Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup

I hope you don't think I've been ignoring you guys. I've just been having some technical difficulties. While I was working on my desktop one day last week, I returned from a half hour break to find it unresponsive. Upon restarting, it asked me for a boot disk. It no longer thinks it has a hard drive.

Fortunately, I was prepared for this sort of disaster on the dissertation front. I use Dropbox for all my files - not only does that make it easier to work on the same files on multiple computers, but it also means that all my stuff is backed up online. I didn't lose a word of the work I had been doing. The files that are potentially lost (though I've been told there is a possibility that they might be recovered at some point) are all my pictures. I also lost access to my photo editor, Adobe Lightroom.

After a week or so of inactivity (one day I'll give in and take the computer over to Best Buy), I decided that I need to move on. I loaded Lightroom onto my laptop and uploaded the contents of my camera (gotta love memory cards - those pictures go back to October!). In addition to recovering some great family photos, I found five blog posts' worth of shots waiting to be prettied up. You'll be hearing more frequently from me in the coming days.

I'm sure you're wondering why I'm giving you a pumpkin recipe in March. Well, as I mentioned in my last post, we've been working on clearing out our pantry and freezer, trying to feed ourselves using what we already have on hand. That includes multiple pumpkins that have been sitting down in the basement since the fall. I've been impressed at just how well these babies store - the last two have been hanging out down there for four months! I've primarily been using them for pumpkin puree, which I freeze and use in baked goods, but I set aside some whole chunks for this recipe.

This is a good one - warm, hearty and healthy. It's fairly similar to the New World Chili I posted back in October, but without the meat. The pumpkin is less sweet than most winter squash, so the soup gets a bit more depth.

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup
Slightly adapted from The Rolling Prairie Cookbook.

3 tbsp olive oil
3 c pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4" chunks
1 onion, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 quart whole tomatoes, roughly chopped (I just slide a knife around in the jar to chop them a little, then break them up with a spoon once they're in the soup)
4 c vegetable broth
4 c cooked black beans
2 c frozen corn kernels
Greek yogurt and cilantro for garnish

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the pumpkin and saute 8-10 minutes, until browned.

Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute 4-5 minutes, until tender. Add the garlic and jalapeno and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the cumin, cinnamon, cloves, chili powder and salt and stir to combine. Add the pumpkin to the onion mixture, then pour in the whole jar of tomatoes and the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Add the beans and corn and simmer for another 20 minutes. Serve topped with Greek yogurt and cilantro.

Cauliflower, Kale and White Bean Soup

With the holidays so near, everything is starting to get busy. Between our normal activities, trips to the gym, and holiday baking and other preparations, we seem to be occupied every evening. This is not the time for complicated, time-consuming recipes (though I still love them, and have a good one to post some time soon!). This is the time for simple goodness simmering in a pot.

This soup is really easy to throw together, using some of my favorite winter vegetables. I can never get enough cauliflower. It's good in soup, roasted, pureed in pasta sauce, in curries, and sometimes even raw. Roasted cauliflower, in particular, doesn't last very long in our house. Leftovers are a rare occurrence. This soup didn't last long, either, since it combined the wonder of cauliflower with delicious, nutritious kale. I don't know about you guys, but when I eat kale, I feel so much more energetic and alert. Those vitamins must be doing something good!

What made our batch of soup extra special is that we made it with some of our Thanksgiving turkey stock. That stock turned out so thick and rich that it gelled in the fridge. There was definitely some extra protein floating around in there. If you have homemade poultry stock, it will make this soup more delicious. If you don't, it'll still turn out pretty good, and good for you!

Cauliflower, Kale and White Bean Soup
Adapted from What Would Cathy Eat?

2 tbsp olive oil
3 leeks, white and light green parts sliced and soaked
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 c kale, chopped
2-3 c cannellini beans, cooked
1 small head cauliflower, broken into bite-sized florets
6 c turkey stock
2 c water
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp dried parsley (fresh would be better, if you have it)
salt and black pepper to taste (my stock is unsalted, so I had to add a lot of salt to the soup)
4 tbsp grated Parmesan

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook about 10 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add kale and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the beans, cauliflower, stock, water, bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the cauliflower is very tender. Stir in Parmesan and serve. (Remember to remove your bay leaf!)

Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup

Sometimes the tastiest recipes take me by surprise. So it was with this chicken soup - it was thrown together almost as an afterthought after a full day of fall canning, but turned out to be the most delicious thing we made all day. In fact, I took the above picture of my bowl after I'd already started eating it - I had no intention of blogging this recipe. But when I took the first bite and realized that it was the most delicious chicken soup I'd ever had, I knew I had to get it on the blog - as much for your benefit as for mine, so we can recreate this recipe soon!

We made chicken soup because we had a chicken carcass available. We've done this before - no big deal. But this time was a little different, because the carcass was raw. Last week I made a recipe calling for bone-in chicken parts, so I bought a whole chicken and had Jeff cut it up into the pieces we wanted. His butchery skills (as he admitted at the time) leave something to be desired, so we ended up with a lot of meat left on the carcass. Soup was the perfect solution - we could get all of the flavorful goodness out of the bones and have some meat to add to the soup. Brilliant!

In practice, once I began the recipe, I was skeptical. Raw chicken grosses me out. Raw chicken stewing in its own juices sounds like a terrible idea. I added everything to the pot, turned up the heat, and wondered if we'd end our evening by ordering take-out. There was no way I was going to eat that. Fast forward two hours, though, and the chicken had cooked through and created a rich, gorgeous stock. A delicious, homey aroma wafted around our house as the stock simmered. My attitude changed. The raw chicken was able to poach in its own juices and fats, making the meat tender and moist. I don't think a pre-cooked chicken could achieve this same texture and flavor. Clearly, what I initially thought was a bad idea was really the best idea ever!

The final product is worth the long wait. Trust me. This is no over-salted Campbell's creation - this is real soup, homemade and unprocessed, perfect for a lazy, chilly weekend afternoon.

Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup
Adapted from a food.com recipe.

1 raw chicken carcass, preferably with some meat still attached
8 c water
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 onion, quartered and unpeeled
6 carrots - 2 roughly chopped and 4 sliced into small half-moons
2 celery stalks - 1 roughly chopped, with leaves, and 1 sliced
2-3 sprigs fresh dill
2 handfuls egg noodles
2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Place chicken carcass, salt, pepper, onion, 2 roughly chopped carrots, 1 celery stalk (with all leaves) and dill in a large Dutch oven. Pour water over them (we cut the carcass into pieces so that the water would mostly cover it - I'm not sure how much this matters, though, as long as the pot is covered). Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for at least two hours.

When the stock is ready, pour the entire mixture through a cheese cloth or wire mesh strainer, reserving the liquid (I skimmed off about half of the fat that rose to the top at this point). Remove the chicken bones and pick the meat off of them, reserving it for later. (Eat the delicious mushy carrots.) Discard the remaining solids (chicken bones, soggy celery, onions, dill).

Add the remaining sliced carrots and celery and chicken stock to the pot. Add 2-3 more cups of water or other stock, if necessary (we neglected to cover the stock pot the whole time, so ours reduced down a lot more than we wanted - we had less than half the liquid we had started with, which wasn't enough for the rest of the soup, so we added liquid - half water, half veggie stock - to get it back up over the original mark). Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Taste and re-season, if necessary. Add uncooked egg noodles and cooked chicken, simmering until egg noodles are cooked through (our noodles took 12-14 minutes). Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Farm Fridays: Cucumber-Yogurt Gazpacho

Leeks! Sunflowers! Edamame! Two watermelons! This week's CSA share is going to be fun. There's also a nice bunch of cilantro that I plan on using to can some heirloom tomato salsa this weekend! 

I've been in a bit of a rush today, since I'm going up to Rutherford tonight (soon, actually) but I stumbled upon the perfect recipe to blog on a busy day. This cucumber-yogurt gazpacho is really quick and easy. Just five ingredients and a whisk in the blender. It's the perfect cool, refreshing meal for a hot day like this. Hopefully my family will like it as much as I do!

