I was out in Seattle visiting my dear friend Kelly when she made this yummy and sustaining soup for dinner. I thought, "Wow this is yummy and it might fly at my dinner table - there is something for everyone!" So yesterday, with pounds of collard greens, tatsoi, bok choy and spinach from the first CSA pick-up of the year I decided to give this soup a try... and it worked! I served it with some good quality bread (in Seattle we had the very best sourdough rosemary, but I couldn't get my hands on that here in Boston so I bought a well made baguette).
Don't feel like you have to follow this recipe exactly - soup is not that precise, after all and you should put in what you have and not worry too much about it. The key here is the brown sugar, cider vinegar and mustard that give it a very distinctive flavor. And by all means use greens - lots of them. My kids didn't actually eat them (of course not), but they did sip the broth and soak it up in their bread and I'm telling myself that the nutrients from the load of veggies I put in there got into their little bodies that way.
Kelly's Dinner Soup
---------------
1 Turkey Kielbasa cut into half moons (or 1/2 a Kielbasa and 1/2 pound cubed thick cut ham)
2 medium onions, chopped (yellow or sweet work fine)
2 medium carrots, diced
1 tablespooon olive oil
1-2 pounds roughly chopped greens (collard greens and kale for long cooking, spinach and tatsoi go in at the last minute)
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup brown sugar (or to taste)
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or to taste)
2 tablespoons spicy mustard (I used dijon, but a good quality deli mustard or a whole grain mustard would work too)
16 ounces roughly chopped tomatoes (canned are fine)
1 can pinto beans rinsed
1/2 pound cooked elbow macaroni
2 quarts low salt chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1.In a large soup pot or dutch oven, saute onions and carrots until onions are soft (about five minutes). Add in meat and saute for another minute or two. Add in greens and cook until the greens have wilted down to a more manageable size. Add brown sugar, vinegar and mustard and mix.
2. Add tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer gently for at least an hour (if you are using kale and collard greens they will be tastier and easier to digest if they simmer for that long).
3. Right before serving add pinto beans and macaroni.
Serve with bread
Showing posts with label Soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soup. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Fixin' What the Kohlrabi Did
In the final month of the harvest this year, my CSA was doling out large quantities of leeks, carrots, parsnips and turnips. I was pretty happy about that though since I'd saute up the leeks in a little olive oil then add the root vegetables roughly chopped and enough water to cover - simmer until everything was tender and then puree it all in my blender. It was so delicious I was making it in copious amounts and eating it all - a little every day.
Then one fine autumn day, I found two Kholrabi in with the rest of my veggies from the Farm and I blithely peeled and chopped them and threw them in the soup. What harm could it do, right?! Ugh! I'll never make that mistake again. The soup turned out very bitter and medicinal tasting and nobody wanted to eat it - including me. Worst of all I had made a huge batch and there must have been a gallon of it in my fridge.
I thought about it for a few days. Should I just eat it as it was? Like some kind of soup penance so I'd learn my kohlrabi lesson? Or was there some way to fix the soup to make it edible? delicious? palatable? Hmmm. I thought and thought.
Here's what I ended up doing:
The fix:
1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Macoun apples peeled and chopped
1 heaping teaspoon sweet curry (Penzey's or other good quality)
1 peeled and roughly cubed butternut squash
I sauteed the onions until transulcent, added the curry and stirred for a few minutes. Added the apple and the squash and stirred to coat everything with curry and oil. Add water to cover and simmered until very tender. Then pureed in my blender.
Now I had one bitter orange soup and one sweet and richly spicy orange soup. I combined the two and voila! The sweetness of the butternut squash and the apple with the complexity of the curry completely masked the bitterness of the kohrabi.
Of course, now I had two gallons of soup, but it was absolutely delicious. In the end two gallons of yummy soup is a lot easier to eat than one gallon of yucky soup. Plus it freezes really well (I froze half).
