Evanescence ~ Everybody's Fool
Jack Johnson ~ Same Girl
Skid Row ~ Youth Gone Wild
Newton Faulkner ~ Uncomfortably Slow
Gorillaz ~ Dare
Melissa Etheridge ~ Come On Out Tonight
I attended my first Indian Hindu Mela this weekend and had a very good time, despite feeling grim. I currently have no voice after picking up a throat infection..URGH! But thankfully my voice wasn't needed much at this event.
The whole afternoon was fun and maybe a little disorganized, with it being their first Mela in our neighbouring city. There was an amazing aroma of Indian food being cooked as you walked through the doors which made My Love, our friends who came with us and myself, groan because we were still full from our lunch and knew it would be unlikely that we would be able to enjoy the offerings. Then you were met with such beautiful colours...from fabrics hung around, to the decoration of the hall and the stalls and the women and children surrounding us. The children made me smile as they took pride in their costumes and then ran around with cupcakes and other massively coloured sweets from the stalls and I confess I laughed at the horrified looks from their parents and guardians as they run up to them. lol
We slowly walked around and looked at the stalls and information points and then took ourselves off to walk around the food hall and it smelt divine. And the veggie and vegan offerings were plentiful and looked delicious (my pal D did go later and partake in some of the food and reported back that it was as good as it looked) then we moved back to the main hall and stood and watched as the stage lit up with varying performers. We stayed in the main hall until it got so warm that we needed to find some breeze and we spent the rest of the afternoon, sat up in the balcony seats. The performances were very good and the costumes from the classical Indian dress to the modern, were vibrant and so full of life. It was a pleasure to be there. The final performers were dressed in a costume that had a bright flash of orange running across it and they jumped back into my mind when I was blitzing this soup...lol.
It has no other link to the Mela than it's final colour. I found the recipe some time ago on the VeganFamily.co.uk site. It's a very simple soup..simple but good flavours and makes a lot so you can store some in the freezer, as I will.
So in honour of all the wonderful performers that entertained us on Saturday...I give you Carrot and Butter Bean Soup!
Carrot and Butter Bean Soup
(Recipe from Veganfamily.co.uk)
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
8 large carrots, peeled and chopped
400g cooked Butter Beans (1 14oz tin)
2 pints/4 cups/1200ml water
salt to season to your taste
Saute the onion and garlic in the sunflower oil for a few minutes and then add the chopped carrots, stir well to coat. Add the water and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until the carrots are cooked. Add the butter beans to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes to heat the beans through. Season and then with a stick blender blitz until 'just' smooth.
Enjoy!
