Mushroom Soup with Parsley Dumplings

So Alayna had a board meeting and in a strange swing of ambition I decided that I'd tackle a hard soup all by myself. And tackle is exactly what I did. I feel like this soup and I had a love hate relationship for the entire 2.5 hour cooking process. Maybe it was after going to the food store and spending $35 mostly all on ingredients (dried mushrooms, $8- actually you can remove this step if you want and just add 2 more cups of broth- it is less of an earthy taste but I mean, I'm cheap and sort of regret it, so just sayin.' Also, note I bitch that I spent $35 on soup supplies, which is way more than we normally spend, but still I have 6+ meals out of it. Not bad.)

Or maybe it was getting home, exhausted with 5 bags in my hands from work/gym/grocery store (this is essentially my gym/tan/laundry only it ends with a book in my bed and not a makeout in the bar) and the prospect of starting this big cooking process seemed daunting.

But I knew if just gave up and put veggies and lentils in a soup pot again and called it a different soup because I added say, both kale and chard, Alayna would kill me. So I embarked.

Note in this picture how I'm using all my burners. Then note how the cabinet above my stove which holds pots is totally empty. God bless dishwashers. All in all this soup was really good. I sort of butchered those dumplings because I never used an electric mixer or processor and instead did it all with fork and bowl. So they were eh, a little lumpy. Whatever, I'd eat lumpy dumplings over washing two more things any day. This soup was souper good though. At 10:30pm when I finally sat down with my bowl of mushroom soup and dumplings I was pretty proud of myself. Soups up laddles!

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 3/4 ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms
• 3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Fine sea salt
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 1 big onion
• 3 thinly sliced leeks
• 4cups vegetable broth (such as Swanson)
• A big pinch of cayenne pepper
• a couple handfuls of carrots
• 1/2 bag of spinach
  

Parsley Dumplings

• 3/4 cup (scant) low-fat cottage cheese
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature, divided
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup all purpose flour, divided
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preparation

Soup

• Bring 2 cups water and dried mushrooms to boil in small saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Put aside (with liquid)
  
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Add baby bella mushrooms and thyme; sprinkle with sea salt and sauté until mushrooms are browned, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Add wine; stir until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Set mushroom mixture aside.
• Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook until translucent and beginning to brown, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Add leeks and carrots reduce heat to medium, sprinkle with sea salt, and sauté until vegetables are soft and golden, stirring often, about 15 minutes.
• Bring broth to simmer in large pot over medium-high heat. Pour in reserved mushroom cooking liquid, leaving sediment behind. Add all mushrooms, onion mixture, and cayenne. Add spinach. Keep this pot simmering while you make your dumplings, occasionally giving it a stir.

Parsley Dumplings

• Puree cottage cheese in mini processor until smooth. Using electric mixer, beat 3 tablespoons butter and eggs in medium bowl. Add cottage cheese, 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and nutmeg; beat on low speed just to blend. Stir in 1/2 cup flour, cheese, and parsley.
• Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Using teaspoon, scoop piece of dough about size of cherry. Holding spoon just above boiling water, use second spoon to push dough into water. Working quickly, repeat about 10 more times. When dumplings rise to surface, simmer until cooked through, 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer dumplings to large plate. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, add dumplings to skillet. Cook until brown in spots, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
• Bring soup to simmer. Divide dumplings among wide shallow bowls. Divide soup among bowls and serve.

Thai Coconut

Sorry to all our fans who have been hungry for two days because this posting is late. I am a little scatter brained as I'm moving out of the apartment where Monday Soups was born. Luckily, Alayna already asked the girl subletting the third room in our apartment if she would think it was weird if I were given spare keys and came here every Monday with groceries after work even if Alayna wasn't home yet. The girl thought that Yes, it would be weird. But that's okay because we were planning on doing it no matter what she said.

The point you need to take away from this? Monday Soup will proceed as normal. Speaking of Monday Soup being in the headlines. I know, I actually wasn't speaking about that at all. Alayna and I are happy to report that a Friday's Dinners entree has been published in Craved Magazine. Yes, Craved Magazine, the English speaking magazine in Dubai. Obviously.

Fear not, when this whole things blows up and I'm never stressed out about my rent check again, we will remember where we came from... We also might get rid of the "blogspot" in the URL. But not quite yet...

So right, the soup. It's great! And different. Surprise a friend with this fancy treat from the Far East. It reminds me of my buddies in Thailand. What up Governor of Phang Nga? Remember when your driver picked me up every morning and then we ate ice cream cones together and that was my Peace Corps experience? I do. What up Christy? Remember how you are still in Thailand? I do.

