Archive for the 'soup' Category
I saw a pot of black bean soup awhile ago on Smitten Kitchen, and its inky blackness called to me. Every time I see dry black beans now, which is a lot, I think of this soup – simply made in the Crock Pot, the dry beans tossed right in with lots of water. No soaking needed.
It’s a simple recipe – vegan, even – cheap and easy and good for you. It needs plenty of salt, and the chipotle chiles add smokiness and a bit of heat. You could really use this as a blank black bean soup canvas and do what you like with it. A ham hock or some stock would certainly boost flavour.
I posted the recipe over at the Family Kitchen.
May 23 2011 | beans and Family Kitchen and freezable and soup | 3 Comments »
So yeah, the Rocky Mountaineer is totally all that and a bag of Doritos.
Better than I imagined, even. I’ll tell you more about it, but I have far too many photos, it’s getting late and I’m trying to do laundry and repack for Banff tomorrow. The trip wrapped up last night when we pulled through the rail yards and into Vancouver, and were delivered by motorcoach to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
And so we stuck around for much of the day – I couldn’t bring myself to get to Vancouver and then hop on a plane back home, what with all the dogwoods and cherry trees in full bloom. So we walked down to Gastown for a phenomenal dinner at L’Abbatoir (Dungeness crab and chickpea toast – toasted brioche, light crab custard, carrot pickles; Confit of albacore tuna – smoked pork fat, egg, crispy bits; Scallops and oxtail dumplings – beech mushroom, asian pear, spiced jus; Pork shoulder cooked in milk – baby turnips, salsa verde, green onions and fava beans; and for dessert, espresso pot de crème topped with crumbled lemon shortbread and whipped milk – like a perfect latte, dessertified, The entire experience was brilliant. If you’re ever in Gastown, I can’t recommend it highly enough.)
This morning we grabbed lattes and blackberry-bran muffins and walked down Georgia Street to Stanley Park (did you know it’s bigger than Central Park?) and around as much of the sea wall as we had time for before we had to be back to check-out. Then we found some street food – pulled pork at Re-Up Barbecue in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and The Roaming Dragon over on Robson.
By the time we got home, collected W and Lou, brought in our luggage and checked messages it was 8pm. We were hungry by that time (the food carts were just after noon) and our fridge was still stocked – we had left quickly, without going through the perishables first. Nothing was rank. But there was a sullen bundle of asparagus and far more depressed kale and spinach. I snapped into action, like a produce paramedic who arrived just in time to find these spring greens clinging to life. I’m happy to report we saved them. They made a mighty fine pot of soup, which I sipped from a mug while reading W the new book we brought home from Vancouver. And yes, the (homemade!) crème fraîche got a chance to fulfill its purpose in life, too.
How do you make it? So easy. You’ll need a starter – buttermilk or good quality plain yogurt. Stir a heaping tablespoonful of it into 2 cups of heavy (whipping) cream, stir well, pour into a glass jar, cover with a lid and let it sit in a warm spot on the countertop overnight. That’s it. After 12-24 hours, it will have thickened into this wonderful, slightly tangy crème fraiche. Store it in the fridge after that.
Spring Greens Soup
This is soup, and as such, the measurements are totally flexible. You can add whatever greens you want to resurrect, in whatever proportions. Try adding pesto, or basil, or tarragon, or any other ingredients you think would taste swell.
a drizzle of canola or olive oil
a blob of butter (a bit smaller than a tablespoon)
1 onion, peeled and chopped (a leek would do well, too)
a few garlic cloves, crushed
1 bunch asparagus, woody ends trimmed and chopped into pieces
1 big handful fresh spinach, torn into pieces
a few leaves of kale, ribs removed and torn into pieces
1 L chicken or veggie stock
a splash of milk or half & half (optional)
salt and pepper to taaste
In a large pot, heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat until the butter melts. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
Add the vegetables and cook for a few minutes, until the greens wilt. Add the stock and bring to a simmer; cook for 15 minutes, or until everything is very tender. Remove from the heat, add a splash of milk or cream and puree with a hand-held immersion blender until smooth or as chunky as you like. Serve warm or chilled. Serves 6.
May 13 2011 | soup | 10 Comments »
It’s been hard to post recipes this week – I haven’t been able to get into it. I keep coming here and not knowing what to say. What is there to say about soup when there’s so much going on? I’ve found comfort in cooking during the after-school hours – our dinnertimes have been spent with the news on, the end of the day an opportunity for a more in-depth update on the threat of nuclear disaster, relief efforts hampered by snow and freezing weather and aftershocks, and near hourly re-estimates of the number of people missing and displaced. Every morning the alarm clicks on to the CBC and a grim update on a crippled nuclear plant, the dozen souls left to try to bring it under control, and the looming threat of nuclear disaster, followed (or led by, depending on the urgency of the situation that hour) by reports of violence in Libya. It seems impossible that the world is still humming along. But deadlines must still be met, appointments kept, laundry done. The house is still a mess and everyone’s gotta eat.
