chunky wild leek and potato soup

I love watching the wildflower emerge every spring in the wooded trails in my area. It’s a game to see if I can remember all their names.

But before the flowers…there are wild leeks or ramps. It’s a ritual to make at least one pot of leek and potato soup each spring with freshly foraged ramps. If you’ve done this before, you’ll know you need to harvest them with a heavy duty trowel. They do not give up the earth easily.

This year I tried a Jamie Oliver recipe for the soup. I sautéed leeks, carrots and onions in a combination of butter and oil. Added in baby potatoes cut in cubes, simmered it all in a mix of veggie and chicken stock. Then finished it off with a rough blend, some cream, salt and pepper, and lemon juice. And feta.

Thank you nature for the great things you grow.

CJR

 

 

 

a small serving of spring soup

My sister gave me a great cookbook a few years ago – The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Its small size reflects the smaller-serving meals that fill the pages.

I’ve been playing with variations of the basic vegetable soup recipe. I used to try and make soup by just throwing stuff together…and that’s what it often ended up tasting like. This recipe has the basics, and I can build from that and end up with a great, simple soup.

I made one last week, sauteeing the vegetables I could find in the fridge in a little butter. I often buy a small container of cut up veggies because I can get a variety of about six different veggies in a few servings, and these make great additions to the soup.

So I sautéed green onion, celery, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower. Tossed in a few roasted peppers I had baked a few days before. Everything simmers in some chicken stock, and I toss in a few frozen spinach pucks, a little cream and lemon/lime juice or white wine to finish it off.

CJR

this was pot roast

My sister bought me a cute little crock pot a few years ago to make overnight oatmeal.

Lately I’ve been trying to make a one-person sized pot roast in it. I have used some lower steak cuts from my friend’s farm, added in these great little potatoes, local carrots, onions, BBQ sauce and red wine. It makes a great little dinner…and then I turn it into this on day two.

I sautéed more carrots, green onion and sweet potato. Added all the leftover pot roast bits in (beef, onion, carrot and juice), tossed in some beef stock, a little more wine, salt and pepper, and a cup of leftover rice. And voila I have lunch-sized hearty soup for a week.

CJR

 

roast chicken thighs

Pretty soon, the weather is going to be warm enough for salads and cold dinners…but until then, here’s a simple, complete chicken dish that will make the house smell great. And turns into a great leftover soup.

Line a pyrex pan with baby potatoes, grape tomatoes, carrot chunks, a few whole garlic cloves, a little olive oil, herbes de provence, salt and pepper.

Set chicken thighs on top – I love using thighs for the moister dark meat. I added a little more herbes de provence on each chicken thigh.

Bake at 350F for about an hour – until the veggies are well cooked and chicken juices run clear. Don’t forget to stir the veggies around a few times and baste the chicken with some of the yummy juices that collect in the pan.

The next day, I sautéed some green onions, carrots and celery. Then I added in the leftover potatoes and veggies from the chicken bake, added in a few cups of chicken stock and hefty splash of white wine. I simmer it all for about an hour, and tossed in a few chunks of frozen spinach. I shredded in the rest of the chicken and added some grated asiago to the top. Yum.

CJR

vegetable chicken barley soup

A bowl of this simple soup has everything you need. I felt pretty smug after making it recently – vegetables, whole grain and protein!

A friend brought me the recipe, and I was a little skeptical about not starting a soup with the usual saute of onion, garlic and carrots. But this one doesn’t want for anything…even though everything is simply simmered.

Here’s the recipe:

Put 2 cups of water, 2 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of beef broth in a large pot. Add 2 raw cubed chicken breasts (skinless, boneless), 1 diced onion, 2 tsp crushed garlic, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, turn to low and simmer for about one hour.

Add 1 cup chopped zucchini, 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup chopped broccoli florets, 1 cup peeled and cubed squash (or sweet potato), and 1 cup barley (well rinsed). Bring back to a boil and simmer on low for another hour or so – until vegetables are desired texture.

It makes a hearty, barley-rich soup, and the chicken is incredibly tender. You could use whatever vegetables you have around (I happened to have mushrooms, zucchini and sweet potato).

CJR

 

lentil soup

You might be sick of our soup recipes – hope not. We are just gearing up for the winter season when we think you can never have enough stacked up, perfect lunch time servings of soups in the freezer. I even have a drawer in my freezer dedicated to lunch meals to go – my own takeout counter.

This week, we’re going in the archives…not really sure we can call it that yet as we are barely one year old on Stuff We Love? – for our favourite lentil soup.

