Slow Cooker Red Lentil Soup

This soup was inspired by a recipe for "Red Lentil Soup" in Michele Scicolone's The Mediterranean Slow Cooker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). I'd been meaning to try her recipe for weeks, but never had quite the right ingredients on hand. I decided to just go ahead and do the best I could with what I had. And I think I did.

This is delicious soup, subtle and savory, that will fill you up without leaving you feeling filled up. It doesn't need any accompaniment, although a bit of fresh fruit never goes amiss, and is just as good for breakfast as for lunch or dinner. I've mostly been eating it for breakfast as my tummy's been a bit sensitive lately and this lentil soup's a gentle way to start the day.

Slow Cooker Red Lentil Soup
Makes 6 generous servings

Ingredients
1 pound red lentils, rinsed, drained, and picked over
1 large red onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 14.5 oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted adobo-seasoned petit diced tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 dried bay leaf
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 14 oz can full-fat coconut milk

Directions
Combine all in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until the vegetables are tender (Do the sweet potatoes break up a bit when you stir the pot? You're good). Remove bay leaf. Puree soup with immersion blender. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

If you can't find the adobo-seasoned tomatoes (while I found them at the grocery store, they don't seem to exist on the Muir Glen website) just use a plain can of fire-roasted tomatoes and add a teaspoon or so of adobo seasoning.

I also made "Balsamic Chicken with Capers" from the The Mediterranean Slow Cooker and they were everything chicken from a slow cooker should be -- tender, moist, and richly flavored. And so easy to throw together as it asks for ingredients that are always in my kitchen. I did not remove the skin from the chicken before cooking and it seemed almost to melt into the meat as the fat rendered out during the cooking process. Yum! I will definitely make this recipe again.

Chard-tastic Sausage and Black Bean Stoup

Trader Joe's was selling ten ounce bags of washed, chopped, and ready-to-cook Kaleidoscope Chard for $1.99 a bag. Of course, I bought two. And then I brought them home and realized there really wasn't room in the fridge for two bags of chard. So I made soup out of one of them. (The other one I keep patting and calling "pretty" ... as if it were a new pet and not something I will be eating soon).

This soup is based on the recipe for "Black Bean Soup with Sausage and Greens" from Beth Hensperger's Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker for Two. I made Hensperger's recipe a few years ago and, while it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped (my own fault), I'd been meaning to revisit it.

When I made the recipe before I remember it came out too thin for my taste, so I threw in a diced sweet potato and some red lentils this time 'round hoping it would help thicken things up. I also used more chard and sausage, while reducing the amount of broth, and threw in a can of tomatoes for extra flavor.

Darlings, it was fabulous. Spicy, creamy, meaty ... fab. I ate it for breakfast. For lunch. For supper. And, yes, for a snack. It's been four days and the soup is gone and no-one helped me eat it. I ate it all, yum.

Chard, Sausage, and Black Bean Soup
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
2 tsp coconut oil
1 large carrot, diced small
1 large onion, diced small
2 celery stalks, diced small
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced small
1 cup red lentils, rinsed, drained, and picked over
10 oz bag Trader Joe's raw washed chopped Swiss chard
12 oz package (5 sausages) Trader Joe's fully-cooked spicy jalapeño chicken sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
15 oz can Trader Joe's refried black beans with jalapeño peppers
15 oz can Muir Glen Organic fire-roasted adobo-seasoned petite diced tomatoes

Directions
Heat oil in a large pot. Add carrot, onion, celery, and sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is browned and onion is translucent. Add to slow cooker with chard, sweet potato, refried beans, tomatoes, and broth. Stir to combine. Cook on High for 3 hours. Stir and season to taste.

This is really thick soup -- much more like a stew -- so you might want to add more broth at the end. I like thick bean soups so left it as was.

Roast Chicken & Chicken Soup

Last weekend, I thawed and roasted a beautiful four-pound chicken. Stuffed with thyme, rubbed with olive oil, and dusted with Bell's Seasoning, it roasted on a bed of chopped red cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, sweet and white potatoes. Who needs a roasting rack when you have vegetables? A bed of them elevates the chicken quite nicely and they get to soak up all the yummy chicken juices.

Indeed, the vegetables were phenomenally good and I freely admit I ate all the cabbage and sweet potatoes in one sitting. The chicken, alas, was merely good and while I enjoyed it at dinner with its roasted companions, I was disinclined to pick from the carcass as I processed it for storage.

