When I saw a bunch of beautiful multicolored carrots at the grocery store the other day, I immediately thought of Jamie Oliver's baked Moroccan style carrot salad. I just had to buy them as I had made this salad last year and absolutely loved it. Baked carrots are incredible tasty and the juices of the orange and lemon gives it a wonderful light and fresh taste

Roast Carrot and Avocado Salad with Orange and Lemon Dressing

(Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients

• 1 pound medium mixed colored carrots, with their leafy tops
• Sea salt
• 2 level teaspoons whole cumin seeds
• 1 or 2 small dried chiles, crumbled
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Red or white wine vinegar
• 1 orange, halved
• 1 lemon, halved
• 3 ripe avocados
• 4 (1/2-inch thick) slices ciabatta or other good-quality bread
• 2 handfuls interesting mixed winter salad leaves, washed and spun dry
• 2 bunches watercress
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 4 tablespoons mixed seeds, toasted

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Parboil the carrots in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes, until they are very nearly cooked, then drain and put them into a roasting pan. You should flavor them while they're steaming hot, so while thecarrots are cooking get a pestle and mortar and smash up the cumin seeds, chilles, salt and pepper. Add the garlic and thyme leaves and smash up again until you have a kind of paste. The idea here is to build up the flavors. Add enough extra-virgin olive oil to generously cover the paste, and a good swig of vinegar. This will be like a marinade, a rub and a dressing all in one! Stir together, then pour over the carrots in the pan, coating them well. Add the orange and lemon halves, cut side down.

These will roast along with the carrots, and their juice can be used as the basis of the dressing. Place in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden.

While the carrots are roasting, halve and peel the avocados, discarding the pits, then cut them into wedges lengthwise and place in a big bowl. Remove the carrots from the oven and add them to the avocados. Carefully, using some tongs, squeeze the roasted orange and lemon juice into a bowl and add the same amount of extra-virgin olive oil and a little swig of red wine vinegar. Season, and pour this dressing over the carrots and avocados. Mix together, have a taste and correct the seasoning. Call your gang round the table while you toast or broil your ciabatta slices.

Tear the toasted bread into little pieces and add to the dressed carrot and avocado. Mix together, toss in the salad leaves and cress and transfer to a big platter or divide between individual plates. Spoon over a nice dollop of sour cream, sprinkle over your toasted seeds and drizzle over some extra-virgin olive oil.

Spagetthi Vodka arrabiata a la Jamie Oliver

This is a very spicy and aromatic dish from Jamie Oliver. I love pasta dishes where the sauce is made in the time when the pasta cooks. This is one of them. If you are not into spicy - you  might replace the chiles with roasted red peppers or even stay away from this recipe. The Parsley adds a wonderful freshness to the dish, even the stalks are used in this recipe, don't skip on it. 

NYC Vodka Arrabbiata

from Jamie’s America by Jamie Oliver

Ingredients:

4 fresh red chillies

6 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped

4 anchovy fillets

400g tin chopped tomatoes

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 shots vodka

500g spaghetti

1 lemon

optional: extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Prick the chillies 6 to 8 times with a small sharp knife. Put a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the olive oil and chillies and let them cook slowly for 5 minutes. 

Turn the heat up to high and add the garlic, parsley stalks and anchovies. Keep moving everything around the pan, and when the garlic starts to take on some color, add the tinned tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Bring this mixture to the boil, add the vodka, and turn the heat down so the sauce simmers. Gently bash up you chillies with a wooden spoon to release more of their flavor into the sauce.

Add your pasta to a pan of boiling salted water and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain in a colander, then toss the pasta in the sauce. Divide between bowls or serve on a big platter. Roughly chop the reserved parsley leaves and sprinkle them over your pasta. Finely grate the lemon zest over the top, then squeeze in the juice, making sure you catch any seeds in your hands. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil to finish it off, and serve immediately.

Jamie Oliver's sexy Fig Salad

One of the first recipes I have ever made from Jamie Oliver is this salad. Ever since then, I make it when I can get a hold of fresh and juicy figs. It's a perfect summer dish, filling, yet light and so pretty. 

Fig Salad
(Jamie Oliver)

I love this salad. Apart from being a great combination, it always seems unbelievably effortless, which is the kind of recipe I like. The constant success of this is due to the common-sense marriage of salty Parma ham, milky buffalo mozzarella and sweet figs, which obviously need to be of a good quality. The best figs to use are Italian and the best time to buy them is June to August when they are in season. Greek figs are a good second-best and are in season from September to November. The best figs always seem to be those that are about to split their skins. Use green or black figs – it doesn’t really matter.

