Variation on Quick Vegie Soup

This is a variation to my inital posting - Quick Vegetable Soup.

To start, rough cut all your vegetables - they don't have to be pretty because you will be pureeing them all. (I wash the carrots, zucchini and potatoes with vegetable wash but do not peel anything.) Use the following amounts for a vegetables will produce roughly 10 cups of soup;

• 1 small onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 3 medium-sized carrots with skin
• 2 medium-sized zucchini
• 1.5 cups of fresh spinach
• 5-6 medium-to-large baby potatoes with skin

In a larger, deep-sided pot heat about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and saute all the vegetables for about 5 minutes - stirring intermittently. Then add 1 quart of broth - I tend to use vegetable but chicken is also good. You want the liquid to just cover the vegetables so you might have to add another cup or so of water. Cook over medium to low heat until the carrots and potatoes are soft - about 20 minutes.

Turn off the burner and remove the pot from the stove (or to a cool burner). The fastest and least messy way to puree the soup it to use an immersion hand blender. However, if you only have a traditional blender you will have to puree in batches. I suggest using a slotted spoon to scoop out vegetables and using only a bit of your broth - this will minimize the danger of the lid of your blender "popping" off with the pressure from the heat. You might even consider letting the soup cool a bit before pureeing in a traditional blender.

When you have pureed the soup, salt and pepper to taste. If you want the consistency to be a bit thinner simply add more broth or water.

Brown Rice & Lentil Salad

This is a recipe that I made off the cuff this weekend to take to a BBQ and it was a good complement to burgers.

I pre-cooked 4 cups brown, basmati rice (or any type of long grain) in my rice cooker. If you refrigerate it just put it in a bowl and break it up so there are no rice clumps.

Then I cooked 1 cup of dry lentils in enough water to cover them and added a bay leaf and clove of garlic. I cooked until they were soft enough to bite into without any crunch and had to add water periodically so they didn't burn. (You can purchase pre-cooked lentils at Trader Joe's that would work perfectly here.) I didn't end up using all the lentils that I cooked - I used approximately 1.5 cups of cooked lentils.

A few hours before I wanted to serve the salad, I added a medium-sized onion minced; approx 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegarette (Melanie's One Cup Salad Dressing); 2 TBLS of salt and 1 TBLS of pepper (add more or less to taste). Seasonings are mostly to allow the rice and lentils to grab some flavor. You might have to add more of each when you add all the final ingredients.

Before you serve, add the following; two bell peppers, minced; 1 cup chopped italian parsley. (For color I added a yellow and orange to contrast with the browns of the rice and lentils however, they are also a bit sweeter tasting than a green bell pepper.) Mix it all together and taste for proper seasoning - add more as needed.

Options: if you don't have the vinegarette made you can just use 1 part olive oil, 1/2 part balsamic vinegar and touch of dijon mustard. Also, I think this needed some scallions to add more kick and boost the greenery.

Quick Vegetable Soup

I have always leaned toward making heavier soups or stews and felt that they should be made a day ahead to really catch the flavors. However, there are times when you get home and suddenly crave a soup that is warm and flavorful but not out of a can.

One night while at a friend's house for dinner she completely changed my outlook - she made a wonderful pureed vegetable soup in about 30 minutes. Suddenly our whole outlook for winter changed - we could have soup much more often and I no longer had to make huge pots of one type of soup to freeze it for future use.

The beauty of this recipe is that it contained vegetables that I typically keep in my fridge; onion, garlic, carrot, zucchini, broccoli and potatoes. However, you can vary it if you lack an ingredient or want to tweak the flavor. Additionally, you increase or decrease the ingredients depending how much you want to make. It does freeze and reheat well but it is so easy to make on the fly that small batches are good too.

To start, rough cut all your vegetables - they don't have to be pretty because you will be pureeing them all. (I wash the carrots, zucchini, broccoli and potatoes with vegetable wash but do not peel anything.) Use the following amounts for a vegetables will produce roughly 10 cups of soup;

• 1 small onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 3 medium-sized carrots with skin
• 2 medium-sized zucchini
• 1 small head and stem of broccoli (or half a bag prewashed)
• 5-6 medium-to-large baby potatoes with skin

In a larger, deep-sided pot heat about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and saute all the vegetables for about 5 minutes - stirring intermittently. Then add 1 quart of broth - I tend to use vegetable but chicken is also good. You want the liquid to just cover the vegetables so you might have to add another cup or so of water. Cook over medium to low heat until the carrots and potatoes are soft - about 20 minutes.