I know we’ve all been struggling to wrap our heads around the scope of the devastation, the suddenness of it all, and what can possibly be done to help. I’ve had plenty of calls and emails and tweets asking if I’m planning round 2 of Blog Aid. Excellent question. But it seems different now than it was a little over a year ago. The original book was for Haiti; I enlisted the financial support of Blurb and West Canadian Graphics, and the Canadian government stepped in to match donations. I don’t have all that backup this time. And though I could get moving and try to do it all again, I think there’s a perception that money isn’t going to make as much of an impact this time. People aren’t jumping for their wallets as eagerly as they were last year. (Not that I’m discouraging donations! I’m certainly not. It just seems to be the way it’s going.) Anyway. I’ve been involved in a similar project that is now getting underway, which you’ll surely hear about soon, and so there’s that. And I keep having ideas, but often they’re silly. I had one on Monday morning that made perfect sense to me, so long as it was bouncing around inside my head. When I talked about it it seemed silly, and so I haven’t done much to get it off the ground.
Also, it’s been a busy week. There was a bout of what may or may not have been food poisoning, but was miserable nonetheless. There have been deadlines and tests and grown-up stuff, and frustration that I still don’t know anywhere near as much about this world-wide-internet as I should by now. (Never have I been so annoyed at myself for not paying full attention in elementary school when they taught us basic programming in the computer lab full of Commodore 64s. I could have been a pioneer in all this!) I should at least know basic coding-if I did, my plan would have gone live by now. I was going to launch it Thursday. It’s Friday. And then part of me wonders if it really is silly or if anyone will even get it. And then I distract myself with emails and passed deadlines. It has all fallen out of focus.
All I know is this: it’s not helping any of us to be walking around feeling helpless, hopeless, and heavy-hearted. As someone somewhere once said: we can’t help everyone, but we can help someone. I think besides donating what we can to the cause, we need to channel our efforts into helping ourselves and those around us. Doing little things to make life happier wherever we can can have an astonishing ripple effect. Just like plate tectonics, and the way subtle, often undetectable shifts in the earth can have tremendous effects on its surface.
OK, so now you know the direction I’m going here. I’m going to get to the part with the soup, and continue explaining my perhaps-not-so-brilliant-but-then-again-maybe idea tomorrow.
So I went to help Dan at one of his Kick the KD classes last night. He has a great bunch of UofC students he’s teaching how to cook. For free. What a guy. The class was great, even if they did make me feel ancient. (Not intentionally, of course. The fact that I made a Cliff Clavin joke and no one had a clue who I was talking about – Dan included – didn’t help.)
So H, one of the students in the class, told me about a roasted pepper and butternut squash soup she made – an adaptation of a recipe she found in a yoga magazine (always wondered who read those) – and it sounded too good not to make. Of all the butternut squash soups of my life, I don’t think I’ve made one yet with roasted red pepper. Bonus: it’s not only vegetarian (if you use vegetable stock, of course), but vegan, even. Look at me! Eating vegan! And not in the form of a sticky cinnamon bun! (Which I suppose aren’t really vegan anyway with all that butter.)
Creamy Red Pepper & Butternut Squash Soup
adapted from H, who adapted it from a yoga magazine.
a drizzle of canola oil
1 onion, chopped
2 lbs butternut squash peeled and but into half-inch chunks
1 roasted red pepper
1 L chicken or vegetable stock
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
pinch grated nutmeg
salted green pumpkin seeds, to sprinkle on top
Heat oil in pot for a few minutes, then add the onion and cook until softened (5-7 minutes). Add the squash and cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently until softened and getting mushy around the edges. Once it’s mushy-ish (H’s words), add the broth, cover and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. About 15 minutes in, add your chopped roasted red pepper. Add spices and sugar before putting into the blender to blend up. Use a hand towel or J cloth and hold the lid down, and be wary of ‘liquefy’ setting. (Alternatively, use a hand-held immersion blender right in the pot.)
Serve topped with pumpkin seeds.
March 19 2011 | freezable and soup and vegetarian | 10 Comments »
I double bagged my socks today, and tossed my fleece in the dryer to warm it up before I put it on. It was a hot soup day if ever there was one.