But that's okay, you know. A merely good chicken can still make a pretty mean soup! We're suffering from a shortage of vegetables (I ate them all) so I made the soup with frozen chopped sweet potatoes, frozen chopped rainbow chard, red onion, garlic, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, carrots, and a scant handful of quick-cooking barley. Ordinarily, I'd have used "traditional" vegetables like peas, carrots, corn, and green beans but needs must. (The Husband loves him some traditional chicken soup, so I don't think it will go over well with him. More soup for me!)

Slow Cooker Curried Lentil & Kale Soup

Sunday, I cleared a freezer shelf with this surprisingly tasty slow cooked lentil-kale-everything soup. I used low-sodium organic chicken broth, but substituting vegetable broth would easily make it vegan. (Swapping half the broth for coconut milk might also be a good trade).

Slow Cooker Curried Lentil & Kale Soup
Serves many

Ingredients
8 oz bag frozen chopped onions
8 oz bag frozen mixed pepper strips
10 oz bag frozen cubed sweet potatoes
16 oz bag frozen cubed butternut squash
2 14.5 oz cans low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Penzeys Maharajah curry powder
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp smoked paprika
30 oz bag chopped frozen kale
17.63 oz package Melissa's steamed lentils

Directions
Combine everything but the kale and lentils in your slow cooker insert and cook for 5 hours on High.

Puree with an immersion blender until smooth.

Add lentils and kale. Stir well. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Adjust seasonings to taste -- I added a little lemon juice and sriracha for brightness.

I've been eating this for breakfast, of course, and a big bowl with some fruit on the side keeps me comfortable (and happy) until lunch time -- not surprising as the soup is full of dietary fiber and protein!

The Blizzard of 2013: What We Ate

My cupboards and fridge always have food in them. My mother raised me to keep a little extra laid by in case Something Bad Happened and I didn't think this was unusual until I stopped at a grocery store Wednesday night to pick up cat noms and was bewildered by the number of people zooming up and down the aisles, their carts overflowing with food as if they might lose access to the grocery store for a week or more. Aside from the people whose regular shopping days fell on Wednesday and Thursday, I have to wonder ... do you all not have food at home? Is there nothing in you cupboards or fridge that could tide you over for a few days?

From our preexisting food stocks, I made:

A fabulous pot of vegetable beef-barley stew we ate over three days with buttery slices of toasted home-baked bread.

Ingredients: thawed beef (cut into thumbnail-sized cubes), pearl barley, sliced mushrooms, red onion, garlic, carrots, frozen corn, frozen peas, canned diced tomatoes, marjoram, thyme, bay, Penzeys beef soup base, water, leftover Layer Cake Malbec, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper.

"Byrdhouse Mushroom Barley Pilaf" with smoked lamb sausages and green beans. The Husband liked this so much he had seconds! I used a combination of pearl and quick-cooking barley, simply because I did not have enough pearl barley left, and the quick-cooking gave the dish a comforting creaminess while the pearl barley remained slightly chewy. It was a good combination and I must remember to do it that way again.

Ingredients: thawed smoked lamb sausages, pearl barley, garlic, red onion, sliced mushrooms, dry sherry, low-sodium fat-free chicken broth, Penzeys herbes de provence, black pepper, parsley, garlic oil, fresh green beans.

"Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oats in the Crockpot," because oatmeal is the best comfort food for consecutive snow days and pumpkin is full of good nutrition.

Ingredients: steel cut oats, pumpkin puree, coconut milk, Penzeys baking spice, pumpkin oil flavor. (I sweetened each individual portion to taste with maple syrup and drizzled it with flaxseed oil for extra goodness).

I made pancakes and waffles, as well, but was too hungry at breakfast time to faff about with the camera. Not a morning person, anyway. Food and hot tea must go in my belly before I can function properly.

I heated up a frozen lasagna, too, but since it was made by Marie Callender it does not count as real cooking. It was, however, pretty darn good and I will be stocking up on more "Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna" the next time they go on sale. (I know, I know ... "Making and freezing your own is so much healthier/thriftier").

Our regular shopping day is usually Sunday so we're a bit low on milk and I've switched over to green and white teas to save what remains for The Husband's tea. Otherwise, we're in fine kip and could avoid the shops until next weekend. Which would be great, because here's the thing: while I like eating and enjoy cooking, grocery shopping does not fill me with joy. And, yes, we use Peapod quite heavily, but there are things Peapod can't be trusted to supply properly. What I really need is a replicator.

