sunday bites

We have been throwing around the idea of creating a "supper club" with our good friends, Jerel & Nicole, for a while now. Ever since we, or I should say Brad, reconnected with them and totally hit it off food-wise, we've been toying with this idea. (Sidenote: Brad graduated from high school with them...ahem, 15 (!) years ago; they reconnected via localfoodcleveland).

After spending 11 hours roundtrip in the car with our friends Matt & Erin for New Years, we were pleased to learn how similiar our food philosophies are. We threw out the idea of doing a supper club and they were more than willing to give it a try and voila, Sunday Bites was born.

Our first meeting was held last night (our intention is to hold them on Sundays, as the name implies, but we ran into schedule conflicts this time, so had to do Saturday instead). Brad and I hosted and chose Soup as the theme which happened to be the perfect meal for the below freezing temperatures we've been enduring lately. We chose to make a curried carrot almond soup which is something we've never tried before, but were quite happy with the results. The sweetness of the carrots & almond milk is balanced by the heat of the red pepper flakes and the ginger gives it a nice little kick too. Matt & Erin made a Moroccan vegetable soup & Jerel & Nicole made Posole (with an assortment of toppings)...let's just say we ate very well. For dessert I made Figs and Dried Cherries Poached in Vanilla-Honey Syrup with Pistachios, which was every bit as delicious as it sounds (and super easy to make - I will post later on this week). The first meeting of Sunday Bites was a smashing success and I can't wait for our next meeting in February.

curried carrot almond soup

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 3/4 teaspoons curry powder (preferably Madras)

1/4 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes

1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled ginger

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 lb carrots, peeled and chopped

4 cups water

2 cups plain unsweetened almond milk

4 cilantro sprigs, leaves and stems reserved separately

1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted  

 •Cook onion in oil with 1/2 tsp salt in a 4-qt heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add curry powder, red-pepper flakes, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring, until garlic is golden, 1 to 2 minutes.

•Add carrots, water, almond milk, cilantro stems, and 1/2 tsp salt and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

•Blend soup in batches in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Season with salt.

•Serve sprinkled with cilantro leaves and toasted almonds. 
 
recipe courtesy of gourmet.com 

The other soups:

 

     Posole                                    Moroccan Vegetable Soup