Yield : Serves 4
Ingredients

Salad:
4 figs
4 slices Parma ham or prosciutto
4 slices buffalo mozzarella
A handful green or purple basil, leaves picked

Honey and lemon juice dressing:
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon good honey
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions

For the salad:

One thing I do is to criss-cross the figs but not quite to the bottom – 1 fig per person is always a good start. Then, using your thumbs and forefingers, squeeze the base of the fig to expose the inside. At this point you’ll think, ‘Oooh, that looks nice, I think I’m quite clever...’ or at least I do. More importantly, it allows your dressing to get right into the middle of the fig. All these little things really help to make a salad special. Simply place the figs in a dish, weave around 1 slice of Parma ham or prosciutto per fig, throw in some slices of buffalo mozzarella, rip over some green or purple basil and drizzle everything with the honey and lemon juice dressing. As far as salads go, it’s pretty damn sexy.

For the honey and lemon juice dressing:

Mix everything together in a bowl and season to taste.

Notes
PS: It’s a good idea to have some spare bread on the table to mop up the juices – always a treat.

Spaghetti Trapanese

You know how difficult is to make a dish that everyone in the family loves. These dishes are very rare and once you find one you keep it like a treasure. One of those dishes for my family is Spaghetti Trapanese, a summer dish that is best when tomatoes are in full season. It is a pesto-like cold sauce and has only a couple of main ingredients. Those should be of the best quality that you can afford.

Spaghetti Trapanese
(Jamie Oliver)
serves 4

• 1 pound dried spaghetti
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 1/2oz / 150 g  almonds, skins on or off
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 large handfuls fresh basil, leaves picked
• 5 1/2 oz / 150g  freshly grated pecorino or Parmesan cheese
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, halved
• 
  

Warm the almonds a little in a dry pan, then smash them up in a pestle and mortar or whiz them in a food processor until you have a coarse powder consistency. Put them into a bowl. Bash the garlic and the basil separately in the mortar and mix with the almonds, adding the pecorino or Parmesan, a good glug of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and really scrunch them with your hands into the almond mixture until they have completely broken up. Loosen with a little extra olive oil and toss with your hot drained pasta. Check the seasoning, divide onto 4 plates, and spoon any sauce that remains in the pan over the top.

Asian Inspired Turkey Salad

When I saw Jamie Oliver prepare this salad on his Christmas TV show I knew that I had to try it. Crispy pieces of meat slowly caramelizing in the pan drizzled with honey and sprinkled with chinese spices
caught my eye. I couldn't wait until I had some leftover turkey so I went to the store and bought 2 turkey legs. I  roasted them in the oven for almost 1 hour in order to prepare this lovely salad. I also added some left over chicken that I had sitting in my fridge. The smell of the caramelizing meat spiced with five spice powder and honey was incredible. The juice of the citrus fruits and Ginger added a perfect dressing to this salad. Crunchy pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the dish completed the look of the salad. A perfect pretty and tasty holiday dish. Even my son's plate was empty, although he added some shaved parmesan - but he shaves parmesan over everything no matter what it is.

• Asian Inspired Turkey Salad:
• (Jamie Oliver)
• serves 2 as a main dish, or 4 as an appetizer
• 
  
• • 2 large handfuls of brown turkey meat
• • 1 large handful of cashew nuts
• • 1 handful of dried cranberries
• • 2 teaspoons ground five-spice
• • a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked (I left this out)
• • a bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked (I used parsley instead, since that is what I had)
• • 4 large handfuls of mixed salad leaves such as chicory, rocket, spinach, watercress (a mixture)
• • 1 tablespoon runny honey
• • 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (I used chilli powder)
• for the dressing
• • juice of 1 clementine
• • juice of 1 lime
• • 1 pomegranate, halved
• • ½ red onion, peeled and coarsely grated
• • extra virgin olive oil
• • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• • a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely grated

Shred the brown turkey meat into thin strips using your fingers and put it into a dry pan on a medium heat. Add the cashew nuts, dried cranberries and five-spice. Give it all a good stir then let it toast away while you get on with your salad. Give the pan a shake every now and then to make sure nothing catches. Add the mint and most of your coriander leaves to a bowl with your mixed salad leaves. Make your dressing in a separate bowl by mixing the juice from your clementine and lime. Squeeze the juice from one of your pomegranate halves through your hands to catch any seeds then discard them. Stir in your grated onion. I tend to use 3 parts oil to 1 part acid when I’m making dressings, so look at what you’ve got in the bowl so far then pour in 3 times as much extra virgin olive oil. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil. Squeeze in all the juice from your grated ginger then throw away the pulp.Give this lovely dressing a really good stir, and have a taste. If you want more salt, add a splash more soy. If you want more acid, add another squeeze of lime juice. Drizzle over enough dressing to coat the salad leaves then use your hands to toss and dress them. Add the honey to the pan with the turkey meat and stir through until coated. Turn the heat up to full whack for the last few seconds to really crisp up the meat mixture. At this point, make sure your guests are all at the table and ready to eat so you can serve the salad as soon as the hot meat hits the salad leaves. Toss half of your pan-fried ingredients through the salad leaves and transfer to a serving platter. Spoon the remaining nuts, cranberries and crispy meat over the top of the salad and add another drizzle of dressing. Hold the remaining pomegranate half over the salad and knock it on the back with a spoon so the seeds pop onto the salad. Garnish with a nice sprinkling of fresh red chilli, any remaining coriander leaves and serve right away.