A Vicious, Delicious Cycle

I made bread, because I made soup. Then I made another soup, because I still had bread. And then more bread, because I still had soup ... oh, what a delicious cycle in which to be trapped! Yes, I know one does not have to have fresh bread when one has soup (or soup when one has fresh bread), but it is such a perfect pairing. Especially in the dark, dreary days of winter when a buttery, crunchy piece of toast dunked in a bowl of hot, savory soup is the only thing keeping madness at bay.

Or something like that.

None of the goes-with-bread soups I've made recently could ever be called gourmet. They're just thrown-together affairs using ingredients years of eating soup has told me go well together. And sometimes, I just chuck ingredients in to get rid of them. For example, in this soup, I used some of the tiny pasta rags I'd picked up at an international market. (Google says they're Greek, for what it's worth). They're wee little pinkie-nail sized squares of pasta with uneven sizes and crooked edges -- as if they were cut by hand and not machine-stamped. I bought them on a whim and forgot about them until I went on my bread and soup bender.

Bits of Random Chicken Soup

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped red onion
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup chopped carrots
1 scant cup diced yellow bell pepper
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 cup frozen corn
1 large potato, peeled and diced small
½ cup pasta rags
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
32 oz low-sodium chicken broth
14.5 oz turkey broth
14.5 oz fire-roasted diced tomatoes [Muir Glen]
1 large bay leaf
Handful dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium until hot and very fragrant. Add onion, garlic, and chicken. Sauté until onion is transparent and chicken is a bit browned (will not be cooked through). Add bay, carrots, pepper, cabbage, and both containers of broth. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Stir in potatoes, pasta, corn, tomatoes, and parsley. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes more or until pasta and potatoes are cooked cooked. Remove bay. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste.

Accidental Workhouse Porridge

I know. My soup looks like the kind of wretched porridge they would have served at a Victorian workhouse, if the Victorians had known about quinoa. It's not at all pretty. Indeed, it's down right homely. But, O my darlings, it is quite tasty.

This soup is based on Crisco's "Butternut and Quinoa Soup," but I used an acorn squash, yellow bell pepper, and no-sugar added cashew butter. Also, I was out of cayenne so seasoned the finished soup with sriracha.

I blame the soup's sad, washed-out color on my choice of ingredients as orange butternut and red bell pepper would have held their own against the brown cashew butter and ultimately yielded a prettier soup. But yellow and yellow, when mixed with the brown cashew butter, just went ... beige.

And then I had the brilliant idea to puree the finished soup as the large chunks of squash didn't really seem to go with the tiny grains (would really recommend dicing squash into fingernail-sized cubes) ... No, pureeing did not help its looks at all.

But the taste was better! The squash blended with the quinoa and corn forming a spicy/sweet/nutty/creamy amalgam that I couldn't stop sampling.

Since it looks like porridge, I've been eating it for breakfast and find a one-cup serving (4 WWP+ as I made it) is quite filling and doesn't leaving me starving by midmorning. I do look forward to making it again, but with a butternut squash and a red or orange bell pepper.

Cleaning Out the Fridge With Soup

Made another loaf of bread Friday night (the second this week!) and that made me crave chicken soup and, since Saturday afternoon seemed like a good time to clean out the fridge, I made a big pot of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink chicken soup. Leftover leeks, carrots, onions, peppers, peas, corn, rosemary, parsley -- everything went in the pot and deliciousness came out.

I'd put the chicken breasts in the fridge to thaw the night before (planning on enchiladas to use up the manky peppers and onion) and they were still slightly frozen when I went to make this soup. That turned out to be a good thing, because they were much easier to cut! Usually, I detest cutting up raw chicken because it feels like the flesh just flops around on my cutting board, smooshing more than slicing. Slightly frozen chicken has body and doesn't smoosh.

Speaking of chicken, I feel I need to give a shout-out to my local Shoprite as it's now stocking some really nice organic chicken and grass-fed beef that rivals the stuff I buy from Whole Foods. The organic produce is also nothing to sneer at -- the variety is limited, yes, but everything is great quality. The organic Fairtrade bananas I've been buying are the best-tasting bananas I've had in months -- sweet and buttery and wonderful.

And now back to the soup!

Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Chicken Soup

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 heaping cup chopped leeks
1 scant cup chopped red onion
1 heaping cup chopped red and orange bell pepper
1 scant cup chopped carrots
1¼ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
32 oz low-sodium chicken broth
14.5 oz turkey broth
1 heaping cup frozen corn
½ cup frozen peas
1 large bay leaf
1 3" sprig fresh rosemary
1 scant cup quick-cooking barley
1 scant cup chopped fresh parsley (do not pack)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium until hot and very fragrant. Add leeks, onion, pepper, and carrots. Sauté until onion is transparent. Add chicken, bay, rosemary, and both containers of broth. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Stir in barley, peas, corn, and parsley. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes more or until barley is cooked. Remove bay and rosemary. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste.

We ate this with crunchy, buttery toast and big mugs of tea while watching back-to-back episodes of Dark Shadows: The Revival. It was exactly what I'd been craving.

(We'd been wondering where all the food storage bag clips had gone and now it's clear they're all in the freezer holding closed an improbable number of open bags of veg).

Eating The Alphabet 2013: A is for Acorn Squash & Apples

[So ... it's come to my attention 2013 The Eating the Alphabet Challenge doesn't start until February! Whoops! In my excitement, I really jumped the gun!]

Woo! It's the 2013 Eating the Alphabet Challenge! I really enjoyed last year's challenge and am chuffed it continues -- so many fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains I haven't tried yet! So many excuses to go shopping at Whole Foods! Yeah!

For my first post, I've used acorn squash and apples. Apples aren't that exciting, but they go very well with winter squash, and winter squash is very exciting. I'm new to winter squash (except butternut, my squashy childhood BFF), but I'm trying to eat more of them as they're good for me (full of vitamins A and C and potassium) and whole ones are fairly inexpensive.

The root of this recipe can be found in Weight Watchers PointsPlus Fruits and Veggies A to Z: Get Passionate with Our 175 Delicious Recipes, but I changed it up a bit, because the original recipe lacked oomph. I think the mild sweetness of the squash is well complemented by the tart apple and sweet heat of the curry powder, but if you're not sure about curry, you might want to start with ½ tablespoon curry powder and work your way up from there.

This is an easy soup to make and it keeps well. It should freeze fine, too, if you can't eat it all now. (I've been eating mine for breakfast with crunchy toast slathered with cashew butter, because soup makes a great breakfast).

Curried Squash Soup with Apples & Leeks
Adapted from Weight Watchers PointsPlus Fruits and Veggies A to Z
Makes 6 cups. My math says 2 WWP+ per serving, but ymmv.

Ingredients
1 large acorn squash (23 oz puree)
1 large leek (4 oz sliced white and light green bits)
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and diced (11 oz apple cubes)
3½ cups organic low-sodium vegetable broth
1 Tbsp Penzeys Maharajah-style curry powder (a sweet curry blend)
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F°. Line a jelly roll pan with foil and spray with a little oil. Cut squash in half from stem to point and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Place halves, cut side down, on prepared foil. Roast halves for about 50 minutes or until squash is easily pierced with a knife. Set squash aside until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, heat a French/Dutch oven or large saucepan and sauté leeks in a little broth until tender.

Scoop squash flesh from roasted halves and add to French oven with apples, broth, and curry powder. Cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes or until apples start to break down. Remove pot from heat and let sit until cool enough to process.

Process soup with an immersion blender or whathaveyou until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If soup is too thick, add more broth.

Leeks can be sandy little buggers and you want to may sure yours are thoroughly cleaned before you cook them. I find the easiest thing to do is to give the leek a quick rinse to get any surface grit off then chop off the root and inedible dark green top and slice up the leek however I need it for cooking. Once it's all cut up, I rinse the pieces in a colander until I don't see any more grit. (Of course, the super-easy-and-lazy way is to buy bagged frozen sliced leeks, but they're hard to find).

Improv Challenge: Sweet Potatoes & Honey

I love sweet potatoes so I was very happy to find November's Improv Challenge ingredients were sweet potatoes and honey. I considered many dishes -- including these beautiful tzimmes from the Boston Globe -- but eventually settled on soup, because it's soup weather here. Too many grey, dreary days that cry out for a beautiful bowl of rich, spicy-sweet, orange goodness.

I've made Sue Bee Honey's recipe for "Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Curry Soup" twice now -- the first time I used thawed frozen organic cauliflower instead of fresh and just added them to the pot during the potatoes' last ten minutes of cooking time. The second time I used fresh organic cauliflower. While the flavor was better with fresh -- richer and deeper -- it was still good either way and frozen vegetables are certainly a time saver, so don't be afraid to go frozen.

