Peasant Vegetable Soup

I chose to call this soup "Peasant Soup" because it reminded me of my Mom's stories about her journey from Eastern Europe through Ellis Island in 1929 as a 7 year old girl on a ship with her Mom, brother and sister. Mom told us stories of growing up in Yugoslavia and not having much in the way of possessions. She said that soups were a means for her family and all the families she knew to use any food scraps they had left over, could gather or buy and feed the whole family with a warm and filling meal. Often times root vegetables were what they had to work with because they were inexpensive and somewhat plentiful. While Mom never referred to her Mom or anyone else as peasants that was the vision I conjured up as a kid. The pictures in my head of the peasant women in their simple dresses and heads wrapped in bandanas has stayed with me all these years.

So, when I came across this recipe for Winter Root Soup in Maggie Stuckey's book "Soup Night"  (be sure to check out page 259 if you happen to purchase this book) I immediately thought of my Mom and her family in 1920's Yugoslavia sharing dinner around this soup.

 

Not to minimize my Dad's depression era upbringing which he shared with us as we grew up. They are called "The Greatest Generation" for a reason. But, my Mom and I shared a connection with cooking that will forever bring a smile to my face, just as it is while writing this.

While you may not have used some of these vegetables before they are in just about every grocery store's produce section. This is an easy recipe to prepare, you'll get lots of chopping practice with all the vegetables so be sure you've got your knife good and sharp. A little story about chopping: Berdie gave me a food processor for Christmas that specializes in slicing and chopping vegetables. I have yet to open it because I really prefer to practice my knife skills as much as possible and a machine is not something I see using. I hate to tell her because she gets frustrated with my pickiness about cooking equipment gifts and they often get returned or exchanged. 

On to the recipe... I made only one change to the recipe in the book. I swapped out half of the smoked sausage for chipotle smoked sausage just because the package caught my eye when I was buying the ingredients. I usually go for a spicier approach and the chipotle sausage did it for me. One more tip: the whole allspice needs to be in a cheesecloth bag so you can easily remove it when finished cooking. We did not have any cheesecloth so I was rummaging around for an alternative when Berdie suggested a paper coffee filter which worked perfectly!

Makes about 8 servings. 

Prep time is about 20-30 minutes depending on your knife skills, cooking time is about another 20-30 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium red onion

1 pound of carrots

1 large yam or sweet potato (or 2 medium)

1 large russet potato (or 2 medium)

1 large rutabaga

2 medium turnips

2 medium parsnips

3-4 cups of water or broth (chicken or vegetable)

2 minced garlic cloves

1-2 pounds of smoked sausage/kielbasa

1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of whole peppercorns

6-8 whole allspice (tied into a cheesecloth bag)

3 tablespoons of dried parsley

lemon juice to taste

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped for garnish

METHOD

1. Prepare the onion, carrots, yam, potato, rutabaga, turnips, and parsnips by washing and peeling
2. Cut the vegetables into bite size pieces, aiming for all to be similar size so they cook as evenly as possible
3. Place the vegetables into a large soup pot and add enough water or broth to cover all the vegetables.
4. Cut the sausage into bite size pieces
5. Add the garlic, sausage, salt, ground pepper, peppercorns, allspice, and parsley.
6. Add additional water or broth so all the ingredients are covered
7. Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer until the vegetables are still firm but can be poked with a fork with some resistance, at about 20-30 minutes start poking for doneness
8. Taste and add fresh squeezed lemon juice and additional salt to your taste
9. Serve with cilantro sprinkled on top of each serving

Pumpkin Chicken Chowder

Boy, it has been a long time since my last posting. Life happens and sometimes Soup does not.

Anyway, I've gotten back into Soup At Work the last couple of weeks. Last week's soup was Potato and Roasted Chile. Really good and spicier than I had planned, a big hit at work and at home.

This week's Soup At Work is Pumpkin Chicken Chowder, taking the Halloween theme to heart. I got this recipe from Maggie Stuckey's book "Soup Night". If you refer to page 259 you'll see a page about yours truly and my background with Soup At Work.

As I mentioned, I picked this soup as recognition of tomorrow being Halloween. It was an easy soup to prepare with minimal slicing required, just the onions and bell peppers. Most of the other ingredients are packaged or canned. Except the chicken. The recipe calls for chicken breast but I almost always use thigh meat because it is more flavorful and tends not to become as dry as breast meat. It is usually less expensive also. The colors in the soup are very striking; orange, yellow, red, green. I love colorful soups!