Pici con ragu

When I asked my son what he wanted for dinner tonight, he picked "Pici con Ragu" from Jamie's Italy cookbook. I agreed, but honestly, I had no idea what I had  gotten myself into.
I had made pasta before, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult.  Boy, was I wrong....

At least it was an easy start: the sauce rather classic, cooked by itself almost the whole afternoon and came out deliciously. The dough was prepared in a couple of minutes. I stored it in the fridge as recommended and decided to have an afternoon rest. My inner voice told me, though, that I should give myself enough time to practice rolling out of the Pici. So I started relatively early in the afternoon to roll out my first Pici, and I was so right!
The dough was easy to handle, but the skewer stuck to the dough and I couldn't get it out when I rolled them as thin as I wanted them to be . So I floured the stick, but then the dough didn't wrap around the pasta anymore...
Long story short, I rolled out the little pieces, divided them in half, rolled them almost to the length of the stick and then pressed the skewer into them to flatten them out a little.
It worked o.k. I know now why pasta comes in packages.
Still, the dish was scrumptious - empty plates across the table... Would I do it again? Only when I have plenty of time, really a lot....


Pici con Ragu
(Jamie's Italy)
serves 4

For the pici

455 g/1lb finely ground semolina flour
approx. 200ml /7floz water

for the ragu sauce

olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
3 bay leaves
a sprig of fresh rosemary
500 g/1lb 2oz minced beef or veal
4 x 400 g tins of good quality plum tomaoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a bloc of Parmesan cheese for grating

Place the flour in a bowl and, a little at a time, add just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. The drier the dough, the easier it will be when rolling it out later. Dust a clean work surface with flour and knead the pasta dough for 10 minutes or so until smooth and velvety. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate it until you are ready to use it.

Pull of a orange sized piece of dough and roll it with your hands into a long thin sausage shape on a very lightly four-dusted work surface. When it's about 2cm/ 1 inch thick, divide it into 3cm / 11/4 inch pieces so you end up with lots of little nuggets of dough.

Make sure the table or board is dry and free of flour, otherwise rolling will be difficult, and have a damp cloth nearby to moisten your hands. Take a 1mm thick 15cm/6 inch long wooden skewer, hold it at both ends and press it down lengthways into a piece of dough as if trying to cut it in half down the middle. When you've pushed the skewer in half-way, roll the dough gently round the stick using your fingertips.

You should end up with a very thin, sausage-shaped piece of pasta with the stick through the middle. When the pasta is rolled just thinner than a cigarette, stop rolling and gently pull it off, making sure you pull on the stick rather than the dough. Giving the stick a twist will also help. You should end up with a long thin hollow noodle. Repeat with the rest of the dough and lay all your pici on a tray, dusted with semolina flour, to dry out slightly before using.

When you have laid all the pieces out on a tray and dusted them with semolina flour, you can start to make the ragu sauce. Heat a saucepan  big enough to hold all the sauce ingredients, add a splash of olive oil and the chopped onion and garlic, and cook slowly for about 10 minutes until soft and lightly coloured. Add the bay leaves, the whole sprig of rosemary, the minced beef or veal and the tomatoes. Stir will and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer gently for 2hours with a lid on the pan.

If the sauce starts to stick at any point, add a splash of hot water and stir well. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Using a pair of tongs, fish out the bay leaves and rosemary sprig and discard them.

Cook the pici in a pan of boiling salted water for around 10 - 15 minutes until cooked through but still al dente. Drain and then stir them into the hot ragu sauce.Ad a good spash of olive oil, then taste and season again if necessary. Serve with lots of freshly grated Parmesan.

Super Moist Carrot Cake

This carrot cake is incredibly good. It's moist and flavorful, you can taste the nuts and the spices and you will make it over and over again.