Cucumber-Yogurt Gazpacho
Based on a recipe from Cooking Light: Way to Cook Vegetarian. ("Based on" means I glanced at the recipe and then did things my own way.)

2 large cucumbers
3 c Greek yogurt
2 c vegetable stock
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste 

Peel and seed your cucumbers (I find a melon baller really handy for tasks like this - I should start calling it my seed-scooper, since I've never even considered using it to make melon balls!), then chop them roughly.

Throw everything into a blender (my blender couldn't fit it all, so I divided everything into two mostly-even batches) and blend to your heart's content. Serve chilled, with minced cucumber for garnish.

Minestrone

Today is a day of great productivity. I wrote about a thousand words of my current dissertation chapter, which had been stalled for a few weeks and now I'm writing a long overdue blog post. Let's hope I can keep this up in the future!

I have been sorely remiss in posting lately. I know this. I've been incredibly busy. And the post I've had in the works since the beginning of the month requires Jeff's input. Getting the two of us in a room together and unoccupied has been a mighty feat. You'll hear about another delicious dinner in Philly soon, I hope. Until then, I have some soup to tide you over.

I put it on this minestrone on the menu for earlier this week because I have a large pile of green beans in my freezer that needs to be used up. Freezing green beans sounded like a great plan last summer, but they're really only good for soup. The texture is soggy and unappealing for other sorts of dishes. For soup, though, they're perfect. I just didn't make enough of these soups this winter to use them up! (You may notice that the soup bowl pictured above is chock full of string beans - I overloaded this recipe with them in an effort to use my stash up. Don't worry - the amount included in the recipe below is more reasonable.)

It's really a shame I haven't been making more soups, because this minestrone is delicious. The addition of wine, honey and red wine vinegar to the broth adds fantastic depth. Beans and pasta make it hearty. The other vegetables are super-healthy. Add a salad and it's the perfect light dinner for a spring evening (just not the 85 degree evening on which I served it - next week I will look at the weather before I plan my menu!).

Minestrone 
Adapted from the Rolling Prairie Cookbook.

2 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp honey
5 c vegetable stock
1 c red wine
1 1/2 c diced tomatoes
1 1/2 c chopped green beans
2 c cooked kidney beans
4 oz small cooked pasta (we used whole wheat shells)

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrots, celery and herbs. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add pepper, salt, vinegar, honey, stock, wine, tomatoes, and green beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add beans and cooked pasta and heat through. Enjoy with crusty bread and a salad!

Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

My kitchen smelled like comfort this morning - the beautiful, homey smell of buttered carrots. It reminded me of holidays when I was younger - the scent of warm, simmering goodness wafting upstairs, luring me down from my bedroom. I'm not sure what about the scent made me so nostalgic, really - I can't remember my mom ever making anything like this soup (probably because her picky, stubborn children would have refused to eat it).

I will eat it now, though, and gladly! I originally pulled out this recipe to use up some of the six pounds of carrots I got at my last CSA pickup of the season. Jeff and I thought it was delicious - the sweetness of the carrots and sweet potatoes complement one another beautifully, and the spices are a lovely accent. It's a delicious creamy soup for a chilly day. Hopefully it will be just as lovely a beginning to tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner!

Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup
From Cooking Light's Way to Cook Vegetarian.

3 tbsp butter, divided

1 c onion, chopped

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 lb carrot, chopped

3 c vegetable stock

3 1/2 c water

1/4 c half-and-half

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Heat a Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Melt 1 tbsp of butter. Add the onion to the pan and cook 4-5 minutes, until softened and tender.

Add the nutmeg and cinnamon and cook another minute, stirring. Move the onions to one side of the pan and add 2 tbsp butter to the other. Increase the heat to medium-high to melt the butter and let it brown slightly. Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, stock and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer about 35 minutes, until vegetables are soft.

