Archive for the 'soup' Category
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 »
Sorry guys, it’s taken me awhile to get this soup up – I keep getting requests for it, and understandably – it’s one of my absolute favourites, one I should really have a stash of at all times. It’s the perfect midwinter soup – warm and sippable with protein and spice and beta carotene and all good things. (You may recognize the photo from a year-old issue of Parents Canada-taken out in Tofino! SIGH.) Print this recipe out RIGHT NOW and stick it on your fridge. Please.
In case you didn’t know – it seems a great many people are less familiar with dried lentils than I am – red lentils don’t need to be presoaked. Having been split in half, they can be tossed straight into the soup and cooked along with the vegetables. Take this soup with you to go in an insulated coffee mug to keep it warm.
Curried Sweet Potato, Carrot & Red Lentil Soup with Ginger
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup dry red lentils
1 medium dark-fleshed sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tsp. curry paste or powder, or to taste
4 cups (1 L) chicken or vegetable stock
salt, to taste
1/4-1/2 cup half & half, plain yogurt or heavy cream (optional)
In a medium pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and sauté the onion, garlic and ginger for 3-4 minutes, until soft. Add the lentils, sweet potato, carrots, curry paste and stock, along with a cup of water. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down, cover and simmer for half an hour, until the vegetables are very tender.
Season with salt, add the half & half (if you’re using it) and use a hand-held immersion blender to puree it right in the pot. Alternatively, transfer it in batches to a blender and puree until smooth or mash it roughly with a potato masher.
Serve hot. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, or cooled and frozen for up to 6 months. Serves 4.
Per serving: 241 calories, 4.4 g fat (1 g saturated fat, 2.2 g monounsaturated fat, 1.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 13.5 g protein, 37 g carbohydrates, 7 mg cholesterol, 5.4 g fiber
February 02 2011 | soup | 15 Comments »
Can’t sleep. Can’t breathe. The cherry NyQuil and OJ Shirley Temple I mixed up (the Sick Shirley) has not kicked in yet. And so I’m up poking around the internet, figuring out how to do fun stuff like this. I have a cold. A drippy-nosed cold, the kind where you can generally breathe fine through one nostril but not at all through the other, and it feels like your brain is swathed in cotton batting. And when you run all the way down to the basement to change the laundry and come back up again, you have to sit down for a rest. Fortunately I’ve been on a bit of a soup kick lately, so I had some at the ready.
LOOK AT THE COLOUR OF THIS SOUP! It’s not part of the effect – this is what it looks like – a mug of lipstick/fire engine/nail enamel red paint. In Vancouver last week, I was lucky enough to stay at the new Fairmont Pacific Rim, which again made me question my decision to marry for love, not money. Downstairs in the giovani café there was a beet and butternut squash soup on the menu that I didn’t get, but the power of suggestion is strong with me. I wish I would have seen if it was chunky (like borscht) or smooth (like squash soup). I decided, since I’m totally into sippable soups right now (like I used to be into Vans and Social Distortion), that I’d do a purée. I roasted the squash and beets first, and added a splash of orange juice because it was in the fridge. It puréed into a brilliant red, the orange squash offsetting the Barney purple shade of beet. Lovely. And far better the second day. Particularly with a dollop of sour cream on top, which you could, if you wanted to, draw a bamboo skewer through to make a heart.
Roasted Beet and Butternut Squash Soup
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
2-3 beets, tops trimmed
1 large onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1-2 cups orange juice
1 L chicken or vegetable stock
a big splash of half & half (optional)
sour cream, for serving (optional)
Preheat the oven to 450F. Spread the squash out on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Wrap the beets individually in foil. Place the sheet in the oven and the beets directly on the rack; roast for 30 minutes, or until the squash is soft and turning golden on the edges.
In a medium pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium heat and saute the onion for a few minutes, until starting to soften. Add the garlic and roasted squash. When they’re cool enough to handle, peel and chop the beets; add to the pot along with the orange juice and stock and simmer for about half an hour.
Add the cream, puree the soup with a hand-held immersion blender and season with salt to taste. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream. Serves 6.
One Year Ago: Poached Eggs Over Warm Lentil Salad with Bacon
January 19 2011 | freezable and soup | 11 Comments »
« Prev - Next »