Hope you enjoy. This recipe serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp canola oil
4 chicken thighs, skinned and boned, cut into bite size pieces
2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups of chicken broth
2 16oz cans of pumpkin puree
1 cup of Trader Joe's canned yellow corn or frozen corn if no TJ's is available
2/3 cup of uncooked rice, brown or white
1 tsp of dried basil
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of black pepper
Fresh lemon juice to taste

METHOD

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add the chicken, onions, bell peppers, and garlic.
3. Saute' until the chicken is no longer pink, about 8-10 minutes
4. Add the broth, pumpkin, corn, rice, basil, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
5. Bring the soup to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, covered, until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Season with the lemons juice to taste
7. Serve hot.

Lamb Shank Posole'

I got this recipe from Food & Wine magazine. Don't tell anyone but I've have been receiving the magazine for more than 2 years and never solicited the subscription or ever paid for it. When I first received it I sent them an email telling them I never subscribed and don't send me another copy but they kept coming. Anyways…

I am drawn to Mexican soups. Obviously, from the name of the blog. I've made a couple of types of

Albondigas, Tortilla soups, Sea Food, Cheese, and Posole'. Most of the Posoles I've made have been with Chicken so when I saw this Lamb Shank recipe I was very interested. I've found Lamb can be a polarizing ingredient, most people are either fans or they can't stand it, not much middle ground. Knowing that, I was a little hesitant in making the soup for Soup At Work. After going over the recipe a couple of time I thought I'd give it a chance. It is a recipe that required more time than most of the soups I make so I planned on making it over the weekend rather a weeknight. The group at work liked it, it has a spicy tang to it that you don't really feel until you're on your second or third spoonful.

Here are a couple of critical adjustments I found helpful. First, the F&W recipe calls for 8 lamb shanks, yep 8. My initial reaction was holy crap, 8 lamb shanks is a lot of lamb and will take up a lot of space in my soup pot. Turns out my instincts were right and I only needed 4, I froze the other four. I was surprised I found all 8 at one store, but Sprouts came through. Second, even though you skim off the fat after braising the lamb in the broth, I recommend you chill the soup to the point where the fat will coalesce and you can spoon it off the top. Lastly, pull the meat off of the shanks after they've cooled from the braising, you can return one or two of the shank bones to the soup for show and for better flavored leftovers. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 4 lamb shanks
• Kosher or sea salt
• Ground black pepper
• 1 whole head of garlic, halved crosswise and then peeled
• 1 large red onion, diced (keep separate)
• 3 celery ribs, diced, and a couple of celery tops if you have them (keep celery separate)
• 2 large carrots, diced (keep separate)
• One 2-inch stick of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 4 dried guajillo or ancho chiles, stemmed (you'll be re-hydrating these)
• 4 more dried guajillo or ancho chiles, stemmed and chopped
• 3 quarts of chicken stock
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• Two 15 oz cans of yellow hominy, rinsed and drained
• One 15 oz can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
• Chopped cilantro, diced avocado and lime wedges for serving

METHOD

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
2. In a large enameled cast iron soup pot (7-9 quarts), heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil
3. Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper and add them to the soup pot and cook over medium-high heat. Turn the shanks and brown on all sides, this should take 10-12 minutes
4. Transfer the shanks to a baking sheet and loosely cover with foil
5. Add the garlic and half each of the onion, celery, and carrots to the pot
6. Cook the veggies until translucent, 7-8 minutes
7. Stir in the cinnamon stick, oregano, 1 teaspoon of the cumin and the 4 chopped chiles
8. Add the shanks back to the pot
9. Add all of the stock and bring to a boil on the stove top
10. Cover and braise in the oven for 2 hours, the lamb should come off the bone with a fork when done
11. While the braising is happening, put the 4 whole chiles in a heatproof bowl and add 2 cups of boiling water, soak for 30 minutes
12. After 30 minutes, transfer the chiles and 1 cup of the soaking liquid to a blend and puree until smooth
13. Remove the pot from the oven after 2 hours and remove the lamb shanks to a baking sheet and cover with foil
14. Strain the broth and discard the solids. Skim the fat with one of those cool skimmer/fat separators into a separate heat proof bowl
15. Heat the olive oil in the soup pot
16. Add the remaining onion, celery, and carrots and cook until translucent, about 7-8 minutes
17. Stir in the chile puree, coriander, hominy, pinto beans and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cumin and cook for 2 minutes
18. Add the broth and simmer for 10 minutes
19. Stir in the lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste
20. Remove the meat from the lamb shanks with a fork and return the meat to the pot, you can also return 2 of the shank bones to the pot if you like
21. If the soup looks like it could use more liquid add either more chicken stock or water, re-season if necessary
22. Serve with the cilantro, avocado, and lime wedges

Sweet Potato Soup

I found this recipe looking for a vegetarian soup for my friends at work who lean towards that nutrition approach. This recipe is from SimplyRecipes which is an excellent location for soup recipes.