Both times, I omitted the sour cream and cilantro as I don't like cilantro and simply thought the soup was delicious enough without sour cream. And I couldn't find my cinnamon (!) so I substituted Penzeys Baking Spice -- a blend of cinnamon, mace, anise, and cardamom which made the soup even more aromatic and flavorful. Aaaand I used vegetable stock, making this a vegetarian soup perfect for Meatless Monday or whathaveyou.

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Curry Soup

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup chopped red onion
4 garlic gloves, minced
3½ cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups chicken stock [Emeril's Organic Vegetable Stock]
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon [Penzeys Baking Spice]
2 tsp curry powder [Penzeys Maharajah]
1½ Tbsp honey [local]
16 oz fresh cauliflower florets

Directions
Coat bottom of a large French/Dutch oven with cooking spray. Add the oil and heat until fragrant. Add garlic and onion and sauté until softened and fragrant.

Add the curry powder and cinnamon to the hot pot and cook, stirring, until spices are very fragrant. Add in salt, pepper, sweet potatoes, fresh cauliflower (if using), stock, and honey and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add in the frozen cauliflower (if using) and cook 10 minutes more or until potatoes are tender/easily pierced with a knife. Remove pot from heat and let sit until soup is cool enough to blend without scalding yourself.

Transfer to a food processor or use an immersion blender and puree until soup is creamy and smooth. Return to the pot and thin with more stock, if desired.

An excellent soup full of fabulous flavors! Velvety smooth with the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. It's impossible to just eat one bowl.

Eating the Alphabet: S is for Spinach

October's Eating the Alphabet Challenge is S and/or T ingredients. Being pressed for time, I rolled the Alphabet Challenge up with homework for my online Italian cooking class and made "Stracciatella" (Italian egg-drop soup with spinach). I only began appreciating spinach once I reached adulthood and, even as recently has three years ago, I would only eat it raw in salads. Now I love it prepared pretty much anyway imaginable!

Indeed, I've grown to love leafy greens of all kinds and can only shake my head at childhood me who would only eat lettuces and cabbage for leafy greens.

Of course, childhood me would be appalled by many of the things I eat now.

Beginners Stracciatella

Ingredients
10 cups chicken broth or stock [I used half broth, half stock]
1 bag fresh baby spinach
2 large eggs beaten with ½ cup of cold water
¼ cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
⅛ tsp ground nutmeg [I used mace]
1 cup orzo, uncooked

Directions
Heat chicken broth in a large pot over medium/low heat until simmering, add pasta and cook for five minutes, lower heat. Sauté garlic with the olive oil over low heat in a skillet until garlic is fragrant.

Coarsely chop spinach and add to broth. Add the garlic & oil, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to the pot. Stir well. Make sure the broth is hot, but not boiling. Slowly drizzle the beaten egg into the soup as you briskly whisk it so that thin ribbons of egg form. Cook and stir for one minute. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Serves 4 generously.

Peppery and rich, this soup will definitely chase your Monday blahs away!

Tomato Soup, I Love You

As was bound to happen when you go and plant thirty cherry and small fruit tomato plants, I have too many tomatoes. So many, that I've already given some away at work rather than see them go bad. Being selfish, I don't really want to keep doing that.

What to do? Make soup! I had bookmarked a lovely recipe from FamilyFun.go.com for "Roasted Tomato Soup" last winter when I was positively jonesing for soup every darn day. Obviously, cherry tomatoes weren't in season then but they certainly are now and the recipe is a great way to use up six cups of the precious darlings.

It glows with the glow of a thousand orange tomatoes ...
To healthify this soup, I omitted the butter and reduced the amount of cream by half. I also omitted the grilled cheese croutons and didn't miss them, because this soup is so veryvery delicious on its own. (I can usually take or leave tomato soup, but this stuff is addictive and I want to eat it constantly. Good thing the recipe makes a lot).

I used turkey broth, because I still have quite a lot leftover from last year's big buy, but chicken or vegetable broth would work just as well. I also used less broth than the original recipe called for, because I wanted a very thick soup.

Despite being pureed, this soup retains a lot of texture from the bazillion cherry tomato seeds. If you don't like seeds, I recommend straining the soup through a sieve before adding the cream. (I strained about two thirds of the soup, leaving a little bit of seeds and skin behind for body).

