zondag 15 december 2013

The Paris Project: Mange ta Soupe!

The French are probably the biggest soup eaters in the world. A lot of French eat a large and warm lunch and take a light soup in the evening.
Next to this, a home made soup does not contain too many calories, is healthy, light, filling and on some days even comforting.

Here is my take on a classic soupe aux légumes with home made croutons.

What you'll need for the soup (biological of course!)
1,5 litre of vegetable stock
4 celery stems
4 spring onions
6 carrots
1 large white onions
5 parts of garlic
a handful of mushrooms
1zucchini
fresh thyme
fresh parsley
2 bay leafs
2 spoons of olive oil
Salt and Pepper (I always use pink Himalayan salt, for its health benefits)

What you'll need for the croutons
spelt bread
olive oil
garlic
salt and pepper
parsley

Cut the onions and garlic and glaze these on a low fire. Add the vegetable stock and let it boil for a few minutes. Chop all the veggies, relatively large, and add half of the celery, carrots, zucchini and spring onions to the stock. Add the thyme parsley and bay leafs. Leave it on a low fire for about 50 - 60 minutes, this will be your soup base.

After one hour remove all the veggies and add the other half of uncooked veggies and add the mushrooms (chopped obviously ;)). Leave this on a low fire for 5 minutes so that the veggies keep a nice bite.

In the meantime you can prepare the croutons, super easy and amazingly tasty. Slice the bread in either cubes or sticks, whatever you prefer. Drench it in a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper, parsley and garlic. Place the bread in the oven and bake it for 8 minutes on 180 degrees.

Bon appétit!






zondag 8 december 2013

The Paris Project

I just got back from an amazing time in Paris. After living there for 6 months, three years ago, this amazing city keeps on surprising me.

I love the French way of living, enjoying food, taking time to sit and relax, just the overall laissez-faire and la vie an rose attitude.

Amsterdam is just a three our train ride away from Paris, but fashion, style and lifestyle wise this distance is huge, massive even. I was so disappointed being back in Holland but also astonished. How is it that French women look stunning and effortles all the time and (most) Dutch women don't even bother washing their hair. I have decided to step over to the French side and dedicate my blog the coming month to the Parisian way of living life. Starting with style…