Pea zucchini soup and how I became a foodie
I always get a little bit nostalgic when I read about other people’s memories concerning food. The way their mum used to cook, or family gatherings that were all about food. In fact I have been asked on a few occasions about my food memories from growing up. It’s almost a little embarrassing but I don’t have any. Well maybe I should say, I don’t have any that you would want to share on a foodblog. You see; my mum didn’t like cooking and while we never discussed it at the time I recently asked her and she confirmed that yes, she hated cooking. And what’s good food if it doesn’t have a little bit of love in it? And because she hated it she kept it simple; on Wednesdays we had meatloaf, on Friday’s we had macaroni and cheese, on Saturday we had soup with bread and the days in between would be potatoes, meat and vegetables. Usually overcooked vegetables I might add.
We never had fish or any other seafood. With the exception of those canned herring in tomatosauce, that should really be banned, but that is the only thing that ever reached our table. O and rolmops, which is basically pickled herring. So those are my childhood memories relating to food! For the life of me I cannot remember if we ever ate anything when going to my grandma. We always got a little box of those raisins when we left; that is the only thing I can remember when it comes to food. Even back then, whenever we would have a birthday, there would also be apple pie. And guess who always made that? Yep, yours truly. Quite early on I was the one making the apple pies and the cheesecakes (not the baked kind but the one that eh… came out of a package ). So by the time I left home at the age of 19 I had no knowledge of good food and I had no idea how to cook. Baking an apple pie is not the most essential thing to know in the kitchen! 
My friend Jacqueline liked cooking and since we lived together during our nurse internship, we started cooking together. I liked it but it was just something that had to be done at that point. Student nurses are – if anything – not well known for their good nutritional habits. or at least not in my days! Seafood I never touched. I was convinced that is was disgusting, not to mention all that hassle with the fishbones… No fish for me, thank you very much.
I wish I could tell you that at some magical moment I discovered the joys of food and the world became a better place, but it wasn’t as quick or simple as that. It slowly changed over the course of the next 20 or so years. I started reading cooking magazines and cooking books and trying out things. Had a lot of things go wrong both in food as well as in the boy territory. A broken heart and cooking never really seemed to work very well.. lol… When I met Tom, 20 years ago, ( I was 29 at the time) one of the first things he did was make me a spaghetti con amore (well that was the name he gave it but it was basically a spaghetti bolognese) so I was convinced I finally met a guy who could cook! Whoohoo! Sadly…. he could only do lasagna and spaghetti at that time but he did have a mum who loved to cook and who passed that love onto Tom.
At that point I was slowly starting to really like cooking. I loved going to markets and well, I loved to eat, but that had never been an issue in any period of my life. I started reading about the stuff too and started to deviate from the original recipes I found. I went from someone who religiously followed a recipe to the letter (finding out along the way how many recipes are actually wrong!) to someone who started throwing in other stuff. Sometimes good, often times inedible… 
But that’s how I learned and that’s ultimately how I transformed from someone who likes to cook, to someone who is crazy about anything related to food. Heck, who even does something relating to food for a living.
So no, I didn’t grow up in an environment where my mum passed on delicious recipes to me. I did not discover I like fish until about ten years ago (in Greece I might add) when I had a really fresh fish grilled on the BBQ and then it took me a while to get over my initial fish-nerves… I cooked from packages and pre-cut everything for a long long time. So there you have it; the ugly truth!
Talk about ugly truth… Let’s talk about this soup. The recipe appealed to me since I had fresh peas that needed to be used and a lot of zucchini that needed to be used too. So when I bumped upon this recipe in Delicious magazine I figured why not give it a go. But it was ok-ish. Healthy for sure but it was begging for some salty and crunchy bits to be added. So if you plan on making this soup; go wild and make the flavors sing.
Pea zucchini soup
Yield: 2-3
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 20 min
Ingredients:
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 3/4 zucchini (courgette) in cubes
- 250 gr peas (either fresh or frozen)
- few twigs of thyme (leaves only)
- salt
- pepper
Directions:
- Heat a large saucepan and add 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add the garlic and slowly bake for a minute or so. Add the courgette and peas and bake gently for about 2 minutes. Pour 750 ml of water in the pan and bring to the boil. Add the thyme leaves and leave to simmer for about 6 minutes.
- Using a stickblender puree the soup and add salt and pepper to bring to taste.
I thought the soup could do with some added salty crunchy things (like little baconbits on top or parmesan croutons) I will make it again as the base was nice but I will add stock instead of just water. I think that alone will make a big difference!
Recipe adapted from Delicious magazine
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
Ha ha … We had the same experience Simone. My Mum still hates cooking. I met Ron when I was 22 and at that stage I was able to make a few decent dishes … But did not love to cook at all.
Now, I am at my happiest by his side prepping and helping out. There has to be love in the kitchen.
