Roast Garlic Soup

This soup comes from Martha Stewart Living.  Despite the large quantity of garlic, this soup is a mellow velvety broth (picky eater-approved!).  It makes an elegant first course for a fancy meal; alternately, pair it with a loaf of crusty bread and a green salad for a weeknight meal that requires only minutes of prep time.  I like to snip fresh chives over the top to give it a little extra pizazz.


Roast Garlic Soup
serves 4

2 garlic bulbs, cloves separated (about 40)
1 large russet potato (12 oz), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large yellow onion (12 oz), trimmed, peeled, and cut into wedges
1 1/2 t. ground sage
1 T. olive oil
1 1/2 t. coarse salt
freshly ground pepper
1/3 c. apple juice (or sherry if you prefer)
3 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
1 t. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400.  Toss whole garlic cloves, potato, onion, sage, oil, 1 t. salt, and a pinch of pepper in a large ovenproof skillet or dish.  Cover and transfer to oven.  Roast, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.  (I use a Corningware baking dish for the oven step and then transfer to a stockpot for the stovetop steps.)

Remove pan from oven; stir in 1/3 c. water.  Cover, return to oven, and roast until potato is deep gold brown and garlic and onion are very soft (about 30 minutes).  Transfer garlic cloves to a plate, let cool slightly.  Squeeze garlic from skins into skillet; discard skins.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat.  Add sherry or juice and cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits (this is where the flavor is!) about 1 minute.  Add stock and 1/2 c. water, bring to a simmer.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly. 

Puree soup in a blender in batches, or use an immersion blender in the dish itself (my preferred method).  Heat over low heat; stir in lemon juice and remaining 1/2 t. salt, and 1/4 t. pepper. 

White bean soup with zucchini, rosemary, and kale

I originally posted about this several months ago; I received lots of requests for the recipe, but hadn't really noted things mentally as we cooked. When I prepared this soup on Friday evening, I paid more attention, and here you have it. This is a lovely light-tasting and hearty soup; all three of my children love it and eat it without complaining (which is the ultimate accolade). Unfortunately, we never have leftovers, so next time I'll double it

1 head kale, stems removed, cut into smallish pieces
2 15-oz cans navy or cannelloni beans, rinsed and drained
1 onion, diced
2-3 t. garlic, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 c. light-tasting broth (vegetable or chicken)
1 zucchini, washed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2 t. rosemary
1-2 t. lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper, and rosemary as needed


Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the garlic and rosemary, saute for one minute, then add the onions and a scant teaspoon of salt and cook until tender. Add the carrots and celery and cook a few minutes more. Add the broth, bring to a boil, then add the beans and the zucchini. Simmer until the vegetables are tender but not falling apart (15-20 minutes). Add the lemon juice and a few grinds of pepper, taste, and correct the seasoning as needed. Stir in the kale until wilted into the soup, then serve with a crusty loaf of fresh bread and salad.

**Note: the broth will thicken somewhat with the addition of the beans.

Ratatouille

This recipe is from The New Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas. It makes a lot, but it's so heavenly that I wouldn't cut it in half! And while it isn't the most attractive dish in terms of color or firm texture, it is seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten. It makes me want to move to Provence right this second.

2 lbs young, firm eggplants

salt to taste

2 lbs zucchini

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3 large onions, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1.5 lbs red and green peppers, seeded and cut in 1/2 inch dice

2 c. Summer Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)

2 T. olive oil

handful chopped fresh parsley

handful chopped fresh basil

1 T. balasamic vinegar

fresh-ground black pepper to taste

3 large, red tomatoes, cut in 1-inch pieces

• Peel the eggplants and cut them in 1/2 inch dice. Toss the cut eggplants with a generous amount of salt and drain in colander for at least 45 minutes. Trim the zucchini and cut into similar-sized pieces, toss with salt, and put in another colander to drain.


• While the eggplant and squash drain, prep the other vegetables and/or sauce.


• Heat the olive oil in a large stew or stock pot. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the chopped onion and a dash of salt, then cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and just beginning to color.


• Rinse the eggplant and swuash in cold water, pressing gently against the colander to squeeze out excess moisture. Add the eggplant and zucchini to the onions with a scant teaspoon of salt and saute, stirring frequently, for 6-7 minutes. Stir in the peppers and tomato sauce, cover, reduce the flame, and simmer for about 20 minutes.


• Uncover the pan and stir. If it looks too soup, simmer uncovered, stirring often, until it is a thick stew. Add the chopped herbs, the balsamic, more salt if needed, and a generous grating of black pepper. Stir in the cut-up tomatoes and simmer for 2 minutes to heat through.