This is a simple recipe with a minimum number of ingredients and prep time. The preparation of this recipe is one that really benefits from having an immersion blender. The expense of a good immersion blender is well worth it compared to the the hassle of ladling from the pot to a blender and back again. Berdie gave me this immersion blender as a gift a couple of years ago and it is one of my favorite tools.

A couple of tips I learned from making this soup a couple of times. The first is to be sure you remove the cinnamon stick before you blend the soup. My first time making the soup I forgot about the stick until after I began eating a bowl and kept coming across these small pieces of woody stuff in each spoonful. I finally figured out what I had done and had to strain the whole pot to remove the cinnamon. The second tip is to go very easy on the nutmeg. I was very loose with my 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and ended up with too much in the soup and the taste overwhelmed everything. A little nutmeg goes a long way. Be sure you use whole nutmeg and grate your own. Ground nutmeg loses its freshness quickly so whole nutmeg and a fine grater is the way to go.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons of butter
1.5 cups of chopped onion
2 small celery stalks, chopped
1 medium leek, chopped, white and pale green parts only
1 large garlic clover, chopped
1.5 pounds of yams, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces, about 5 cups
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, be careful here, less is more
1.5 cups of half & half
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
Leafy tops of celery stalks, chopped

METHOD

1. Melt the butter in a large soup pot
2. Over medium high heat add the chopped onion and sauté for 5 minutes
3. Add chopped celery and leeks, sauté for another 5 minutes
4. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 more minutes
5. Add the sweet potatoes, stock, cinnamon stick, and nutmeg.
6. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes
7. REMOVE the cinnamon stick, REMOVE the cinnamon stick
8. Puree the soup either with an immersion blender or by transferring to a container blender. If you use a container blender be sure to allow for the heat to ventilate through the lid. Return the now pureed soup to the pot if you used a container blender
9. To the soup in the pot add the half & half and maple syrup.
10. Stir over medium heat to blend and heat through
11. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste
12. Serve with chopped celery tops

Creamy Pasilla Sweet Onion

I found this recipe on the Copykat.com website. This is one of those sites that post recipes of dishes from restaurants across the country.

I had never made this soup until this last weekend. I love French Onion Soup but the recipes I've used have all been very labor intensive and very time consuming. This one is neither. The batch I made this weekend for the family was very good, spicier than I expected but not too spicy. A very good onion soup. Not low calorie by any means due to the cream but very delicious.


Prep time is 15-20 minutes, mostly slicing onions. You can cut this time down if you use a slicing mandolin. We have one I bought several years ago. I rarely use it because I'm scared to death of slicing off a finger tip. But I did use it for this recipe since the onions need to be sliced thinly. Berdie loves the mandolin, I have to leave the room when she uses it, all I see is me rushing her to the hospital with her hand bundled up in a blood soaked kitchen towel and her fingertip in a ziploc bag filled with ice. Full cooking time is 45-60 minutes. This recipe makes about 3 quarts of soup.

INGREDIENTS

2 large yellow onions or 3 medium ones, thinly sliced

1/2 stick of butter
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1/4 cup of sherry
1/3 cup of flour
1 quart of chicken stock
3 dried pasilla chiles
16 oz heavy cream
8 oz pepper jack cheese, grated
3 green chiles, the canned variety, diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Saute' the onions in the butter until just tender, about 8 minutes. I suggest you slice the onion rings in half so they are easier to eat with a soup spoon.
2. Add the garlic, sherry, and flour
3. Cook about 2 minutes
4. Add chicken stock and pasilla chiles
5. Bring to a boil
6. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes
7. Remove the pasilla chiles and discard
8. Add the cream, cheese and diced green chiles. Spread the cheese evenly over the top of the soup gradually so you don't end up with clumps of cheese
9. Simmer 5 minutes to meld the flavors
10. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste. If you need it a little spicier add either chile powder or white pepper a little bit at a time.

Albondigas!!

My group at work is celebrating Cinco De Mayo on Siete De Mayo this year. With the 5th being on a Sunday and wanting to minimize the impact of the forgetfulness of people over the weekend and have them showing up on Monday forgetting we were celebrating on the 6th we're doing it on the 7th. Whew, that was tough!

