Roasted Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup

It's fridge-and-freezer clean-out time. Last weekend when I opened the freezer to grab a package of frozen peas, I nearly got beaned by a block of frozen-solid butternut squash; another time, I narrowly escaped an avalanche of baggies filled with stock cubes - shellfish, veggie, chicken, beef, I've got all sorts of homemade stock in there. In order to store new items in there now, I have to play an intricate game of freezer-tetris. I haven't seen the back of the freezer in ages, so yes, it's time to clear out some of the things in there.

The kids are off school this week, and expect a real lunch and snacks every day - the nerve!- so I imagine that I'll be able to go through my packed fridge and freezer at a pretty good pace even if it means just throwing together small meals from random ingredients.They're finally at a more adventurous eating age, so we can try out new things. Gone are the days when all they will eat is buttered and parmed spaghetti or boxed mac-n-cheese. Thank God.

For lunch yesterday, I made a roasted cauliflower soup and crostini with pesto using some of the ramps I got this weekend. The kids cleaned their soup bowls pretty quickly: Score 1 for Mom.

Roasted Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup

Serves 3

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head small cauliflower, roughly chopped or broken into florets
• 1 small shallot, peeled and cut in half
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1/ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
• 1 strip of peppered bacon
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup parsnip, chopped
• 1/4 cup celery root, chopped
• 2 cups vegetable stock - or chicken stock
• 2 fresh sprigs of thyme
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• fresh sprigs of thyme

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Toss the garlic clove, shallot and cauliflower florets with a tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast for 25 minutes or until the florets are browned on the edges. Place in a bowl when they've finished roasting.
2. Chop the bacon into 1-inch pieces and cook until crispy. Remove the bacon pieces to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.
3. Add the chopped onions to the bacon fat and cook over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, then add the parsnip and celery root. Cook until the vegetables are softened.
4. Add the roasted vegetables, 2 sprigs of thyme and the stock to the pot, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, adding a bit more stock or water as needed. 
5. Blend the soup with an immersion blender or in a blender until it is the consistency you  like.
6. Add the cheddar and heavy cream, stirring until melted.
7. Serve topped with reserved bacon and more thyme.

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Loaded Baked Potato Soup

What is is about potatoes that make them so satisfying as comfort food? It's got to be the dense starchiness. It gives a sense of solid fullness, and it also turns from bland starchiness to sweet on your tongue as you eat it. Add salt to that, as many of use do with potatoes, and you get that double-whammy of sweet and salty.

Baked potatoes in particular serve as a vehicle for other lovely flavors and textures, especially creamy. The smoothness of the the fat in butter and cheese is really one of the more simple and sublime parts of enjoying foods, and the main reason I could never sustain veganism. Cheese, sour cream, butter on a baked potato - hardly makes your waistline happy, but it certainly results in happy tummy syndrome.

So, what could be more satisfying than a loaded baked potato? Making it into a soup.

This is a great recipe to deal with leftover baked potatoes - as if there could even be such a thing - or you could do what I did and bake a potato for the express purpose of making this soup. You'll thank me.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 russet potato
• ¾ cup leeks
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• pinch of pepper
• ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon dill
• 2 cups milk
• ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
• crumbled bacon
• shredded cheddar
• sour cream

Directions:

1. Bake a russet potato for an hour at 400 F. Take out and let cool. Then scrape out the potato and mash up with a fork. You'll have about 1 cup. You can used a leftover baked potato if you have one lingering in your fridge.
2. Meanwhile, saute ¾  cup leeks over olive oil or some sort of fat (I used a smidge of butter) until soft. Then add 1 heaping tablespoon of flour and stir until it's all mixed in, about 2 minutes.
3. Add ½ t salt, a pinch of pepper, ¼ t granulated garlic or garlic powder and ½ t dill.
4. Pour in 2 cups of milk and heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture has thickened (about 10 minutes). 
5. Puree it with a stick blender or in small batches in a regular blender if you want a uniformly smooth texture, otherwise, enjoy the rustic texture.
6. Add ½ cup shredded cheese (I used an extra-sharp white cheddar) and stir until the cheese melts. Taste to adjust seasoning - this soup can really take a lot of salt before it's noticeable.
7. Serve in a bowl garnished with your favorite baked potato toppings. I had shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon and sour cream.

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French Onion Soup

The main reason I made that beef stock the other day was so that I could make French Onion soup. Last year, when I made beef stock for the first time, I had been inspired by Thomas Keller's French Onion soup recipe, but life events conspired in such a way that I never did get to make the soup, and I ended up freezing the stock for use in other recipes during the year, like my (inauthentic but still delicious) spaghetti bolognese, mushroom wine sauce, pot roast, crockpot chili and beef stew.

Well, the vision of that French Onion soup never left me, and I knew that I was going to make it with the freshest batch of beef stock I could, and let me just start by saying, I felt that it was totally worth the 14 hours it took me on Monday to make the stock, plus the 5-hour caramelization time for the onions yesterday.

