supertasty orange potato soup

This is the perfect lunch soup. as someone who doesn't remember the last time i ate lunch at work while doing absolutely nothing else, i get a little picky with what i take with me for lunch.

eating something that doesn't necessarily need utensils and tastes great both straight out of the microwave and lukewarm after being neglected for a few minutes while i answer email or type up documents is a rare treat.

this potato soup takes about 40 minutes or so, start to finish. it has a couple major ingredients, and they're all staples that you'd likely have on hand whenever the mood should strike.

Potato Soup

• 1/2 onion and 2 stalks celery, chopped
  
• 4-5 potatoes and 4-5 carrots, diced or shredded through a food processor
• tetra pack (1 litre?) of low-sodium chicken broth
• few sprigs of chopped thyme, a few bay leaves, salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes
• 2 cups medium sharp cheddar
• small handful of parsley, if you want

sautee the onion in a few tablespoons of oil on medium heat, salting lightly

when the onion is about halfway cooked, add the thyme, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant

add the carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes while you clean up, stirring every so often

add the stock, then fill the container with water and add that in too. clamp a lid on, and cook for 30 minutes. taste for seasoning.
take off the heat and puree with an immersion blender. throw in a small handful of chopped parsley and the cheddar, and let the heat of the soup get it all melty. Andy suggested that you could leave the cheddar out of the soup and add a bunch on top so it gets both stringy and melty. i told him to keep his opinions to himself.

final note: this would be tasty with some corn.

roasted soup

sticking with the theme of using winter vegetables, i decided to change up how i usually make butternut squash soup. this time i cubed and roasted squash, onions, garlic after tossing in s, p, and olive oil at about 425 F. you want the vegetables to roast until the corn and onions turn a little tinged, and the squash is fork-tender. then you dump the whole thing into a pot of simmering chicken stock, chopped thyme, and a diced carrot, and let bubble for about 30 minutes. at the end, the squash should sort of disintegrate into the soup. i added about a tablespoon of sesame oil and a big tablespoonful of peanut butter, and stirred around until that dissolved, about five minutes.

things to do with coconut milk

instead of making curry with a can of coconut milk that had been sitting in the pantry for a couple of months, i decided to try out a couple of things in hopes that i could expand my horizons. we were going out of town the next day, and i wanted to use up what would spoil in the fridge while we were away and freeze it or eat it up.
with it i decided to make a thai chicken soup and some blueberry frozen yogurt popsicles, both great.

now, just in general, i make a lot of soups. i adore all components of soupmaking and find it a great way to acquire a taste for underused ingredients, especially winter greens and pulses. why, just this past week we've been on a sort of soup kick (what with me getting sick and andy allllllmost catching it)and have gobbled up grean pea with turkey bacon, curry lentil with kale, crab chowder, and carrot and tomato with thyme. having soup bubbling away does something to you. smelling it change from boiling ingredients to some kind of cohesive solution for hours before you can actually eat it is just... comforting.

this soup, however, is meant to come together in about as much time as it takes for it to come to a boil and for your vegetables to cook, and maybe a few minutes after. it's sort of meant as a catch-all for ingredients that you already have on hand, like cooked chicken and maybe cooked potatoes. basically, the broth is relatively equal parts coconut milk to chicken stock, with the juice of a lime, some kind of chili or heat, and a knob of ginger floating around and retrieved when the soup is done. coriander is a classic addition, but i didn't have any. sure you could add a couple of drops of fish sauce if you have it, but that's it. i added carrots, broccoli, about 1/2 of a cooked potato, and some diced chicken. if you're using raw ingredients, just chop them in smaller pieces than you would ordinarily so that it cooks faster.

