red lentil soup with coconut and aleppo pepper

A snow storm makes for a difficult departure! Last weekend, we flew down to Texas for a much anticipated wedding weekend. It was the first time most of our studio got together since graduation and it was so fun to see everyone. We had a lot of trouble getting out of Seattle, and basically had to fly out a day early or miss the entire trip. Eventually, we arrived in Houston and went immediately to Mai’s for a late dinner/midnight snack. Just like old studio nights! The wedding took place in San Antonio on Saturday and I am sad to say that I did not get to take any photos because I forgot to pack my camera during our packing frenzy. The wedding and reception were lovely, heartfelt affairs and we are all so happy for the bride and groom!

Before I knew it, it was Sunday and we were back in the cold, breezy Northwest. The snow turned in rain over the weekend, saturating the soil and making certain tasks like digging for potatoes difficult and muddy. When I come home from working at the farm, a soup like this is usually what I want for dinner. This lentil soup comes together quickly, is packed with protein and veggies, and is faintly exotic with flavors of coconut milk and chile peppers. I purchase Aleppo pepper at my local Penzeys and have really been enjoying the fruity, moderately spicy heat from these Turkish peppers. I imagine that you could also make this in a slow cooker. Leftovers keep well and make for a tasty lunch the next day.

**When I first posted, I forgot to link to this article by Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel, discussing the farmer and the eater. Thoughts?

Red Lentil Soup with Coconut and Aleppo Pepper

inspired from Serious Eats

2 tbsp olive oil

3 leeks, rinsed very well and sliced

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

3 carrots, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp ginger, grated on a microplane

1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed if you want, and finely chopped

1 tsp EACH ground cumin and ground coriander. I actually used about 1 1/2 tsp Ras el Hanout, a Moroccan spice blend.

2 bay leaves

1 3/4 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked over

water or vegetable stock

about 1/2 can of coconut milk. I used light coconut milk, but full fat coconut milk should also be fine.

1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes. I used a fire roasted variety.

juice from 1 large lime

finely chopped cilantro to taste

Aleppo pepper and unsweetened shredded coconut to garnish

Heat the oil over medium high heat in your soup pot. When hot, add the leeks, onion, celery, and carrot and cook until soft. Add the jalapeno, garlic, ginger, and spices and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook until fragrant. Add the rinsed red lentils to the pot and cover with water or vegetable stock. After you add enough liquid to cover the lentils and vegetables, add the bay leaves, coconut milk and crushed tomatoes. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Check every now and then to make sure there is enough liquid and stir. When the lentils are tender (about 20 minutes), check the seasoning. Usually I have to add more salt. Turn the heat off and stir in all of lime juice and cilantro. Ladle into bowls and garnish generously with Aleppo pepper and coconut.

creamy broccoli soup

New year, new resolutions? I am sure lots of people are trying to eat a little bit cleaner this week, and combined with the harsh chill of January, this broccoli soup is perfect for a light, but filling supper. As much as I like creamy soups, the amount of heavy cream required (literally) makes my stomach hurt. Cream of broccoli soup is that sort of nostalgic soup that can become pretty healthy after a couple of tweaks. Instead of pouring in the heavy cream, I just use a couple of potatoes, giving the final pureed soup a creamy mouth feel and a velvety body. If you want to go a step further, I added some tofu for even more cream like flavor and a protein boost. Feel free to sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on top, if you please.

“Creamy” Broccoli Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 rib of celery, diced

3-4 small potatoes, diced. No need to peel!

1 pound of broccoli. I used the organic frozen whole foods brand, but fresh would be great also.

1 tsp smoked paprika

salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. I used aleppo pepper.

4 cups vegetable broth

1/3 cup of nutritional yeast

1 cup of spinach or tender kale, chopped. Once again, I used frozen.

fresh parsley, minced, if you have it

optional tofu puree:

1/2 block of firm tofu

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce, tamari, or bragg’s liquid animos

salt and pepper to taste

 

In your soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Sweat the onion and celery until soft. Add the garlic and potatoes and continue to sweat for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle in the paprika, red pepper flakes, and season. Stir in the broccoli and add the broth. Bring everything up to a boil and turn down to a simmer. If you are using the tofu puree, combine everything in a small food processor and blend until smooth.

When all of the vegetables are soft, turn off the heat and puree using an immersion blender or transfer to a regular blender and blend until almost smooth. Add the nutritional yeast and taste and season. Add the spinach or kale and heat through. Stir in the tofu if you are using it. Reheat the soup, ladle out into bowls, and garnish with parsley, more red pepper flakes, or shredded cheddar cheese.