Then one fine autumn day, I found two Kholrabi in with the rest of my veggies from the Farm and I blithely peeled and chopped them and threw them in the soup. What harm could it do, right?! Ugh! I'll never make that mistake again. The soup turned out very bitter and medicinal tasting and nobody wanted to eat it - including me. Worst of all I had made a huge batch and there must have been a gallon of it in my fridge.
I thought about it for a few days. Should I just eat it as it was? Like some kind of soup penance so I'd learn my kohlrabi lesson? Or was there some way to fix the soup to make it edible? delicious? palatable? Hmmm. I thought and thought.
Here's what I ended up doing:
The fix:
1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Macoun apples peeled and chopped
1 heaping teaspoon sweet curry (Penzey's or other good quality)
1 peeled and roughly cubed butternut squash
I sauteed the onions until transulcent, added the curry and stirred for a few minutes. Added the apple and the squash and stirred to coat everything with curry and oil. Add water to cover and simmered until very tender. Then pureed in my blender.
Now I had one bitter orange soup and one sweet and richly spicy orange soup. I combined the two and voila! The sweetness of the butternut squash and the apple with the complexity of the curry completely masked the bitterness of the kohrabi.
Of course, now I had two gallons of soup, but it was absolutely delicious. In the end two gallons of yummy soup is a lot easier to eat than one gallon of yucky soup. Plus it freezes really well (I froze half).
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Making that Miso Soup
My husband and I went out for dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant in the area. It was a cold wintery night and as I cupped the steaming savory bowl of miso soup in my hands all I could think was "I want to make Miso Soup like this at home." Why is it so hard to make a Miso soup that tastes just like the wonderful one I get at my favorite Japanese Restaurants? Don’t waste your time on any of those instant miso soup packets from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s – I’ve tried them all and they just don’t come close to the wonderful warming substance that you get served at the restaurant.
Here’s the deal: You have to make it yourself. The good news is that it is very simple to put together. There are, it must be said, a few oddly named ingredients – things you probably won’t have on hand already, but don’t panic. Go to the Asian food store and buy dried bonito flakes, a piece of dried kelp and wakame. It will be worth it.
This recipe will give you a soup just like the one I had the other night with one big caution - it will be far less salty. I haven't specified any amount for the salt because it will depend on each persons taste preferences. I've eaten this soup with no added salt and liked it and with lots of added salt and liked it too. Depends on your mood, how health conscious you may be feeling among other things.
One other point that bears mentioning… if you want it to taste like the kind at the restaurants use shiro miso (white fermented-soybean paste) and not some other kind of miso. I’ve followed other recipes that say to use whatever kind of miso you want and they produce a fine soup, but it is not the exact same flavor that I was specifically trying to replicate at home. So in this case, where what we are after is duplication, it is worth using this specific type of miso. Once you get used to making it feel free to branch out and try different varieties.
I wanted to see how difficult it would be to find these ingredients so I stopped at a couple of stores to investigate the International Food isle. I found bonito flakes and wakame at Whole Foods, but it took a trip to the Asian Food store near me to find the Kelp and the Shiro Miso. Whole Foods has a variety of misos - barely miso, chickpea miso, red miso, but not the shiro miso I wanted. Miso is refridgerated so you won't find it on the shelf with the soy sauces and the dry noodles. The good news here is that even though you have to track down some of the ingredients they all have a very long shelf life - even the miso, which has to be refridgerated, will last nearly forever. All the dried seaweed and fish will also keep indefinitely.
Dashi is a delicate basic stock, made with dried bonito flakes, that is used extensively in Japanese cooking. Its clarity and flavor can make or break a dish.
Ingredients for Dashi
1 (3 to 4-inch piece) kombu (dried kelp)
6 cups cold water
1 (5-g) package katsuo bushi (dried bonito flakes; 1/2 cup)
to make the Dashi:
Wipe any sand or salt from kombu with a dampened cloth. Bring kombu and water just to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan over high heat. Remove kombu with tongs and reserve for another use.
