JAG
just add garlic.
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Roasted Carrot and Tomato Soup with Crispy Kale
Last week’s CSA included beautiful red carrots which seemed too pretty to put through the juicer or toss onto a salad. So I roasted them with some tomatoes and garlic, and pureed them into a lovely summer soup.
Ingredients
- 1 dozen small ripe tomatoes
- 1/2 bunch carrots
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bunch dinosaur kale
- 1 quart stock
- 1 medium onion
- 1 T chopped tarragon
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
- 1/2 t red pepper flakes
- S&P to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Peel and cut the carrots in half, placing the cut side down on a greased/foiled cookie sheet. Cut the tomatoes in half, placing them on another sheet. Cut the top off the garlic head, wrap in foil, and drizzle the top with olive oil before sealing.
3. Roast the veggies. The tomatoes should only take about 20 minutes, while the carrots and garlic will take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on size.
4. Slice the stem/ribs out of the kale leaves. In a large bowl, toss them with sea salt and olive oil until coated.
5. Remove the carrots and tomatoes from the cookie sheets, and toss the kale on the already used foil. Turn the oven heat down to 250, and bake the kale until it’s crispy and beginning to brown, about 15 minutes.
6. In a large pot, saute the diced onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Chop up the roasted veggies, and add them to the pot. Squeeze out 2-3 cloves of roasted garlic. Add the herbs, and cook together over medium heat for a few minutes. Add the stock, simmer for 30 minutes.
7. Let the soup cool slightly, then puree using hand blender or food processor.
8. Serve soup hot with kale chip on top.
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Tortellini soup with CSA greens and sausage
Followers!
After a couple month hiatus from JAG, my first weekly CSA share of the summer inspired me to get back on the blog. For those of you who don’t know what CSA is, Julia from Peasant’s Plot does a great job of explaining it here. Expect at least a post a week on what I’m cooking with the bounty from Peasant’s and my own garden at the Peterson Garden Project.
Garlic scapes, radishes, and greens, oh my!
And now, the recipe. Serves 8-10.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion, diced
- 2-3 hot Italian sausage links, uncooked
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
- 16-20 oz. roughly chopped spinach and/or arrugula
- 1 beef bouillon cube
- 8 cups water
- 1 lb. frozen tortellini
1. Pull the sausage out of the casing and heat over medium high heat in a large pot until it begins to crumble. Add the onion and garlic, cooking for around 5 minutes, until the sausage is cooked and the onion has softened.
2. Add the tomatoes, water, and bouillon cube to the pot. Cover with the lid until everything starts to boil, and then turn down to simmer for 20-30 minutes.
3. Stir in the pasta and cook until mostly done. Then, add the greens, and let simmer for a few more minutes.
Spicy arrugula and spinach.
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Pumpkin Hot and Sour Soup
This may not be for everyone. But it’s an interesting dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 T chopped garlic
- 1 T chopped peeled fresh ginger
- 3 T vegetable oil
- 2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 qt chicken stock, or 1 qt canned chicken broth and 1 qt water
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- handful of fresh basil
- 3 to 5 fresh (1 1/2-inch) Thai chiles or 2 fresh jalapeño chiles, trimmed and coarsely chopped (seed chiles if a milder flavor is desired)
- 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
1. Cook onion, garlic, and ginger in oil over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 4 minutes. Add pumpkin and wine and boil, uncovered, until wine is reduced by about half, about 5 minutes. Stir in stock and simmer.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the carrots and celery are tender- about an hour. This actually had a fishy finish, so I might reduce the fish sauce or substitute soy sauce next time.
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Roasted Tomato, Fennel, and Corn Soup
Turns out my soup obsession was not a one season aberration. Chilly weather is back, and so are my one-pot concoctions!
Lately, I’ve been adding fennel to everything- pasta, soup, side dishes. It’s also called anise, and it looks like this:
It has a lovely licorice flavor. For most recipes, you cut all of the shoots off and just use the bulb.
Anyway, here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 3 lb tomatoes halved lengthwise (I used 7 Roma)
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- olive oil
- S&P
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 medium fennel bulb, sliced into small pieces
- 2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
- 2 quarts chicken or veggie stock
- 1/4 t crushed red pepper
- 1 t dried thyme
1. Preheat your oven to 400. Place the tomatoes on a foil lined baking sheet, with the garlic cloves in a very tightly sealed foil packet. I think I didn’t seal mine properly, because two of the smaller cloves actually dried up and browned rather than roasting. Roast all of this together for about an hour.