P.S. Click on that Christy link and buy that shirt. Good cause! Then pgarut it on and make this soup!

Thai Loco-Nut!

Put a large packet of cellophane noodles (6-8 ounces) into a bowl of warm water and let soak for about 15 min

while preparing other parts of soup

Dice 6 cloves of garlic, and a good sized portion of peeled fresh garlic (I love garlic, so I put in about a hand's-width... some people might find that excessive)

and saute in olive oil with 4-5 chili peppers, broken into small pieces

Add the zest from 3 limes and 1 lemon to the pan and continue sauteing until fragrant

add one (large) box of shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped and saute some more (just a few minutes)

Add about 1/2 cup of lime juice and 1/4 cup of lemon juice,

and 2 cans of coconut milk (I used one regular and one light... vague attempt at healthiness after being mocked for my appreciation of butter),

fill pot up a little more than halfway with chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

Add fish sauce sauce to taste... it sounds gross, but is delicious and I used about 8 teaspoons (confession, I cook all the time and don't own measuring implements. Awkward.)

Drain and add cellophane noodles, trying to separate them as they go in (this will make serving easier later)

In a separate pan, cook 3-4 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces.

Once cooked through, add to the soup pot

Once everything is in the soup pot, add a few big handfuls of spinach and stir in... once they are a little wilted, add a handful of cilantro and cook another 2-3 minutes

Eat up!

Saw-dee-kah!

The Veggies in Your Fridge Soup & Pizza

Well, well, well, wasn't last week an exciting Monday? For reasons unknown Alayna had the Monday after Easter off. Did anyone else in the world have that day off? I haven't heard of a soul except for the Easter bunny... ba-da-bing... but I was still excited because that meant she could start cooking earlier.

Sometimes Alayna and I worry that we aren't going to be fed enough so we make things in addition to soup. Turns out we're always fed enough. But still. So we made soup, and a pizza because she had a vat of left-over pesto she made last week. (That I would sometimes stick various objects in, cover entirely, and eat.) And a sheet of brownies.

We ate all of this within an hour. Granted we had Lindsay's help. And Kate's meager attempts at slicing off the smallest brownie sliver I have ever seen. But still. Everything was eaten. And we were merry. Even after we realized Gossip Girl was a repeat.

Sigh.

Mmmmkay, now that you're getting the hang of soup you should have realized that veggies can be swapped pretty easily. Especially for soups like these which are mostly a hodgepodge based on what we have a lot of in the refrigerator and what we worry is going to go bad.

So ladies and gentlemen, cats and kiddies, here you go...

The Veggies In Your Fridge Soup ... & Pizza!

Start by heating 2 cups of water in the microwave for 3 minutes

and then adding 1 oz of dried porcini mushrooms for 30 minutes

chop up 1 yellow onion and saute in olive oil
add fresh rosemary and thyme, a few shakes of red pepper
add in 3 celery stalks, also chopped
add in a large handful of chopped carrots
add 1 smallish eggplant, cut into pinky sized pieces (Alayna always likes to compare her veggie slices to parts of the human hand.)

Cover the pot to catch the steam
cut up 1 box of baby bella mushrooms,

2 porta bella mushroom caps (optional)

& a handful of shitake mushrooms (with bottom of stems cut off)

& add to the mix once the eggplant is becoming more cooked

let it all hang out together until things are becoming cooked through.

Once they're almost done,

add in the porcini mushrooms WITH THEIR SOAKING JUICE
add chicken broth (or water with cubes) to cover the rest of veggies

bring to a light boil
toss in several handfuls of spinach and cook until wilted (about five minutes)

stirring occasionally
blend (in a blender) chunky and serve!

Adding milk (whole) is optional (but good).

Here is the lovely pizza we had in addition to the soup.

Alayna put on (store bought pizza dough) home-made pesto, andre cheese, tomatoes and broccoli

and it was all DELICIOUS

Look at that. I just learned how to make fuzzy things around the edges so it looks like a postcard from long ago.

While we enjoyed our soup, Zizi enjoyed her shoes.

Hail to Kale Soup

If the first thing you do at work is go to The New York Times' online Health Section too, then you and I both know that kale is the new "It" vegetable. Shari Hern writes: "And yes, a vegetable can be amazing. Particularly when it's loaded with substances that can help protect one from cancer, cataracts, emphysema, and rheumatoid arthritis."