Creamy Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup
Adapted from FamilyFun.go.com

Ingredients
6 cups cherry tomatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
5 springs fresh thyme
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium red onion, chopped
14 oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
14 oz can turkey broth
½ cup heavy cream

Directions
Heat oven to 400°F. Toss cherry tomatoes with 3 sprigs thyme, 2 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread evenly on a large jelly roll pan. Roast until tomatoes have shriveled and some have burst, about 40 minutes. Set aside.



Heat remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the garlic, onion and remaining sprigs of thyme and saute until onion is softened. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, turkey broth, and roasted tomatoes with their juices and bits of thyme. Simmer, covered, for 40 minutes.

Remove from heat. Puree tomato mixture with an immersion blender or what have you. Strain out seeds, if desired. Stir in cream and season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4 for lunch with leftovers.

Eating the Alphabet: J is for Jerusalem Artichokes

I've been enamored with Jerusalem artichokes (aka "sunchokes") since I saw them listed in a seed catalog a few years ago. I thought this sunflower-like plant with its potato-like tubers was quite pretty and the old-fashioned sound of its name, coupled with the fact it's an indigenous vegetable, made it seem like something I might like to grow. But ...

I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to growing tubers -- even potatoes fill me with trepidation. And I didn't know anyone who'd ever grown or eaten Jerusalem artichokes. So they've lurked at the bottom of my list of vegetables to try for some time now, never moving nearer to the top ...

And then I signed on for the Eating the Alphabet Challenge and Jerusalem artichokes seemed like the perfect "J" vegetable! I would finally cook Jerusalem artichokes and know whether they were worth growing or no. But where to buy them? Turned out the local Whole Foods had a whole bin of them and they weren't particularly expensive. What to do with them? Well, that was easy -- I'd had Eat Drink Better's "Jerusalem Artichoke Recipe: Creamy No-Dairy Vegetable Soup" bookmarked since February so I knew exactly how I wanted to prepare these tubers.

My Jerusalem artichokes were, maybe, a little on the small side but I tried to buy similarly-sized tubers. Several recipes I consulted said cleaning these tubers would be time-consuming, but mine looked as if they had been pretty well cleaned before they hit the produce shelf and I didn't have to scrub them long to make sure they were grit-free.

I loved that this recipe didn't need me to peel the tubers as there's nothing more boring than peeling vegetables. No, I just scrubbed them and sliced them thickly. (Don't they look like sliced waxy potatoes?)

Cooked diced onion and garlic in olive oil (I used red onion and doubled the garlic) until the onion was translucent.

Chucked in the Jerusalem artichokes, sliced carrots (I used baby carrots), and 3 cups (vegetable) broth so that the vegetables were just covered and simmered with the lid on for about 35 minutes (until the Jerusalem artichokes were tender when I stuck them with a knife).

Seasoned the soup with salt, pepper, and curry powder (1 tsp Penzeys salt-free Maharajah Style Curry Powder) to taste. Using an immersion blender, I pureed the soup until was reasonably smooth.

This soup kept well in the fridge -- which was good thing, because while I thought this soup was phenomenal, The Husband did not agree and I ended up taking it to work all week. Silly man with his resistance to new vegetables! This soup is nutty and creamy and rich and so very yum.

Will I grow Jerusalem artichokes next year? I think so!

My First Cauliflower

I bought a cauliflower to make the "Quick Giardinera" I saw in March/April 2012's EatingWell, but then I wussed out and was left with a very large organic cauliflower occupying too much of my fridge. As always, I turned to the internetz for help and the internetz did not disappoint. I found tried a recipe for "Slow Cooker Curry Cauliflower Soup" and, having made it, I now want to cook all things cauliflower.

I didn't really know how to break down my cauliflower, but decided tackling it from the bottom up was probably the best route. I cut the leaves away and then, using a paring knife, carefully cut the head into florets by basically cutting the little cauliflower "trees" free of the main stalk. "Trees" that seemed too big were cut in half so I ended up with a pound of (mostly) similarly sized florets.

I used two 14.5 oz cans Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes and two cups of low-sodium chicken broth as well as 4 cloves of pressed garlic instead of the powdered stuff.

The instructions don't say to, but I used an immersion blender to turn my soup into a smooth bisque and it was very pretty. Also tasted good, which is probably more important, but I wouldn't want to eat an ugly soup.

There are no photos of this soup, because I ate it all up, yum! Really, it was a good soup. I fed some to my parents, who say they don't like curry, and they liked it a whole lot. However, if curry and cumin aren't your thing, you could probably substitute a liberal amount of your favorite salt-free Italian seasoning blend.