Carrot Cake

from Cook With Jamie

This carrot cake is an exceedingly good cake made all the more pleasing by the twist of lime mascarpone icing. It’s delicious, it works and it’s better than any other carrot cake I’ve tried. I would normally bake this in a square or round cake tin, but for the picture I used a lovely old loaf tin and it came out looking gorgeous.

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened

• 250g light brown soft sugar

• 5 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic, separated

• zest and juice of 1 orange

• 170g self-raising flour, sifted

• 1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder

• 100g ground almonds

• 100g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving

• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon

• a pinch of ground cloves

• a pinch of ground nutmeg

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

• 250g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

sea salt

for the lime mascarpone icing:

• 100g mascarpone cheese

• 200g full-fat cream cheese

• 85g icing sugar, sifted

• zest and juice of 2 limes

a rather pleasing carrot cake 

dessert recipes | serves 8 - 10 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line a 22cm square cake tin or a round equivalent with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter and sugar together by hand or in a food processor until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder, and add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices and grated carrot and mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin and cook in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes until golden and risen. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick into it. Remove it after 5 seconds and it if comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a bit longer, so put it back in the oven. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a rack and leave for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts.

Tomato Soup

Even my daughter who is not a soup lover at all loves this creamy tomato soup. The flavor of the tomatoes is incredible and the smooth and silky texture makes you want more. You could also use  canned tomatoes and omit the cream and it is still delicious.

Tomato Soup

(serves 4)

Jamie Oliver: jamie's dinners

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 garlic glove, peeled and finely chopped

1 carrot, coarsely grated

Olive oil

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

2 egg yolks

1 kg (2 lb) super ripe tomatoes

2 pints chicken stock or 2 pints vegetable stock (5 cups, 1,18l)

Sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

• Directions

1. Put your onion, garlic, carrot and basil stalks into a large pot with a couple of lugs of olive oil. Cover the pan and simmer gently without colouring for 20 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.
2. Whisk together the cream, vinegar and egg yolks in a small bowl and put to one side.
3. While the vegetables are simmering, drop the tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds, then remove the skins and roughly chop the flesh. Add these to the veg, then pour in the stock and simmer for a further 20 minutes with the lid on.
4. At this point it's nice to puree the soup using either a food processor a blender or a hand-held blender, but be careful as it will be hot.
   
5. Put back into pan, bring back to a simmer and season carefully with salt and pepper.
6. Just before serving to enrich the soup and give it a shine and silky texture, whisk in the cream mixture, but (don't reboil it after adding the egg yolks or it will scramble) and 
   serve straight away sprinkled with a few torn up basil leaves.

Astoria Soup

Should you be able to find sumac and zataar at your local supermarket, you should really give this soup a try. Sumac is a sweet and sour berry, and zataar is a mixture of sesame seeds, thyme and sumac berries.
This wonderful soup doesn't have to cook for hours on the stove, once you have your ingredients all chopped up it will be ready to serve in 15 minutes.
It is, of course, another Jamie Oliver recipe...

Astoria Soup
(Jamie's America)

Ingredients
serves 6

75 g (1/3 cup) bulgur wheat
3 peppers (red or mixed colours), deseeded and finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

olive oil

2 tbsp sumac

2 tbsp zataar

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

12 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 400g (14 oz) tin of chopped tomatoes

1,3 l (5 cups) chicken or vegetable stock

6 flour tortillas
salt and pepper
a small handful of mint leaves
1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve

1. Cook bulgur wheat until tender, drain and set aside (approx. 15 min.)

2. Put your finely chopped onion, peppers and garlic into a large pan with a few lugs of olive oil and a good pinch  of salt and pepper, and cook on the highest heat for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your spices and cook for another minute.

3. Add your cooked bulgar wheat, fresh and tinned tomatoes, and stock. Slowly bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Then, check the seasoning and preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F.

4. Brush a little olive oil over your tortillas, then dust a little sumac and zaatar onto them. Lay them flat on a baking tray and warm them up in the oven for a couple of minutes until the edges crisp up.

5. Serve your tortillas on the side for dipping, or pop them into the bowls before pouring over the gorgeous soup. Sprinkle over a little extra sumac, zaatar and cumin, scatter over your torn-up mint leaves and you're done. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing over.

Dan Dan Noodles

Another recipe of Jamie Oliver that turned out beautifully...

Dan Dan Noodles

(Jamie's America)

In the western Sichuan province of China, they make this dish in huge buckets that they carry on poles over their shoulders. “Dan” means pole, so these are, quite literally, “pole pole” noodles. It’s a simple dish, full of soft, silky noodles, lovely veg, some great crispy meat and a wonderful hum from the raw garlic. So there is a load of punchy flavours here, and then, of course, you’ve got the Sichuan pepper and the wonderful chilli.

