Monday, April 30, 2007

Soup glorious soup

I love this time of year! Today will reach almost 90 (60's at night), drop to a high of 71 by Thursday UPDATE: It is Thursday and it didn't reach 70: chilly, windy, with rain drizzle made it pretty chili and good soup weather again. I have heard the saying that if you don't like the weather we have this time of year, don't worry it will by greatly different tomorrow. This is normal for my location. Also, I have finally had the veggies, time, and motivation to try some soup from a couple of blogs I enjoy reading. I copied, pasted, and e-mailed the recipes to myself when I saw them and have kept them in my in box as new so that I would not forget I wanted to try them (hey, gotta remember somehow).

The first recipe I made comes from Catherine at Albion Cooks. I noticed it was similar to a recipe I really liked called "Give me strength" soup that calls for split red lentils and cauliflower, yet a different take on it. I like this one very well also, I will make it again for sure...
Red Lentil Soup (click the title for her original recipe)

Here is my take on the recipe ...

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 carrots, cut into thin 3/4" - 1' fingers
1/2 cup minced green pepper
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups water plus 1 1/2 cubes Knoor vegetarian vegetable bouillon
1/2 cup red lentils
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
1 cup cauliflower, cut into small florettes
1 cup rinsed canned red beans

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and saute the onions for 3 minutes. Add the carrot and cook 2 additional minutes. Add the vegetable bouillon cubes, water and lentils, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 20 minutes, partially covered. Salt. If the broth is too thick for your liking, add additional water. Check seasoning. Serve.

I made a mistake reading the recipe and actually ended up with only three cups of liquid added to the soup. The thicker soup made me feel like I was getting a heartier meal. I am eating the leftovers for lunch today along with an apple and a tablespoon of cashew butter to dip it in. Yum!

I also finally tried the Quinoa-Peanut Veggie Soup (from Africa) ... the one I tried came was posted by Odd Tofu Mom (the recipe name link will take you there). This is a bit spicy, but wonderfully different. I did not have access to fresh zucchini, so I subbed and added finely chopped green bell pepper... I thought that chopped cabbage could also be a good sub but I did not have any. I did use 1/2 tsp dried jalepeno peppers (purchased from the spice section) and left out the cayenne pepper called for. Although I am pretty sure that to be true to it's origin it is supposed to be neutral colored, but I added some of the red beans leftover from the first soup to give it a little color boost. I liked this soup well enough to eat some and freeze in small portions for future use, but the family is not accustomed to the spice and texture combination.

GARDEN UPDATE:

I planted broccoli and cauliflower about two weeks ago. They are dead and didn't even bother to say goodbye. One day they were there and the next day.... just gone. I have never had a problem with fluffy bunnies before, but then pup was always around chasing them off. Now that pup is gone, fluffy bunny may have gone to far. Fluffy bunny if you happen to be reading my blog you need to know that I have never been a selfish gardener, I have always shared my produce generously. Considering I had over 30 plants, more than enough, I would have been willing to share one or two with you, maybe even three or four. But you my friend cannot have them all! I will buy more plants of course, but you are no longer invited to my garden until you learn some manners.

11 comments:

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

So glad you tried the soup! Hey - I make changes every time I make it, usually adding more zucchini - which I think MAKES the soup... I'd love to try it with some beans too - cool!!

Anonymous said...

soup yum!! i love soups!

wow those bunnies dont have manners for sure!

Sheree' said...

The soups looks good. The quinoa peanut veggie is interesting. I think I might have to try that one. I love mixing textures and tastes.

Rude fluffy bunnies to eat and run. I agree they should not be invited to dinner any longer until they stop making such pigs of themselves.

We had rude skunks last year. They ate all our strawberries and green peppers.

Dori said...

OTM - I am looking forward to having zucchini in the garden this summer (late July for us) and may try to freeze some so I can use it in this soup when the weather chills in October. Thanks for the recipe by the way.

laura k said...

How I love soup! These both sound yummy. There's an African quinoa-peanut soup in Nava's soup cookbook that I really have been meaning to try out...

KleoPatra said...

I had to laugh about your bunnies... i hope they read your blog and know that you mean business, Dori! We miss you, Pup!! i like that you tried a soup from Africa, by the way. Sounds so exotic!! What do you think about that Knorr veggie bouillon???

erica said...

Ooh gosh darn that fluffy bunny to heck!!! I've got moles, and I asked them to please go wherever they liked so long as they leave my garden alone, and then they showed up again. They don't seem to have been back, but you never know, they are the hooligans of the garden.

The carrots I planted two months ago (I think) are still only an inch tall, whereas the beans and peas are almost a foot high, and the radishes and arugula I just planted eight days ago have sprouted. I am so baffled - do carrots just grow very, very slowly? The herbs I planted never grew at all, but the rhubarb in the same plot of dirt have 5" long leaves. I have much to learn in the ways of gardening. At least spraying the leaves with strained garlic water did seem to repel a lot of the bugs. (I must admit: I ask people to save their egg shells for me and I crush them up to use as slug repellant. If that's un-vegan of me I don't care, slugs are a huge scourge on a Northwest garden.)

urban vegan said...

Oh boy--hope that fulffy bunny is reading. At least that yummy soup helped you recover.

Anonymous said...

Darn that bunny (lol). I'm sorry to read about your illness. I hope that everything is working out for you.

bazu said...

I've heard that putting cat hairs around my garden keeps deer (and other garden curious critters) away. I don't know if this actually works, but every once in a while I scatter kitty hairs out in the yard and we don't have any problems.

Your soups sound so good. I know how it feels- the weather and the seasons totally affect what and how I want to eat.

Catherine said...

Dori,

I'm so behind on my reading! I,m glad you liked the soup!