Before Thanksgiving, I usually think about savory foods. This is because I already know what I’m going to do in terms of dessert (pie, of course!), so I need to spend more time working out the other things on the menu, like soups and side dishes.
Last year, the soup course was some kind of potato soup that was uninspiring and perhaps a bit too heavy with the other potato dishes at dinner. I wanted to do something lighter and a little bit different, so I thought back to a very good artichoke soup I had at an Italian restaurant a few months ago and decided to aim for that flavor. I recall the waiter explaining that there was no cream and no potato, which is often used as a filler, in the soup, so I started out with a lot of artichokes. I used frozen because they’re just as good as fresh for soups and other cooked dishes and they take very little prep time. I added in a little bit of rice to help thicken the soup and ended up adding in some milk to smooth it out. You can use any type of milk in the soup, from skim milk to cream, based on how rich you want it to be. I used a combination of skim milk and light cream (half and half), which is pretty much like low fat milk.
Is it the same as the soup I enjoyed this past spring? No, but it does taste delicious. The flavor of artichoke really comes through and you’ll know exactly what it is you are eating. I highly recommend serving the soup with a sprinkle of dill - fresh or dried - and a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, as the dill really blends well with the artichoke flavor.
This soup can be served as a first course in small bowls or as a main dish with bread or half a panini sandwich.

(more…)

Soups can be beautiful in person, but unlike most solid foodstuffs, they can be extremely difficult to “style” for photographs. Soups that are a solid color and smooth in texture are usually the most photogenic. Soups that have a lot of components, such as lentil soup or chili, tend to look overly busy, like a jumble of random, mushy ingredients. This soup fell into the unphotogenic category the first few times I made it, since the onions and cabbage - its main components - just turned sort of brownish. It tasted good, but I didn’t want to take a picture. Then, in a moment of food blogging epiphany, I decided to use red onion and red cabbage. Suddenly, the soup looked as vibrant and delicious as it tasted.

The soup is originally from a Sara Moulton recipe and I think that I first copied it down during one of her shows, back when she was still on the Food Network. It is very easy to make and involves minimal prep work. For anyone who has ever chopped up a cabbage, you probably know that it is one of the easiest veggies to work with after you cut out the core. The “hot” part of the soup comes from the red pepper flakes and the head level can easily be adjusted by eliminating a quarter teaspoon or so. The “sour” part comes from the balsamic vinegar, which adds a very slightly sweet-sour taste to the soup. Choose a good vinegar, since you’ll be able to taste it in the finished dish.

(more…)

When Alanna and Kalyn told me that they were going to make gazpacho today, I couldn’t resist joining in with my blogging buddies. As far as I’m concerned, gazpacho is one of the best soups that you can have during the summer. Not only is it easy to make, since it requires no cooking, but it uses up lots of fresh vegetables at the peak of their season. I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty good about a satisfying dish that is comprised entirely of tasty, healthy vegetables.

I have made many gazpacho recipes and tend to vary the ingredients according to the vegetable quantities that I either already have, using more peppers or more cucumber, or according to what I want to use up. The dish is very much a “toss everything in” sort of thing. But if I am going to stick to a recipe, I think that Elise’s version is one of the best. It’s a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet and very satisfying on a warm day.

I admit that, even though the recipe is lovely as-is, I do make a few very minor changes because I can’t fight my anti-recipe gazpacho instincts. For example, I am too lazy to peel the tomatoes. I use them whole. I also use cilantro insted of the chives called for in the original. And sometimes, I use balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar.

Now that confession time is over - and I think that Elise will forgive my occasional alterations - what are you waiting for? Make some gazpacho!

(more…)

I really love gazpacho, because it’s a fantastic summer soup. Made to be prepared in advance and eaten cold, it can be subject to many varitions, though my favorite way to make it is spicy.

Rather than going on about gazpacho in general, I’ll get down to the watermelon part, since that is what makes this recipe unusual.

