I love soups and can eat them every day for one month, or I hate soup and cannot eat them for one month. We have a love/hate relationship depending on the moment. As we say in French “c’est tout ou rien!”  (it’s either everything, or nothing).

Obviously I am on my soup month and since romanesco are back on the shelves, it would be too bad not to use them. Romanesco is from the cauliflower family and originated in Italy. It can be prepared like cauliflower or broccoli and I find it quite delicious.

This soup is filled with greens, topped with smoked salmon, so a nutritious and light dish and a whole meal in itself. I blended half the soup and kept some vegetables that I mixed with it at the end, to get some velvety texture combined with chunks.

I added some crème fraîche at the end but this is optional. Crème fraîche acidity goes well with smoked salmon and adds a little finished touch. But if you want to keep it dairy free, skip the cream.

Ingredients for 4

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 romanesco, cut in florets
• 1.2 cups, diced in quarters
• 2 cups baby spinach
• vegetable broth (enough to cover the vegetables)
• salt and pepper
• smoked salmon, shredded
• crème fraîche (optional)

Preparation

In a large pot heat olive oil, add onion and cumin. Let cook stirring for a few minutes, until onion is translucent and cumin fragrant. Add the vegetables except for the spinach, and the broth. Adjust with salt and pepper.

When the vegetables are cooked, add spinach and let cook for another 5 minutes, until wilted but still green.

Remove soup from heat and remove two ladles of vegetables from the pot, draining the broth and set vegetables aside.

If there is too much broth in the pot, get rid of some otherwise the soup will be too watery. Using an immersion blender, blend soup to obtain a smooth texture. Add the vegetables you have put aside to the soup. Mix well.

Serve soup in plates, top with salmon and add some cream around. Sprinkle with some chopped spinach and serve hot.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2015/03/romanesco-soup-with-brussels-sprouts-and-spinach-topped-with-smoked-salmon/feed/ 0 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/09/life-is-full-of-contrasts-lentil-and-marinated-smoked-salmon-salad/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=life-is-full-of-contrasts-lentil-and-marinated-smoked-salmon-salad http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/09/life-is-full-of-contrasts-lentil-and-marinated-smoked-salmon-salad/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:10:24 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=13514 La vie est pleine de contrastes – Salade de lentilles et saumon fumé

It’s quite a fun way to eat lentils…lentils are very versatile and I think not popular enough especially since they’re highly nutritious. I have rarely seen them in restaurants other than in soups. In France they’re considered rustic, something you would eat during winter and with smoked sausage or meat. I like them with smoked fish like salmon or trout, it tones down the smokiness of the fish (if the fish is too smokey like my salmon, actually this salmon was too smokey and salty). Here I like the combination of a hearty rustic ingredient with a more elegant and refined one. I have always loved contrasts. They’re unexpected, interesting and always leave you a feeling of wanting more.

Lentils and spinach are among the ingredients French kids have a hard time eating, if you ask any kid in France what they don’t like to eat, they’ll probably say, j’aime pas les lentiles et j’aime pas les épinards! but obviously I don’t want to make this a generality.

You can also combine fresh salmon with smoked salmon, then you would need to cut both salmon in cubes. Here I striped the salmon since I only used the smoked kind.

Ingredients for 4

For the lentils

• 200 g lentils du Puy
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 1 celery stick
• 1 clove
• salt
  

For the lentil vinaigrette

• 1 tbs hazelnut or walnut oil
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper

For the salmon marinade

• 4 large slices of good quality smoked salmon, cut in strips
• 1 orange
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp dill, chopped
• 1/4 tsp fennel pollen
• 1 tsp capers, chopped
• Piment d’Espelette
• Pepper

Preparation

In a pot of water cook lentils with clove, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf and salt and cook until lentil are tender but not mushy. Drain and remove the cooked vegetables from the lentils and set aside. In a mixing bowl, prepare vinaigrette mixing all ingredients together.

Cut salmon in stripes, mix all ingredients of the marinade and pour over the salmon. Mix well to coat the salmon. Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about one to two hours.

Place a small amount of lentil salad in the middle of a plate (you can use a rind to mount the salad) and top with some salmon stripes. Drizzle some extra marinade on top.

Quail eggs…have you ever seen something cuter? They’re very popular in France to add to any appetizer but unfortunately they are not available everywhere in the US. Whole Foods and Sigona market sell them, but those are the only grocery stores where I have seen them on the shelves. Whole Foods sell ostrich eggs for about $30 each but I bet you can feed 4 or 5 people with one of those eggs.

Those adorable quail eggs found a nest in the middle of a potato, they fit perfectly in it, they’re just waiting to be savored with a bit of salmon and fromage blanc touch. I like to use fromage blanc, instead of heavy cream or sour cream, it’s a lot lighter and does not taste sour. If you cannot find fromage blanc, you could substitute it with greek yogurt either the plain one or the 2%. Fromage blanc is a dairy French specialty which has the texture of something in between greek yogurt and sour cream. Very smooth, creamy and velvety. 

For the mixed greens you can use any leafy greens, such as spinach, collard greens, etc…

Ingredients for 4 as appetizers

• 4 medium size purple potatoes or any other potato
• 8 quail eggs
• 2 large slices of smoked sockeye salmon
• 1/2 lb mixed greens
• zest of one lemon
• juice of one lemon
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tbs fromage blanc or Greek yogurt
• 1 tbs chopped chives
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar 
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Wash the potatoes. Pat dry and cut them in half lentghwise, the largest surface should be the one cut in half so that the quail egg would fit in each hole.

Drizzle olive oil and vinegar, add salt and pepper and broil at low heat. Cook until the potatoes are tender but browned on the outside.

In the meantime, bring water to a boil, add salt and cook greens for about 10 minutes. Drain.

Wash lemon and remove zest. Cook lemon zest in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Chop in smaller pieces. 

In a mixing bowl and lemon juice (keep one tsp to add to fromage blanc), olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add to the cooked greens.

When potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and break a quail egg in the middle of the hole, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place back in oven for 3 minutes. Do not overcook the eggs, the yolks need to remain liquid.

Mix fromage blanc with chives, 1 tps lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Cut salmon in strips. Place on top of eggs, and add 1/2 tsp of fromage blanc mixture.

Serve two potato halves on top of 1 tbs of greens.