Ladle one-third of the soup mixture into a blender. With the center piece of the lid ajar so as to release some steam, and covering the lid with a dish towel to prevent splashing, puree the soup until smooth. Pour into another vessel, then repeat with the remaining two thirds.

When all the soup is pureed, season with salt and pepper (since I use salt-free homemade stock, I need to add a lot more salt than the recipe calls for). Add half-and-half and stir until well-combined. Serve hot!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

It's easy to be a locavore during the summer. Right now, our backyard garden is pumping out tomatoes, bell peppers and herbs. My CSA and the farmers market are overflowing with late summer's bounty. Everything seems to be in season, from melons to winter squash. Much of my meat and some cheese comes from a farm ten miles down the road. My milk comes from a dairy in Chambersburg, PA, via the Princeton Whole Foods. As a locavore, I think I'm getting pretty high marks right now.

It's actually fairly easy to maintain this through the end of the year. Last year I was continually surprised at how much was available at the farmers market in December and even January. (Fortunately, I love winter squash and sweet potatoes!) In February and March, things get tough, as expected, but I was surprised how this extended into spring - even in early May there's not much available, as plants need time to grow (the cold spring we had this past year didn't help!). I realized, as our ancestors were clearly aware, that nature's bounty can only take us so far. A few quarts of frozen tomato sauce won't cut it.

This year, I began preserving in earnest. My boiling water canner has produced rich tomato and barbecue sauces, pickles and even lemon curd. Several batches of tomato sauce have been frozen, as well as a big container of pesto. But more is necessary in order to decrease our reliance on produce trucked a few thousand miles in the middle of winter. This weekend, I told Jeff to prepare himself, because we were going to fill the freezer with summer goodness!

Saturday's tasks? Vegetable stock, roasted bell peppers, blanched and frozen green beans, and roasted tomato soup. I've been making my own stock from vegetable scraps since this past winter, according to these instructions. It's a great form of recycling! This time I got about a gallon of stock out of two gallon-sized bags of scraps. I freeze it in ice cube trays and in two cup increments in tupperware. Once it's fully frozen, I remove it from these containers and put the frozen cubes in freezer bags, to use at my leisure.

I also had about half a dozen red peppers to roast. At the last minute, though, I figured that while the grill was going, we might as well fill it up, so I sent Jeff out for more. He came back with a giant bushel of peppers, so we ended up with two dozen to roast. Jeff charred them on the grill (no oil needed!), steamed their skins off, peeled and seeded them. We then froze the strips in batches on baking trays, then transferred them to freezer bags. I have a gallon bag plus a little extra filled with red, orange and yellow pepper strips. We also filled a quart bag with blanched green beans and froze them. And while all this was going on, we were making roasted tomato soup.

Now that September's here and the nights are getting chilly, I've been craving soup. With a large basket of tomatoes in my kitchen, this roasted tomato basil soup was the perfect solution. This was the perfect recipe for the tomatoes I had, too. These were Plum Dandy tomatoes, one of the sauce varieties offered by my CSA. These are delightful sauce tomatoes because of their firmness and fleshiness, which you can see in the picture below. They held up beautifully to roasting, and this added a delicious flavor to the final product. This is definitely going to be my stand-by tomato soup recipe for a while. I plan on making a few more batches for the freezer before tomato season ends, to enjoy during the depths of winter!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
From Annie's Eats.

3 lbs ripe tomatoes, halved and seeded
1/4 c and 2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 c chopped onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
28 oz can whole tomatoes
2 c fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme
4 c stock

Preheat oven to 400° F. Combine tomato halves, olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl and toss. Spread on a large baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes. (Try not to eat too many, but they're really delicious just like this!)

In a Dutch oven over medium heat, combine 2 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp butter. Add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 7-10 minutes, until softened, stirring periodically.

Add the canned tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, basil, thyme, and stock. Stir to combine, then bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. (I stirred it occasionally, breaking up the tomatoes a bit as they softened.)

When the mixture is finished cooking, puree it for a minute or two with an immersion blender, or let the soup cool and then pour it into a blender to puree. Enjoy right away, or freeze for later!