Year of the Soup: Week 10

Beer should not be green.  I firmly believe this.  I support the right to party in a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” t-shirt, but I’m skipping the green beer this year.  Instead I’m opting to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Potato Leek Soup.  Hearty Irish food without the weird green food coloring.  I must be getting old :)

On another note, did you notice my new soup tureen?  My fantastic friend Laurie got them for me in support of my little soup project.  They are adorable.  Now I really have to step up my food styling to make my soups look worthy of the tureens :)  Thank you so much Laurie!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 leeks, thinly sliced
• 1 medium or large onion, chopped
• 6 – 8 russet potatoes, thinly sliced (I used Yukon Gold)
• 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth (or enough to barely cover potatoes)
• 1 cup milk
• salt to taste
• fresh ground black pepper to taste
• NOTE: this makes a huge batch of soup, so you might want to halve it

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat then add onions and leeks. Cook, stirring, until onions are limp and just slightly brown.
2. Add sliced potatoes to saucepan then pour in enough chicken broth to just barely cover the potatoes. Continue cooking over medium heat until potatoes are tender. Using a potato masher, mash and stir potatoes until desired consistency is reached. As you mash the potatoes and the soup thickens, turn down heat and stir frequently with a large spoon to prevent scorching on the bottom.
3. Add one cup of milk (or more if you desire) and salt and black pepper to taste. Cook 15 minutes more over low heat, stirring frequently, then remove from heat and serve.

Year of the Soup: Week 9

Some of the least attractive soups are the most delicious.  I hope you can keep that in mind while looking at my soup images, because I find it hard to make some soups look like more than so much smush in a bowl.  Particularly when they are monochromatic and a little blended.  I’m working on it. :)

This may look a lot like the Italian Chickpea Soup, but it is in fact a yummy red lentil.  I added extra broth and water to the original recipe, and used balsamic vinegar instead of the red wine vinegar it called for.  If you cook it long enough, the onions turn into that sweet and soft deliciousness that really makes this soup fantastic.

On a side note, I’m leaving tomorrow for vacation in Panama (hooray!)  I’ll be back – with photos – on March 12!

Garlicky Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
• 2 onions, minced
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 carrot, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• generous pinch oregano
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Put all ingredients except for vinegar and seasoning in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower heat and simmer for 1.5 hours.  Stir occasionally to prevent lentils from sticking.
2. Remove bay leaves and add vinegar.  Season to taste.

Year of the Soup: Week 8

I could feel the squash staring me down.  Each time I passed through the kitchen it would stare at me from the produce bowl on the counter.  After sitting untouched since late December, this sad squash was begging to be roasted, sauteed, pureed – anything but left to wither away in that bowl.  I finally listened to its pleas, and fulfilled its squash destiny by creating the following soup.

I wanted a little more depth than the usual basic butternut squash soup, so I found a variation of this recipe that included carrots, celery and onion.  I tweaked it a little (can’t help myself), and the result is below.  The extra veggies added a lot of extra flavor, and really made this soup feel a lot heartier.  Still very easy to make, still very yummy.

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon sage
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• salt pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat butter in large stock pot.  Add carrots, onion and celery.  Cook until vegetables begin to soften and onions are transluscent.
2. Add broth, sage, salt and pepper.  Simmer 30 minutes, or until squash is tender.
3. Transfer soup to a blender or food processor and process until smooth.  Return soup to stock pot and add seasoning as needed.

Year of the Soup: Week 7

My kitchen looked like a murder scene.  Beet juice staining the cutting board, leaking down the cabinets, spattering everywhere.  My hands coated in pink stains.  This soup easily wins the award for messiest soup made thusfar (and that’s coming from someone who exploded black beans all over the kitchen earlier this week.)  Borscht was high on my list of exciting soups to make simply because it just sounds cool.  And because I love beets.  And I’d love to say that this messy soup was completely worth it….but I’m not convinced just yet.

Right now it tastes to me like a beet version of watery tomato soup.  Most of the flavors are simply overpowered by beet.  The recipe claims that the flavors are better the second day, so we’ll see how I like it tomorrow.  If you make this (or have made Borscht in the past) and have suggestions, please share.  My soup needs some help :)

Borscht

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cups peeled and chopped beets
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms
• 1 large cooking apple, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil (I used olive)
• 2 quarts vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• a pinch of dried thyme
• 1 large bay leaf
• fresh lemon juice
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place the chopped vegetables and apple in a large saucepan with the butter, oil and 3 tablespoons of stock.  Cover and cook slowly for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in the cumin seeds and cook for 1 minute.  Add the remaining stock, thyme, bay leaf, lemon juice, and seasoning to taste.
3. Bring the soup to a boil.  Cover the pan and turn down the heat to a slow simmer.  Cook for 30 minutes.
4. Strain the vegetables and reserve the liquid.  Process vegetables in a food processor or blender until they are smooth and creamy.  Return the vegetables to the rinsed pan.  Add the reserved stock and reheat.  Add seasoning if desired.

Year of the Soup: Week 6

John had a craving for chicken noodle soup this week.  Seemed like a good idea – except for the whole me being a vegetarian thing.  But a brothy noodle soup sounded just perfect, so I decided to try my hand at making a Chickenless Noodle Soup.  Typing “vegetarian chicken noodle soup” into Google didn’t produce many results. (Shocking, I know.)  So I adapted a non-vegetarian recipe instead.  This simple soup was so delicious it sounded like a Campbell’s commercial in here while we were slurping it down.  So many mmms!

Chickenless Noodle Soup