I absolutely love chilli, but this dish is right on the edge of my chilli tolerance. Personally, I think that’s the beauty of it, and you’ve just got to go for it, but by all means halve or quarter the amount of chilli for a mellower dish.

Serves 4

1 beef or chicken stock cube, preferably organic

500g minced beef

2 tbsp runny honey

300g wheat noodles

4 handfuls of mixed green veg (chinese cabbage, sprouting broccoli, bok choy, spinach)

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

3 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp freshly ground Sichuan pepper

5 tbsp good-quality chilli oil (see PS below)

2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced

1 lime, quartered, to serve

Crumble your stock cube into a large pan of water and get it on the heat. Add the beef to a dry pan and, on a medium to high heat, keep moving it around until it’s golden and crunchy, about 10-15 minutes. Pour away any excess fat, then add the honey and toss until all the mince is nicely coated. Cook for about 30 seconds, then take the pan off the heat.

Stir your noodles into the boiling stock and move them about so they don’t stick together. Cook according to the packet instructions. Shred your cabbage into 1cm strips, quarter your bok choy and snap up the broccoli spears. When the noodles have 1 minute to go, throw in the prepared greens to blanch them. Drain the whole lot in a colander, reserving a mugful of the cooking water. Tip your noodles, veg and the mugful of water back into the hot pan.

Add your garlic, soy sauce, Sichuan pepper and chilli oil. Give it all a good mix with tongs and divide between 4 bowls. Sprinkle over the crunchy beef (you can reheat this at the last minute if you like), finish with a scattering of spring onions and serve each dish with a lime quarter to squeeze over. A serious noodle dish.

PS To make your own chilli oil, get a handful of mixed dried chillies (as many as you like), toast them in the oven to bring out the flavour, whack them in a food processor with a bottle of groundnut oil and pour back into the bottle. This will keep well in your cupboard for a year.

Pasta with Chickpeas

I am not sure if this a soup or a pasta dish but I think it leans more toward being a soup. It is a simple, Italian dish, which uses chickpeas as its base.

Pasta e ceci
adapted from Jamie Oliver
Serves 4

1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 stick of celery, trimmed and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
A sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
2 14-oz. cans of chickpeas
2 1/4 cups of chicken stock (use vegetable broth for a vegetarian version)
3 1/2 oz. ditalini or other small Italian "soup" pasta
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional: a small handful of fresh basil or parsley, leaves picked and torn

Put the finely chopped onion, celery, and garlic into a saucepan with a little extra virgin olive oil and the rosemary and cook as gently as possible, with the lid on, for about 15-20 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft, without any color.

Drain your chickpeas well and rinse them in cold water, then add them to the pan and cover with the stock. Cook gently for half an hour and then, using a slotted spoon, remove half the chickpeas and put them to one side in a bowl.

Puree the soup in the pan using a handheld immersion blender. If you don't have one, you can whiz it up in a food processor instead, then pour it back into the pan. Add the reserved whole chickpeas and the pasta, season the soup with salt and pepper, and simmer gently until the chickpeas are tender and the pasta is cooked.

At this point, if the soup is a little thick, pour in some boiling water from the kettle to thin it down, and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve drizzled with good-quality extra virgin olive oil. Lovely sprinkled with some freshly torn basil or parsley. A real treat

Dear Jamie,

I am very grateful that your dishes turn out to be great every time. I can always rely on your recipes even if I have guests for dinner and never tried that recipe before.

This soup is comforting, easy, fast and tastes like fall on your tongue.

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup

(adapted from Jamie Oliver)

1 ¾ quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade
olive oil
2 large carrots, peeled
2 celery stalks, sliced evenly
2 medium onions, peeled and rough chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 ¾ pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and rough chopped
7 ounces chorizo sausage, sliced
small bunch fresh parsley, fine chopped
1 heaped teaspoon Madras curry powder
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 fresh red chile, fine diced

Bring the stock to boil in a saucepan. Let it simmer on the back burner.

Bring a large pot to medium-high heat. Pour in the olive oil. Put all the chopped and sliced foods (including the chorizo) into the hot oil. Add the curry powder and mix it all up.

Cook until the carrots have softened but are not falling apart and the onions have turned a little golden, about 10 minutes.

Pour in the hot stock. Give the soup a stir and let it come to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the sweet potato is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Season the soup with salt and pepper. Stir. Taste. Season it to your taste.

Blend the soup with an immersion blender (easiest) or by pouring it into a large blender or food processor. (I left some chunks in the soup because it looks nicer)

Top with a bit of diced chile and serve.