Almost Summer Soup (Porcini and zucchini soup with walnut basil pesto)

So, we're having a warm snap in New York right now and I LOVE it. Windows open, sandals on and air drying my hair instead of bundling up on the way to work (and having SUNSHINE when you leave for work instead of freezing cold darkness and/or snow and rain) is pretty amazing.

We're a day late because Mary had to catch up on work after her vacation, but don't worry, this soup is worth it. It's vegan, but surprisingly filling. Sounds complex, but is really simple to make. And it straddles that line between a hot day and a cooler night quite well. It's also delicious and I made up the recipe, so I'm feeling super proud. SO:

Almost Summer Soup (Porcini and zucchini soup with walnut basil pesto)

• THE SET-UP (things to do while you're doing other things)

• Chop up 3 red potatoes and bring to a boil in a separate pot until you can stick a fork in them easily, but they aren't too soft

• Throw about half a cup to a cup of walnuts onto a cookie tray and put in the oven at 250 for 5-10 minutes until toasted, then set aside to cool

• microwave about 4 cups of water for about 5 minutes and put in an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms to soak, re-heating as necessary

• THE SOUP

• Chop about 5 cloves of garlic and sauté in olive oil with a sprig of fresh rosemary and a few sprigs of fresh thyme

• Add half a white onion and the white and light green parts of three leeks, chopped and cook covered to reserve liquid

• Once fragrant, add two zucchinis, chopped and cook covered

• When the zucchinis are starting to cook, add 4 portabella mushroom caps, chopped and cook covered, stirring occasionally

• PESTO BREAK! Now you have time to make the pesto! Take a big bunch of basil, take out any bad leaves, and rinse thoroughly. In a food processor, layer in the basil first, then add some walnuts, then parmesan cheese and 2 cloves of garlic with a generous amount of olive oil. You may have to do in batches as things get copped up and move down. Adjust flavoring to your taste (I love garlic) and put in the fridge for later.

• By now your veggies should be cooked through, so add your potatoes (drained) and your porcini juice (with the mushrooms strained out and squeezed for juicy flavor)

• Blend (taking out your rosemary and thyme stems) and serve with a dollop of pesto in the middle.

• YUM!

A Light Leek Soup

First, lets start with a pretty picture of ingredients so that no one loses faith in me as a cook:

Rosemary, thyme and garlic

I'm not going to lie. Soup night was BIT of an adventure last night.

Mary is in Guatemala this week with some college friends (jealous!) so I decided to meet up with my partner from Amigos in 2000 (that's right, a DECADE ago) for a drink before soup night. But I also had some dried chickpeas and homemade chicken broth, so first a ran home and threw them into the dutch oven on low so they would be ready when I got home.

When I got back, I was greeted with this:

my apartment

Oh yeah, that's a smoke filled apartment.... and some really burned chickpeas.

The mystery is that I really DID leave the stove on very low. Dutch ovens don't need much heat, that's the whole beauty of them! So I'm blaming the cat. Although I probably shouldn't have left the apartment with the stove on. Safety first!

LUCKILY, I was still able to make a delicious soup.... just not as chickpea-y as I expected. And yes, I am that girl who rescued as many chickpeas as she good and likes the taste of lightly burned (or, in my mind, toasted!) things. You may want to stick to canned though.

separating the weak from strong

And yes, my apartment DOES still smell like burned chickpeas. So does my hair. And my hands. I had to scrub my dutch oven for about 45 minutes to get all the burnt parts off after soaking it overnight. Don't drink and dutch kids. Or don't dutch and then just step out for one drink because you might end up smelling like a Mediterranean market and not in a good way.

On the plus side, my mom always told me eating burned things would make my hair curly.... cheap perm, here I come!

Without further ado....

A Light Leek Soup

• saute 6-8 roughly chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme

• add the roughly chopped white and light green parts of 3-4 leeks and cook until they're getting a little floppy

• add one bunch of broccoli (include the thin parts of the stem too, and if you want to blend, the whole stalk)chopped into small pieces/florets

• add one large zucchini, sliced and quartered, and about 3 tablespoons of butter, sliced around the pot and stirred in

• cook, stirring occasionally, until broccoli is bright green and zucchini is mostly soft

• add chicken (or veggie) broth, barely covering veggies and about 1.5 cups of cooked "toasted" chickpeas.... or just an unburned can of chickpeas

  • note: I used a broth that I'd already infused with lemon, which was GREAT, but you can also just squeeze the juice of 1-2 lemons in at this point

• simmer a little while until veggies are done all the way through and serve!

