Year of the Soup: Week 5

Seeing as I do not have all 52 recipes selected for the year (as people keep asking), I am thankful for friends who have sent recipe suggestions for the Year of the Soup. Many thanks to Amanda for suggesting this week’s recipe, and to Lee for sending me a copy of the Soup Bible (which looks fantastic!)

I added green beans to this soup, mostly because they were in my fridge and about to die.  I think it worked.  I wish I had chopped the tomatoes, though, because squeezing them wasn’t enough to get them quite small enough.  I guess I’m picky about tomatoes :)

Quinoa Vegetable Soup

3/4 cup quinoa
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 onions, finely diced
3 carrots, peeled and finely diced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
2 zucchini, finely diced
1/2 cup yellow corn kernels
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons sea salt
12 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
1 28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Rinse quinoa well, and drain. Heat large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add quinoa, and stir constantly for 10 minutes, or until the moisture evaporates and the quinoa crackles and becomes golden. Transfer quinoa to a bowl, and set aside.
2. Heat oil in large, heavy stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Sauté for 12 minutes. Add zucchini, corn, red pepper, garlic, and salt. Sauté 3 minutes longer, or until vegetables begin to release their juices.
3. Add stock, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the toasted quinoa, and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until quinoa is almost tender.
4. Squeeze the tomatoes into the soup, and add the juices from the can; then stir in the cumin and coriander. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until quinoa is tender.
5. Stir in the cilantro, and season to taste with pepper and more salt, if desired.

Year of the Soup: Week 4

This was a yummy one.  I’ve never had regular tortilla soup because it always has chicken in it, so I can’t vouch that this tastes like the real thing.  But it does taste good. The recipe is below.  I made some alterations to the original (I can’t seem to make a recipe without changing it a little.)

Year of the Soup: Week 3

I need a food stylist.  Photographing soup is hard!  This black bean soup tasted really good, but the presentation was, um, sub par.  This was the third take :)

You can find the recipe for Black Bean Soup with Roasted Red Pepper HERE.  The recipe does require a pressure cooker.  (Side note: I love my pressure cooker!  I steamed an artichoke for friends last weekend in only 12 minutes!  Ok, cooking nerd moment over.)

As leftovers this soup makes excellent burritos.  Sounds weird, but it thickens a lot when it cools.  Just spoon some soup into a tortilla with shredded cheese and pop it in the microwave.  Yummy!

Year of the Soup: Week 2

I forgot how long it takes to boil rice.  We were starving after a yoga class at Corepower, and decided this was the perfect time to roll our own sushi for the first time.  Unfortunately, we had not pre-made the rice, and had a good 30-45 minutes until mealtime.  I couldn’t wait.  I needed food.  Now.

With a 20-min cook time, Basic Miso Soup seemed like an excellent idea.  And thus it became the second soup of 2010.  It cooked really quickly, and totally satisfied my need for a pre-sushi starter course.  I swapped carrots in for greens, since I had none.  I also forgot to dissolve the miso paste in broth before putting it into the pot.  In my hunger-induced impatience I just threw it in, noticed the lumps, and proceeded to whisk it with a fork.  It got the job done, but it also pulverized the tofu into unappealing chunks.  I don’t recommend that technique.  It makes an ugly soup (as you can see in the photo.)  At least the sushi looked good :)

Basic Miso Soup

Ingredients

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup cubed firm tofu
• 1/4 cup chopped winter greens (or carrots in my version)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 Tbs. red miso paste, or to taste

Directions

1. Simmer broth in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add tofu, greens and green onions, reduce heat to medium, and cook about 5 minutes, or until greens are just wilted.
2. Stir in miso, and barely simmer (do not boil). Remove from heat, and serve immediately.

Admittedly, I stole this idea.

Forget New Year’s Resolutions, this year I wanted a project.  I’d rather strive to become a more interesting person in the New Year than try to quit something, or give myself guilt later on for not following some abstract rule I’ve placed upon myself.  So John and I brainstormed some ideas, and the winner was The Year of the Soup.

We heard this idea earlier this summer from a friend who had designated 2009 her Year of the Soup, and she spoke proudly of the interesting recipes she learned, such as Borscht and Pozole.  I remember thinking “I want to know how to make cool things like that!”  And since culinary prowess is something I pride myself on (come over for dinner sometime and I’ll show you), I deemed this a worthy project for 2010.

The game is to make one soup per week for the next 52 weeks.  Of course I’ll likely be out of town for some of those weeks, but I’ll try to stick as close to that 52 number as possible.  Blogging my efforts can only help me succeed, so you can look forward to seeing photos and recipes about once a week.  Maybe one will inspire you.  Keep in mind all recipes will be vegetarian, and if you have suggestions of your own please share!

Last night I made the first 2010 soup, pictured right – Italian Chickpea Soup.  It was superb (even without the oregano, since Sunflower Market was out.)  Paired with bread and garlic butter – yum!