I think that time is of equal importance in developing the flavor. I read that "the difference between a home cook and a professional chef is that the latter has the guts to keep the dish on the fire longer to get that extra flavor." - from Chowhound

This recipe fulfills that requirement. I started prepping at 8:30 am and ate my first bowl of this soup at 4:15 pm. Well worth the wait.


I did not keep faithfully to Keller's recipe, mostly by accident (I totally forgot to add the flour), and I halved it since I would be the only one eating it and my freezer is jam-packed with various stocks and containers of other soups, but it was still far and away the best French Onion soup I've ever had.

I started with 4 lb. of sweet onions, Maya Sweets from Peru, though I'd have used vidalias if they'd been in stock. Peel the onions, cut them in half through the root and then slice thinly widthwise. Toss them into your largest dutch oven (I used my 7-quart pot) along with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 4 tablespoons of salted butter and cook over very low heat, stirring to incorporate the melted butter and olive oil evenly. Stir occasionally, every 15 minutes or so.

As you can see, at the 1-hour mark, the volume of the onions has reduced significantly:

Still at the 1-hour mark, the onions will have released a great deal of moisture.  Keep stirring every 15 minutes or so and keep the heat low so that it does not simply brown without caramelizing or, worse yet, burn. It will seem very slow going. That's what we want.

After 2 hours, the onions have really reduced to just a fraction of what they had been and most of that moisture has evaporated and you might noticed a slight bit of coloration.

Also, after 2 hours, the onions start to get creamy.

Keep stirring every 15 minutes.

At 3 hours, oddly enough, the onions looked a lot like they did at the 2-hour mark, but the kitchen smelled much more strongly of that sweet smell of onions slow cooking. At this point, I started to check the onions more frequently, every 10 minutes, and stirring when needed.

When you stir, you'll notice a buildup of the sugary juices from the onions on the bottom of the pot. Watch that carefully, because that is where any browning and burning will begin. In my experience, that gets to be like a chain reaction, once it starts to burn, it moves VERY QUICKLY, and there is no recovering from scorched foods.

At the 3 ½ hour mark, a real change in color. There may be a few spots which are a little bit darker, which is ok, as long as you keep a watchful eye and be diligent about stirring every 10 minutes. I scraped up the film on the bottom to incorporate it back into the onions and keep it from burning. It seemed to work.

4 hours in, the onions are a deeper brown color and quite sticky and sweet. I tasted some. Even after 4 hours of cooking, they still had some bite to them, so another hour to soften is a good thing.

4 ½ hours in, a bit darker, and much stickier. At this point, for the last hour or so, I am in the kitchen prepping everything else and stirring pretty frequently and checking that it does not burn.

5 hours later... a mess of sticky, sweet, caramelized onions lounging on the bottom of the pot. Only 5 hours earlier, the onions had filled this pot to nearly the top.  How magically simple, just applying low heat and time.

For the soup, reserve ¾ cup of the caramelized onions - store the remainder in the fridge or freezer for future use.

Make the croutons: preheat the oven to 450° F. Slice up a baguette into ½ inch rounds, pour some olive oil into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon of granulated garlic and brush both sides of the bread with the garlicky oil. Place the rounds on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, parchment paper or a baking mat and toast for 10 minutes, then take out, flip over and bake another 5 minutes or so or until golden brown.

See? Lovely garlicky croutons.

Prepare your herb sachet by placing 2 bay leaves, 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh thyme and 8 black peppercorns into a cheesecloth bag.

Place the ¾ cup of caramelized onions in a 3-quart soup pot,* (See Notes) add 1½ quarts of beef stock, 2 teaspoons of sea salt and the herb sachet. Bring to a boil and let simmer uncovered for an hour and a half or until reduced to about 3 cups.

Season with ¼ teaspoon of sherry vinegar, though I'm betting balsamic or champagne vinegar would be nice too. Ladle into oven-proof soup bowls, top with the croutons and shredded cheese: Emmenthaler, Comte or even Gruyuere. Ideally, you'd pop this under the broiler until the cheese melts and browns, but I don't really have a broiler (long story there), so I stuck it in a 400° F oven for 10 minutes.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 lb. sweet onions, sliced thinly
• 4 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1½ quarts of beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 - 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 8 black peppercorns
• cheesecloth
• 1 tablespoon flour * See Notes
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon of sherry vinegar
• French baguette, sliced into ½ inch rounds
• olive oil
• granulated garlic
• shredded Emmenthaler cheese

Directions:

