Week 29 -- Italian Festival Soup

I"m getting ready to move, so I'm using up the weird odds and ends in my freezer.  This week in my freezer I found two gluten-free vegan Italian sausage patties my mom made for me.  You can see my mom's sausage making method in this demo we did for a local tv show:  https://accesschautauquacountytv.org/episode/9dIYrYrLlpg

I grew up attending Italian festivals at churches every summer, and the signature scent at these festivals was always the peppers and onions served on sausage. Forget the sausage, the peppers and onions were the good part!

To make the broth richer I added a cup of tomato sauce I also found the freezer, the remnant of some past pizza-making expedition.

This soup brings back the atmosphere of those festivals.  Sing along to Volare while you eat for the real experience!

I feel like I'm sitting in a wooden folding chair under a tent.

Mmm...can you smell the onions and peppers?

Italian Festival Soup

1 large sweet onion, sliced

2 sweet bell peppers, sliced

4 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 vegan Italian sausages (optional -- replace with one can of beans and some red pepper flakes)

1 tsp fennel seeds (increase to 1 1/2 if using beans instead of sausage

1 cup tomato sauce

water to cover

1. Saute onion in water until soft.  Add garlic and then bell peppers.  

2. Add tomato sauce and water to thin to desired consistency.  Add fennel seeds.

3. Crumble or slice sausages and add.  Simmer about 10 minutes to let flavors meld.

Makes about 3 servings. 

Week 28 -- Crockpot Surprise

This is more a cooking tip than a recipe.  Usually I make this soup every few months.  I've been better this year about using things up, but I still managed to accumulate some sad veggies.  I tend to end up with clumps of frozen veggies in mostly used bags and leftover cut up veggies. 

This is not only a great way to avoid wasting food, it's a great cheap meal for weeks when you're trying to save money, and it's low on effort.

Use any sad vegetables you have: lumps of frozen peas, limp celery, dried up carrots, wrinkly tomatoes, wimpy greens, shriveled garlic, that other half a head of cabbage left over from last week's coleslaw, etc.

I have found that my crockpot holds about 1 gallon plastic bag full of veggies.  I have one bag that I use over and over again (just wash and turn inside out to dry) and I fill it with all of my sad chopped vegetables.

Throw them all into a slow cooker with water and either a can of beans or a cup of red lentils and let it all cook together on low all day.  No matter what veggies I use, this always ends up tasting delicious and flavorful.

There it is, ready to cook.

Hours later, you magically have soup!

Crockpot Surprise

About 1 gallon mixed vegetables, fresh or frozen, chopped

1 cup red lentils or 1 can beans

Water to cover

Put all in crockpot.  Cook on low about 8 hours.

Makes about 6 servings

Week 27 -- Roasted Red Pepper Soup

It's berry season, which means I need to clean out my freezer to make room.  I just bought 10 quarts of beautiful fresh strawberries, most of which are now frozen, though some are dehydrated.

The downside is that the strawberries have basically filled my freezer, and I won't have space for the cherries coming soon, or for the blueberries next month.

I'm allergic to the sprays used on berries, and pretty sensitive.  I suspect it's because berries have such thin skin.  I can't eat any berries from stores, not even "organic," so if I don't fill my freezer in the summer there are no berries to eat come winter.

Anyway, last year I made a big batch of roasted red peppers and froze most of them.  They came in very handy for making grilled "cheese" sandwiches and hummus all year.  I had just a few left, so I knew it was time for a creamy roasted red pepper soup.

There are many places online to find directions for roasting peppers.  It's very easy. I just wash the peppers, throw them on a baking sheet (no oil!), and roast at 400 degrees about 30-40 minutes until soft and charred.  When they come out of the oven, put a bowl over the top of them so they can steam for about half an hour.  Then you should be able to slip the skin right off and gently scrape out the seeds.  If you prefer the grill or stove top method, just do a quick search.    The peppers can be frozen until you want to use them.  This is a perfect fall activity when the farmers market is full of less than perfect, almost too old bell peppers.

It's too bad you can't smell a picture!

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped1 small-medium head cauliflower chopped4 roasted red peppersWater2 tsp miso, optional

1. Saute the onion in a saucepan with a little water until soft.  Add garlic.  
2. Add about an inch of water.  Toss in the cauliflower and let it steam until tender (about 10 minutes).
3. Add the roasted red peppers, torn into a few pieces.  Add a bit more water to the pan.
4. Turn off the heat.  Add the miso, if using.  Blend with an immersion blender or carefully transfer to a blender.  Add water as needed to make a smooth blend.
5.  Return to heat until warmed through, but do not boil.  Add more water to reach desired consistency.
Makes about 6 servings

Week 26 -- Creamy Vegetable Soup

I was in the mood for peas and carrots, but I didn't want a tomato-based soup.  It was a little on the cooler side today and I was home sick dealing with seasonal allergies, so I was craving something hot and comforting.

This soup reminds me of the creamed tuna on toast my mom used to make when I was little, just without the tuna.  It would be very good served over toast or cooked grains. 

This took a while to simmer, but it wasn't very difficult and that gave me time to get this week's baked oatmeal in the oven. 

