New Year's Resolution #239: Blog More Often

Wow. Two months later, we remember - we have a blog. Not that we completely forgot, but boy has it been easy to just stick a frozen pizza in the oven or go out to eat with the family or with friends. But, we now have high motivation to get back on track with the cooking: our grocery bill has notably risen, and let's just say those splurges on honey roasted peanuts or half-priced Christmas candy haven't helped our figures.
So, in celebration of my (Tamar) immune system shutting down for the second time this winter season, we present to you our first recipe of 2010: a hearty vegetable stew, greatly inspired by a good cook and friend of ours. It's simple, cheap, and - with enough spice - helped clear my sinuses for a heavenly 15 minutes.

Hearty Winter Stew (vegan)
1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 eggplant, peeled if not organic (waxy? Yeah, that's from the chemicals) and diced
1 pint mushrooms, cut into mid-sized chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1.5 tsp dried basil
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
Generous, but careful, amount of salt and pepper
Some white wine and some olive oil

Heat a large pot over medium heat, and pour two swigs of olive oil around the pan.
Toss in the onion, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, and garlic, ensuring that all are coated with the oil; mix in some salt and pepper.
Let the vegetables cook for about 5-7 minutes over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Add in the spices (cumin, red pepper flakes, basil, oregano) and the liquid smoke and stir.
Pour in a little bit of white wine (we only had a tablespoon or two left in our bottle, so alas, that's what went in), turn the heat to high, and let the alcohol cook off for a minute or so.
Add the can of crushed tomatoes, plus about a can's worth of water, depending on what consistency you're going for.
Season with extra salt and pepper, place the bay leaf on top, and cover and let simmer over medium heat for 1 hour.

We ate this with a side of garlic bread - a mixture of Earth Balance and oregano spread on chiabatta bread, baked in the oven for a few minutes, topped with parmesan cheese, and broiled for an additional minute.

On our last week of the CSA pickup, we cringed when we saw the vegetables: more squash... more and more squash. We had to brainstorm what we haven't made yet with that dreaded, yet delicious, vegetable, and so we succumbed to soup, served with stuffed mushrooms and a side of kale and garlic.Slowly but surely, I've come to realize how genuinely easy it is to make soup (with a proper blender, of course). The formula is simple: sautee onion, add 1 lb of diced vegetables and garlic, add 4 cups stock, and simmer for as long as you can wait. This has worked with various vegetables we've tried - carrots, potatoes, broccoli, squash, and probably works with many others.

Easy Butternut Squash Soup (vegan)

1/2 onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb butternut squash, diced into small cubes
4 cups of vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion until fairly translucent, about 5 minutes, over medium heat. Toss in squash and garlic, some salt and pepper, and stir occasionally for 2 minutes. Pour in vegetable stock and cover. Once the soup has come to a boil, lower the fire and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the squash easily slips off a fork. Blend the soup using either an immersion blender or the dreadful regular blender technique (in batches, covering the top with a towel), cover and let simmer for at least another 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.


Garlic and Kale

1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch kale, chopped and the thick part of stems removed
salt and pepper to taste

I think this is one of the healthier ways to cook kale - it was still bright green when the process was finished, meaning it was able to retain many of its nutrients. There have been many times when I've tried to just sautee kale, and it's come out brown and overcooked.

Back to the recipe... Steam kale for about 5 or so minutes - you want it to taste cooked but still have a crunch. Meanwhile, begin sauteeing garlic in about 1/2 a TBSP of olive oil, more if it's a non-non-stick pan like ours. Toss in the steamed kale and sautee for only a few minutes until the kale has slightly wilted, but again, has still maintained its bright color. Season with sat and pepper to taste.

Spicy Tom Ka

We spent a good 15-20 minutes today looking for vegan tom ka soup recipes online. Though we found a handful, they all included expensive ingredients. Then we remembered that we have a food blog - and that part of having a food blog means experimenting and coming up with our own interpretations of food! We knew the main ingredients - coconut milk, lime, cilantro, lemongrass, tofu, and red chili paste. Since we sadly found out our paste was actually not kosher and had fish and shrimp flavoring in it (disgusting), that went straight to the trash and we decided to give cayenne pepper a go.

So, we present to you our version of tom ka soup. It's not authentic - it probably isn't even remotely thai - but we think it's damn good. And really spicy, so be careful!

