roasted beet, garlic and apple soup

Here's a soup I made for the cafe I work at on the weekends (which you should come check out on Saturday mornings at The Stop's Farmers' Market). I just loved the soup so much I had to make it a second time. I got this gorgeous bunch of beets from the market - just pulled from the ground, firm, with fresh and healthy looking greens. After I roasted them (and their skin just fell off, perfectly), I was in danger of eating them all. Plain. But I managed to save a few for this soup. And a delicious accompaniment? A hearty piece of toast topped with with olive oil and sautéed beet greens. 


roasted beet, garlic and apple soup

Remove tops from four medium beets. Wrap each beet in foil, and bake in the oven for one hour at 400. When the beets are halfway done, toss together two onions, peeled and cut in 6 or 7 wedges, two apples, peeled, cored and cut in quarters. Season with olive oil, salt, pepper and a handful of crushed fennel seeds. Spread on a baking sheet, and throw in the oven with the beets. Also, chop the top 1/2 inch off a whole head of garlic. Drizzle it with olive oil, and wrap in tinfoil. Throw in the oven as well.

When all the veg are done (one hour total for beets, 30 minutes for everything else), remove from the oven. Peel the beets (under cold water), and roughly chop. Combine beets, roasted apples, and roasted onions in a pot. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skin, into the pot. Cover with 3 or 4 cups of water, and bring to a simmer. Puree, and add more salt and pepper if needed. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve with a big scoop of plain yogurt.

dinner for a rainy day

I'm really getting into Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals. The book has a ton of great recipes, the layout is great, and the photos are gorgeous. He combines all the recipes, and does the planning for you, integrating the recipes. Start the fish! Make the salad! Check the dessert! I am so in love that I made my own menu, inspired by his cookbook.

The chowder is based on his Finnan Haddie Corn Chowder, the biscuits are from Super Natural Everyday, and the salad is my own invention. Here it is: watch my photoshop skills improving before your very eyes! I'm not gonna promise you can make this in 30 minutes. Maybe 45? It's not a race. Invite someone you love into the kitchen to be your sous chef, and have some cooking talk. It's almost as good as pillow talk.

carrot thyme soup with parmesan croutons

I wanted to make soup. But I had no stock! So I made a onion broth, flavoured with a whole head of garlic and thyme. I wanted to eat the soup. But I had no crackers! Soup without something crispy and crunchy? Sacrilege! I made croutons.

carrot thyme soup
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, sliced
1 head of garlic
a handful of thyme sprigs
6 carrots, chopped
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onions, and cook until softened. Slice off the top of the head of garlic (just exposing the cloves, leaving it intact). Tie up the garlic and thyme in a piece of cheesecloth. Add to the pot, along with 4 or 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. (Voila, tasty stock!) Remove the cheesecloth bundle and discard. Add the carrots, and simmer until carrots are tender. Puree with an immersion blender, and season to taste.

parmesan croutons
4 slices of stale whole grain bread
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh thyme, minced
fresh (or dried) sage, minced
1/2 cup parmesan, grated

Preheat oven to 350. Cut bread into small cubes. Toss in a bowl with all other ingredients. Stir to coat bread with seasonings. Spread on a baking sheet, and bake for 10-15 minutes, until dry and crispy. Serve on top of soup.

braised parsnip and apple soup

Braising: a happy place between sautéing and boiling. The speed of steam and liquid, and the rich flavour of browning and condensing. Amazing!

Sometimes it's nice to have a simple soup, with only one or two main flavours. This one is earthy and sweet, with a lovely pairing of apples and parsnips. If you don't have apple cider, just add an extra 1/2 cup of broth. Also, use oil instead of butter for a vegan soup.

I got the idea for this from Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. This is a take on his braised carrot soup. (such a good cookbook- very accessible, very comprehensive).

braised parsnip and apple soup


3 or 4 medium parsnips, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
salt and pepper, to taste
1 apple
3 or 4 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 cup apple cider

Put parsnips, water, butter, maple syrup, salt and pepper in a pot. Bring to a boil, turn down to medium, and cook, covered for 5 minutes. Uncover, add apples, turn heat to high, and cook until almost all the liquid is gone. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Add vegetable broth and cider, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until parsnips are very soft. Use an immersion blender (or food processor/blender) to puree.

recipe doodles...