the frozen yogurt popsicles are amazing, and it's all thanks to the coconut milk. i don't know about you, but all of the healthful frozen snacks just taste like ice with some kind of flavoring. eating them is about as thrilling as licking on an icicle, and the consistency isn't far off. the coconut milk brings in the extra fat that makes the popsicle easy to bite off and kind of enhances the milkiness of the yogurt. i just added about three tablespoons to a batch, which made appx. a dozen full-sized popsicles with about a 1/2 cup of leftovers, and it really made them taste incredible.

also in there are some blueberries, blueberry juice, raspberry syrup that's been in the fridge for longer than i should admit, lime juice and zest, pineapples, and honey. what i was doing with all of those ingredients at the ready, i can't really speak to. i guess sometimes it pays to be a pack rat in the kitchen.

roasted acorn squash and carrot soup

this is a great kickoff to a whole season of cold cooking.
a great introduction into the kind of cooking that you do in big, hearty, loving batches and freeze so that you will not go hungry on evenings that the chill sends you diving under the blankets, willing only to hit the Defrost button and wait, shivering in front of the microwave, spoon in hand.
the recipes for this month are going to be almost exclusively recipes of big batch cooking, of things that can be pre-made on lazy Sundays and frozen in individual portions, ready for your cold mornings that you welcome from the cruel and cozy bed that you leave with only the gravest reluctance.


i let this boil down for about 2 hours before i added the roasted squash, so by the time the squash started soaking up a bunch of liquid, it was very thick. then the immersion blender made it super smooth and tasty-like, and i diluted it with some mushroom stock and water, and threw in a bit of cream at the end, though only a tablespoon or two. all that to say that this should taste just as good if you let it bubble away unattended for no more than an hour, and i've sacrificed my time and energy into finding that information out for you. that's just how i roll.

chop 6 medium carrots, 3 cloves of garlic, and 1 onion in the food processor, add to a heavy-bottomed pot that's got some oil heating in it. add salt, pepper, (thyme if you have it), a bay leaf, and some curry powder (i added 1 tbsp., but this is definitely up to you). while this is softening, i turned the oven to 400 and started prepping the roasted stuff.

first of all, acorn squash can chop off your fingers. when you try to cut it in half to roast, get a kitchen towel underneath it and then try getting the tip of your knife in a spot and then banging something on the top of the knife to wedge it in. it doesn't take anything super-heavy; i used a metal measuring cup. then turn and bang away again. if you don't do this, and the squash slips and your cutting board suddenly has the tips of your fingers sitting on it, this is not my fault.

line a cookie sheet with foil and add the halved squash cut-side up (with seeds and goop taken out). i added a cut up parsnip and a cut up potato, but then ended up using them for something else. i'd say to add any kind of sad-looking vegetable in your fridge to this pan, just nothing that would get all juicy before the squash is done (maybe no tomatoes). you're going to roast this for about 30 minutes, but you flip so the skin is up at about the 20 min. mark. also, add a fair amount of oil here or everything will dry up. i like to add a nice pool of oil in the middle of the squash, then salt and pepper everything and throw it in.

add your chicken stock or whatever kind you want to use to the soup and stir around. when it gets to a boil in about 10 minutes, turn it down a bit and pour yourself something to drink.

when the squash is ready to come out (it looks kind of... hm... candy-like? i don't know how to describe it... it looks really deep orange-y and you can get in there with a fork and it kind of shreds) pull it out and let it sit. when it's cool enough to handle, remove the skin and start chopping up. if you're using an immersion blender (as you should), the size doesn't really matter, but if you're just going to mash it all up or something then maybe do your future self a favor and cut the squash up pretty small. "cut" is kind of a silly word to use here because it's, like, falling apart and squishy anyway.

anyway, throw the squash and other vegetables you roasted in for about 10-15 minutes, then kill the heat and blend. i like taking my life into my hands and so i blend in the still-hot soup pot in 1-second pulses. if things look too thick once they're all blended up, even adding a cup of water won't really hurt the taste if you're out of stock.

test for seasoning. i usually leave things pretty unsalty until the very end. it's the worst feeling when you spend all of that time on a soup and you oversalted at the beginning.

this is so, so, so tasty with a dollop of sour cream or a drizzle of half and half. any kind of cool creaminess is just... transcendent.

wonton soup

i don't know why, but i always always crave hot soup in the summer. i swear we lived on this for a whole week and i'm still going to make it for lunch today. it's the best slurping soup. just takes some stock of some kind (dashi, chicken, etc) and miso paste, baby bok choy, dumplings, green onions, etc.

