The Food Matters Project: Curried Tomato Soup with Poached Egg (and popovers)

photos by scott haydon

Hello! Welcome to another Food Matters Project post. This weeks recipe was chosen by Joanne and can be found here.

We actually made this recipe on Saturday. And I've had the post sitting on my computer desktop since then. Mainly because Sunday was my best friend's 32nd birthday and we spent the day having the most amazing time. We baked a cake, set up Beatles Rock Band, broke out a pinata and created an impromptu photo booth. If you ever have the opportunity to create a photo booth at a party I highly recommend it. It brings out the silly nature in your friends and family and takes away a lot of the fear some people have of getting their picture taken. Scott and I spent Friday night making "props" such as: mustaches, lips, beards, glasses, hats, batman mask, etc. It was so amazing and I know that I'll be looking at all of the pictures and cracking up for a very long time.

Rewind back to Saturday night - I worked until 6pm, came home and tackled soup, popovers and a three layer lemon poppyseed birthday cake.

I love this soup. I must have added too many vegetables, however, because I will be eating leftovers for at least a couple more days. I chose to poach a couple of eggs directly on top the soup in the last few minutes and it worked out perfectly. This soup is so fragrant and tasty, I really enjoy the jalapeno and ginger. I was also able to use several items from my CSA which I'm still finding to be a really exciting treat.

adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
1 TBS garlic, minced
1 TBS ginger, minced
1 jalapeno
2 TBS curry powder
1 tsp cumin
pinch brown sugar
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
handful small carrots, chopped
salt and pepper
3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup coconut milk
3 cups chopped tomatoes
1 small cauliflower, roughly chopped
4 eggs, poached on soup
1/4 cup parsley, garnish

Put oil in large pan over medium high heat. add onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno and cook, while stirring, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry powder, cumin and sugar. Continue cooking and stirring for a couple of minutes.

Add potatoes and carrot. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, while stirring, for a couple of minutes and then add vegetable stock, coconut milk and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer. Cook, stirring on occasion til potatoes soften - about 20 minutes.

Add cauliflower and make sure soup continues to bubble gently. Cook til vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

In the last five minutes of cooking, gently crack four eggs onto the soup and cover. Start checking after 3 minutes and cook until eggs are done to taste.

Spoon soup and an egg into a bowl and serve with herb garnish AND POPOVERS!

Corn, Buttermilk, Green Onion & Parsley Popovers in Muffin Tins

adapted from this really great recipe.

1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup corn kernels
3 large eggs
2 TBS melted butter, cooled, divided
1 cup flour
1 tsp granulated sugar
salt and pepper, to taste
2 fresh green onions, dark greens only
1 TBS fresh parsley

In a blender - pour buttermilk and add corn, blend for 3 seconds, just to break up kernels. Add eggs, 1 TBS butter and blend for 1 second. Add flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, pepper, green onion, parsley and blend til barely combined.

Heat oven to 375. Brush your muffin tin with the remaining melted butter. Fill tins til just over halfway. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.