Inspired by theydrawandcook.com, click on the image for a larger version.

butternut squash... again

I never knew butternuts last so long, but two of these ones, seen here in September, are still happily hanging out under my kitchen table waiting for this kind of delicious winter recipe:

Squash and Pear Soup

1 butternut squash, halved and de-seeded

olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 or 5 sprigs of thyme

4 or 5 sage leaves

3 pears, peeled, cored and diced

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup soy milk/milk/cream

Preheat oven to 375. Rub squash flesh with olive oil, and put facedown on a cookie sheet. Cook squash for 45 min to 1 hour, until tender. Meanwhile, saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Add herbs and pear and saute for another minute. Add vegetable stock and squash, and simmer for 10- 15 minutes, until pear is tender. Process the soup in a blender or use an immersion blender. Add the milk or cream and gently simmer until hot again. Serve!

Soups for rainy weather

Leek and Potato Soup (with special appearances by corn and red pepper)

There's chunky, broth based soup, and then there's ultra -smooth, pureed soup your grandma would love. Sometimes I feel like something in the middle! Removing and pureeing just a bit of the soup can make it extra creamy without adding cups of milk or cream. My lactose intolerant boyfriend also appreciates this.

(this soup disappeared to fast to be photographed. Here's an ingredient instead.)

A note on leeks: they can by sneaky vegetables, hiding dirt and sand in between their leaves. I cut off almost all of the green part (and feed it to my compost worms), then slice the leek lengthwise in half. Then I rinse it, making sure to check between the layers.

2 tbsp olive oil

2 large or 3 small leeks, cleaned and sliced thinly

4 fist sized potatoes, peeled and diced

1 red pepper, finely diced

salt and pepper

6 cups of vegetable broth

1 cup milk or cream (leave out for a dairy-free soup, just add 1 more cup of broth)

2 cups of fresh corn (about 2 cobs)

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Cook leeks for 5 minutes, then add potatoes and pepper and saute for 5 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add broth, and simmer soup for 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Remove 1 cup of soup and puree with an immersion blender (or other blending device). Return pureed soup to pot, add milk (if using) and corn. Simmer (but don't boil!) for another 5 minutes, until corn is cooked to your liking.

I enjoyed this soup with grilled cheese: some gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread with spy apples and aged cheddar. Mmmm. Finished leftovers the next day with my new favorite crackers - Mary's something or other, made out of rice and quinoa. 

Curried Pumpkin and Apple

Here's a creamy vegan soup I invented for one of my New England Pie pumpkins. 

1 pie pumpkin, halved with seeds removed

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 apples, diced (no need to peel, the skin will break down)

salt and pepper

2 tbsp curry powder

4-5 cups of vegetable stock 

1 can coconut milk

Preheat oven to 375. Rub pumpkin flesh with 1 tbsp olive oil and place face down on a cookie sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until soft. Remove from oven and let cool. Then scoop the flesh into a bowl. 

Heat other tbsp of olive oil in a large pot. Sautee onion and apples for about 10 minutes, until soft. Add curry powder, salt and pepper and saute for 1 more minute. Then, add cooked pumpkin and stock, and simmer for 10 minutes. Finally, puree soup until smooth, then add coconut milk and heat through. The end! 

cooking on earth day

Sweet Curried Carrot Soup

2 tbsp olive oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp ginger, minced

2 tbsp thai red curry paste

3 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 apple, peeled and diced

5 carrots, peeled and diced

6 cups water

1 bouillon cube

1 can coconut milk

more coconut milk and arugula to garnish

Saute onions in olive oil for 5 minutes, until soft. Add garlic, ginger and curry paste, stir and cook for a few more minutes. Add sweet potatoes, apple, carrots, water and bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Add coconut milk, and heat for 5 more minutes. Serve with a spoonful of coconut milk and a few pieces of arugula.