Moderately Good Potato Soup

March's Improv Challenge features one of my favorite food combinations -- potatoes and cheese. The internetz are full of potatoes and cheese recipes and I've starting pinning some of them, building up a collection of Improv possibilities. This weekend, I thought I would give Betty Crocker's "Rustic Potato Soup with Cheddar and Green Onions" a whirl as I had an embarrassment of scallions on hand.

This recipe turned out okay, but I won't make it again. The Husband enjoyed it very much, but I thought it was a bit bland and tasted too much like eating a big bowl of runny mashed potatoes. And this is after I tarted the soup up quite a bit! (It's likely my expectations were too high -- that, full of enthusiasm for the Improv Challenge, I simply expected too much from the recipe).

Moderately Good Potato Soup

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 pounds unpeeled russet potatoes, cut into ½-inch cubes
2 cups 2% milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon thyme
16 medium green onions, finely chopped
4 oz Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar, shredded

Bring broth to boil in French/Dutch oven. Add potatoes to broth and return to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender. Drain potatoes well, retaining 1 cup of hot broth. Puree 3 cups potatoes in blender with 1 cup of hot broth until smooth. Set aside.

Melt butter in Dutch oven and saute green onions under wilted. Add pureed potatoes, remaining potato chunks, milk, salt, pepper, thyme, most of the green onions, and cheese. Cook over medium, stirring, until soup is hot and cheese is melted. Taste. Adjust seasonings as necessary. Serve sprinkled with leftover shredded cheese, green onions, and black pepper.

I think the flavor of this soup would have been much improved if I had cooked 6-8 large garlic cloves with the potatoes and pureed them with the 3 cups of boiled potatoes. Also, I should have peeled the potatoes, because the bits of skin just didn't do anything for me.

(I can't share my "real" Improv Challenge recipe with you yet, but I am more that happy to share the ones that didn't make the cut).

Kale Is For Stew

I stopped in a Trader Joe's last weekend and bought a big bag of washed chopped kale on impulse, which is the kind of thing that always happens to be when I go shopping without a grocery list. Officially, I'm the only one who eats kale in this household so I knew I was free to do with it whatever I liked. Being traditionally-minded, I made a big pot of Bon Appetit's "Kale and White Bean Stew." I had to make some changes based on what I had in my pantry, but tried to stick pretty close to the original recipe where I could. The stew came out really well and I took forward to making it again.

Modified Kale & White Bean Stew

10 oz bag Trader Joe's Kale
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped peeled carrots
1 cup chopped celery
2 shallots, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup Beringer 2009 Californian Chenin Blanc (or whatever you're drinking)
1 15-ounce can Goya Habas Grandes (large butter beans), drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can Muir Glen Organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes, not drained
1 cup slightly wrinkly cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups turkey broth (more if you like broth-y stews)
2 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
Really good sherry or red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch kale in boiling salted water for 1 minute or until brilliant green. Immediately drain and plunge into a ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Drain well. Wrap in a tea towel and squeeze out as much water as possible. Set aside for later.

Heat oil in a French/Dutch oven over medium heat. Add carrots, celery, shallots, red onion, and garlic. Cook until tender, stirring, about 15 minutes (vegetables will probably brown a little -- I liked this but Bon Appetit said not to).

Add wine and simmer until liquid is slightly reduced. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, thyme, and bay leaf and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add kale and simmer 5 minutes longer. Remove bay. Add more broth if stew is too thick for you. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and served drizzled with sherry or red wine vinegar. Have a bit of crusty bread on the side for dunking.

(I didn't have any sherry vinegar to mix into the finished stew, but used the really delicious, fruity Katz Late Harvest Zinfandel AgroDolce Vinegar in its place and ... wow! It just made the stew sing).

Lunch by Bush's Beans

I was pokin' 'round the internetz, looking for black bean soup recipes, when I found Bush's Black Best Bean Soup Meal and thought "there is nothing on that page I do not want to eat and cannot make rightnowthisminute" so I did.

Best work lunch since I made that delicious curried pumpkin-vegetable soup a few weeks ago!

I did end up modifying the black bean soup a bit to keep with the pantry challenge, but it still came out pretty darn delicious.

