Steak with Rocket & Asparagus Pasta Salad

This is a nice quick meal, perfect for after work. You can add anything you like to pasta salad and I try so many different flavours. Here I put in peppery rocket with blanched asparagus, pine nuts and a caesar dressing. Simplicity in itself. And a delicious pan fried steak simply seasoned with salt and pepper. It tastes so good sometimes just let the flavours speak for themselves.

Ingredients:

2 fillet steaks (or sirloin if you prefer)
200g pasta
100g asparagus tips
70g fresh rocket
1/2 red pepper, diced
30g pine nuts
70ml caesar salad dressing

Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente, about 15 minutes. Drain and put into a bowl with the red pepper. Cut the asparagus into 1 inch lengths and steam for 2 minutes. Refresh under cold water to keep its colour bright and fresh. Add to the pasta. Add the rocket & pine nuts and stir through. Then dress the salad with the caesar dressing. Season if needed with salt & pepper.

Lightly brush the steaks with a little oil and season with salt & pepper. Pan fry to your liking and slice. Place over the pasta as serve!

Easy Cream of Tomato Soup

Winter has definitely arrived and its cold in London. It still seems to be Soup Saturday (I have no idea when this started but I'm not bored with it yet - or had to make the same soup twice!). This Saturday, tomato soup. There are so many ways to make this, from roasting tomatoes, to using tinned. Here I done a mixture of both.

Ingredients:

1 onion, peeled & chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled & chopped
1 small carrot, peeled & chopped
1 tbsp. oil
1 tbsp. tomato puree
400g tin tomatoes
800ml vegetable stock (cube is fine)
3 large tomatoes, halved
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. sugar
50 ml double cream

Method:

In a saucepan, fry the vegetables in the oil gently for about 10 minutes, until soft. Add the tomato puree and stir in. Now add the tinned tomatoes, stock and large tomatoes and bring to the boil. Pop on the lid and turn the heat to a simmer and leave to cook for about 20 minutes.

Spoon out the tomatoes and remove the skins. Put the tomatoes back in and blitz the soup with a hand blender, until smooth. Put back on a gentle heat and season to taste with the salt, sugar and pepper. Finally stir through the cream and heat through. Serve and enjoy! 

Note: If you have a green stalk with the tomatoes, add it to the soup as its cooking and remove it just before blending. It has so much flavour (see picture below).