Martha Stewart’s lentil soup is a new favourite of mine. And I would never have crossed the street for lentils, until this recipe. Must be the bacon. I often just use a can of cooked lentils to save time, with no compromise on the flavour.

This hearty soup supports all the food groups – and we love them all!

CJR

carrot and ginger soup

I forget how much I love soup during the summer. And then I have some on a cool day and can’t wait to make a different one every week. I just made Carrot and Ginger soup from the cookbook Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho la Puerta on Sunday and love the flavour, colour and creamy consistency from the coconut milk.

Here is my slightly modified version of the soup from Rancho la Puerta.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced (I used more)
• 1 cup butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 apple, cored and diced
• 4 1/2 cups vegetable stock (or water)
• 1 tsp salt (or more if needed)
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk

In a large stockpot, heat the oil, saute the carrots and onion and cook til soft. Add the garlic, ginger, squash and apple and saute. Add the stock and salt. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender.

Puree the soup until smooth with an immersion blender, add the coconut milk and more salt if needed. Garnish with chives and diced pears. (I skipped this step!) Enjoy!

HAR

taking the ranch home

Every Friday afternoon at Rancho la Puerta they offer a lecture called Taking The Ranch Home. The goal is to help guests adopt healthy lifestyle changes from the Ranch and incorporate them into their everyday life. Since we just arrived home, it seems like a good time to reflect on what we are ‘taking home from the ranch’ this year.

Move early in the day. Hike, walk, swim…do it first thing before life gets in the way. Even better if you can be outside and watch the sun rise.

Eat well. It’s pretty easy to do at the Ranch because every meal includes about 15 different vegetables, a delicious soup and someone else did the work! With a little planning you can make healthy choices for your meals too.

Make time for reflection. The world would be a better place if we stopped every once in awhile during the day to pause, meditate, focus, count to 10, count your blessings…whatever you want to call it.

Spend time with your sister, or girlfriends or whoever listens to you and gets you!

HAR & CJR

back to the stove

My internal cooking clock has kicked in. Must have been right about when the night temperatures headed back to single digits (Celcius, that is) and the humidity disappeared.

I woke up last weekend and couldn’t wait to get to the farmers’ market. Absolutely everything is in season! I can’t help myself when I see all the local produce sold directly by the farmers in my community. The bag of harvested goodness was so heavy that the handles of the cloth shopping bag cut off the circulation in my hand.

I dumped out my haul – ginger gold apples, new potatoes, carrots, green onion, beefsteak tomatoes, zucchini, wild blueberries, snack sweet peppers, broccoli and more.

By noon I had made roasted vegetable soup and broccoli soup. The freezer is full of lunch-sized servings to keep me going for a week or two.

roasted vegetable soup – my own concoction

Chop up whatever veggies you have on hand. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbes de provence.

• Roast at 350 degrees for 45 min to an hour.
• After you have snacked on some. Simmer the cooled veggies in chicken or vegetable stock – I tossed in a few grape tomatoes – for about 30 minutes until everything is very soft.
• Puree with hand blender. Add a little cream, white wine, lemon juice and season to taste.

creamy broccoli soup – Martha Stewart’s Great Food Fast

1 T olive oil, 1 onion (halved and slice), 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 4 cups chicken stock, 1/3 cup rolled oats, head of broccoli (cut into small pieces), salt and pepper

• In large saucepan, heat the oil and saute the onion over medium-low heat for 5 minutes until softened. Add the nutmeg and cook for 30 seconds.
• Stir in the chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups water, oats and broccoli. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 5-10 minutes until broccoli is tender.
• Puree.

It doesn’t really matter what kind of soup I’m making or eating, I usually add in some kind of cheese – chevre, feta or parmesan.

Fall soups. Yum.

CJR

 

empty-the-vegetable-drawer soup

Similar to our post last week about fridge frittata, this week we bring you empty-the-vegetable-drawer soup. I receive a daily briefing from the NYTimes (which makes me feel important!) and they posted this One Hour Winter Vegetable Soup as a good thing to make during the blizzard that was sweeping up the east coast last weekend.

I cleaned out the vegetable drawer and found some parsnips, carrots and a sweet potato. I chopped them up and let them simmer in water for about 40 minutes. When the vegetables were soft, I pureed them with my hand held immersion blender (which is a game changer when making soups or applesauce!) I added some cream and salt and pepper and had a delicious bowl of hearty soup.

HAR