Sprinkle katsuo bushi over liquid and remove pan from heat. Let stand 3 minutes, then pour through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a bowl.
---------------------------------------------------
Miso Soup
1/2 cup dried wakame (a type of seaweed)
1/4 cup shiro miso (white fermented-soybean paste)
6 cups dashi
1/2 lb soft tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion greens
salt to taste
Prepare wakame: Combine wakame with warm water to cover by 1 inch and let stand 15 minutes, or until reconstituted. Drain in a sieve.
Make soup: Stir together miso and 1/2 cup dashi in a bowl until smooth. Heat remaining dashi in a saucepan over moderately high heat until hot, then gently stir in tofu and reconstituted wakame. Simmer 1 minute and remove from heat. Immediately stir in miso mixture and scallion greens and serve. __Serves 6.
Here’s the deal: You have to make it yourself. The good news is that it is very simple to put together. There are, it must be said, a few oddly named ingredients – things you probably won’t have on hand already, but don’t panic. Go to the Asian food store and buy dried bonito flakes, a piece of dried kelp and wakame. It will be worth it.
This recipe will give you a soup just like the one I had the other night with one big caution - it will be far less salty. I haven't specified any amount for the salt because it will depend on each persons taste preferences. I've eaten this soup with no added salt and liked it and with lots of added salt and liked it too. Depends on your mood, how health conscious you may be feeling among other things.
One other point that bears mentioning… if you want it to taste like the kind at the restaurants use shiro miso (white fermented-soybean paste) and not some other kind of miso. I’ve followed other recipes that say to use whatever kind of miso you want and they produce a fine soup, but it is not the exact same flavor that I was specifically trying to replicate at home. So in this case, where what we are after is duplication, it is worth using this specific type of miso. Once you get used to making it feel free to branch out and try different varieties.
I wanted to see how difficult it would be to find these ingredients so I stopped at a couple of stores to investigate the International Food isle. I found bonito flakes and wakame at Whole Foods, but it took a trip to the Asian Food store near me to find the Kelp and the Shiro Miso. Whole Foods has a variety of misos - barely miso, chickpea miso, red miso, but not the shiro miso I wanted. Miso is refridgerated so you won't find it on the shelf with the soy sauces and the dry noodles. The good news here is that even though you have to track down some of the ingredients they all have a very long shelf life - even the miso, which has to be refridgerated, will last nearly forever. All the dried seaweed and fish will also keep indefinitely.
Dashi is a delicate basic stock, made with dried bonito flakes, that is used extensively in Japanese cooking. Its clarity and flavor can make or break a dish.
Ingredients for Dashi
1 (3 to 4-inch piece) kombu (dried kelp)
6 cups cold water
1 (5-g) package katsuo bushi (dried bonito flakes; 1/2 cup)
to make the Dashi:
Wipe any sand or salt from kombu with a dampened cloth. Bring kombu and water just to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan over high heat. Remove kombu with tongs and reserve for another use.
Sprinkle katsuo bushi over liquid and remove pan from heat. Let stand 3 minutes, then pour through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a bowl.
---------------------------------------------------
Miso Soup
1/2 cup dried wakame (a type of seaweed)
1/4 cup shiro miso (white fermented-soybean paste)
6 cups dashi
1/2 lb soft tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion greens
salt to taste
Prepare wakame: Combine wakame with warm water to cover by 1 inch and let stand 15 minutes, or until reconstituted. Drain in a sieve.
Make soup: Stir together miso and 1/2 cup dashi in a bowl until smooth. Heat remaining dashi in a saucepan over moderately high heat until hot, then gently stir in tofu and reconstituted wakame. Simmer 1 minute and remove from heat. Immediately stir in miso mixture and scallion greens and serve. __Serves 6.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Chowder Days are back.
