Get Your Beta-Carotene Here!

Holy Moley Roley Poley! I’ve discovered a soup that I love better than tomato basil. Better than chicken noodle. A bold claim, I know.

I had been seeing carrot soup crop up everywhere. In one day, I noticed a recipe in my google reader, a recipe on Joy’s website AND a recipe on Guy’s Big Bite. I took it as a sign.

My what a delicious sign it was.

Taking a little something from each recipe I saw, I used the recipe instructions from Joy the Baker. I made the soup the night before I planned on serving it to the suspecting Kyle. This way the soup had a chance to cool so I could blend it in batches in my shnazzy Bullet Blender. I also think that letting the soup sit overnight allowed the flavors to meld together even better.

This soup is great cold or piping hot. The perfect summer soup. Since Mother Nature has insisted on switching from Winter to Summer while skipping my friend Spring.

Is there anything better than bright orange soup?

I didn’t think so.

Carrot Ginger Soup (adapted from Joy the Baker)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 vidalia onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 large red potato, peeled and chopped
4 cups sliced carrots
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper
fresh cilantro and paprika for garnish

Heat oil in a large pan over medium. Add in onions and cook about 15 minutes or until they start to caramelize a bit. Add ginger, garlic and spices and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add in potato and carrots and cook for 5-10 minutes.

Turn up the heat to medium high and add the broth and water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the carrots and potato are softened to your liking. Remove from the flame and allow to cool.

When the soup is cooled, puree in a blender and refrigerate overnight. The next day pour the soup into a large pot and heat over low heat, stirring constantly. Garnish with fresh cilantro and paprika.

Nom nom nom!

Loving it to Peases

Oh me oh my I have been on a soup kick.

While wandering through Jewel before work this afternoon (hooray for half days) I stumbled across some split yellow peas. On sale. I scooped those bad boys up, knowing just the recipe I wanted to use them for.

In my little recipe notebook I carry everywhere, I had printed out and taped inside a recipe for Chipotle Split Pea Soup from Melomeals: Vegan for $3.33 a Day. Sounds delish, amiright?

Well of COURSE I didn’t have a lot of the ingredients so I tweaked the recipe to accommodate. I still want to try Melody’s original recipe but I must say that I am in LOVE with the soup I created tonight. Spicy, flavorful, hearty.. everything I could ask for.

Except that thickness that pureeing some of it with an immersion blender might give me.

Until then, pour me a vat of that.

Split Pea and Potato Soup (adapted from Melomeals: Vegan for $3.33 a Day)
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 large onion, diced
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon cumin
freshly cracked black pepper
6-8 cloves garlic, crushed and diced
6 dried red chiles, rehydrated (optional)
1/2 pound dry yellow split peas, rinsed
6 cups water
1 vegetable bullion cube
2 cups chopped potatoes
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

In a large pot, heat oils over medium heat. Toss in those onions and get them sizzling. After 5 minutes, add in the mustard seed, cumin, basil and pepper. Stir and cook 5 minutes more. Throw in garlic and chiles and cook, yep, another 5 minutes. Now it’s time to add the peas, stirring to coat before adding the water and bullion cube. Increase heat and bring the soup to a boil, boiling for 2-3 minutes, then reduce and cover. Cook for 15 minutes, stir in potatoes and nutritional yeast, re-cover and cook another 15 minutes. Once the potatoes are fork tender you’re ready to eat!

Garnish with paprika and black pepper. Some fresh cilantro would be heavenly on top, too.

Warning: If using the chiles, do NOT attempt to chow on them unless you need to light some candles with your breath!

Soup has me sold!

When it’s this cold out (yes it is snowing.. again..) all I can think about is soup. And chili. Oh man.. why didn’t I make chili?? Later this week perhaps.

I’ve been eating a lot of pasta lately, so I wanted to eat something that was a little less heavy tonight. I am in LOVE with red peppers so I chopped some of those up and just randomly threw some other veggies in the crock-pot this afternoon before heading to work. Half days are great for crock-pot soup since I know I’ll be home and ready to eat in 4 1/2 hours instead of 9.

I don’t like much salt in my food, so I added it in the form of the yummy toppings I threw on after the fact. This time I used some of the leftover ricotta tofu and kale pesto from last night. You could top this with whatever you like, avocado is always a great option!

Red Pepper and Rice Soup
1/4 cup beans, soaked overnight (I used flageolet beans)
1/4 cup brown or black rice, rinsed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons corn kernels
2 cups water (you could also use veggie stock here)
1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder

Throw all ingredients in your tiny (and in my case, borrowed) crock-pot, give it a quick stir, cover and set the heat to low. Cook for 4 1/2-5 hours or until beans are done to your liking. Add desired toppings!

Annivalentinese New Year Celebration

Happy (day after) Valentine’s Day, all! Kyle and I aren’t big Valentine’s Day people so we combined our half year anniversary, Valentine’s day and Chinese New Year into one big celebration!

