This Week in My Kitchen: Veggie Lentil Soup with Herbed Tea Biscuits, Pralines & Ice Cream

Okay, "This Week in My Kitchen" is a little misleading. It's more like last month in my kitchen - I'm a bit behind. But what are you gonna do?

Slow Cooker Veggie Lentil Soup with Herbed Tea Biscuits
I'm trying to use my slow cooker more often, and a proliferation of root vegetables from Spud made veggie soup the perfect option.

 I cut up some shallots, garlic, potatoes, carrots, leeks and celeriac and added them to some dried brown lentils and veggie broth in my slow cooker.

  I cooked it on high for several hours (4 or 5 - I can't remember exactly), and served it piping hot with some herbed tea biscuits.

I use the Fancy Biscuits recipe in How it All Vegan as a jumping off point for my biscuits. This time I made them with dill, oregano, parsley and onion seeds. They were delicious and went really quickly, as usual!

Pralines & Ice Cream
I had a sweet tooth one night and had some pecans in the cupboard, so I decided to make pralines (which I made once before) to go with some So Good Vanilla Ice Cream we had in the freezer. I used the same recipe, since they came out so well before, but I used almond milk instead of soy, and I added some fresh nutmeg.

Last time I made pralines I was really wishing I had a candy thermometer. Well, I went out and bought one and used it, but it was a dud! It maxed out at about 95 degrees! I kept stirring and stirring and the temperature didn't budge. Finally, it was looking like the soft ball stage that I remembered from last time, so I got out my digital thermometer and tested it. Sure enough, 120 degrees. So the new candy thermometer went in the trash and I went about finishing up the prailines.

Pralines cooling on some parchment. It's hard to resist them!

 Pralines & Ice Cream - yum!