**I use about 1 lb peppers, no parsley, and extra basil. I also like to serve this with crumbled feta, dark purple grape juice, and lots of good-quality French bread.**

Summer Tomato Sauce

3 lbs ripe tomatoes
1 T. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute to loosen skins. Remove skins, cut out cores, and process to a rough texture in a blender.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Saute for a minute, then pour in tomatoes. Add basil and a little salt and pepper, then cook on medium flame for about half an hour, or until reduced by about a third (I cook it longer so it's a really thick and pungent sauce).

Use at once or keep in the 'fridge for several days.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

**no soup picture because ravenous family devoured it too fast

I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago with some of the leftover canned pumpkin filling my pantry. It was pretty hurried, and I was a bit unsure of how it would turn out, since I was smashing together several different recipes and adding in my own ideas.

So I was watching anxiously when Neil took his first bite. He rolled the soup around in his mouth. His eyes widened, and he started gulping that soup down.

We both decided it was a winner. Oh yum. I'm looking at the pumpkin-besmeared scrap of paper I jotted my measurements down on and getting hungry all over again.

The nice thing about this soup is that it requires very little time both in preparation and in cooking. You're only chopping one thing! (or two if you don't buy pre-minced garlic, which I highly recommend).

Anyway, here's what you'll need:

1 onion, chopped
1/4 c. butter

3 t. minced garlic

4 c. milk

3 t. chicken bouillion

1 15oz can pumpkin

1 t. curry

1 t. salt

1-2 bay leaves

Heat the butter over medium high heat until it's melted. Just as it starts to sizzle and pop, add the garlic and bay leaves for 30 seconds, then add the onions and cook 3-4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients.

Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Puree the soup (an immersion blender works really well for this! It's a nifty little gadget that I dearly love).

Savory Lentil Soup

About six months ago, I tried a recipe from Martha Stewart Living for French lentil soup. I don't know what happened, but it was horrendous. We ate a bowl each, and then froze the rest to eat later. Neil started referring to it as "that nasty stuff" for the duration of its freezer life, as in "I know you had a really crazy day today--why don't you just defrost that nasty stuff for dinner?"

This is much, much better. It's based on my mom's recipe for lentil soup, but it has a few variations (I try not to post anything on here that you could find in another cookbook or something, because then why bother reading this blog? This is only my made-up or adapted recipes).

Here's what you'll need:

One 16-oz bag green lentils
Large onion
Two or three carrots, peeled and chopped
Three or four stalks of celery, diced
1 1/2 t. ground cumin
Olive oil
1 t. Salt
1/4 to 1/2 t. ground red pepper
Chicken broth or bouillion (enough for about 7 cups of water)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Sausage, if desired

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. When it's hot, dump in the garlic and the cumin and let them saute for about thirty seconds, then add the onion. Cook the onion for about three minutes until it begins to soften, then add the carrots and celery and cook for another two minutes.

Add chicken broth (I use bouillion and 7 c. water because I'm cheap; if you use chicken broth I would use about 4 cups of broth and 3 of water), then stir in the lentils. Add salt and a couple of shakes of red pepper (depending on how much spice you like).

Bring it back up to a boil, then turn down to simmer for about half an hour. I like to stop the simmering process before the lentils turn into mush--I prefer them soft, but still retaining their individual shapes.

If you want to add sausage, add it at the end. I prefer to use kielbasa or smoked sausage because it retains its shape and can be microwaved rather than requiring another pot. DO NOT add the sausage at the beginning--it will taste all woody and lentily and not like sausage at all. Just chop it up and microwave it.

I am particularly fond of the smoked sausage breakfast links for this--they are very small and nicely compact. I use about 5 oz, chopped in small pieces.

And if you do not have cumin, which you should, because it's very good and very important, then I suggest that rather than buying it at the grocery store you seek out an ethnic foods store, because they will probably sell it in very cheap packets where it's like 99 cents for a huge bag instead of being $4 an ounce at the grocery store. In fact, I highly recommend that you check your ethnic foods store for all the spices you use regularly--I think you'll be surprised.

For instance, at the one I frequent (down by the WL library parking garage, for you locals!), I can buy a big packet of nutmeg for less than a dollar. Love it!

Just make sure you save random containers, so that you have containers in your pantry instead of baggies. This is what my "cool spices" shelf of my spice cupboard looks like. Super attractive, eh?