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.

Week 22 -- Old World Eggplant Stew

I struggled to name this soup.  I've never had anything like it other places, but it just sounded good to me.  And this soup did hit the spot.  I was under the weather with seasonal allergies and this had ginger and the gentle warmth of allspice, plus a little sweet and a little tangy.

This is not a pretty soup.  The broth is dark and rich, and the eggplant gets soft and melts in your mouth.  But it's great for when you aren't entertaining and want something hearty and warming but not heavy.

Old World Eggplant Stew

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 inch ginger, minced
1 cup red lentils
1 medium eggplant, cubed
8 oz. mushrooms, chunked
4 cups water
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp miso paste

1.  In large soup pot (or slow cooker), saute onion and garlic in a little water until softened.  Add ginger, lentils, and water.  Chop the rest of the veggies and add them.  Cover and simmer until lentils are cooked and veggies are tender, about 15 minutes.  If using slow cooker, just throw everything in there.
2.  Add seasonings.  Let simmer about 5 minutes to let flavors meld.  Take out a little broth.  Mix it with the miso paste and add back to the soup.  Turn off heat.

Makes 3-4 servings.

Week 21 -- Orange Sweet Potato

After all the work of the wontons last week, and after coming home from a busy conference, I was ready for a simple and fast soup tonight.  This soup took about 15 minutes from start to finish and made just two servings (perfect for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow).

This soup has few ingredients, which gives it a very simple flavor that is light and delicious, and they're probably foods you already have sitting around.

I lightly peeled my sweet potato, just getting off the thick rough patches and trying to keep most of the layer just under the peel so I didn't lose too much good nutrition.

There it is in all its delicious, fast, and simple glory!

Simmering soup with the allspice.

Orange Sweet Potato

1/2 red onion, chopped
1 large or 2 smaller sweet potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup red lentils
1 orange, peel cut off, sliced and divided into segments
3-4 cups water
1/4 tsp allspice, approximately

1. Cook the onion, sweet potatoes, and red lentils in 3 cups water for about 10 minutes until tender.  Add more water if needed.
2. Add the orange segments and allspice.  Let simmer another two minutes.  Then enjoy!
Makes two servings.

Week 20 -- Wonton Soup

When I first learned how to make my own version of wontons, I was super excited.  I grew up loving wonton soup, but I gave it up when I stopped eating animal products.  It only took me a few months being vegan before I learned to make my own wontons with tempeh and the pre-made wrappers they sell at grocery stores.

When I could no longer eat corn, I had to make my own wonton wrappers.  They weren't awful, but I didn't have any clue how to adapt once I had to stop eating gluten and wheat flour.  This was my first attempt at making gluten-free wontons.  I also had to swap out the tempeh because I'm doing a soy elimnation trial (suspected allergy).  I replaced the tempeh with walnuts and mushrooms. 

This recipe is more a cautionary tale than a recipe.  The end result was delicious, but it wasn't without hiccups.  If you're making this, please consider the amounts below to be suggestions rather than exact measurements.  If you can eat gluten and corn, you can skip the worst steps and use store-bought wonton wrappers, just check the ingredients to make sure you're getting ones without eggs.  This is not a fast or simple recipe, but it's worth the effort.

This makes more wontons than you'll probably want to eat at once.  Freeze the rest in a single layer on a cookie sheet, then transfer to storage containers.  Pull a few out whenever you want a fast bowl of soup.

I should note that this is a totally non-authentic recipe.  It is completely based on Americanized foods.  I recommend that for the actual stuffing and sealing of the wontons, you search online for real directions rather than just going off my free form photographs.

When you see it in the bowl, it's easy to forget how much work it was!

There's the filling!  The psyllium husk makes it clump together better,
but it's optional and just for texture.

The psyllium husk in the dough is not optional.  That's what makes it knead-able and roll-able
like a dough with gluten.  If you're cooking gluten free, it's worth buying to always
have some on hand.  You can add it to many recipes to make them easier to work with.

I am not a master wonton filler.  You can see mine all turned out different shapes.
They all taste good, though!

Filling:
1 cup walnuts
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 small red onion
1-2 cloves garlic
2 inches ginger, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp psyllium husk (optional)

Chop the first five ingredients in a food chopper or processor.  Then stir in the psyllium (if using).

Dough:
1 1/2 cups garbanzo flour
1 cup millet flour
2/3 cup arrowroot
2 Tbsp psyllium
1 cup water

1. Mix all ingredients.  Knead in more flour as needed. 
2. Roll out between two sheets of parchment very liberally dusted with flour.  Cut into pieces for filling. 
3. Put about a tablespoon of filling on a square of dough.  Dip your finger in water and dampen the edges of the square, then fold the dough over and pinch to seal.
4. Freeze until ready to use or cook right away.  To cook, I put a thin layer of water in my saute pan, set the wontons in, covered, and let the water simmer until the wontons were cooked (the dough has an obvious change in visual texture and color when cooked).  You can search online for better methods of steaming, too.

Broth:
2 cups salt-free vegetable broth
2 cups water
2 tsp miso
sprinkle of parsley

I used the vegetable broth recipe from the How Not to Die cookbook, but you can use whatever broth recipe you like.  Heat the broth with water and miso over low heat.  Don't boil after adding the miso.

Put a few wontons in a bowl.  Ladle the hot broth on top.  Garnish with a sprinkle of parsley (or, to be more authentic, you could use green onions, which I do not like and so do not use).