Hey Austin Brey, can your Trader Joe's frozen pizza do that? No. For more on the superiority of soup over Trader Joe's frozen pizza, please check back next week.

Anyway. If you love something you are going to fight for it and that's exactly what Alayna and I did.

First Soup Fight

Alayna: when are you posting it???

ML: soon I just got back from Jackson Heights.

Alayna: you're doing kale first, right?

ML: nah, I'm doing last night's

Alayna: but the kale is so wintery!

ML: nope, next week

Alayna: please?

Alayna: please, please, please

ML: nope. unless you want to write the blog

Alayna's First Blog Post

As you may have noticed, I have a mild obsession with soup. Actually, I wouldn't even say obsession with soup (although this blog makes it appear otherwise)... mostly I have an obsession with being secretly lazy.

Secret laziness means this: having home-cooked meals, but not having to cook (okay, really do the dishes) every night. Having nutritious food but only having to use one dish to eat it. Either way, I make so much soup because it's easy to make a huge quantity at once, it stores well, and you can put all kinds of good-for-you stuff into it.

Which brings us to kale. Mary and I only recently discovered kale because she read some article about how essentially it's mega-powered spinach. Fiber, iron, vitamins, whatever. It's all there. We like spinach, so kale seems like a good idea.

So far our relationship with kale has gone well. It's tougher than spinach, which means it holds up to cooking without becoming mushy if you walk away for a minute. It's also really good sauteed with fresh ginger, garlic and rock salt. And delicious in this soup. Other things delicious in this soup? Barley (fiber!), potatoes (vitamin C!) and mushrooms (the porcinis give that great earthy taste and the baby bella's keep the texture interesting.)

Wow Alayna, what an educational blog post.

And Now, Please Help Us Welcome Our New Friend, Kale

And welcome KZimm's first appearance on Monday's Soups.

Before you head to work put 3/4 cups of dried barley into cold water to soak for the day

When you get home, microwave 2 cups of water for 3 minutes

Then poor onto 1/2 ounce of dried porcini mushrooms

Let them sit for 30 minutes and put on sweatpants

Chop up about a handful and a half of baby red potatoes into bite sized pieces and boil in a separate pot.

Take off heat once they are mostly soft.

Saute about 5 cloves of garlic and 1 medium yellow onion in olive oil until translucent

Add 3/4 of a packet of sliced baby portabella mushrooms

(which are the same as cremini!)

and a handful of sliced shitake mushrooms to the mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are getting soft and everything is fragrant

Add in soaked barley, reconstituted mushrooms (with the soaking liquid!),

chicken broth,

a handful of parsley, rosemary and thyme

and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste

Clean and de-stem a bunch of kale and add it into the pot with the potatoes for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking time.

Enjoy!

P.S. This soup was strongly inspired by a New York Times recipe. Thank you New York Times.

Hello Mrs. Mushroom, Meet Mr. Potato (Soup)

Ah, It seems like only yesterday I had to call Alayna to ask her what a leek looked like when she told me to pick them up from a store.

"A bloated scallion," she said. She was right. That's like, exactly what leeks look like.

However, many months later when I was a seasoned leek hunter Alayna called, frantic, it was soup night and she had not been able to find leeks at Whole Foods. I was leaving the gym, I was red as a beet but was up for the challenge.

In the east village there is at least one bodega on every street corner. I was walking home fourteen blocks, this means I must have gone into at least fourteen bodegas. That was the night I discovered bodegas don't sell leeks.

Oh well, we did without. But as we enjoyed this soup... which let me tell you, is a winner, we discussed how leeks would have added to it. And then the discussion trickled into our Monday night stream of conscious which often include a mixture of thoughts concerning the kitten, MTV's "Bromance," and the meatiness a leek can provide for a soup.

Ingredients:

Butter 2 leeks, chopped (use yellow onion if you have no leeks, or combine one leek, one onion for more flavor)

Large handful of baby carrots

6 cups chicken broth

dried dill weed

salt

ground black pepper

bay leaf

2 pounds red potatoes, diced

1 pound fresh mushrooms (mix regular and baby portabella, or any other type of mushroom you like!), sliced

1 cup half-and-half 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1.Melt some butter butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Mix in leeks and carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Pour in broth. Season with dill, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Mix in potatoes, cover, and until potatoes are tender but firm (about 20 min).

2.Melt more butter in a skillet over medium heat, and saute the mushrooms 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir into the soup.

3.In a small bowl, mix the half-and-half and flour until smooth. Stir into the soup to thicken.