Getting my 5 a day

Recently I've been feeling like eating super-healthily: Lots of vegetables, salads, vegetarian dishes. This week's new recipes were excellent examples of the kind of food I've been craving.

A Vietnamese Crab and Asparagus soup made a delicious lunch (even though it doesn't look that great!)


It was quite unusual in that it had a beaten egg stirred through to form thin eggy strands. That really enriched the soup and made it taste quite indulgent. The recipe was extremely easy to make. I battled with my 'food miles' conscience since asparagus isn't in season in the UK anymore, but in the end greed won out! Here's the recipe:

Vietnamese Crab and Asparagus soup for 2

1 tin crab (or 120g cooked fresh crab meat)
200g asparagus spears
500g chicken stock
3 shallots (finely sliced)
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 egg
salt and pepper
chives

Warm the stock in a saucepan, add the shallots and simmer for a few minutes to soften.
Meanwhile chop the asparagus spears into bite sized pieces and cook in simmering water for 4-5 minutes until tender.
Add the asparagus, crab, fish sauce and seasoning to the stock mixture. Mix the cornflour to a paste with a little water, add it to the soup mixture and stir until the soup thickens a little. Beat the egg lightly, add to the soup and stir briskly to form strands of egg. Sprinkle with some snipped chives and serve.

For dinner the same day I threw together an Ottolenghi salad recipe of broad beans and radishes, which was excellent served with a piece of haddock and pitta breads, with a tahini sauce for dipping.


See: It looks like the book's picture!

I never used to like radishes, but thought it was high time I revisited them to see if I like them now. This combination of salad ingredients was lovely and the radishes gave a great textural contrast with their crunchiness, as well as being a wonderful colour against the grean of the beans. I actually used half and half broad beans and peas as I didn't have enough broad beans for the recipe. That seemed to work just fine.

One revelation is that I don't know why I never thought to pop broadbeans out of their skins before. I have always hated those tough outer skins that they have, but they're very easily peeled off!

Fresh and healthy summery dishes feel exactly right just now.