Turn off the burner and remove the pot from the stove (or to a cool burner). The fastest and least messy way to puree the soup it to use an immersion hand blender. However, if you only have a traditional blender you will have to puree in batches. I suggest using a slotted spoon to scoop out vegetables and using only a bit of your broth - this will minimize the danger of the lid of your blender "popping" off with the pressure from the heat. You might even consider letting the soup cool a bit before pureeing in a traditional blender.

When you have pureed the soup, salt and pepper to taste and add one teaspoon of dried thyme (optional but adds nice flavor). If you want the consistency to be a bit thinner simply add more broth or water. You can serve with wheat crackers and some nice mild cheese as a side. Frankly sometimes just having a bowl or two of soup with crackers and cheese is enough for us for dinner but usually I serve with oven-baked chicken thighs or a fillet of sole. If you are having a dinner party, you can simply use this as an opening course.

One Dish Meal - Chicken Apple Sausage and Pasta

This is one of those meals that I whip together if I forgot to defrost anything. I almost always have some type of sausage in my freezer that is already cooked and just needs to be reheated. One of my favorite is Aidell's Chicken Apple Sausage; it has a light, smoky flavor and works well cooked with several types of vegetables. (My other favorite use for these sausages is for pigs-in-blankets appetizers but we will discuss those another time.)

If my sausages are frozen, I place four sausage links in a skillet with about 1/2 cup of water; cover them and turn the burner to medium-high. This will defrost them quickly and I will only have to cool them enough to slice them to toss with the vegetable saute.

Next, I set a large pan of water to boil for pasta. My favorite shape to use with this is a bowtie pasta a.k.a. Farfalle. I will use a bit over a half pound of the Farfalle. I give myself about 5-10 minutes for the pasta water to start boiling and another 10 minuts for the pasta to cook. The vegetable saute will be the "hardest" part of the prep for this meal.

The first step is to scope out my vegetable options; I find onion, garlic, broccoli, zucchini, spinach, crimini mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. I can use any combination of these but I choose the following:

• half of a small, onion - thinly sliced;
• 1 clove of garlic - finely chopped/minced;
• 5-6 crimini mushrooms - thinly sliced;
• 2 cups broccoli - cut into bite-sized pieces and steamed.

I set the burner to medium-high under a large skillet with a bit more than a tablespoon of olive oil (add more if needed). When the oil starts to smoke, I add the onion and saute it for 1-2 minutes until it starts to become translucent. I then add the garlic and when the smell starts to rise up from the pan, I add the mushrooms. As the mushrooms are cooking, I slice the sausage into bite-sized pieces. Just as the onion, garlic and mushroom mixture starts to brown I carefully add about 1/4 of white wine. (Alternatively, you can add broth but I like how the wine cooks away. You don't want very much liquid at all.)

Just as the wine starts to cook away (and it will happen quickly) I add the sliced, chicken apple sausage and the steamed, broccoli and stir it all together. At this point, turn off the burner, cover and set the saute to the side. If you pasta is cooked already, drain it, put it in a large serving bowl with 1-2 tablespoons of butter (this is optional but it adds a bit of richness to the sauce. Alternatively, use a vegan, heart healthy substitute like Earthbalance if you love butter like I do you honestly won't notice the difference.) Add the vegetable and sausage to the pasta and toss it all together. Then bring to the table so everyone can help themselves. I typically serve with bread and cheese as a side.

This recipe is typically enough for us to have a serving plus a bit extra for dinner and then enough for two lunches the next day.

Picadillo for Tamale Filling

Another time I will discuss this recipe in terms of dinner - it varies only slightly with the addition of potatoes - but in this case I made picadillo as a filling for the tamale making event we have on Mother's Day.

In a large, deep-sided pan heat a 1/4 cup of olive oil, turn the heat to medium or medium high and when the oil is hot add about 1.5-2 pounds of ground beef. Stir the beef around until evenly browned. This step can take about 5-7 minutes so as you periodically stir and check it take the time to dice half a medium onion, mince 1-2 cloves of garlic and 1 jalapeno chili (optional). When the meat is browned, add the onion, garlic and jalapeno; you want to cook it a bit to get the vegetables a bit translucent (2-3 minutes). Pour in one bottle or can of beer and let boil away a bit which will evaporate all the alcohol in the beer. The addition of beer serves to tenderize the beef and give the dish a richer flavor.

After about five minutes, add a 15 ounce can of tomato sauce to the whole mixture and move to a back burner on a low setting. Cover the pan and let cook for at least 30 minutes. When it comes time to use this as a tamal filling we will actually drain the sauce so that the filling isn't so runny.