2. Dump the tomatoes and roasted garlic (peel it beforehand!) into the food processor. Add a drizzle of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and process until it’s only a tad on the chunky side.
3. Heat about 3 T olive oil in a large pot, and add the onion and fennel. Cook over medium high heat until they’re softened. Add the processed tomatoes, stock, corn, and spices. Simmer, lid on, for about an hour. Ladle into bowls and enjoy!
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Onion Soup
I know, I know. It looks so appealing you are jumping to go make it right now.
Friday night turned into a big pizza party at my place, and all the cheese ended up allocated to pizzas… So we didn’t have any gratinee/melted cheese on top, but I did add toasted slices of french bread, which was nice addition. But seriously, for the $7 it costs to make 10 bowls, you couldn’t make a better investment.
Ingredients:
- 5 cups thinly sliced yellow onion (I used two very large onions)
- 3 T unsalted butter
- 1 T olive oil
- 1/4 t sugar
- 1 t salt
- 3 T flour
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 2 quarts (8 cups) beef or mushroom stock
1. Slice the onions, and melt the butter and oil together over medium-low heat.
2. Add the onions to the pot (it should be a big one) and toss. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, and let steep for 15 minutes with the lid on.
Onions after steeping.
3. After the 15 minutes have passed, take the lid off, raise the heat back to medium/low, and add the sugar and salt. Stir frequently for 30-45 minutes until they’re caramelized and a deep brown. This is where the really intense flavor comes from- make sure not to let them burn.
4. After they’re caramelized, sprinkle with the flour and let cook for a few minutes. It kind of looks like a weird onion paste.
4. Add the wine to the onions, then the stock. Simmer for 30-40 more minutes, then serve!
Toasts ready for soup.
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Ham and Bean Soup
I’ve never made a ham before, so I’d never made soup with a ham bone. Boy was I missing out. Simmering the bone with veggies and beans for 4-5 hours released the marrow and lent the dish rich layers of flavor.
Ingredients:
- Ham bone with some meat on it
- 3-4 Bay leaves
- 1 pound navy or great white beans
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced thin
- 1 head of green cabbage, finely sliced
- 2 T minced garlic
- S&P
Cover the bone with cold water. Add all the ingredients, reserving about 1/3 of the cabbage. Simmer for 4-5 hours. Add the rest of the cabbage. Remove bay leaves and bone, cut meat up, adding back to soup. Simmer for another 30 minutes.
Use fat separator if needed:
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Cucumber, Tomato, and Avocado Soup
The 85 degree day we had two weeks ago called for my first foray into chilled soup. I preferred this warm- with Sriracha for an extra kick.
Ingredients:
- 4 T unsalted butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup flour
- 4 cups peeled and cubed tomatoes
- 4 cups peeled, seeded, and cubed cucumbers
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 cup heavy cream, or less (I skipped it altogether when I heated up the leftovers, and preferred it that way.)
- S&P
1. Melt the butter in a pot, add onion and cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle with flour, and add the tomatoes, stirring to incorporate and avoid flour chunks.
3. Add the cucumbers and season with S&P.
4. Stir in broth, bring to a simmer, and cook for about 25 minutes.
5. Pour the mixture into a blender or food processor a few ladles at a time, processing until smooth.
6. If serving cold, pour into a bowl and chill, later whisking in diced avocado and cream. If hot, return to stove and heat through, later adding the cream and avo.
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Black Bean Soup
Another recipe from my NYT cookbook, this makes quite a bit of soup, is really simple to make, and doesn’t require a food processor.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 pound smoked slab bacon with rine
- 1.5 cups finely chopped onion
- 1.5 cups diced carrots
- 1.5 cups chopped celery
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 T minced garlic
- 1 T dried oregano
- 1 t dried thyme
- 1/4 cup ground cumin
- 1 t freshly ground black pepper
- 3 T tomato paste
- 4 quarts chicken broth
- 1 pound black beans “rinsed and picked over”
- 6 T fresh lime juice
- 1/4 t cayenne pepper
- salt
- 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1. Slice off the rind of the bacon, reserve. Cut remaining bacon into small cubes.