Kyle hasn’t had much experience with Greek inspired cuisine, so that was his cuisine choice. I planned the menu, sent him a cute little Evite invitation, bought the ingredients and, come Sunday morning, got my booty to work on creating!

The first course was taken from Angela over at Oh She Glows. I saw her post for Garbanzo Bean Soup and knew it would make the perfect first course for this meal! The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute some sesame oil for some olive oil since I had no tahini in the house. This soup was mega-tasty and I will definitely make it again!

The main course. The big kahuna. This beauty was taken from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook I checked out from the library last week. I’m not sure how the reposting thing works with cookbooks so I’ll just say: you MUST, MUST find the book and try the recipe! It’s a quinoa pilaf flavored with celery, red pepper, zucchini, basil, mint and lemon rolled up in delicious collard leaves. Oh man.. this was delicious. My favorite dish I’ve made in a while. Kyle raved about it all night!

Of course, a celebration wouldn’t be complete without something sweet to top it off. This dish wasn’t Greek inspired, but I’ve been planning it for almost a month! Themed meal or not, it was making it to the table! I based my recipe on one I found over at Baking Bites. I subbed in 1/3 cup brown rice syrup for sugar and used SO Delicious unsweetened coconut milk. To top off the delicious ice cream, I decided to make some dark raw chocolate. 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon brown rice syrup and 1 tablespoon coconut milk mixed until uniform, rolled between wax paper and frozen makes a yummy bittersweet addition! It was a little soft for my liking, so next time maybe I’ll use something other than brown rice syrup to sweeten. The flavors, though.. spot on!

Served up in my "vintage" Garfield mugs!

All in all I would say the menu:

Quite a hit!

I hope your celebrations were filled with fun, good food and love!

All sorts of New!

I’ve been bread baking. Thanks to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Awesome book, truly awesome.

It kinda looks like an armadillo.. a garlicky armadillo!

I’ve only used their master recipe so far, but altering the spices, I’ve made oregano garlic bread and vanilla bean cinnamon bread! So easy, so delicious. I’m SO proud of my newfound baking skills.

Just look at that texture!

I’m also really hoping that the library “forgets” I have their copy.. haha!

I happened to whip up an awesomely simple soup the other night as well. Mmm.. soup.. mmm… egg drop soup! So simple, so delicious!

Mmm.. soupy...

Egg Drop Soup
3 cups water
1 beef bouillon cube
3/4 cup pasta of your choice
1 cup arugula, torn
1 egg, beaten

Boil water and dissolve the bouillon cube. Pour in alphabet noodles (or pasta of your choice), toss in arugula and boil until pasta is al dente. Turn off the heat and slowly drizzle in the beaten egg while stirring the soup gently with a spoon. You’ll see the egg cook itself in the hot soup and get all cool and thready looking. Then you get to devour it! Yum, yum!

Also.. NEW BANGS! Love em! I’m trying to grow out my hair. I’ve had it short for years and just need a change. To alter the monotony of the growing out process, I decided to try out some super-short bangs! I’m so glad I took the plunge!

New bangs!

I Heart Soup

Last night’s dinner was scrumptious. So scrumptious that I forgot all about photographing it until the leftovers were packed up for lunches.

I’m so sorry there’s no good picture. I tried! It just wasn’t meant to be.

You can use your imagination I’m sure. Just think of your favorite creamy chicken and rice soup. Piping hot, glazing the spoon as you pull dip in for another mouthful. Chicken, rice and garlic flavors standing out on your tongue. Now you want soup, huh?

Its ok, I did too. That’s why I made some. You can, too. It took less than 30 minutes. I feel like Rachael Ray!

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
1 cup skim milk
2 cups water
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup mushrooms, diced
2 tablespoons dark rye flour
2 cups cooked shredded chicken
1 cup wild rice, cooked
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil. Saute celery and mushrooms, salting and peppering to your liking. While veggies are cooking, heat milk, water and garlic. You’re looking to scald the milk, here, so just let it heat! Add flour to olive oil/veggie mixture, whisking to keep from clumping and to cook the “raw” taste off the flour. Cook the roux about 3-5 minutes, then add the milk and continue whisking. Now you get to add the rice and chicken. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 8-10 minutes. Serve immediately and enjoy! Makes about six 1 cup servings.

Mmm soup.. I mean noodle soup.. I mean soup..

I love sweet potatoes. They’re naturally sweet, delicious, and best of all.. they’re ORANGE! After craving them for months on end, I finally purchased a few. I pondered what to do.. bake them straight, make a smoothie I found online.. then it dawned on me. Make a soup!! I threw some tastiness in a pot and let it simmer for a few hours and voila!

Warning: This soup is a tad on the spicy side, I think the next time I might reduce the amount of chipotle and throw in some diced chicken.

Sweet Potato Soup
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 can butter beans, well rinsed
2 chipotle peppers, diced
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup corn
A pinch of lemon zest
Dash celery salt, pepper, and cinnamon, to taste

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on high for an hour, then reduce to low and simmer until potatoes are done just the way you like them. You can puree the soup if you’d like a more consistent look, but I just left it alone. Enjoy!