  
  

  
  

Garlic Soup Two (Electric Boogaloo)*

Last night Mary was spending quality time with Gavin for his birthday, and guest-of-the-blog Jocelyn called out sick with a fever. With my roommates nowhere in sight, I souped alone. I thought I would hate it, since I'm kind of a social person, but here's the thing:

For the past six months, my life has been a little bit of a whirlwind. In September I started studying to take the GREs and putting together a fundraiser for AMIGOS. Test-taking and fundraising segued pretty quickly into applications and the holiday season, and in the new year it's been financial forms, catching up with book club and helping a certain someone plan a wedding (yay!). Now, because I'm me and love a full plate, I've put together a (long) list of the things I want to do in NYC before I head off to school (like actually see all those museums) and have signed myself up for a ceramic show at the beginning of the summer. It makes for a busy schedule, especially when you also want to see your friends and have people coming in to visit.

So souping alone? It was a nice break. I went to the gym, did some prep for a dinner party on Wednesday and even cracked a non-bookclub book. And the soup was great. Light, easy, delicious and, most importantly, did not involve a trip to the store.



Garlic Soup Two (Electric Boogaloo)*

• In a medium sized sauce pan, bring some chicken broth to a simmer along with three crushed or grated garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh thyme (I used some lemon chicken broth I made the week before, so add some lemon for extra flavor), and salt and pepper to taste
• Once the broth is fragrant (about 5 minutes of simmering) add on zucchini, thinly sliced, and a handful off soup pasta (I used egg noddles) and cook another 5-7 minutes
• Turn off the stove and mix in a few handfuls of spinach
• In a separate bowl, beat one egg with a fork, adding in a few generous spoonfuls of pecorino or parmesan cheese and some ground black better. Add a spoonful of the hot broth to the egg bowl while still mixing, and then put the whole thing back into the pot
• Enjoy!
  

* I only made two servings of soup since my fridge is full of produce for the dinner party and I'm running out of tupperware. I also made a HUGE amount of food on Sunday night for no discernible reason.

Green Machine

As promised, our top five BEST soups of all soupie time.... (Uhm, Alayna is insisting instead of "Best" I say "some of our favorites" as if our other precious soups like Roasted Root Soup and Fennel is Fantastic will have their feelings hurt. Alayna is very attached to these little bowls of miracles.)

This is based on nothing but Alayna and my personal opinions and casual soup banter. Honestly, none of the soups we make are that tricky to pull off. Well, slaughtering that pumpkin was sort of intense... but that soup didn't even make the cut (even though it was delicious). So new soupies, don't be intimated that these are SOME OF OUR FAVORITE soups, just be inspired to make them. And enjoy them. And share them.

In no particular order:

More Than Tomato Soup

West African Peanut Soup

Cucumber Heaven

"It Was Really Good" Mushroom Soup

Lime Soup

P.S. Our top five happens to also be really cheap soups to make. Only the West African has meat. We're talking less than $10 soups here (well, for non-Manhattan residents at least, put us in the $15 range-- but still-- remember, these are BIG portions)

Tonight's soup? Not on the top five list of best time soups, but probably on the top five list of healthiest soups. This was sort of one of those, lets just toss in what we have in the fridge in a pot with broth and then put it in the blender soups. Those soups never fail. Well, depending on your fridge.

Either way, it's a nice during the week meal, especially as the weekends seem to be increasingly filled with holiday sugar madness. So it's nice to level out the playing field. Okay, soup out buddies.

The Green Machine!

• roughly chop 6 cloves of garlic and saute with red pepper flakes and herbs de provence
• add one large roughly chopped yellow onion, 3 small-medium red potatoes, a large carrot, a head of broccoli (with the top part of the stalks), 2-3 large zucchini and two tomatoes and cook covered
  
• when potatos and carrot are starting to get soft, add your veggie broth, 1/2 a bag of spinach (or more, whatevs), bring to a simmer
• blend and serve!

Laborless Sweet Corn Soup

I spent the end of summer in Vermont at my parents house in Stowe. And it was lovely. I finished the book I had been reading for the last month, I read the Sunday New York Times in actual paper form and drank coffee from a good mug and remembered how much I like textures and realized how much they have been missing in my computer-life. (My next thing is forming the "Texture Revolution," it's going to be huge...) I took a 30 mile bike ride on dirt roads and mountains and grass and it took me over 5 hours. While wondering where I was and where the trail had gone I looked ahead and saw this hanging frame. And I stopped and considered it and ate my apple. And it was a very good apple. That and it was my only piece of food. I ate it slowly.

But back to soup. I made a whole thing of this week's soup. My parents had friends in town, friends I have known my whole life, and on Sunday morning we met at the Farmer's Market to get supplies. The soup was a group effort. It should be noted that Judy Edling, no stranger to the kitchen, helped a lot, all the while giving me helpful advice on future dinner parties and recipes. Thank you, Judy.

The Farmer's Market, Stowe, VT

This soup is especially good right now when sweet corn is wonderful. I added about half 2% milk and half chicken stock but this can played around with if you want a less creamy soup. I don't see why you couldn't also just make it in a broth if you don't want to include the milk- vegan friends. Do I even have any vegan friends?

Either way, enjoy!