1. In your largest dutch oven or a large stock pot, melt the butter and olive oil and add the onions. Lower the heat to the lowest setting and stir the onions every 15 minutes.
2. After the 1-hour mark, the onions will have reduced in volume and released a lot of moisture. Keep stirring every 15 minutes and let the onions slow-caramelize for another 4 hours, stirring every 15 minutes until they really start to change in color, then stir every 10 minutes to be sure that they don't burn.
3. Once the onions have cooked down and caramelized, make the croutons: Preheat oven to 450° F. Pour some olive oil into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon of granulated garlic and brush both sides of the bread with the garlicky oil. Place the rounds on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, parchment paper or a baking mat and toast for 10 minutes, then take out, flip over and bake another 5 minutes or so or until golden brown.
4. Place the bay leaves, thyme and peppercorns into your cheesecloth bag.
5. Reserve ¾ cup of the caramelized onions for the soup. Keep the remainder in the fridge or freezer for other recipes or a second batch of this soup. Place the onions in a 3-quart soup pot over medium heat, add the flour and and stir until incorporated. Add the beef stock, salt and sachet, bring to a  boil and then reduce heat to low and let simmer uncovered for an hour and a half or until reduced to about 3 cups.
6. Season to taste with more salt and pepper and add  ¼ teaspoon of sherry vinegar, and ladle into oven-proof bowls. Top with croutons and shredded cheese and stick under the broiler until browned and bubbly.

Notes:

• Keller's recipe calls for a bit of flour stirred in with the caramelized onions before the addition of the stock but I just completely forgot about it. I was still pleased with the end result and I am not usually a huge fan of flour-thickened soups anyway.

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Beef Stock

Here is the end result of the other day's 14-hour beef stock process.

All told, I got just over 1 gallon of stock: 9 ½ quarts of deep, rich brown beef stock.

I froze 2 quarts of stock in ice cube trays and put the cubes into labeled freezer bags so they'd be ready to go, and yesterday I reduced 1 quart of stock to about 1 ½ cups of a concentrated stock and froze those in ice cube trays as well.

I still have 6 ½ quarts in the fridge ready to be used, and I plan on putting at least 1 ¾ quarts of it to use today as I attempt Thomas Keller's French Onion soup.  His book, Bouchon, is on my Christmas wish list, and just might be the gift I gift myself this year. :) Tweet

Butternut Squash and Crab Bisque

I had this recipe in mind when I first got my hands on a butternut squash at the farmers' market back in September. I went so far as to make my own shellfish stock by simmering crab shells and leftover shrimp tails with white wine, onions, celery and carrots and a hit of tomato paste. The house smelled like a crab house down by a Maryland pier, and the cat was going out of his mind, taunted by the smells of seafood.

As it turned out, by the time the stock had finished simmering and I had cleared out the detritus of stock-making, I lost my will to live and felt no urgency to clean, roast and then puree the squash, so I ended up freezing the stock for "some other time."

Well, that time came, and was it ever worth it!

Butternut Squash and Crab Bisque

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 medium onion and 1 small shallot, chopped - about 1 cup, total
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot - I also tossed in some leftover parsnip
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 2 cups butternut squash - I used already roasted cubes and puree
• 2 - 3 quarts of stock, simmering - I used homemade shellfish stock, but chicken or vegetable  will work nicely too*
• Old Bay
• salt
• pepper
• crab meat
• cracker crumbs (optional)
• heavy cream (optional)
• sherry (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute the chopped onion and shallot in olive oil over medium heat until softened, then add the carrots, parsnip (if using) and celery and cook until the vegetables are soft.
2. Add the butternut squash and 2 cups of the warmed stock and bring to a boil, then add another 2 cups of stock and simmer, covered until the squash is fully cooked, adding more stock as needed.
3. Puree the soup with a stick blender or in batches in a blender, adding more warm stock as needed to reach the consistency you like.
4. Season with salt, pepper and Old Bay. You can be generous with the Old Bay. This soup can accept a lot of seasoning. 
5. Ladle into bowls, hit with a shot of cream and/or sherry and top with lump crab meat and cracker crumbs and another dusting of Old Bay.

Notes:

• When I make pureed soups like these, I generally keep a large pot of stock simmering on the back burner. I can never say with certainty how much stock goes into these soups, but I'd rather err on the side of having too much stock at hand than not enough. Any remaining stock gets refrigerated or frozen in ice trays for other uses, so stock never has to go down the drain.

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Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon

I've mentioned before my love of soup. I especially love soup on blustery fall days. I have a new 5-quart soup and chili pot which is just perfect for making a good-sized amount of soup to carry me through a good portion of the week. I'm trying to be good about freezing meals for my brown-bag lunches and quick, no-time-to-cook dinners. Soup works for me.

Although I like all varieties of soup, from the brothy kind to thick chowders, I have a special fondness for bean and legume soups. I could happily eat lentil soup every week, and same goes for Split Pea with Some Sort of Pork soups.

This is a good one.

Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon

Ingredients:

• 4 slices thick-cut slab bacon ( I used peppered bacon), cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
• 2 cloves, garlic
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup carrots and/or parsnip, diced
• 1/2 cup celery root, diced
• 1 cup sweet potato, diced
• 1-1/2 cup yellow split peas
• 1-1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t smoked paprika
• 6 - 8 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock (In this case, I used Better Than Bouillon's No-Chicken Base)

Directions:

1. Cook down the bacon until nicely crisp. Remove the bacon pieces and drain on a plate lined with paper towels
2. Saute the onion, parsnips, carrots and celery root in the bacon fat until softened, then add the diced sweet potato and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the cumin and split peas and stir to coat. 
4. Add the broth, reserved bacon pieces and salt, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1-1/2 - 2 hours. Add smoked paprika and taste to adjust seasoning and serve of follow the next step for a pureed soup.
5. (Optional) When the split peas are soft enough to your liking, fish out all of the bacon pieces, puree the soup with a stick blender or in small batches in a blender, then toss the bacon back in and let simmer for 5 more minutes and then serve.

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Roasted Asparagus Soup

Soup is good food. I like all sorts, from the lighter brothy soups to hearty bean soups, to thick, satisfying chowders. Pureed vegetable soups, though, are among the quickest and easiest to make, and they can be incredibly tasty.

Asparagus is amazing lightly steamed or flash-cooked in a stir-fry. Toss it with olive oil and salt and then roast it, though, and you deepen the flavor immensely. I'll often prepare asparagus and shallots this way and serve that as a veggie side dish.

See how delicious it is?

Sometimes I'll take it step further and combine the roasted asparagus with roasted shallot, add some fresh herbs and puree it with some broth for a criminally easy soup.

Roasted Asparagus Soup with Herbed Cheese Crisp

Serves 2 as a starter or 1 as a main course

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 shallot, peeled and cut in half
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• fresh thyme
• 1 T creamy-style cottage cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Toss the asparagus and shallot with olive oil, and hit it with a little salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes, flipping them or shaking the pan t toss them after 10 minutes or so.
3. Let the asparagus and shallot cool for about 10 minutes, and then puree in a blender with the 1/2 cup of the broth.
4. Add some thyme, salt and pepper and cottage cheese and continue to blend until it is the right consistency for you, adding more broth as needed.
5. Mix together the shredded parm, salt and 1/2 teaspoon of fresh thyme and drop it into mounds on a Silpat-covered cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 5-8 minutes or until lightly browned and starting to crisp up - I didn't let mine cook enough so they were chewy rather than crunchy, but they were still addictive.
7. Top the soup with a crisp, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

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Yellow Split Pea Soup with Cilantro-Lime Yogurt

Still going with my idea of cooking from the pantry as much as possible, I remembered that I had some coconut milk left over from the coconut-curry jasmine rice and recalled this curried split pea soup. Bam, easy, easy, easy. It's an excellent quick meal, done within an hour, counting all the prep time. One small bowl is enough to satisfy, starting with the thick pureed texture to the curry flavors to the tangy notes of lime and cooling effect of the yogurt in the creamy garnish.

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Cilantro-Lime Yogurt

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 1 cup diced peeled potato
• 1/2 t gingerroot, minced
• 2 T chopped garlic
• 3/4 cup yellow split peas
• 1 t red curry powder
• 1/2 t turmeric
• 1/4 dried jalapeno flakes
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 7 oz. unsweetened coconut milk
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 3 T chopped cilantro
• 2 t lime juice
• grating of lime peel
• hot sauce
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Saute the onion in olive oil over medium-high heat for 1 minute, then add the carrot and cook until the onion is soft and translucent. 
2. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute, then add the potato and stir to coat.
3. Add the split peas, curry powder and turmeric and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the jalapeno flakes, 1-1/2 cups of broth and coconut milk, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and let cook until the peas are soft, about45 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding more chicken broth if it seems too dry. 
5. After 45 minutes, taste to check seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed. 
6. Puree the soup with a stick blender to achieve the consistency you like, adding more broth to suit your preference.
7. Make the cilantro-lime yogurt by mixing the yogurt, lime juice, lime peel and chopped cilantro in a bowl. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a drop or 2 of hot sauce.
8. Garnish the soup with a dollop of the yogurt.

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French Lentil Soup

Lentil soup is one dish that manages to amaze me every single time I have it. I know, logically, that I love lentils and all, but for some reason, I am always blown away when I have the soup because somehow I've forgotten just how wonderful they really are. It's weird, I know.

My usual lentil soup has some spice to it, and is fantastic on those cold, blustery days when a little heat with your dish is what you need. The chiles and the tomato add zing and heat and this sharpness to the soup. It's intensely delicious.

This recipe, on the other hand, is pretty simple. It starts with the aromatic base of the mirepoix and then builds on the earthiness of the lentils and the flavorful herbs. Doesn't sound all that amazing, does it? But wait... The balsamic vinegar is the element that really adds the Wow!-factor to this fairly simple recipe.

French Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup leek, white part only, minced finely
• 1/2 cup white onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup parsnip, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup celery root, peeled, cleaned and chopped -- See Notes
• 2 T butter (or olive oil)
• 3/4 cup green puy lentils rinsed and picked over for stones and grit (brown lentils work really well too)
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 3 cups warm chicken broth or vegetable broth
• bay leaf
• 5 or 6 whole sprigs of thyme
• 6 or 7 stalks of parsley
• 1/4 cup celery tops (the leafy portion)
• salt
• pepper
• creme fraiche (or sour cream)
• thyme for garnish 
• balsamic vinegar for drizzling (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute the leek, onion, parsnip and celery root in butter over medium-high heat until the veggies are soft and the onions have become translucent.
2. Add the lentils and stir to coat, then add the bay leaf, warmed broth and balsamic vinegar, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add the sprigs of thyme, parsley and celery tops, cover and let simmer for another half hour or until the lentils are soft.
4. Remove the bay leaf, parsley, thyme and celery tops, taste to adjust seasoning. Now is when I add salt and pepper.
5. With a stick blender, puree the soup until you get the consistency you like, or blend it in batches in a blender. I still like some whole lentils in my soup, but others like a smoother puree. You may have to add a bit more broth or water if it becomes too thick when you puree it.
6. Serve topped with creme fraiche or sour cream, a bit of thyme and a teensy drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Notes:

• I started this soup with a variation of a white mirepoix. Usually when I make lentil soup, I use a traditional mirepoix of 2 parts onion to 1 part carrot and 1 part celery, but I didn't want the orange and green in this soup, so I subbed parnsips for the carrot and celery root for the celery. I was in a leek mood, so I replaced half of the onion with an equal amount of leek. I imagine that this recipe would work just fine with the regular onion - carrot - celery base.
• You can reduce or increase this recipe easily if you remember that the dry lentil to liquid ratio is 1 : 4. So, 1 cup lentils to 4 cups broth or all the way down to 1/4 cup lentils to 1 cup broth.

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Potato, Leek and Celery Root Soup

There's been a lot going on lately, not the least of which is that I have joined Weight Watchers for their all-new PointsPlus plan. One of the changes is that most fruits and vegetables are freebies, with 0 points. You can read more about the changes here. So, this means that I am going to be slimming down my recipes, at least for the next three months, although if I do a Cookie-Palooza again, I just won't be the one eating many of them.

Ok, maybe one or two, to "test" them. ;-)

Today, I kick-started it with a nice, warming and filling soup. It's a blustery winter day here in Syracuse, with a forecast for Lake Effect Snow until Wednesday; the kids have a snow day and we're all trying to stay warm, so I opted for a nice pot of soup. I had a celery root languishing in the vegetable crisper, and a few fresh leeks and potatoes.... can you see where this is going? I adapted the classic vichyssoise by adding the celery root for that crisp celery flavor and omitted the cream. The result was a thick, luscious soup that clocks in at 5 points per bowl, or 29 points for the whole thing, so you can divide it up as you like.

Potato, Leek and Celery Root Soup

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 4 cups thinly sliced leeks
• 1 celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3 medium red potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• Salt to taste (optional)
• 1 sprig fresh thyme, plus additional for garnish
• celery seeds

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
   
2. Add the leeks, cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   
3. Add the celery root and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes.
   
4. Add the chicken broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.
   
5. Reduce the heat, then simmer 25 minutes, covered, or until vegetables are soft.
   
6. Remove the sprig of thyme and discard.
   
7. Puree the soup using a blender until nice and smooth.
   
8. Season to taste with salt- though this will probable not be necessary if you used regular chicken broth. Garnish with thyme and celery seed.

Notes:

• I am trying out a new recipe software for maintaining my recipe library, and it includes an option to create a table with nutritional date for the recipe.

Amount Per Serving Calories 173.07 Calories From Fat (44%) 76.93 % Daily Value Total Fat 8.68g 13% Saturated Fat 5.13g 26% Cholesterol 20.35mg 7% Sodium 519.77mg 22% Potassium 614.77mg 18% Total Carbohydrates 19.31g 6% Fiber 1.53g 6% Sugar 1.63g Protein 5.26g 11%

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Spicy Corn and Linguiça Chowder

My week of soups got delayed a little bit by a last-minute invitation to a family gathering on Friday and my kids' insistence on a Chinese Food Weekend, so my big plans for a new soup a day had to be taken off the back burner and refrigerated.

