Comfort Food

I need comfort food – familiar meals – so I’ve just made some pumpkin soup in exactly the same way that I’ve made it in the past while leaving out the step of cooking it for 20 minutes. I had intended to warm the soup at 37 degrees Celsius – which the Thermomix very conveniently has as its first temperature setting – but I forgot to do that which is okay as my taste test has given it the thumbs up.

I was with my Mum over the weekend and she cooked pumpkin soup in her new Thermomix. So the taste and texture of the cooked soup is still relatively familiar. The Thermomix has done a good job of pureeing the raw soup and while raw soup will always have a different texture to the cooked equivalent, it tastes great.

I’m finding that I tend to focus on subtle flavours much more when I eat raw food compared to cooked food. I’m not into rich foods so I’m cautious with how much I add of any herbs, spices or root vegetables such as garlic and ginger.

It’s really helpful that I have 4 books about raw food on my coffee table right now. I’ve bought “12 Steps to Raw Foods” by Victoria Boutenko and “Rawsome” by Brigitte Mars, and I’ve borrowed “The Raw Food Gourmet” by Gabrielle Chavez and “The Power House Diet” by Leslie Kenton from the library, and of course have the Rawlicious recipe booklet. It’s a great opportunity to look at different suggestions for similar meals. One book suggests using orange juice instead of water while my sister sometimes adds a tomato to the pumpkin soup and I’ll try both of these options and even combine them to see how each turns out.