Corn Chowder Soup

I used a lot of leftovers and shortcuts here so it came together in about 10 minutes, cooled to puree, and then took another 5 minutes to heat the added ingredients back up. The shortcuts didn't really cancel out a lot of time, as this is one of the simplest soups i've made. 

I started with some roasted onion and leftover cauliflower that i roasted in the same way as i described a month ago or so. added to that was some roasted garlic that i made in the same baking dish and added a good cup or so of frozen corn, maybe a little more. I also had some bechamel sauce leftover and added some in at this point to heat, soften and thicken the soup. the same could be done by adding 2 tablespoons of flour and letting it cook out for an extra minute while the garlic, onions, cauliflower, and corn heat up. 

I then dumped in the stock and just let it bubble away for about 10 minutes or so then shut the heat off so it could cool to puree. after the soup is smooth i added about a cup of milk but i could have gotten away with adding half as much, as the flavor of the stock got a little lost with that extra swoosh of milk. I also added some nutmeg and about 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika. 

Also made some chive and cheddar biscuits.

lunch today.

so, i think we've already established my excellence, but just in case you needed a little remindin', here's what we had for lunch today. really, it was pretty easy and i was puttering around the kitchen enough to make the little details work out.

Heart of Palm soup



So you take a pretty big sized shallot (or 2 smaller ones), chop and add to some olive oil already warming in a soup pot. this isn't going to make a big batch or anything, enough for a meal for two, so a big pot isn't needed. add some pepper and stir around for a minute or so. i actually didn't bother defrosting some chicken stock and just threw in a 1/2 of a bouillion cube. you can use a bit more if it's a low sodium kind but there really isn't a big need to add a bunch of liquid as you want it to thicken up, so make your own choices here because too much salt in such a delicate soup would really be a shame to eat.

open a can of hearts of pam, and chop them up, size not being of complete importance, then add some water, pepper, a bay leaf and nutmeg if available and just let it bubble away on medium low for about 45 minutes. this softens the hearts of palm and makes it tender enough to mash up with your stirring spoon. add some cream or milk (i used half & half), though the really great thing about this soup is that it comes out luxuriously creamy without needing a lot of cream... i'd say maybe 3-4 tablespoons tops.


Big Baguette Sandwich



I'm trying to use up some extra bits of food this week but i've got to admit it's a bit of a stretch for me to tell you that you can just whip up an exact replica of this at the drop of a hat, because of the extra ingredients that i or anyone else would not likely just have lying around. that being said, big sandwiches are probably one of my favourite things to make people that are coming over or just for a certain andy p. who enjoys cheese, meat, and bread in any combination.

this 1/2 baguette is a jalapeno bread that has cream cheese on one side and a softened butter and pesto mix on the other. i roasted a red pepper when i was first in the kitchen getting the soup started, and had thrown some extra shallots in a pan on low to caramelize. added to this was some mozzarella cheese, pepper, and artichoke hearts. wrapped in tin foil it was in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. i wouldnt recommend leaving the tin foil off, as it gets just a little too crispy to the point where it turns to crumbs when a knife gets within a foot of it.

most of the other ingredients that could go in one of these are basically anything you would put on a homemade pizza, if you were so inclined, which is why i usually buy an extra baguette whenever i get ingredients for the former.

Soup?

Made some chicken stock last weekend that tasted so good that i labeled it "luscious stock" on my freezer containers. It's the kind of stock that would get you marriage proposals or random gifts.