Spicy Tom Ka Soup (vegan)

2 TBSP oil - we used safflower
1/2 red onion (yellow or shallot would work too; we had red lying around), diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 14 oz can coconut milk - try to use the full fat, it's thicker and the lite stuff will make your soup too watery
2 cans worth of water
1 veggie bouillon cube
3 lemongrass shoots
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 block of firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1/2 medium tomato, chopped
a bunch of mushrooms, sliced
1 or 2 tsp lime zest
Juice from 1/2 a lime
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

In a large pot, saute onion and garlic in oil over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the following ingredients: coconut milk, water, veggie bouillon cube, lemongrass, mustard powder, ginger, tumeric, cayenne, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, turn heat down to a simmer, cover, and let the flavors blend together for about 20-25 minutes.

While the soup is doing its thing, work on prepping the vegetables and sautee the tofu in a pan until cubes are lightly browned and slightly firmer. Once the 25 minutes for the soup to simmer have passed, add in the tofu, tomato and mushrooms and let cook for another 10 minutes or so. For your final step - add in the lime zest, lime juice, and cilantro and give it a taste to see if you need more salt.

Very Ginger Carrot Leek Soup (vegan)

1 leek, white and light green parts chopped
1 lb carrots (5-6 carrots), diced
2 TBSP ginger, minced
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Super easy:
Sautee leek, carrots and ginger in a large pot with a little bit of olive oil for about 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with a little salt and pepper to taste. Add in vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 45 min to an hour until carrots are soft.
If you have an immersion blender now is the time to whip it out! Otherwise wait for soup to cool down a little and blend in batches in your blender. Blend until smooth a silky. Add in lemon juice, and simmer for an additional 15 min or until you are ready to eat.

Beans, Beans, Beans

Given that we don't eat meat (well, most of the time), we get most of our protein from beans and soy. When Tamar's cousin and her friend, both from Israel, came by on Monday night, we decided to give them a taste of Southwestern American cuisine. We served them black bean soup, cornbread, and sweet corn on the cob, all of which led to a fun conversation about how much food differs between here and Israel, and their questioning of why we serve "cake" with soup...

Hearty Black Bean Soup (vegan)

1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1 small/medium onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, core and seeds removed, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 15 oz cans black beans with liquid
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes in juice
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 tsp or so of cumin
1 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, sautee over medium heat celery, carrots, onion, jalapeno and garlic in olive oil (two-ish drizzles around the pot of oil shoudl be enough) and add in cumin and cayenne. Once onion becomes fairly translucent and garlic takes on a light brown color, add in the beans, tomatoes and broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Place bay leaf on top, re-cover, and let simmer for about 45 minutes.
Remove bay leaf, and use hand or standing blender to blend about half of the soup, depending on how chunky you like it. Once blended, let simmer for a while longer (about 15 minutes or so).
This tastes even better as leftovers, once all the flavors have really set in.

Makes about 6 large servings.

Baker Boy Lives Up to His Name

Back when we started dating, Greg used to leave me loaves of bread in my mailbox (so much better than getting real mail). Since we've moved away from Madison and the industrial ovens at the Nature's Bakery, I've been awaiting the day that I come home to smell fresh, homemade bread.

Today was the day.

Greg made French bread - without using our bread machine - and served it alongside roasted garlic (from our CSA!), marinated artichokes, and brie. We also had a bowl of leftover cream of broccoli soup, which was even more delicious two days later.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

(adapted from Sunny Anderson's Cream of Asparagus Soup)

1 TBSP Earth Balance + 2 rounds around the pot of olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 lb broccoli, florets and peeled stems chopped

4 cups vegetable broth (or 4 cups water + 2 MSG-less veggie bouillon cubes)

1 small container greek yogurt (6-8 oz)

1 tsp lemon juice

salt, pepper, paprika

In a large pot, heat oil and EB and sautee (on medium heat) onion and broccoli stems for 3-5 minutes, until onion is somewhat translucent. Add broccoli florets and garlic, and season vegetables with salt, pepper and paprika. Cover and steam for another 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add vegetable broth, cover, and let simmer for 35-40 minutes until broccoli is tender. Turn off heat, and blend vegetables using either an immersion blender (our tool of choice) or a regular blender. Whisk in greek yogurt and lemon juice and adjust seasoning to taste.

Given that we're not gourmet chefs, we had white specs in our soup and occasionally choked on a few broccoli floret remnants here and there. But you know what, it was totally worth it.