I love chowder. I grew up eating some of the best clam chowder in the world at a restaurant called The Grog in Newburyport – a north shore suburb of Boston. Sadly, when I stopped being able to eat milk and cream I had to give up chowder. Recently, my friend gave me a recipe for corn and scallop chowder that looked so good, I just couldn’t not try it. The only dairy was 1/2 a cup of half-and-half which I thought I could either skip altogether or find some acceptable substitute for. Originally, I was going to use 1/2 a cup of finely pureed cooked cauliflower, but in the end I couldn’t find cauliflower the day I was in the mood to make it so I took the simplest option and just added an extra potato. I made a few other minor modifications to the original recipe – in addition to dropping the cream - to liven it up a little bit and the result came out amazingly creamy and hearty. My husband tried it and then kept eating bowl after bowl. “I can’t stop eating that soup you made,” he said. With a comment like that we’ll forgive him for calling it soup.
If you do manage to have any left over, this chowder keeps well for a few days in the fridge, but it does tend to thicken up quite a bit. I added some boiling water to thin it out when I reheated it.
------------------------------------------------
Corn and Seafood Chowder
1 Tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced leek or shallots
1 cup thinly sliced celery
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 large all purpose potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
32 ounces fat-free low sodium chicken broth
3/4 pound seafood (one or all of scallops, shrimp or calamari)
1/2 cup half-and-half, if using
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsely
1.Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add leek and celery; sauté for two minutes. Sprinkle with flour, stirring to coat.
2. Add potato, corn, salt, thyme, black pepper, cayenne pepper and chicken broth. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.
3. Add seafood and cook for two minutes or until seafood is cooked through (shrimp turn pink, a scallop sliced open will be opaque all the way through).
4. If using, stir in half-and-half at this point. Stir in parsley.
If you do manage to have any left over, this chowder keeps well for a few days in the fridge, but it does tend to thicken up quite a bit. I added some boiling water to thin it out when I reheated it.
------------------------------------------------
Corn and Seafood Chowder
1 Tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced leek or shallots
1 cup thinly sliced celery
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 large all purpose potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
32 ounces fat-free low sodium chicken broth
3/4 pound seafood (one or all of scallops, shrimp or calamari)
1/2 cup half-and-half, if using
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsely
1.Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add leek and celery; sauté for two minutes. Sprinkle with flour, stirring to coat.
2. Add potato, corn, salt, thyme, black pepper, cayenne pepper and chicken broth. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.
3. Add seafood and cook for two minutes or until seafood is cooked through (shrimp turn pink, a scallop sliced open will be opaque all the way through).
4. If using, stir in half-and-half at this point. Stir in parsley.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Winter Vegetable Soup
This is my favorite winter vegetable soup – I think the parsnips really make it. It is simple and hearty, warming and delicious. This is low fat, high fiber and so yummy you won’t even care that it is good for you. Now if we can just get the weather to start acting like winter it will be the perfect time of year to make this soup.
---------------------------------------------------
Winter Vegetable Soup
1 lb. parsnips, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 onions coarsely chopped
2 large stalks celery
1 small turnip, peeled and chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
sour cream, crème fraiche, pureed cauliflower, croutons, finely chopped parsley or chives as a garnish (optional)
In an ample heavy bottomed soup pot (4 to 6 quarts) combine the parsnips, carrots, celery, turnips and stock or water and bring to a boil.
Simmer the mixture until the vegetables are tender (40-50 minutes).
In a blender, puree the mixture, adding water or broth if necessary to thin to desired consistency.
Return pureed soup to pot and adjust seasonings.
Garnish and serve.
Yield: 6 servings
---------------------------------------------------
Winter Vegetable Soup
1 lb. parsnips, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 onions coarsely chopped
2 large stalks celery
1 small turnip, peeled and chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
sour cream, crème fraiche, pureed cauliflower, croutons, finely chopped parsley or chives as a garnish (optional)
In an ample heavy bottomed soup pot (4 to 6 quarts) combine the parsnips, carrots, celery, turnips and stock or water and bring to a boil.