 

 

 

Pumpkin, Corn, and Lemongrass soup

Thanksgiving is less than ten days away! If you are still planning or tweaking your menu, I will have a couple festive recipes in the next week that you could add to your traditional rotation or bring to a holiday potluck.

Is Thanksgiving at your house traditional or not? When I was in school, our studio would get together, despite the looming pencils down deadline, and have a great assemblage of everyone’s family traditions. We would have JP’s mom’s delicious stuffing, full of dried fruit and nuts, Toine’s apple crumble, and Jason would brine and roast Alton Brown’s turkey. Last year was our last studio Thanksgiving, and while I do not miss being constantly stressed (between finishing my plots and watching the pumpkin pie bake), I do miss having everyone over at our house, eating the products of our hard work and drinking Shiner Bock.

This year, Thanksgiving is a lot less stressful and I am looking forward to experimenting with twists on traditional dishes. This pumpkin soup is creamy and rich, like the traditional soup, but has a kick of the Southeast Asian flavors of coconut, lemongrass, and galangal (a rhizome similar to ginger). Pumpkin (in this case a kobocha pumpkin) and corn are somewhat recent and quite popular imports in Asia and both of these vegetables work really well together in soup. I found everything in this recipe easily at my local Asian grocery, but if you have trouble finding galangal, feel free to use regular ginger instead. So, if can mix up Thanksgiving at your house this year, this soup is a great way to start, haha.

Pumpkin, Corn, and Lemongrass Soup

inspired by Gourmet

1 large stalk of lemongrass, trimmed and the outer layer(s) removed. I used 2 smaller stalks.

1 1″ piece of galangal or ginger

1 tbsp butter or olive oil

1 small kabocha squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed (about 4 cups). You can use another other winter squash or pumpkin.

1 medium onion, diced

2 cups corn kernels, frozen is fine.

1 cup coconut milk (or more, if you want a more velvety soup. decrease the water proportionally)

about 4 cups water

lime juice, thai basil, or cilantro
Bruise the lemongrass and galangal with the back of your knife to release some of the oils. In your soup pot, heat the butter or oil over medium heat and start to sweat the onion, lemongrass, and galangal. Once the onions are translucent, add the squash and corn and season generously. Cook for a couple of minutes and then add the coconut milk and water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the squash is fork tender. Remove the lemongrass and galangal and puree the soup, either using a stick blender or a regular blender, in small batches. If you wish, you can put the soup through a strainer to achieve a smoother texture. Return the pureed soup back to the pot and add more coconut milk or water if you wish to thin it out more and taste. I wound up using a pretty generous amount of salt. The soup is on the sweeter side so a good hit of acid in the form of lime juice is welcome. Ladle into bowls and garnish with more lime juice or a chiffonade of Thai basil or cilantro. A fancy touch might be making a basil or cilantro oil and drizzling a couple drops on top of each serving. A spoon of Greek yogurt would be nice here too.

Borscht

We are solidly in soup season here in Seattle. There is a Russian cafe tucked in Pike Place Market that serves delicious salads, pelmeni, and soups, including a tasty Borscht. I took home a bunch of beautiful beets from the farm the last week and was inspired to recreate this Borscht. The flavors are very clean and light, but the root vegetables make it pretty substantial. Be sure to have some sour cream or Greek yogurt on hand to swirl into the soup to add some richness. Unfortunately, I ran out when I got the chance to photograph this for lunch the next day. Keep tasting this soup as you are cooking and adjust the seasonings so it is a good balance of sweet, salty, and sour.

Simple Borscht

adapted from food52

10 cups water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium-large onion, diced

3 medium carrots, chopped small enough to fit easily on a soup spoon

3 large beets, peeled and chopped

1 large or 2 smaller potatoes, chopped

3 small turnips, chopped

1 celery stalk, sliced thinly

1 small bunch of dill, chopped

1 lemon’s juice

1-2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

salt, pepper

10 juniper berries, optional

sour cream or greek yogurt for serving

Set the pot of water over low to medium heat. Add the juniper berries, oil, and 1-2 tsp of salt. Add the onions, beets, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and celery. As the vegetable soften, skim the foam off of the broth. When you can easily pierce the vegetables with a fork, add the lemon juice and dill and taste and adjust the seasoning. Add the thinly slice garlic right before turning the heat off. Serve hot or cold, with sour cream or yogurt.

watermelon gazpacho

Summer melons are finally starting to come into season here in the PNW, after a cold spring and late summer. On the three days of the year where it gets somewhat uncomfortable in your third floor apartment, cold blended soups come to the rescue! I usually make a greener, veggie packed gazpacho, but last week I had a quarter of a small watermelon left and a huge, fat heirloom tomato sitting on my kitchen table. This combination of watermelon and tomato seems to be popping up in salads everywhere these days, and is justifiably delicious. Whenever I come across sun ripened tomatoes, I usually eat them simply on toast with a slathering mayonnaise and basil leaf. But! now, at this time of year, there is quite an abundance of heirloom tomatoes and I can afford to blend some farmers market seconds up into gazpacho.