Today's Spicy Corn and Linguiça Chowder was completely worth the wait. I can't wait to try out the other soups. :)

Spicy Corn and Linguiça Chowder

Ingredients:

• 3 ears corn
  
• 4 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 12 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• large white onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 pound linguiça sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces - For a little more spice, I'd use chouriço.
• 1 small hot red pepper, finely diced
  
• ½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 medium red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• salt and pepper
  
• Smoked paprika for garnish
  

Directions:

1. Husk the corn and remove all the silk. With a sharp knife, slice the corn from cob. Set the corn aside in a bowl.
   


2. Break the cobs in half and place them in a large soup pot. Add the cream, stock, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and 1/4 cup of the chopped onions to pot. Simmer over very low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
   


3. Strain the mixture through a sieve set over a large bowl, pressing on the solids very well with the back of a large ladle to squeeze out every drop of creamy corny goodness.
   


4. Set the creamy corn stock aside. You can even refrigerate it for a few days if you like.
   


5. Cook the linguiça in large pot or dutch oven over medium heat until cooked through, nicely browned, turning occasionally. Remove the sausage and set aside.
   


6. To the rendered fat from the sausage, add the remaining chopped onion, minced hot pepper and the red bell pepper and sauté 5 minutes.
   
   
7. Add the flour and stir well, cooking for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the creamy corn stock until smooth.
   


8. Add the browned sausage and potatoes. Cover and cook about 25 minutes or until the potatoes are fork-tender.
   


9. Add the fresh corn and cook 10 minutes. Taste and then season with salt and pepper. For extra spice, a few drops of hot sauce would work out well, too.
   


10. Ladle chowder into bowls. Garnish with smoked paprika and serve.
    

Notes:

• You can easily prepare this a day or so ahead. Just cover and refrigerate it, then reheat in the microwave or over a low burner before continuing, thinning with additional chicken stock if necessary.
• I made the creamy corn stock three days ago and then just refrigerated it until today. It worked out great.
  

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Mushroom Barley Soup

Who doesn't love soup?

"We both have so much in common. We both love soup."


Well, there you go. lol

Soup really cures what ails you. When you have a cold, what could be better, more satisfying and nourishing than a bowl of mom's special chicken noodle soup? Or, on a chilly day, nothing warms the stomach and the soul quite as well as a nice filling bowl of hot soup. Cold soups like gazpacho or a fruity melon-cucumber soup help relieve the heat of summer, while delicate bisques, with their subtle complexity of flavors, form the perfect complement to an elegant dinner, and hearty bean soups provide all the warmth and solidity of a full meal in a single bowlful.

No soup is foreign to me. Hell, I'll even drink a cup of a well-made broth as a small warming snack. I love the onset of cool weather so I can try out new soup recipes and return to old friends. One of my favorites is this mushroom-barley soup, which is endlessly adaptable, accommodating different types of mushrooms, broth and even the addition of meat.

Mushroom- Barley Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 - 5 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 small celery root, finely diced (or 1 stalk of celery)
  
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4 cup pearl barley (pearl or quick-cooking)
  
• 1/2 oz dried wild mushrooms, reconstituted and chopped (comes to 4 oz)
• 1 t salt
• 1 T fresh thyme
• black pepper
• butter
  

Directions:

1. Saute onions, carrot, celery root in butter until nicely softened.
   


2. Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes.
   


3. Add the reconstituted wild mushrooms until they start releasing liquid, and then gradually add the rest of the mushrooms.
   


4. Add the barley and stir to coat. Add the salt and some black pepper, then 2 cups of the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover, letting it simmer.
   


5. Check on it frequently, gradually adding more broth until the barley has cooked and the consistency is to your taste. If you use quick-cooking barley, the soup only needs to simmer for about 20 minutes. If you use pearl barley, it will take quite a bit longer, closer to 45 minutes.
   


6. Stir in the thyme near the end. Taste, taste and taste again, adjusting the salt and pepper to suit your taste.
   


7. If you like, you may add some cream, a dollop of sour cream, or sherry just before serving, though I like it as is.
   

Notes:

• I used celery root because I was out of celery, too lazy to go to the store and, oddly enough, had a celery root handy. I had been saving it for a creamy leek and celery root soup, but alas, I have no leeks either. Maybe next time. :p
  


• In addition to the 4 oz (half a standard package) of baby bellas (cremini), I used a mixture of dried porcini and morels. It's a lovely mix of mushrooms.
  


• This makes a small batch of soup, about 4 servings. It doubles very well for larger batches, but if you are planning on making a large batch to refrigerate or freeze for later, bear in mind that the longer it sits, the more liquid gets absorbed by the barley, changing the texture.
  

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Black Bean Soup

This soup is replete with tomato flavor, so if you are looking for a more deeply "beany" soup like the kind at Panera, you'll have to look elsewhere. Like that other soup, this is deeply satisfying on those cold winter months.

The fresh cilantro in this dish makes a pretty bold flavor note, so if you happen to be one of those people who absolutely cannot abide cilantro, don't worry, it's plenty flavorful without it.