*Note: Clearly, I spent earth day cooking. What better thing to do than to cook up some tasty food with some local, organic produce? Onions, garlic, sweet potato, apples and carrots, all from less than 100 miles away. I remade my last recipe - the cornbread quiche - because it was just so good.

Beets beets beets

I've been eating a ton of beets recently. It's just that time of year, the lull before April asparagus. Let's see - beet and romano cheese risotto, a simple apple and beet salad, roasted beets, delicious beet and goat cheese salad, and the giant pot of borcht I made last week! It took me... a while to get through it, but I easily pawned some off on my mom. Freeze some for a suprise a month or two from now.

Borcht

The amounts in this recipe are approximate. This is a clean out your fridge kind of soup, don't use what you don't have, add things like cabbage or tomatoes if you have them!

3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 or 3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 beets, peeled and chopped
1 potato, chopped
2 apples, chopped
2 bay leaves
8 cups of vegetable stock (I used 2 boullion cubes with 8 cups of water)
sea salt and pepper to taste

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, saute onions in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add celery and carrots, and saute for 5 mintues more. Add beets, potato and apples, bay leaves and stock. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, until beets are cooked through. Remove bay leaves, season with salt and pepper. Puree in a food processor to desired consistency - add more water if needed. I used my immersion blender for the first time! I left some chunks for texture. It was delightfully easy!

Some new food I've enjoyed recently! First a disclaimer: I have a general distaste for anything spelled with a "z." Not as in zebra or zap, but added z's, especially in food product names: such as "T-ribz," a vegetarian version of the carnivorous food. I never would have bought this product because of the aforementioned "z," if not for the friendly sample woman at the Big Carrot. However, now I know the deliciousness of t-ribz, I think I can manage to get past the name. I have no idea what actual t-ribs taste like, since the last time I ate them I was 9, but these are an amazing, generally healthy vegan fast food! They're made by Sol, whose whole line of prepared tofu and veggie burgers are vegan AND gluten free. Basically, they're strips of firm tofu covered in a tomato paste/tamari/barbecue-style sauce. I fried mine in a bit of olive oil and at them on a bed of quinoa, but the sample lady told me to try them for breakfast with potatoes! I might try recreating the sauce at home sometime, but for now, in the middle of exams, it's a great fast food.

So, my birthday party a few weeks ago! I hapily feasted on leftovers for at least a week, but no one bought me a crock pot, which I'm a little disappointed about... just kidding! My boyfriend gave me an immersion blender AND a bike! Soon, I will be carrying around tupperwares full of pureed soups and sauces on my new green Miele road bike. For party food, I tried out a bunch of new recipes - not a great idea right before you invite 20 people to eat at your house - but they all worked out great! Here's one of my favorites:

Corn and Avocado Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa, cooked
1 cup cooked corn kernels (frozen or leftover corn on the cob)
2 green onions, sliced
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 red pepper, diced
1 avocado, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper

What is quinoa you ask? A delightful ancient seed - it's technically not a grain - that comes from South America, but is also grown in Eastern North America. 6,000 years ago, it was one of the most important food sources in South America, but was scorned by Europeans during the conquest of South America, who thought of it as 'Indian Food.' It's a complete protein (meaning it has all essential amino acids), is gluten-free, and high in iron and magnesium. Plus they have these cute little tails once they're cooked - I think it's the endosperm.

Rinse your quinoa! Most important step for tasty quinoa! I soak mine in warm water for 10 minutes, then give it a few rinses in fresh, cold water. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add drained quinoa, reduce to low heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until all the water is absorbed. Let quinoa cool.

Meanwhile, prep veggies. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour over veggies in a large bowl. Toss to coat. Add cooled quinoa, stir and fluff. The end! (If you're making this ahead, leave out the avocado until right before you serve it so it doesn't get all brown and mushy).

PS. check out my new lists of cookbooks and other books, with reviews to come. also, here's two of my kitties - they're looking forward to helping out in the garden (read: lounging in the sun while I do all the hard work).