There's the finished soup.

And here's what it looked like before blending.

Creamy Vegetable Soup

Creamy broth:
1 red onion diced
2 large cloves of garlic diced
1 1/2 carrots diced
2 stalks celery diced
1/4 cup dried mushrooms, broken into pieces
1 can cannellini beans with liquid (or 1 1/2 cup cooked white beans)
4-6 cups water to taste
1/2 tsp each sage, thyme, parsley
1/4 tsp celery seed
pinch black pepper

1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 1/2 cup diced carrot

1. Water saute onion and garlic until soft.  Add other broth ingredients.  Simmer about 45 minutes.
2. Blend broth.
3. Thaw peas.  Steam diced carrots.  Stir into broth.

Makes about 4 servings.

Week 25 -- Creamy Roasted Garlic

I can't get enough of roasted garlic.  I used about half a good-size bulb for this recipe, but I also ate the other half of the bulb just out of the skin.  I'll even eat it cold!

Garlic is a fantastic food for fighting cancer and infections.  And it's delicious!  I have a pretty high tolerance for garlic, and I thought there was the perfect amount in this soup.  If you find garlic strong, feel free to use less.  Keep in mind that it has a milder less-spicy flavor when roasted so it might not be as strong as you think.

I roasted my cauliflower and garlic the night before when I was cooking other foods in the oven.  Then I was able to throw this soup together really quickly the night I ate it.  It was after a full-day field trip and I was exhausted, so fast and easy was a must!  The flavor was amazing, too.

The finished soup, garnished with parsley.

Can you smell it through your screen?  

I don't think any other soup smells this good when simmering.

Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup

1 small-medium onion
1/2 small head cauliflower
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed, or 1 1/2 cups
8 cloves roasted garlic
water

1.  Roast garlic.  Cut top of a head of garlic.  Wrap in parchment paper.  Bake in oven at 400 F for about 35 minutes.  Let cool.  When ready to use, peel away the papery skin.
2. Roast cauliflower.  Chop into florets and roast at 375 or 400 until tender but not burned.  This and the garlic can be done ahead.
3. Chop onion.  Saute in a little water in a saucepan.  When soft, add cauliflower, white beans, and garlic.  Add water.  Use immersion blender to puree or transfer to blender.
4.  Add water to reach desired consistency.  Return to heat until warmed through.
Makes 2 servings.

Week 24 -- Carrot Ginger

I was in the mood for a carrot soup, and I had ginger minced in the refrigerator from a few days earlier (as long as I was mincing it for one recipe, I decided to get it ready for a future meal, too).  When mincing ginger, remember to cut against the grain first.  Then you'll have thin slices that are easy to get as small as you want.  If you cut with the grain first, it will be hard to get tiny pieces.

While I was making this, I was on the phone with my mom.  I said I thought I would add some raisins, because I really like carrots and raisins together.  Mom convinced me that the carrot and ginger would be flavorful enough and that raisins would compete.  I took her advice.

As I do every week, I ate one bowl and put the rest of the soup away for lunches.  On Monday, I brought a jar of soup to work and started to eat it, and, oh boy, was it hot!  The ginger that had been fine when I ate the soup fresh had plenty of time to really meld into the soup.  It was so strong I almost couldn't eat it.  The next day I brought some raisins and sprinkled them into the soup as I ate, and it was perfect.

The raisins are totally optional.  If you can handle some good strong ginger heat, you may not want them.  If you need a little mellower flavor, the raisins add a great contrast that keep the ginger from being overwhelming.

It looks so innocent.  You would never suspect how strong the ginger is.

Carrot Ginger

1 red onion, diced
1 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
2 lbs carrots, diced
4-6 cups water
raisins (optional)

1. Saute onion in a little water until translucent.
2. Add ginger, carrots, and half the water.  Simmer until carrots are tender.
3. Puree soup.  Add more water as needed for desired consistency.  Return to heat until warmed.
4. Garnish with raisins if desired.

Makes about 4 servings.

Week 23 -- Lemon Millet Soup

I was at my Mom's house for the day, and Mom mentioned she wanted to try a whole-food plant-based version of Greek lemon and rice soup.

We try to avoid rice because of arsenic concerns, so we decided to use millet.  I thought it worked out well, but Mom says she would try using already cooked millet so it falls apart more in the soup.

We made our own super fast veggie stock, but feel free to replace that part of this recipe with your own veggie stock or a no-salt store-bought stock.

As with many of these soups, I never ate the authentic version, I've only eaten my own recipe, so I have no idea how this compares to the real deal.

We served the finished soup with homemade falafel, salad, and a cashew-cucumber sauce.

Lemon Millet Soup

4 cups veggie stock (1/2 a carrot, 1 stalk celery, 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup onion, 1/4 cup mushrooms, parsley, simmered with about 3 1/2 cups water then pureed)
2/3 cup uncooked millet
1 can chickpeas with their liquid (or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas with 1/2 cup cooking liquid)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp miso

1.  Heat stock.  Add millet and simmer until millet is over-cooked. 
2. Ad chickpeas, lemon juice, and miso.  Let all come up to temperature but do not boil after adding miso.

Makes 4 servings.