Pantry Challenge Black Bean Soup

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can organic black beans, undrained
1 (15 ounce) can organic black beans, undrained and pureed
1 (15 ounce) can organic black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups reduced-sodium fat-free organic chicken broth
½ cup Green Mountain Gringo Roasted Garlic salsa
1 Tbsp Penzeys salt-free Arizona Dreaming seasoning blend

Directions
Add beans, chicken broth, salsa, and seasoning blend to pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes or until some liquid has evaporated and soup is thickened to your liking. Serve topped with a sprinkle of dried cilantro.

I like to crumble the corn muffin into the soup and stir them together, but I am bit of a barbarian.

Pantry Challenge: Clean Out The Cupboards With Soup

Trying to stay on track with the Pantry Challenge, I made a couple soups. There's nothing as comforting or forgiving as soup, after all, and it's always an excellent way to use up odds and ends.

First I made a batch of Pillsbury's "Curried Pumpkin-Vegetable Soup." It was a really tasty, easy soup with lots of good curry flavor. I admit I used 1 tsp more curry than called for and I bloomed the spices with the sauteed onions before adding the remaining ingredients, because that's what I learned from Cook's Illustrated -- always bloom spice blends like curry powder to help develop their rich, complex flavors. I wanted a flavorful soup, so I bloomed.

Did it work? I think so. Certainly, I was so interested in eating it that I never stopped to take a picture of the finished soup! This is one of the best recipes ever! Simple and healthy and yet also so rich and flavorful.

Ingredients: pumpkin, frozen mixed vegetables, broth, curry powder, paprika, onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, salt, black pepper.
Pantry challenge items used: 1 can pumpkin, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can turkey broth.

Emboldened by my success, I went on to make a big pot of Taste of Home's "Vegetable Bean Soup" which not only allowed me to use pantry challenge ingredients, but also some limp celery and ancient frozen chopped spinach.  Unfortunately, this soup was not quite as tasty as the pumpkin soup. Rich and hearty, yes, with lots of vegetable goodness and I'm sure I'll make it again, but ... the pumpkin soup was just the bomb, you know?

Ingredients: black beans, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, diced tomatoes, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, no-salt powdered beef bouillon, quick-cooking barley.
Pantry challenge items used: 1 can black beans, 2 cans diced tomatoes, partial box of quick-cooking oats.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Gingery Carrot Soup

This weekend I made Betty Crocker's "Slow Cooker Gingered Carrot Soup" to use up a surfeit of satsumas and carrots. Since this soup cooks for 10 hours on low, I started it Saturday night before I went to bed and then finished it Sunday morning. I thought this soup was really delicious -- gingery, yes, but that's exactly what I wanted in a midday pick-me-up. It's a thick and creamy soup that just needs a bit of salad and a chunk of crusty bread to make a satisfying meal!

Ingredients: baby carrots, chopped red onions, low-sodium chicken broth, juice from freshly squeezed satsumas, heavy cream, brown sugar, 6 cubes Dorot frozen crushed ginger (1 cube =  1 teaspoon), white pepper, salt.

Before going to bed, I dumped the baby carrots, diced onions, and low-sodium chicken broth into my slow cooker. I only used one container of broth (4 cups), because I worried about overfilling my slow cooker. I figured I could always add more broth at the blending stage, if the soup was to thick.

I set my slow cooker on to low, put the lid on, set the kitchen timer for ten hours, and went to bed.

In the morning, I turned off the slow cooker and added heavy cream, satsuma juice, brown sugar, 6 cubes Dorot frozen crushed ginger, and white pepper to the carrots.

Pureed all the vegetables with my immersion blender and seasoned it with a little salt to taste. I did not add any extra broth as I didn't feel it needed it. I let the soup cool and then portioned it out into 1-cup serving containers for the work week.

Return of the Chestnuts

For my second foray into chestnut cookery, I made Schmooed Food's "Golden Chestnut Soup" as it looked to be an easy recipe and I had most of the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients: roasted chestnuts, olive oil, carrots, celery, onion, fresh thyme, bay, salt, pepper, nutmeg, water.

I am so happy I made this soup! It smells heavenly and is simply ohmygoddelicous. I could happily have sat down and ate the entire pot in one sitting.  I almost wished I had more chestnuts so I could make more soup! I gave a container to my vegan coworker and, days later, she is still talking about how good it was and how she might just have to acquire some chestnuts ...

Overall, I'd say Jennifershmoo's roasting instructions worked better than Martha Stewart's -- roasting at a higher temperature really made the chestnuts easier to peel. (I also found that squeezing each nut before peeling helped loosen the husk and pellicle).