• Simmer 4 cups of milk, 6 corn cob halves (not kernels), 2 sprigs of rosemary and thyme in soup pot
• Melt 1/4 stick butter in large saucepan over medium heat
• Add 1 chopped large onion, sprinkle with salt and saute until translucent
• Add 3 chopped zucchini, 2 big carrots chopped, 2 stalks of celery chopped
• When that is mostly done, add the corn kernels from the cobs

• Remove the cobs and herb sprigs from the soup pot
• Add the sauteing veggies
• Add 4 cups of chicken broth (or whatever you think is enough)
• Allow to simmer for 20 minutes to blend flavors
• Puree the soup in a blender (we did this for half the soup and then mixed it in with the other half so it's still got bite. Also, helpful tip from Judy let the soup cool before putting it in the blender.)
• Add salt and pepper to taste.

Goo outdoors!

Pantry Soup

So, as I've been talking about for the last 4 blog entries, I have moved out of Alayna's apartment. I now live 26 blocks north. Luckily, I have a very nice kitchen there. Maybe one day Alayna will want to make soup at my apartment and she will see my kitchen. But for some reason, I doubt this will ever happen.

Alayna was really excited about that pantry picture because she threw out a lot of stuff so it is less cluttered. And by throwing out a lot of stuff I mean putting it in a bag and giving me the bag to take home. Either way, no one cares about this, what you do care about is our new contest!

Alayna and I are looking for the biggest Soupie. Get it? Soupie, it's like Groupie. Brilliant bar idea, I know. If you are interested in trying to be The Official Monday Soup's Soupie please comment to this blog describing the best soup you've ever had. The more details the better.

The best-sounding soup writer will be titled Soupie of the Week. Beware Alayna and I may try to copy your recipe. You will also get a feature write-up and photograph in next week's blog post. Which basically means you'll be famous by mid-July. Be careful, with great power brings great responsibility.

Spiderman's father said that.

Okay. Ready, set, go:

Pantry Soup!

• First defrost some frozen artichokes you have laying in the freezer and set aside

• Roughly chop 6-8 cloves of garlic and a yellow onion and saute in olive oil
• Add in 3-4 regular sized carrots, sliced pinky width and halved
• Add in 2 yellow squashes and 1 large zucchini sliced into halves or quarters and cook everything together until they’re getting soft.

• Add in 2 cans of white beans (canellini, norther white, whatever is in the pantry!) and your now un-frozen artichokes and a big handful of chopped parsley
• Once everything is getting warm, add in a large can of crushed tomatoes (ours was basil etc flavored, because it came from the pantry) and fill with chicken broth
• Bring to a simmer and serve!

Bloggin', soupin', living the dream.

French Country Soup

In the south of France sleeps a quaint and serene town called Aix-en-Provence. This is the town where Cezanne was inspired by the mountains and light and where Alayna and I were inspired by the soup and bread.

The inspiration of our French Country soup came from a little French restaurant right below the old town on Rue Vanloo with red canopies and outdoor patio tables. It was owned by a sweet Brazilian woman who gave us small shot glasses of carrot ginger soup before our meal. And there was very good bread. AKA soup lover's heaven.

As promised last week, this soup's goal was to dispel one reader's belief, who admitted that although he liked the blog, why would he ever make a soup for forty minutes when he could make a Trader Joe's Frozen Pizza in fifteen?

At first I wanted to lie and say this soup only took 15 minutes also, but Alayna said that would confuse our soup-making followers when they were making the recipe. I realized my competitive side was getting the best of me. The soup takes thirty minutes, unless you cut stuff super fast.

However, in the 'ol Great Recession of '09 making a soup that produces roughly five or so meals for $11 isn't too bad.

And there is, of course, that overall nutrition factor which I feel like I've been intensely harping on recently so I'll just let you decide what the healthier dinner option for yourself and our planet might be...

Okay, my inner-hippie is going away now.

The Soup!

But first, Alayna's inner-hippie and her new pottery creation. The soup pot. Brilliant.

Chop between 6 and 8 cloves of garlic

saute in olive oil with a few shakes of red pepper

1/2 a yellow onion

Add in the following:

a handful of baby carrots (chopped),

half a head of broccoli

Either half of a large eggplant or a small one cut in... and I quote "pinkie sized sticks, unless you have small fingers then pointers,"

Cut in the same manner, 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash (regular sized or again, half of those weirdly giant ones),

5 vine ripe tomatoes cut in bite sized pieces.

Keep it on medium/low heat as you add everything.

Wait for the squash and egg plant to get cooked most of the way through (fork test).

Add a big handful of fresh basil (chopped) and a couple sprigs of rosemary and thyme (which you should first de-stem).

(If you want to cut down on the price you can use dried "Herb de Provence" from the jar. Though a small bunch of fresh herbs are a dollar. Your call.)

When the squash and eggplant are cooked through add enough water to cover the veggies

Add 2 packets of chicken cubes.

Presto!

Alayna's observation: "This soup is essentially ratatouille with broth. Since ratatouille apparently means random assortment of vegetables put together... As far as I can tell."