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• ½ cup black beans, dried 
• 1 bay leaf
• pinch (less than 1/8 teaspoon) baking soda - See Notes
• water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• ½ red bell pepper chopped
• ½ hot green pepper, chopped
• ½ teaspoon chipotle chili seasoning*
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
• ¼ cup salsa
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• fresh cilantro, chopped plus additional (to garnish)
• Greek yogurt

Directions:

1. Soak the beans overnight or do a quick soak by placing the dried beans in a medium sauce pan with enough water to cover twice over. Add a pinch of baking soda and bring to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit, covered for 2 hours.


2. Drain the beans and rinse very well. Then place beans back in the saucepan.


3. Add 3 cups water and bay leaf.


4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover and let cook 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, until beans are tender. Check the water level occasionally, adding more as necessary.


5. Remove bay leaf. Drain the beans.


6. In a medium sauce pan, over medium-high heat, sauté onion, and shallots in olive oil until they become soft and translucent.


7. Add the celery, hot pepper and bell pepper and saute for another 5 minutes.


8. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.


9. Add the chipotle chili seasoning, the can of tomatoes and vegetable broth and bring to a rolling boil.


10. Add the drained, cooked beans.


11. Reduce heat and simmer 5-7 minutes longer.


12. Remove about half of the mixture to a blender and puree return pureed soup to the pot - or if you have an immersion blender, use it in the pot.


13. Stir in the salsa and about 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro.


14. Taste to adjust seasoning. Add the cumin and more chipotle chili seasoning if necessary.


15. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a healthy dose of Greek yogurt (or sour cream if you prefer) and a few more sprigs of cilantro.

* Chipotle Chili Seasoning

I made this to replace the sodium-laden packet of taco seasoning for that 7-layer Taco dip. It was so good, that I've decided to use it in everything that might be considered remotely Mexican.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder, or pulverized dried chipotle chili
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika - if you can find pimentón, smoked Spanish paprika, use this
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.


2. Store in an airtight container, like an empty spice jar.

Notes:

1. Adding baking soda to the soaking phase is supposed to help reduce the gas factor of the beans. I honestly do not know if this is real or just another kitchen myth, but in my experience, it seems to work. Then again, I also take Beano some of the time. I am also used to a diet rich in beans and legumes, so perhaps it doesn't effect me as harshly as it does others.


2. For a "beanier" taste, you could add the beans' cooking liquid in lieu of some of the vegetable broth.


3. More fun links dealing with the cilantro issue:
   
   • Why Do People Hate Cilantro?
   • Fuck yeah, Cilantro
   • NPR: Getting to the Root of the Great Cilantro Divide
   • Science Blogs: Do You Love or Hate Cilantro?

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Spicy Lentil Soup

This totally fulfilled my craving for something warming, earthy and spicy. If I skipped the sour cream at the end, it would have been totally vegan. But sometimes, things call for sour cream.

Same rules apply to bacon.

Oh, and it's ready to eat in less than an hour and a half, and that does account for the time spent on a mad scramble for ingredients.

Note: I snapped the picture of this before I put any sour cream on it and by the time I started digging into it, it was gone about 4 bites later. Then I had another bowl, but the bowl was too messy to take a nice picture, so... next time, I'll not be so hasty. :)

Spicy Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• olive oil
• 1 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes with green chilis (like Ro-Tel) – drained, and with the juice reserved
• 1 cup dry brown lentils
• 4 cups water or vegetable broth
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• sour cream

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat.
   


2. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is translucent and soft.
   


3. Stir in garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
   


4. Stir in lentils, add broth, drained tomatoes & chilis and bay leaf, and oregano.
   


5. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour.
   


6. Stir in the reserved juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
   


7. Top with a generous dollop of sour cream.
   

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Scraping the Pantry

Ok, you know by now that I love to cook and bake - why have a food blog if I didn't? I also really enjoy grocery shopping. If I go to the super Wegman's, I can spend ages just in the produce and deli sections marveling over some of the more exotic ingredients and imagining what I'd make with them.

As much as I enjoy a fridge packed full of fresh ingredients, somewhat perversely I also look forward to the end of a really long grocery cycle; I like to see how long I can stretch things before I have to resort to a trip to the store.

My pantry is pretty well stocked, and although my fridge is small (only some 18 cubic feet), I still manage to lose items in there from time to time. For example, yesterday I found a celery root I'd forgotten about in the vegetable crisper. Still good! Raiding the pantry and the fridge and using whatever I can find to create new meals has been good practice for me when it comes to creative substitutions and figuring out what works, and what really, really doesn't work.

Does anyone else do that or do you start to freak out when you can see bare shelf space in the fridge?

I'm at that point now. I had an unexpected, not-so-cheap car repair last week that has eaten into my grocery budget. Then there's the holiday. I'll be driving 5 hours to spend Thanksgiving with the parents, so yesterday I didn't see why I should go to the store when we won't even be home for part of the week.

So, that brings me to scratch-together meals:

• Between my fridge, freezer and pantry, I found that I had everything I need for my butternut squash soup.
  