There's a salsa contest as part of the celebration and the Pattersons are bringing two entries, one is the red tomatillo based salsa we've been providing to friends the last year and the other is a green tomato based salsa we've made for years. Both recipes are from Berdie's Mom and we love making them.

To accompany the salsa contest I thought it would be good to bring in a Mexican soup and our Albondigas was one I thought of first. Albondigas is a Mexican meatball soup. It's a little more work than many of my soups, mostly because of the making of the meatballs but worth it when you're done. I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com and made some tweaks here and there. I have a pound of sausage instead of a 1/4 pound, that requires some additional portions of eggs, seasonings, and corn meal. Be sure you chop the onion into small pieces otherwise they'll make it tough to make small meatballs. I use our green salsa I mentioned above instead of buying something but Berdie has had me sign a non-disclosure agreement on all salsas so you'll need to procure your own. All I changed in the broth is the addition of lemon juice.

Hope you enjoy.

INGREDIENTS
Meatballs
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 pound of pork sausage
1 onion, finely chopped. Red, yellow, white, doesn't matter
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil
1/3 cup of cornmeal

Broth
6 cans of beef broth, 14oz each
8 oz of green salsa
1 onion, chopped
2 cans of peeled and diced tomatoes, 14.5oz each
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 cup of white rice
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

METHOD

1. Combine all of meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly by hand. Squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze until fully blended.
2. Form meatballs to your desired size. Some people like them bite sized such that two can fit on a soupspoon, others like them larger and then chopped them up when eating the soup.
3. Place the meatballs back into the mixing bowl and refrigerate while you make the broth.
4. Combine all of the broth ingredients except the lemon juice and rice in a large soup pot
5. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer leaving uncovered for 20 minutes
6. Add the meatballs one by one and the rice
7. Simmer , covered, very slowly for 60-90 minutes. 60 if meatballs are small, 90 if they are larger.
8. Test a meatball for doneness. If not done leave for another 10 minutes
9. Add the lemon juice and stir completely.
10. Salt and pepper to taste and serve

Pasta e Fagioli

I came across this recipe via an email from Food & Wine magazine. Somehow I ended up with a subscription to their magazine without ever having subscribed or paid for it. I actually get two magazines each month and have one to give away if anyone is interested. I've contacted them twice to make them aware but nothing has changed and it's going on two years now. Oh well.

Anyway, I get regular emails with recipes via a link to their subscriber webpage. The most recent one had several spring time soups and the Pasta e Fagioli was the one that caught my eye. It is a straightforward recipe with a relatively short list of ingredients and a short prep time. Sometimes those recipes yield some of the best soups and other times not so much. This time was a winner, winner. The original recipe called for fresh Fava Beans. I had no luck finding fresh favas anywhere here in the Tucson, at least at Fry's, Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's. I went with Cannellini Beans instead, easier to find and more fun to say "Cannellini" than "Fava", kind of like Gomez Addams saying "Cara Mia" to Morticia.

So in addition to substituting cannellinis for favas I doubled the amount of bacon and found I had to double the chicken broth from 1 quart to 2 quarts otherwise it was a stew instead of a soup. As always I added fresh lemon juice to add just the right finishing touch. Be sure not to skip the rosemary, it makes the soup. If you don't have rosemary growing in your garden check your neighborhood, someone's sure to have a bush you can pluck.

Prep time is about 60-90 minutes depending on your experience level, my modified recipe yields about 10-12 large servings.

INGREDIENTS

2 sixteen ounce cans of cannellini beans, rinsed
1 tablespoon of olive oil
4 thick slices of bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces
2 carrots, unpeeled, sliced lengthwise and then into 1/4 inch half-moons
1 large onion, red, white, brown, whatever, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 three inch long sprig of fresh rosemary
2 quarts of chicken stock
1 cup of tubetti or other small pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to taste
Grated parmigiano-Reggiano for serving, Trader Joe's is the best I've found

METHOD

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven and add the bacon and cook over medium heat until it starts to brown, about 4-5 minutes.
2. Add the carrots, onions, garlic, and rosemary. Cook about 5 minutes stirring occasionally, be sure not to scorch the garlic.
3. Add the stock, cover, and simmer over low heat until the carrots are just beginning to get tender, about 5 minutes. Be sure you scrape the bottom of the pot for the fond from the bacon.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan boil water with a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the pasta until al dente and then drain.
5. Remove the rosemary from the soup and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste
6. Add the beans and pasta, heat through.
7. Serve, drizzle with olive oil and cheese.