So much Egypt in the news made me want to know more about their cuisine, and when I Googled it, up came a yellow lentil soup. Which as you may know, is right up my alley. I had just unearthed a bag of lentils from the depths of my cupboard – you know that one jammed with all manner of grains, beans, nuts, chocolate and dried fruit? Interspersed with some spices and packets of things that really don’t have a home anywhere else? And so I was happy to use it and decrease the surplus population.
The interesting thing about this soup is that the lentils and veg are simmered separately from the onions, which are caramelized and then not pureed with the rest of the soup. I’d have started with the onions, proceeded with the lentils, veg and stock, then pureed the lot. But I decided to try it this way. I may rebel and do it my way next time, if only to save one pot from being washed. Also – I found the pitas easier to toast in the oven than in a skillet, as was instructed. Either way.
Egyptian Yellow Lentil Soup
Adapted from Epicurious, where it was adapted from Magda el-Mehdawy’s book My Egyptian Grandmother’s Kitchen. I imagine it would be just fine with red/orange lentils, too.
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 pita bread
1 lb dried yellow lentils
1 tomato, chopped
1 thin-skinned potato, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 tsp. salt
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 L beef stock or canned beef broth (or vegetable or onion stock for a vegetarian soup)
1 tsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
Brush a bit of oil on the pitas and cut them into strips; spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 350F for about 10 minutes, or until golden. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, cover the lentils with enough water to cover by 2 inches. Add tomato, potato, carrot, and salt and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming any foam that forms on top. Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of oil in a medium pot set over medium-high heat and sauté the onion for about 8 minutes, or until golden.
Remove the lentil mixture from heat and purée using a hand-held immersion blender or in batches in the regular blender. Add to the onions along with the beef stock and cumin. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately, topped with the pita strips and parsley or cilantro. Serves 4-6.
February 18 2011 | beans and soup and vegetarian | 11 Comments »
I’m pretty smitten with this new soup. Although it uses ingredients I’m more than familiar with, the combination is somehow unlike any soup I’ve made before. Perhaps it’s the whole head of garlic. If I was the sort to do up a weekly meal plan, have meatless Mondays and pork chop Tuesdays and such, I’d make room for this soup.
Despite starting the day (at 4 am!) with firefighters straight from the 2011 hotstuff calendar, my day wasn’t so hot, teetering on about an hour and a half of sleep. It capped off a rough week – I was grateful when my sister brought Vietnamese food home from work to feed us all. Wouldn’t it be nice to be five again and ride home in the back seat, sobbing if you’re overtired and feel like a good wail, and have someone carry you inside, put your jammies on and make popcorn and apple slices for you to eat in front of How to Train Your Dragon? (The upside to not being 5 is the ability to crack open a bottle of wine to go with said popcorn and movie.)
I made this soup last week, actually, for a new little thing I’m doing for Calgary Co-op. No money is involved here – it stemmed from a conversation about the common misconception that it’s too expensive to eat well, and how to change that perception. Yes, fast food is cheap. Cooking from scratch is cheaper. I suggested to the folks at Co-op that we run a recipe with price breakdown in the Calgary Herald every Thursday, rather than the usual weekly flyer-style price listings. After all, advertising the price of ground beef for $1.79 per pound or tomatoes for $.99 a pound doesn’t make sense to many, including a good percentage of twentysomethings who don’t know how many tomatoes come in a pound and if it’s really a good deal, anyway. But to have a recipe that utilizes seasonal and sale ingredients in a way that will feed a family for less than $5 each might be more helpful to the home cook, don’t you think? With a little shopping list and everything.
So that’s how this soup came to be. It was in yesterday’s paper. It’s one to clip and save.
By the way, our cooking segment was at the Le Creuset store in Chinook this morning – let that be a hint about what the next Free Stuff will be. I’m working on it!
Spolumbo’s Sausage & Chickpea Soup
Adapted from the March 1995 issue of Bon Appétit.
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 lb. Spolumbos chicken apple or turkey cranberry sausage (2-3 sausages)
1 head garlic, cloves separated, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp. cumin
1 14 oz (398 mL) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1-2 19 oz. (540 mL) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 L chicken or beef stock
a squeeze of fresh lime juice
fresh cilantro
1 avocado, peeled and chopped
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat. Add sausage and garlic and sauté until the sausage is golden brown and cooked through, breaking up with your spoon. Add the jalapeño and cumin and cook for another minute or two.
Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 30 minutes, until everything is cooked through and the broth has thickened slightly. Add a squeeze of lime, season with salt and pepper and serve hot, topped with fresh cilantro, chopped avocado, and extra lime wedges alongside. Serves 4.
Come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers!
February 11 2011 | freezable and soup | 30 Comments »
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