This version of gazpacho is sweeter than the traditional soup and does not use stale bread to thicken. I usually use a cup of cooked white beans to thicken the soup and add some protein. In this case, I did not have any cooked beans on hand and just used some xanthan gum. This is a powder that is used a lot in both molecular gastronomy and in gluten free baking. Just be sure not to use too much or your soup will become really, really thick and gummy. Avocado can be blended into the soup or simply diced and scattered on top and provides both something creamy and something to chew to the soup.

Watermelon and tomato gazpacho

adapted from herbivoracious

2 cups cubed red, seedless watermelon

2-3  cups cubed, very ripe (and most likely, expensive) heirloom tomato

1 small sweet white onion, roughly chopped. (I used a fresh walla walla onion)

1/2 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 cup of cooked white beans (optional) OR

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

small handful of basil or cilantro

juice of one lime

1-2 tbsp good olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

garnishes: diced avocado, tossed in lime juice, or plain yogurt, more herbs to garnish

 

In a blender, combine watermelon, tomato. pepper, onion, beans or xanthan gum, herbs, lime juice, olive oil, and seasoning. If you are using the gum, let the gum hydrate for a bit and reblend. Taste and adjust seasoning; I usually have to add more salt and acid. Chill and let the flavors meld. Serve in small bowls or cups and garnish with avocado or plain yogurt and scatter some herbs on top.

 

yellow split pea and winter squash curry

the past few weeks were incredibly cold for houston.  high of 30?  terrible.  in order to make up for these temps, i just made some curry.  i actually got the idea for this warming stew by watching the food network while at the gym on the terribly named show aarti party.  aarti (a winner of the next food network star) gives smart and modern ways of incorporating indian spices and flavors into your everyday cooking.  i am not sure how authentic this combination of winter squash and yellow split peas are, but i can guarantee that is very tasty.  this dish takes awhile on the stove to soften the peas and cook the squash, but it is a one pot, throw it all together affair that will definitely reward your patience.

yellow split pea and winter squash curry stew

inspired by aarti party

1 large winter squash (i used a red kuri squash but butternut, hubbard, or any other orange winter squash will be fine.  i also have used 3 large sweet potatoes before with very good , if slightly sweeter results.)

1 onion diced

1/2 of a can of diced tomatoes

2 cups yellow split peas or 1 cup of yellow split peas and 1 cup red lentils

1/2 c dried unsweetened shredded coconut

1.5 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp turmeric

enough vegetable stock or water to cover

peel and cube the squash into 1 inch cubes.  in a large soup pot, heat a tablespoon or so of canola oil, ghee, butter, or coconut oil over medium heat and add the onion and cook until softened.  add the spices and cook until fragrant.  add the cubed squash, tomatoes, coconut, and split peas and cover with vegetable stock or water.  season.  bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer and let it cook through until the peas have softened and the squash has fallen apart (maybe 30 minutes or so.)

when the stew has reached this stage, prep the finishing oil and seasonings:

1-2 tbsp canola or coconut oil

1-2 tsp brown mustard seeds

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more)

1-2 tbsp honey

1-2 limes of juice

cilantro, as much as you want

heat the oil in a small skillet until shimmering.  add the mustard seeds, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  cook until the garlic is starting to brown and the mustard seeds begin to pop.  add this to the stew.  taste this and begin to season with salt, honey, and lime juice.  finish with minced cilantro and enjoy.

coconut sweet potato and kale soup

continuing the soup and stew pattern, i made this fragrant soup a couple of weeks ago.  this is both incredibly delicious and nutritious!  this has a really warm scent that is intensified by the vanilla extract that is stirred in at the end.  if the thought of using vanilla in a savory application (like ferran adria’s vanilla whipped potatoes or lobster with a vanilla sauce) sounds strange to you, this is a good recipe to start out with and you can always leave it out.  the soup is naturally pretty sweet from the sweet potatoes so the vanilla is a natural match; the same is true with the whipped potatoes and lobster.  i am pretty into “garnishing” my food these days but that is mostly an excuse to add more flavors and textures. here i sprinkled some unsweetened shredded coconut and toasted chopped walnuts but, as with many other soups that i make, a spoon of plain yogurt would be a good match with its creaminess and acidity.

coconut, sweet potato, and kale soup

adapted from kath eats

several large sweet potatoes, washed and cubed.  i left the skin on for nutrients, but you can also peel them if you wish.

