth (recipe on my blog!)

1 cinnamon stick (optional)

1 bay leaf (optional)

the garnish (where the magic happens)

1 small garlic clove

1 tbsp olive oil

1 shot of ACV (with mother for goodness)

juice and pulp of 1/2 lemon

roast the beets and onion with 1tbsp beef fat / your cooking fat of choice for 30 mins, turning halfway, at 180degs

whilst they're roasting, put all of the garnish ingredients in a mortar and pestle and mash em up. you can put whatever you like in here really, but the soup is sweet and earthy so you want zingy, fresh flavours - chilli, ginger, coriander, lime juice etc.

when the beets and onions are done cooking, cook them in a pot with the broth, cinnamon stick and bay leaf.

take the cinnamon stick and bay leaf out and blend.

serve up into bowls, add the garnish and you're done!

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I've become compleeetely obsessed with these vegetable / potato pancakes that I've been having with my soup lately.... they're all I've eaten for about a week straight

They're basically equal parts potato, cabbage and carrot to 2 parts potato, grated. Fry it all, mix up a batter made from 2 eggs and half a cup of flour, mix it all together and then fry them as little patties / pancakes! I like to add cubed mozzarella too. They stick together so well and are super quick and filling. Will post the recipe with pictures soon!

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top things to add to a broth:

roasted garlic skins ginger pulp cinnamon sticks lemon rinds, or orange if you're feeling bold bay leaves alcohol; red or white wine, whiskey etc whey!!! the acidity breaks down the bone and it's full of good stuff! aromatics like ginger, lemon, cinnamon sticks give that umami which gives insaneee depth of flavour to anything that you cook with it - it's great for slightly spicier soup recipes, like Tomato Shorba which is one of my childhood favourites :)

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had a cheese fondue over the weekend and in the prep ended up with a bunch of cheese rinds... which obviously went into the broth and now i have a slightly cheesy tasting broth which im gonna use as the base for leek and potato soup!

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the intrusive thought to make Sangria Broth has persisted for a week. stay tuned.

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brothpost #2: BROTH PREP (and a simple broth recipe)

I like to make broth as a way of repurposing vegetable scraps; some people like to add whole onions and such but where I'm just using it as an ingredient, rather than a drink on it's own like many others do, I'm not too bothered about how it tastes by itself and therefore my recipe is probably a bit different to others.

Here's a rough guide on what I include in a batch, but it varies:

60g of leek tops and tails 20g of onion skins 100g carrot tops, tails and skins 50g beet tops, tails and skins 25g roasted garlic skins 1 large beef marrow bone Red wine, whey, bay leaves and any other extras I have to hand

Here's a little guide on how I make freezable broth bags that I can just throw in the slow cooker whenever I fancy a broth as well as a guide on how I make it :)

Step 1: Defrost your marrow bone overnight in salt water. This cleans it and gets rid of the blood which can make your broth taste metallic.

Step 2: Wrap your garlic in tinfoil, adding 1tbsp olive oil before you seal them up.

Step 3: Roast your marrow bone in in olive oil, salt and pepper at 180c for 25 min; add your tinfoil garlic parcels in there too!

Step 4: Meanwhile, strip the veg. What I like to do after a farm shop is prep all of my veg by stripping it; this gives me plenty of scraps for broth making and also means that when I go to cook my veg throughout the week, I'm not faffing around peeling off onion skins and trimming my leeks and can just get straight to it.

(I took lots of pretty photos of me doing this before realising that the above photo illustrated my point, but I took the nice photos for once so here look at them)

Step 5: When your bone and garlic are ready, take them out and let them cool.

Optional step: Scoop out the bone marrow with a long spoon and put it on toast as a snack bc broth prep is hungry work :)

Step 6: When the garlic is cool (make sure it's cool - hot garlic oil is great in your food but not on your skin), strip the skins from the cloves. Put all of the roasted cloves in a jar for later use and keep all of the skins in a bowl alongside your other veg scraps - they smell AMAZING and add a roasted garlic flavour to your broth!

Step 5: Weigh out your veg scraps and divide by 3 (or however many broth packs you want to make). I only got photos of me doing this with the carrots, but I did it with all of them!

Step 6: Put the divided veg scraps into bags, and there you have ready-to-go broth packs to freeze and throw in the slow cooker with a bone, some water and red wine whenever you fancy making broth but don't want to prep!

Step 7: Presumably you want to make some broth now, so the contents of one of the bags in a slow cooker with your roasted bone, some red wine, water, salt and bay leaves on low heat for 12-24hrs. I like to use the whey water from my DIY paneer as it's full of good stuff and the acidity from the vinegar helps to break down the collagen in the bone.

Easy soup trick: Put whatever vegetables you want to put in the soup in the oven with some salt, vinegar and an onion. Once they're roasted, cook them on low heat in a big pot with the broth for 20 mins, then add whatever extras you want (cream, herbs, and the roasted garlic from before work well here) and blend!

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tarting up my soup in cute ceramic bowls and excessive garnishes

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awooga...

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brothpost #1: DIY PANEER (use up expired milk!)

literally the best way to get cheap protein and use up expired milk - and it's zero waste!!! use the highest fat milk you can and wait til it's sour or on the way out as higher acidity helps the curds to separate

needed:

milk that's on the turn cream that's on the turn (optional) cheesecloth vinegar (i use 1tbsp per 500ml milk; measure it out beforehand and have more to hand just in case) big cooking pot flat sieve (get creative if you don't have one - i used to use a flat cheesegrater) something heavy (i use a ceramic cooking lid - again, get creative)

heat the milk (and cream, if using - never use cream alone, it doesn't work) on low heat - use a big pot as it gets really foamy

meanwhile, put a wet cheesecloth (wet helps keep it in place) over a large bowl and secure with an elastic band. leave some give / sag in the centre for the curds!

when the milk is really foamy, add all of your vinegar at once. no need to stir, it will separate by itself!

the curds will separate! it looks really gross

tip it all onto the cheesecloth. the yellow run-off liquid is called whey and is full of good stuff - i cook my rice in it!

bundle up your paneer curds in the cheesecloth and let it drain over the whey for 5 mins

if you used cream, an oily slick will be on the surface. let the mixture cool and this becomes a kind of homemade butter! gr8 on toast, but you need to let it cool in a bottle with a neck for it to set as one block - otherwise its just lumps of hard fat

twist the excess fabric onto the back of your paneer ball and flatten it in the cheesecloth. this step is really hard to explain im sorry but the penultimate images should make it clearer

lay it over your flat sieve (or something with holes in, like a flat cheesegrater) and with something heavy on top. i used a small saucer and a ceramic lid over a flat seive. leave it to set for 30mins-1hr (you can do longer if you want but you don't need to exceed 2hrs really)

ta da! paneer!!! this one was a bit crumbly, but the higher fat milk you've used the less crumbly it will be.

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my fuckign god have i got a rich broth in the slow cooker right now... it has 3 whole marrow bones in and i've also added in some ginger that was going wrinkly in my fridge, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves because apparently that gives it that ✨umami✨