To put it simply, this recipe uses watermelon instead of the tomato base that forms most gazpachos. It gives the final dish a light, sweet taste and makes for a tangy contrast with the balsamic vinegar that I added to it. It’s very simple and tasty - definitely something that I’ll be making again this summer.

There were only a few problems that I had with the recipe, the original version of which was originally published in EatingWell. First, I had a hard time finding a 6-pound watermelon. My watermelon was one of the smallest at the market (except for the mini-melons) and it weighed 14 pounds. I just used half. Second, I didn’t like the way that the recipe called for everthing to be diced before it went into the food processor. It was done so a bit of the diced mixture could be reserved for garnish, but it seemed really unnecessary to “finely dice” everything. The final “problem” was a simple change: I wanted the soup to be a tad spicier, I added some jalapeno pepper. I also added quite a bit more salt, but this was in part becase I had much more soup that the recipe directed originally.

Make sure to wash all your veggies thoroughly, so you don’t end up with any off tastes in the final soup.

(more…)

One of my favorite restaurant dishes is served at the Delta of Venus in Davis, California. Davis is a small university town outside Sacramento. The area is agriculture-heavy and, combined with the naturally liberal atmosphere of college towns, there are a lot of good food options there.

Delta of Venus is a restaurant/café just a few blocks away from campus. The best descriptor of the place would be “free spirited.” The employees are super nice, the baked goods are made by, I believe, the owner’s mother, the have live music on the weekends and the food is amazing. While they serve breakfast and lunch everyday, in addition to a lot of coffee options, it is their weeknight Caribbean dinners that keep me coming back whenever I’m in town.

All the Caribbean options are delicious, but one intriguing aspect of the Delta of Venus is that they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options – including on their Caribbean menu. My favorite dish there is the ginger seitan. Seitan is a vegetarian faux-meat product made out of wheat and it has a very meaty texture. It also absorbs flavor easily, so it is great in flavorful soups. If you don’t want to use seitan (I found it in a natural foods store), brown some chopped beef in a skillet and add it to the vegetables before simmering the stew. My version here isn’t the same as the Delta of Venus version, not by a long shot. Not only did I not bother with the sides of fried plantains, collard greens and red beans and rice, but theirs uses different vegetables, including cauliflower and peppers, but the basic idea is very similar. I used a tiny pinch of powdered habanero peppers – it only takes a tiny pinch, since the powder is so hot – but if you cannot get it, use more cayenne to increase the heat. I like it spicy. In the same sort of way that Venus inspired Botticelli, I guess you could say that the Delta of Venus inspired me. Overdramatic? A bit. But the food really is great.

(more…)

Roasting cauliflower is my favorite way to prepare it. It always seems incredible to me that such a boring vegetable can turn into something spectacular after a short time in the oven. Roasted cauliflower can convert even the staunchest non-cauliflower eater (like younger brothers). As much as I love it, though, even I need a change from time to time. Soup was the answer this particular time.

I had always heard that cauliflower could be used as a sort of stand-in for potatoes in soup, adding a creamy consistency and richness without the occasionally starchy heaviness of potatoes. Apparently, this is true, because my soup was creamy and rich, but not very heavy. Roasting the cauliflower, shallots and garlic gave the soup a depth of flavor – sweetness and intensity - that ordinary, stovetop cooking methods could not have provided in such a short time. In addition to enhancing the flavor, I could see little specks of roastiness in the final puree, which added a hint of interest to the appearance of the soup.

I did choose to add one potato to the soup, a Yukon Gold. The Yukon Gold potatoes have a beautiful, slightly gold tint and are creamier than other varieties of potato. As always, I like my soups on the thick side, so I did not thin this with very much milk. If you prefer thinner or more cream-enriched soups, feel free either to add an additional ½ cup of milk or to substitute the milk with cream. Serve this with bread and a salad for a fantastically comforting winter meal.

(more…)