1 tbsp canola oil or other neutral oil

1 small to medium red onion diced

2-3 cloves garlic minced

about 1 can coconut milk.  i used lite.

1+ cup unsweetened soy milk.  you can use a dairy milk if  you wish.

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp ground coriander

generous sprinkle of cinnamon

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 bunch of kale cleaned, steams removed, and torn into bite sized pieces

generous handful of golden raisins

1 tsp good vanilla extract

salt and pepper

your choice of garnishes

in your soup pot, heat the canola oil over medium heat and add the onion.  sweat the onion until soft and add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute.  add the sweet potato and cook until they start to brown a bit.  add all of the spices and season.  after the spices toast for a bit, add the coconut milk and other milk and maybe about 1 can of water or stock.  lower the heat and simmer until the sweet potato is soft.  mash the sweet potato or for a finer texture puree in your blender.  depending on the amount of sweet potato you have, you may or may not need to add more liquid, either in water or stock form or in additional soy milk form.  when the puree is at your desired consistency, add the kale and raisins.  simmer until the kale is tender and the raisins are plumped.  taste and season and possibly add more liquid.  turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla.  serve and garish to your liking!

pantry soup

this past sunday, i was trying to use up some veggies that were on their last leg.  it is soup weather in sf right now so i thought that this would be the perfect thing to make and eat throughout the week.  this sort of soup is actually one of the very first things i ever cooked for myself in high school.  back then, i rally had no idea what i was doing so i tossed everything into the soup pot.  now, i have learned enough about flavor profiles and textures to come up with soups that work well while i am cooking.  this is really, really variable so use what ever you have on hand.  if you wan to make it more minestone style, just add some pasta.  if you eat meat, add some bulk sausage (sweet or spicy) while you are sauteeing the veggies.  this is most excellent with a good piece of bread with melty cheese.

pantry soup or mushroom, kale, and white bean soup
1 medium onion chopped

2 stalks celery diced

1 large carrot diced

2-3 cloves of garlic sliced thin

large handful of mushrooms sliced or quartered

several smallish potatoes diced

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 bunch of kale, cleaned and center rib removed, in small pieces

1 can of white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 box or so vegetable broth

generous splash of wine (whatever you are drinking)

2 sprigs of thyme

handful of chopped parsley

the rind of your parmigiano reggiano cheese (please save this!  it is so flavorful!)

parmigiano for serving

heat a splash of olive oil in your soup pot and sautee the onion, celery, and carrot until the onion becomes translucent.  add the mushrooms and cook until they start to brown a little.  add the potatoes and cook for several more minutes.  add the tomato paste and stir to coat the veggies.  add the drained beans and deglaze the pan with the wine.  add enough vegetable stock to cover and dump the kale and thyme into the pot.  bring to a simmer and add the parmigiano rind and season well.  simmer for at least 15 or 20 minutes and keep tasting and adjusting the seasoning.  right before serving, toss in the chopped parsley.  ladle out generious portions and top with grated parm.  sit in front of your fireplace or space heater and enjoy.

a new tomato soup

here in sf the weather has been chilly and rainy and the farmers markets still hold the last days of summer with plums and tomatoes.  i made this soup several days ago and sitting in the fridge has improved the flavor, as it does with most soups.  this tomato soup is bright with red curry paste instead of being thick with cream and makes the perfect light fall dinner with some roasted vegetables and a slice of really good bread.

thai-spiced tomato soup

slightly adapted from gourmet

1 onion diced

2-3 tbsp neutral vegetable oil

2-2.5 tbsp red curry paste

1/2 tsp ground cumin (fresh is best)

5-8 medium to large tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 1 28 oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes

several cups of vegetable broth or chicken broth or a mixture of broth and water

1 tbsp brown sugar or agave necter

1/4-1/2 tsp of salt (use less if using canned tomatoes)

juice of 1/4/-1/2 a lime

cilantro leaves to garnish

sautee the onion in the oil until soft in a heavy large stockpot, about 6 minutes.  stir in the red curry paste and cumin and sautee for several additional minutes until very fragrant.  add broth/water, tomatoes, brown sugar, and salt and bring to a simmer.  make sure you add enough liquid so that all of the tomatoes are well covered.  simmer about 15 to 25 minutes; if you are using fresh tomatoes simmer a bit longer.  taste and adjust seasonings.  puree the soup several cups at a time in a blender, taking care not to overfill the blender with hot soup or use a stick blender and puree in the pot.  return to the pot to reheat and stir in the lime juice and cilantro leaves if using.  eat and enjoy with a favorite person.

notes:

this soup sits well for several days in the fridge.  i had it one night with a small dallop of greek yogurt and it was perfect.