I can see how our kids already have a love for food and cooking and I think by the time they go to college they will be able to make their own dinners!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 07:47
I’m pretty sure your kids are gonna be amazing food lovers when they’re all grown up. Although it might actually work the other way around too. Guess time will tell!
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A wonderful and heartfelt post.
Your soup looks and sounds fantastic!
Cheers,
Rosa
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 07:51
Thanks Rosa! It has potential for sure!
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We all have a different journey that brought us to the love of cooking and sharing food. It’s inspiring that you now enjoy it so much even if you grew up with a mother who didn’t enjoy it as much as you do now. c
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 07:52
Which I guess in a way brings some hope to all those kids out there who are growing up with truly horrific food!
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Thank you for giving us your foodie background!
Your soup sounds very good but I agree, using some good stock & adding bite sized baked bacon bits woul be more appetizing! 
Yum!
I was smiling all the way reading it!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 07:54
Thanks Sophie… Yes that soup needs a little extra for sure..
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Interesting narrative and beautifully illustrated as always.
I almost never use water to cook anything (except pasta), believing water leeches flavor while broth starts building it right from the beginning.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 07:55
I use broth also quite a lot depending on what I’m cooking but things like couscous or quinoa who don’t have a lot of flavor to start with really benefit from being cooked with something extra. I agree…
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I am glad that despite a childhood deprived of good food you found your calling.
My story is very different as everyone in my family loved to cook, my dad in particular is amazing.
There is hope for my children then, they both don’t want anything to do with cooking but maybe when they get older they will turn around to their roots.
Lovely shots, I love the light blue with the green of the soup.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 07:58
O haha. It an work both ways I guess. Still, I think it would have been fun growing up in a food loving environment! I bet your kids will start to become more into it once getting older!
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My mom made the basics… but for some reason, I was always fascinated with the kitchen– organizing it and baking cookies and helping with dinner. I hope my passion is rubbing off on my son since it would be fun to have him grow into a man who loves to cook! I love the idea of this soup, and I would add plenty of bacon!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 08:00
Yep. Bacon does make anything taste better…;) And I hope it indeed rubs off on your son. A man who loves to cook is always a good thing!
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I hear whey adds a great depth of flavour into vegetable soups. Cannot wait to try it. First of all… the narrative was so compelling. Loved the story of your coming into food. Never knew you were a nurse!
And the turquoise enamelware in the photo with the green peas and soup is stunning. GORGEOUS… and sad to read that the soup was just “OK”. I hate that when I get so excited and work with delicious ingredients and end up with mediocrity. Makes for an adventure next time.
V
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 08:01
Oh gotta remember adding whey to the soup! And I had so many jobs Valerie…
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It’s not ugly truth, it’s just truth. We all have different paths, but the goal is one, delicious food and it doesn’t matter how you get there.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 13th, 2012 at 08:05
I agree! And ofcourse; the ugly was meant in a funny way..
I always think It’s interesting to hear about how people got into food!
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My mom didn’t like us helping loads, she liked keeping in control in the kitchen. But I remember enjoying cooking with her some, and loved cooking with my grandmother and aunt:-) I love the simplicity of the soup, and all the fresh ingredients sound beautiful together:-) Thank you for sharing, Hugs, Terra
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Thank you for sharing your story. I think there are a lot of people who discovered food-love on their own.
Have you seen the movie “Toast?” It’s based on the autobiography (of the same name) of English food writer Nigel Slater. His path to food was not the charming-grandma-in-the-kitchen story that you hear a lot. He ate a lot of toast growing up
Anyway, it’s not the same as your story, but just goes to show that we don’t all start out with a cozy homey story about food. I grew up eating TV dinners, fish sticks, and Chef Boyardee! Check the movie out if you haven’t. It’s very funny.
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Stock or broth will definitely make a huge difference. Beautiful photos as usual. I am learning a great deal about photography by studying your photos. Thanks.
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Thank you for your story of evolving love for food. Coming from NE Europe I don’t remember our menus being very exciting either, whether Mom or household help did the cooking: rather heavy meat and potatoes kind’of stuff in German or Russian style – excitement re vegetables being entirely missing! And then I married a foodie!! And we were in business, and on business accounts and forever travelling
! I learned about food, food, glorious food from many chefs worldwide and began trying to copy both recipes and plating when back home! A love affair blossomed and has deepened as time has passed! Live to eat, not the other way around 
! Oh, and love your soup: looks so moreish and easy to do!!
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I love these photos with the bright green and blue colors together with the white! And from these photos you will not notice that there might has been some flavour missing …. haha .. anyway, I will have this in mind, when trying out the soup.
And by the way, I even had to finish my studies before I started to love to cook and to try out receips. Actually I grew up more or less with convenient food. Seems I am not the only one
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It was nice and interesting to read about your childhood and your love for food story. I guess we just assume that mom’s cooking has to be the best in the world. And for most people it is. But we forgot that moms are individuals too and they may or may not like cooking.
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Love your stories, Simone!
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