Quick and Easy (Vegetarian) Dinner Soup: Under 10 minutes!

The Story: My sister Becca gave me this recipe. She pretty much knows what's up when it comes to food. Especially baked goods. This soup, however, is a light and quick go-to dinner for her. I tried it last night, and it was fantastic.

The Ingredients:

• 5 cups vegetable or chicken broth (boxed is fine, homemade finer), plus 1/2 to a 1/3 cup water.
  
• Fresh spinach, 2 handfuls
  
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• Fresh grated Parm, Coarsely Grated or Flaked (the tangy-ier the better).
  

The Cooking:

Wilt the spinach in the olive oil in a large pot. Add broth to simmer. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with one tablespoon cold water. Slowly stir in the eggs while whisking the broth with a fork. Serve immediately, and sprinkle the fresh parm. Some salt, some pepper, some red pepper flakes... donezo.

Tribute to Lobster Bisque: Have I Mentioned I'm from Boston?

I am a born and bred Bostonian, and man, do I love my seafood. I think clam chowder and cod run in my veins. My father loves to tell the story of 2-year-old Kristen sitting on his lap and steadily eating her way through 2 lbs of steamers. For some reason, my family was more of a chowder than a bisque family, and I always considered lobster bisque to be something you get in a fancy restaurant, not the casual staple of clam chowder. Today changed that. It was a gorgeous, summer-like day, so D. and I borrowed Mom's car and drove up to Gloucester to the beach. I took a fantastic beach nap with various fabrics covering any exposed skin, with my bright pink beach cap covering my face. I must have looked awesome. In any case, after the nap and a few Miller High Lifes, we drove to the Lobster Pool in Rockport, which has some of the best seafood in New England. I ordered clam chowder and fried haddock, and D. ordered lobster bisque and fried shrimp. As soon as the giant platter came out, I regretted my chowder order. Next to his creamy bisque with visible chunks of lobster, my chowder looked so...pale. Wan. White! Next time, I'm shrugging off my childhood and going for the bisque.

I am really obsessed with the tomato bisque at harvard law school. If you're ever at their dining hall, get it!

Advocacy: The Joys of the Pressure Cooker

I really need to post here a brief push for the purchase of a pressure cooker. For 25 bucks at Target, you'll get the money and time saver that the rest of the world uses like it's going out of style.

But it's not!

The PC's ability to cut time in half (or way more) in terms of cooking down soups, cooking grains and pulses, and making cheap cuts of meat delicious is unparalleled. Invest in one, you won't regret it. Delicious lentil soup in 20 minutes from dried lentils? No problem. Steamed green beans in 2 minutes? Done. The most tender stew beef you've ever had. Just buy this.

Rainy Day Soup

The Story: My girl Johanna and I were lucky enough to go to South Africa in 2007. It was winter there, but it being Africa, we assumed it would be hot and were thus the worst prepared travelers, ever. Some lady ("mom") had to loan us matching pastel sweat suits after it snowed for the first time since 1982. One thing I kept noticing was that butternut squash soup was served everywhere, and it was delicious! I'd always considered it a bit of a gourmet soup, but seeing it widely available convinced me of it's potential as a go-to soup de jour. I made it for the first time in the apartment of some peace corps volunteers in the Kwa-Zulu Natal in S.A, with fresh squash from the markets and some ginger grated in for good measure. Ever since, it's been a delicious and fun reminder of a great trip.

The Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash, de-skinned and diced
• Freshly grated ginger, to taste (a little goes a long way)
• 1/2 cup of cream (or fat-free half and half, just as good!)
• 1 bay leaf
• 4-5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• some olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pot)
  

The Cooking

Simmer the diced squash in a shallow pool of boiling water. Once soft, set aside. Saute the onions in the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot, until they're clear. Add the bay leaves. Add the broth and heat until hot, but not boiling. Add the cooked squash, and then stir in the cream. Remove the bay leaves after the soup heats through. Simmer on low while pureeing with your (immersible) blender. Add the ginger and puree again, or give a vigorous stir.

The Serving

I like to serve this with a few toasted almond slivers on top for garnish, and some brie and toasty bread on the side. My sister serves it with a mixed herbs salad and homemade vinaigrette. It's a win-win.

Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard

The Story: Well, it's inexplicably cold again. So I brought out my favorite winter soup recipes, and this one made me start drooling (just a little) in my mouth. Just like my dog Riley does, when she's on the way to the dump and knows she'll get a treat there. I've never seen a dog so excited to see trash get dragged out to the car. Anyway...that's probably gross.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried lentils, sorted and rinsed
• 1 bunch swiss chard leaf, rinsed and roughly torn, touch stems removed
• 1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 red potatoes, washed, cut in 1-inch cubes
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, scrubbed, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, pressed or mushed
• 5-6 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 2-3 bay leaves (I say the more the merrier)
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

The Cooking

Place all ingredients in a 5 to 6 quart crockpot, stir, and cook for 4 hours on high or 6 to 8 hours on low. Or, just put it all in a pot and let it simmer for a looooong time. Lentils and other vegetables should be cooked but not overly soft. Remove bay leaves and stir around for a sec.

The Serving

Serve with some super multi-grain bread, toasted, with tons of unsalted butter.

Variations on a Theme: Bag o' Spinach soup v.2 and v.3

v.2: White Beans replace the Turkey Meatballs

(pretty self-explanatory)

v.3: Spinach-Lentil Soup (my personal fav of the group)

• 1 and 1/2 cup lentils (i like brown)
• a couple bay leaves
• 3 cloves chopped garlic
• a small diced yellow onion
• some olive oil (enough to coat bottom of pot)
• i bag frozen, chopped spinach, thawed
• some cumin to taste
• a dash of turmeric
• a dash of red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper

*soak lentils overnight in water so they're quick to cook*

to do:

saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil in the pot until they're cooked clear. add the lentils and bay leaves and cumin, and cover with water. cook down for about 1/2 an hour or maybe more until lentils are cooked. add spinach and rest of spices and a dash more olive oil for body, and maybe some more spices (taste it), and cook a bit more. enjoy!

Bag o' Spinach Soup w/ Turkey Meatballs (and other variations)

The Story: I am in grad school right now, and flat broke. Thus, I tend to cook things that are either a) cheap or b) composed of ingredients lingering in my kitchen somewhere, so I don't need to go buy anything. I always seem to have frozen chopped spinach and canned tomatoes around, and I saw some ground turkey hanging out in the fridge-- and I knew what I had to do. Make soup. Then I made more soup with more bags of spinach, and other cans and boxes of things. Now I am fairly convinced that a bag o' chopped spinach + basically anything makes one fine soup.

The Original Soup:

Ingredients:

Soup:

• Bag o' chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
• Large can of peeled crushed tomatoes
• 2 cloves finely chopped or crushed garlic
• 1/2 a large yellow onion, diced
• bay leaves (2 or 3)
• olive oil (1/3 cup or so)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• red pepper flakes
  
• fresh or dried basil
  
• fresh or dried parsley
• parm (the fresher and tangier, the better)

The Turkey Meatballs

• ground turkey, 1 lb or so (I prefer the 93% lean, the 97% lean doesn't stick together too well)
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• fresh or dried parsley
• red pepper flakes
• olive oil and canola oil, for cooking
  

The Soup Recipe

Saute the onion, garlic and parsley and basil in olive oil until the onions are clear on medium heat. Add the tomatoes and the balsamic. Let simmer for 5 minutes on medium-low. Add the rest of the spices. Add the chicken broth, and then the spinach. Drizzle in some more olive oil for body. Salt and pepper to taste, and let simmer down a bit. In the meantime...

The Turkey Meatball recipe

Put the turkey meat in a large bowl. Put in 5 or so generous shakes of the spices, enough to coat the top of the mound of meat (less red pepper if you're less spice-inclined). Mush that around with your hands. Smell it. if you can smell the spices, you're good to go. if not, add more. really spiced meatballs are a nice foil to the soup. In a large, heavy-bottomed saute pan or skillet heat up some 1/2 olive oil, 1/2 canola oil mix on medium-high heat. Take small amounts of the turkey, shape into balls, and fry in the oil, turning often to prevent burning. Drain on a paper towel.

The Serving

Serve the soup with the turkey meatballs dotted around in it. The best is when you grate some really tangy fresh parm on top, but the green bottle will do too.

hot damn bag o' spinach soup is good.

This blog is about soup

Making soup, eating soup, buying soup, etc. I'm real into the 'bag o' spinach' soup right now, so that will be first.

I will publish that tomorrow, avec photo.

Slurp away.