Cabbage soup and a glass of wine, therapy for a long drive

To think I thought Seattle traffic was bad and Michigan would be a piece of cake. Apparently not! This morning it took me 15 minutes door-to-door; tonight was over an hour to getting home. I was the kind of frustrated only a glass of wine and some soothing food would fix, so the soup was on. I had all the right ingredients to make a simple soup on hand, in my kitchen. Making a soup is such a simple process, and yields so much product with flavors as simple or complex as you want them to be. After a soothing half hour at the counter and stove, I sat down to a tasty and healthy meal with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon (nothing fancy, so I won't bore you with the details) and let my drive stress float away. After all, I'll be doing it again tomorrow.

As a side note to impromptu recipes: I seem to still be too nervous to try out food experiments on the boy for fear of a bad reaction, things I did not concern myself with too much while living with the girls. Thanks ladies ;) Apparently I love you as testers for strange concoctions, admittedly not always with good results. But tonight was just me and a bottle of red (No, of course not the whole bottle! ... I wouldn't be writing this right now, that is for sure!) so I just threw the cut veggies in the pot, and let it rip. With a decent return on my investment of time and resources, I'm am pleased to count this soup experiment successful!

Cabbage/Potato/Millet Soup

(I really roughed this out, so feel free to take the idea and run with it in any direction you wish ;)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Onion, diced

2 Carrots, diced

2 Celery stalks, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Stalks from a bunch of broccoli* (I just had it in the fridge, but feel free to omit)

1 Quart of Chicken or Vegetable stock

1 Tb Vinegar (I learned in school, you've gotta have the acid! use apple cider or champagne for this one)

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp dry oregano (and whatever herbs/spices sound good to you!)

1/2 cup Millet

3 Red potatoes, peel and dice (if you do this while the mirepoix sweats, you won't end up with brown potatoes)

1/4 head Cabbage, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat the oil over medium heat, add the onion, carrots, celery & a pinch of salt, and cook for about 8-10 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds. 

2.  Stir in the stock, add the bay leaf, oregano, millet & potatoes and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 6 minutes.  Then, stir in the cabbage and cook for 10-15 more minutes, or until potatoes, grains and veggies reach desired textures. Salt and pepper as you see like. That's it!

*When trimming broccoli stalks, I do end up with a lot of waste, as it is a fairly fibrous part of the veggie. Better to use it, than toss it though! I did not blend this soup and the pieces are eaten whole, so I want it all gone. Trim all the exterior of the stalk, so you just have the middle portion that is much lighter in color and dice like you would normally. 

Oat & Turkey Soup with Tex-Mex Flavors, pg. 126/ Split Pea Soup

Soup season is in full force.  I can't think of a better way to enjoy my Sunday evening after skiing than kicking up my feet while watching Netflicks with a big bowl of soup on my lap.  I usually only cook slow cooker soups.  Recipes that I can toss together all at once and come back several hours later to a soup that is ready to eat.  I'm not one to stir a big pot over the stove continuing to add ingredients.  Lorna's soup was not made in the slow cooker, but rather one I could toss together fairly fast and then freeze extra for an upcoming Sunday.

I started this soup in a large pot and cooked the onion and celery.  I then added the cans of diced tomatoes with green chiles along with several seasonings including cinammon. Once I could smell the spices, I poured the water in the pot along with the 3 chicken thighs.  The turkey simmered, and the oats cooked.  As usual, I never follow the full directions so I added several items in my fridge.  For this soup, I added leftover kamut, butternut squash, fresh cilantro and parsley.  The Tex-Mex flavors came together nicelly and I will for sure be making this in the future. 