• I still have some multigrain bread from this weekend to accompany it, but it would be easy enough to bake another loaf;
  


• This weekend I made my Sandra Lee type coffee cake, which didn't last long. In theory, I could make another, since I still have all the necessary ingredients.
  



• For snacks, over the past few days I've finished the last straggling tablespoons of peanut butter scraped from 2 jars - spread on apples from the 1/2 bushel of Northern Spies which I'd bought at an orchard roadside stand several weeks ago.


• I'm thinking I could do something with the leftover sausage, apples and sauerkraut, yes? My SIL gives me a quart of homemade sauerkraut every year and I think I have, um, four quarts of it still. It's great stuff, but I crave it only rarely. It should probably get eaten up though.
  
  How about sausage-apple-kraut piroshki? I have some wonton wrappers I could use.


• I can probably make a curried split pea & carrot soup.


• I could make a mushroom quiche using some of the dried mushrooms I have (porcini, morels and chanterelles), but the only cheese I have:
  
  
  
  • a half a block of mozzarella that I'm saving for pizza;
  • about 13 ½ string cheese sticks;
  • 2 little triangles of Laughing Cow cheese;
  • a ½-inch bit of a block parmigiano reggiano still clinging to the rind (so now it's difficult to grate without losing some skin, too);
  • ¼ pound of Cabot horseradish cheddar;
  • whipped chive cream cheese;
  • fat-free cream cheese which I picked up by accident - the Price Chopper brands of the cream cheese use blue boxes that are kind of similar, so I grabbed the wrong one by accident. I need to find a use for the fat-free stuff; perhaps I can substitute it for some of the regular cream cheese when I make a cheesecake;
    
  
  
  Now, I bet that horseradish cheddar might work well with the mushrooms.
  


• Can you make welsh rarebit out of horseradish cheddar? I've certainly got some beer that could go into it.

See? So many possibilities. All that limits us is a lack of imagination... or spices. :)

This butternut squash soup recipe is entirely a result of my warped and unpredictable cravings. A few years ago I'd seen a recipe for a curried butternut squash and turkey sausage soup. The idea of a savory and spicy butternut squash piqued my taste buds' interest. So, after some experimentation, I came up with this recipe. I've made it for people on two occasions, and it was well-received, so it's not just my crazy taste buds that like it!

Butternut Squash Soup with Corn, Chouriço, and Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• ½ cup jasmine rice
• 1 unpeeled butternut squash, halved and seeded
• olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 chouriço sausage, casings removed, broken into crumbles, I use Gaspar's
  
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 14-ounce cans chicken broth or homemade chicken stock, warmed
  
• salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper, or to taste
• ½ cup heavy cream (optional)
• smoked Spanish paprika, (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Pour water into 9x13 baking dish until it's an inch high.


2. Place the butternut squash into the prepared baking dish, cut side up.


3. Bake in preheated oven until a fork can pierce the flesh easily, about 45 minutes.


4. Meanwhile, place the jasmine rice and 1 cup of water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat.
   


5. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until water is absorbed and rice is fluffy, about 20 minutes.
   


6. Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork.


7. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute the onion and shallots and cook until tender and transparent, about 5 minutes.
   


8. Push the vegetables to he sides of the skillet, making a hole in the middle. Mix in the crumbled chouriço; cook until crumbly and evenly browned.
   


9. Drain any excess fat. Stir in the cooked rice and corn and mix well.


10. Scoop out cooked squash and place in a blender or bowl of a food processor. Pour 1 cup of the warmed chicken broth into the blender or bowl of a food processor with the squash. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute.
    


11. Stir the pureed squash into the sausage mixture until well blended. Add more broth until you reach the consistency you like. Season with pepper, and salt to taste. If desired, stir in the heavy cream.
    


12. Simmer soup over medium heat until heated through, about 15 minutes, but do not boil.


13. To serve, I like to sprinkle a bit of smoked Spanish paprika on it.
    

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Yellow Split Pea and Andouille Soup

I have a thing for spicy sausages: andouille, chorizo, chouriço (yes, there is a difference between those two). I also really love thick, creamy soups. Put the two of them together and add a loaf of freshly baked homemade bread and I'm in heaven.

Yellow Split Pea and Andouille Soup

Ingredients

• 2 andouille sausages cut into 1/2-inch slices
  
• 1 red potato, diced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups yellow split peas, rinsed
• 4 cups chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• Heavy cream to taste (optional)
  

Directions:

1. Sauté sausages in heavy large pot over medium-high heat about 4 minutes.
   
2. Add potato and onion. Sauté until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
   
3. Dump in split peas,stirring well, then pour in the broth.
   
4. Bring the soup to a roiling boil.
   
5. Reduce heat to low.
   
6. Cover and simmer until peas are tender, stirring occasionally, about 60 minutes.
   
7. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.
   
8. Ladle into bowls and serve with a tablespoon of heavy cream if desired.

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