Simmer the mixture until the vegetables are tender (40-50 minutes).
In a blender, puree the mixture, adding water or broth if necessary to thin to desired consistency.
Return pureed soup to pot and adjust seasonings.
Garnish and serve.
Yield: 6 servings
Friday, November 24, 2006
Learning from Leftovers
This year my Thanksgiving leftovers taught me something that is going to come in handy next year. I re-heated my cider braised squash with rosemary for lunch today (see 11/18/06 blog entry for the recipe) and it was actually much better today than it was yesterday. Next year I'm making it one day ahead and heating it up in the oven before the meal. Although I love this dish and wouldn't skip making it, it is a last minute dish that takes up a lot of space on the cooktop when I'm trying to finish gravy and saute brussel sprouts. I'm excited to save myself the headache next year. I'll do the whole dish ahead, but wait to sprinkle it with vinegar until right before I serve it on the big day.
This year I was feeling a tad lazy during the clean up. I noticed that my slow cooker was already out and plugged in since it had been busy keeping my potatoes warm all day so once I'd cut all the salvagable meat off the turkey I didn't bother to put it all away in the fridge, but just threw it in the slow cooker (I had cleaned out the leftover mashed potatoes - just so you know) along with
all the leftover celery I could find - about three stalks,
one whole onion (skin still on) sliced in half
two bay leaves
and an entire bunch of parseley that I hadn't used
water to fill
2 teaspoons kosher salt
5-10 whole peppercorns
I set it on low and left it until this morning after breakfast. This was the best turkey broth I've ever made. It was clear and amber colored and rich and tasty. I've strained it now, discarded all the bones and vegetables and frozen most of it in small batches.
When the broth was finished, I salvaged the little pieces of turkey meat from the bones - most of the time I would just toss it along with everything else, but I felt like saving it this morning so I picked it carefully out of the tangle of overcooked celery, parseley and turkey bones and found that I had about 1 1/2 cups. The texture was reminiscent of canned tuna -since it had been cooked to death - first roasted yesterday and then in the slow cooker for 12 hours - so I ended up making a turkey salad with it - adding mayo, chopped celery, an entire bunch of scallions chopped - both green and white, and a grated carrot, and some fresh ground pepper. It is good as it is, but I'm thinking maybe a little curry and some red grapes or diced apple might be a nice addition.
This year I was feeling a tad lazy during the clean up. I noticed that my slow cooker was already out and plugged in since it had been busy keeping my potatoes warm all day so once I'd cut all the salvagable meat off the turkey I didn't bother to put it all away in the fridge, but just threw it in the slow cooker (I had cleaned out the leftover mashed potatoes - just so you know) along with
all the leftover celery I could find - about three stalks,
one whole onion (skin still on) sliced in half
two bay leaves
and an entire bunch of parseley that I hadn't used
water to fill
2 teaspoons kosher salt
5-10 whole peppercorns
I set it on low and left it until this morning after breakfast. This was the best turkey broth I've ever made. It was clear and amber colored and rich and tasty. I've strained it now, discarded all the bones and vegetables and frozen most of it in small batches.
When the broth was finished, I salvaged the little pieces of turkey meat from the bones - most of the time I would just toss it along with everything else, but I felt like saving it this morning so I picked it carefully out of the tangle of overcooked celery, parseley and turkey bones and found that I had about 1 1/2 cups. The texture was reminiscent of canned tuna -since it had been cooked to death - first roasted yesterday and then in the slow cooker for 12 hours - so I ended up making a turkey salad with it - adding mayo, chopped celery, an entire bunch of scallions chopped - both green and white, and a grated carrot, and some fresh ground pepper. It is good as it is, but I'm thinking maybe a little curry and some red grapes or diced apple might be a nice addition.
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