While skiing last weekend, my friend Jackie had the pefect idea, soup bowls in the "brown bag" lunch area.  Enjoy.    
Split Pea Soup w/Couscous
Modified from Fix-It and Forget-It
1 lb. pkg. split peas
6 slices of thick ham
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
4 potatoes, diced
1 qt. water
1 qt. chicken broth
Seasoning (pepper, bay leaf, allspice, sugar)
1 cup couscous, cooked (add to soup before serving)

Directions: Wash and sort split peas, removing any stones.  Combine all ingredients except cooked couscous in the slow cooker.  Cover in slow cooker. Cook on low 8-10 hours.  Add couscous to soup before serving.   -amy   

Farro & Kale Soup with Cannellini Beans

I love how I can spend a couple hours in the kitchen making a pot of soup and yield enough of it to last about 8 meals!  And, this type of soup is so versatile and customizable, I would never get bored of it.

This soup starts with a basic mirepoix (2 part onion to 1 part each carrot and celery) then add in garlic, beans, water, farro, tomatoes, and kale.  You could easily make a new version with wild rice, swiss chard and black beans or even barley, broccoli rabe and cranberry beans. The combinations are endless, just keep the basic components present and you'll have a seriously nutrient dense meal with a pretty simple process!  Basic recipes like this give you the technique to formulate your own creations or adjust to seasonal availabilities.

I seasoned the cooking liquid when I added the beans & included a bay leaf, some onion powder, chili powder & ground ginger. I think some fresh thyme sprigs would be great as well.  Without the spices I think the broth would probably a bit bland for my taste because you use water not stock (very cost affective!).  Amy's right on with the sweet potato, I think that would have been a great modification to copy.

Tonight was one of those food filled evenings in the kitchen for me...oh Friday night! I made my very first batch of homemade chicken stock, froze some chocolate mint ice cream base whipping it by hand and cooked and froze some wheat berries with tomatoes and fresh basil...dinner when the school quarter gets crazy! Tomorrow I'm hoping keep up the adventurous streak and make a wheat berry salad, bulgar salad & chickpea salad and my favorite quinoa salad...all in one night!  I did some prep work today, so hopefully I'll breeze through them all pretty quick!
Cheers & Happy Grains!! -Vicki

Amaranth, Quinoa & Corn Chowder, Page 118

First of all, I loved the fact that I could make a chowder recipe that didn't require milk, but was still creamy in texture! Her recipe calls for it and I'm sure it adds a lot to the soup, but is plenty creamy without.  The great texture comes from a blended bag of frozen corn, which is a trick I love and will definitely use again!  That being said, I didn't absolutely love the soup's overall flavor.  While I like the texture, I don't think the seasoning was very well balanced with thyme as the only actual spice called for.  I think it would be great with carrots and some cayenne pepper for heat.  I even cooked it with chicken stock, instead of water, but I still feel it lacks in depth.  

I was not the only taster on this one. Karen loved this soup and gave it a 4.25/5 grains...Not bad!  Amanda wasn't as fond, but thought it was OK.  I will definitely make a version of this chowder again, simply adding my own seasonings the next time.  I love the concept of incorporating Amaranth & Quinoa into a soup instead of using something more standard and simple...like rice or pasta.  It's creative and I certainly appreciate that! OK, I'm about to take some fantastic smelling Date-Nut Muffins out of the oven...so stay tuned!  -Vicki

1/25/10

I love to double recipes and freeze the extras.  Tonight was one of those recipes I doubled. I should have taken my mom's advise.  She only doubles recipes that she's considers "tried and true".  I have two more frozen meals of this soup or what Ben was calling cafeteria slop.  No worries, I will use the base of the soup and completely reinvent the leftovers into something delicious.

Ben had his friend Brian over for dinner.  He was warned about the experimental grain soup.  Ben described the dish as having a rice soup consistancy with bland vegetables (celery and red bell peppers). This "tasteless" dish was in desperate need of what a chef calls flavor. (Ben was not holding back tonight)  Both of them decided that dipping their bread into the soup was the best part!  This dish needed more substanced and Ben suggested adding seasoned chicken and cheese.  As for Brian, he pretty much agreed with Ben but did say he felt full afterwards. Husband rating: 2.7/5 grains.

The biggest problem I had with this dish was that the grains, corn, and chopped veggies were similiar in size and shape.  I like texture, various sized vegetables, and exploding flavor.  Stay tuned for the return of the amaranth+quinoa corn chowder remix!  -amy