I believe that’s the rind, but I’ve never done this before, so I could be wrong…
2. Cook cubes and rind over medium-low heat until they are brown and crisp.
3. Add the onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf, garlic, oregano, thyme, 3 T cumin, and black pepper. Stir, cover the pot, and let cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir to incorporate.
5. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.
6. Add the beans and cook over medium-high heat for about 3 hours. It’s done when the beans soften. You might have to skim off “foam, scum, and fat” although mine was pretty much fine.
7. Stir in lime juice, cayenne pepper, salt to taste, cilantro, and 1 T cumin.
8. Remove bacon rind and bay leaf.
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Insanely Delicious Pasta and Bean Soup
The Essential New York Times Cook Book says of this soup “you won’t believe it doesn’t have any meat other than some diced prosciutto. Even the broth is vegetable.” They weren’t kidding. This is one of the best soups I’ve ever made!
Apparently the recipe is from Tom Valenti, the owner of Quest in New York. Had I made this before I visited Manhattan two weeks ago I would have been sure to go check out the restaurant.
Ingredients:
- 2 T olive oil
- 1/4 pound prosciutto, cut into medium dice (I used a bit more)
- 1 small carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 small Spanish onion, diced (mine was more medium sized)
- 1 stalk celery, chopped (I substituted this with a leek, celery’s spicier cousin)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 T tomato paste (I used an entire 4 oz. can)
- 4 cups veggie broth
- 4 cups water
- 2 medium baking potatoes, peeled
- 1 cup small pasta
- 2 cans cannelloni beans, rinsed and chopped
- 1 T chopped rosemary
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
I ordered a slab of prosciutto at my local grocer for less than $3:
Instructions:
1. Start with the olive oil and prosciutto over medium heat, stirring until fat begins to render, about 4 minutes.
2. Add the carrot, onion, leek, and garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook/ stir until veggies are softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste, stir to coat all the ingredients, and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add broth, water, and potatoes, rising heat to bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, bring the heat back down and let the soup simmer until the potatoes are very soft. The recipe says about 35 minutes, but it took me almost an hour even having cut the potatoes in half. I think I’ll zap them in the microwave for a minute the next time.
5. When the potatoes are soft, transfer them to a bowl and mash. Or food process like I did (surprise, surprise.)
I know you all never tire of photos of things I’ve pureed.
6. Add the pasta, beans, and pureed potatoes. Stir in rosemary, red pepper, and parm.
It may not look gourmet, but like the title said, this IS insanely delicious. Can’t wait to try other recipes from the NYT cook book!
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Lentil Soup gone wrong… and resurrected
When this month’s Bon Appetite had a piece about a quest to find the perfect lentil soup, and a recipe it claimed to be worthy of eating daily, I couldn’t wait to try it. I’ve been thinking that lentil should be my next experiment, and I don’t have experience with it, so I followed the recipe exactly, even buying special ingredients from Whole Foods (a rare indulgence.)
After following BA’s directions, I dipped a spoon into the pot to give it a try. It tasted vaguely like mushy onion flavored dishwater. Really, really bland. I’m not sure what I did wrong, because the recipe sounds good:
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves, chopped, divided
- 2 tablespoons (or more) curry powder
- 1 cup French green lentils
- 4 1/4 cups (or more) water, divided
- 1 15- to 16-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced 1 lemon, cut into 6 wedges
Maybe I chose the wrong lentils?
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Add half of chopped garlic; stir until vegetables are soft but not brown, about 4 minutes longer. Add 2 tablespoons curry powder; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add lentils and 4 cups water. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Increase heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.Meanwhile, puree chickpeas, lemon juice, 1/4 cup water, remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and remaining garlic in processor.
Add chickpea puree and butter to lentil soup. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional curry powder, if desired. Add water by 1/4 cupfuls to thin to desired consistency.
As a last ditch effort to make this edible, I added some pasta sauce and a bunch more curry powder. The next day, I added more onions, kale, a can of tomatoes, chicken stock, and yes, more garlic. This made it more similar to a veggie/minestrone soup rather than the traditional lentil I was shooting for, but at least it tasted much better!
Author
Kitchen musings from Lizzy: not so novice cook, part time law student, newbie gardener, lifetime Chicagoan, garlic spice and travel lover.
