Month: January 2017

Packed Veggie Soup Keeps You Warm & Healthy In Winter

On: By: Leslie Cook
Veggie Soup
Veggie Soup

Finally I’m getting back to cooking, writing and teaching after some election recovery time.  Speaking of recovery, lots of folks around me are getting sick at this time of year, and the heat was off in two locations I frequent, one of them my home. It inspires me to make a delicious, healing, HOT veggie soup to keep us warm and well.

The soup is flexible — go with veggies you have on hand. Speaking of that, I always keep a bag of frozen organic peas and a bag of frozen organic corn around. You never know when they’ll be just the right addition to a dish or bowl.

These measurements were for a big pot, a 3 gallon pot. I always make enough soup to share with everyone in my life.

VEGETABLE SOUP
Ingredients

  • Extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup
  • Garlic, 1 TB minced
  • Onion, 1 lg. Spanish, petite diced
  • Carrots, 10-12
  • Celery, 5-6
  • Green beans, 1 quart, cut into 1″ pieces
  • Summer squash, 3 small-med., 1/4-1/2″ dice
  • Frozen organic corn, 1 cup
  • Frozen organic peas, 1 cup
  • 5-6 Idaho potatoes, washed and cut into 1/4-1/2″ dice
  • Greens, 1 Qt., cut up
  • Salt, 3 TB
  • Oregano, 1 TB crushed
  • Hot paprika, 1-2 tsp. (1 tsp. will be plenty of warmth for many)
  • Basil, fresh, 1/2 cup minced
  • Rosemary, 1 tsp. crushed
  • Cannellini beans, 1/2 lb. pre-cooked
  • Diced tomatoes, two 32-oz. cans
  • Water, 4 Qt.

Instructions

  1. Wash and cook the Cannellini beans, keeping extra cooking water when done. While the beans are cooking, prepare the rest of the soup.
  2. Wash and prepare all veggies except the potatoes. Set aside the cut greens to add at the end of cooking.
  3. Add the extra virgin olive oil to a 3 gallon pot.
  4. Saute the minced garlic and petite diced onion for 10 minutes. Add the green beans, celery, carrots, summer squash and zucchini. Cook and stir briefly. With all veggies added, they should come up to about 1/3 of the pot.
  5. Add salt and seasonings, stirring in with veggies.
  6. Add the two cans of diced tomatoes or about 15 fresh petite diced tomatoes.
  7. Add the 4 quarts of water, stir and bring to a low bowl, then reduce heat to simmer and cover pot to cook.
  8. Halfway through the cooking, wash and prepare the Idaho potatoes, leaving the peel on. Add the cut up potato with the Cannellini beans and their cooking water to the pot as well as the frozen peas and corn, and let all continue cooking.
  9. When the soup is done, flavors melded and all veggies cooked, add the greens and cook slightly.

Now enjoy, and stay warm and healthy this winter!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Wrapping Up The Summer CSA Harvest

On: By: Leslie Cook

I haven’t been writing much these last weeks since the election…I was a little down but am back now, reenergized. I’m catching up past projects and forging new ones, including several recipes to go with our CSA boxes each week in the coming summer (yes, it will come eventually). For now, though, here are a couple of things I made during the last glorious week of sunshine and fresh veggies:

I enjoyed stir-fry greens and veggies almost daily in the last couple of weeks of the summer. This dish is banana peppers, onions and potatoes.
I enjoyed stir-fry greens and veggies almost daily in the last couple of weeks of the summer. This dish is banana peppers, onions and potatoes.
soup_squash_corn02
Here’s a delicious corn and summer squash soup with jalapeno that I made. Just delightful! I’ll post the recipe at a later time.

 

Last but not least...after two years of thinking and experimenting, I decided to add occasional eggs back into our diet, and this is a wonderful plate of stir-fry greens, pan roasted sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs. My decision was based on my thoughts about interdependence, and when I was able to find someone who keeps their chickens (doesn't kill them after their two peak laying years), I decided I would make the pilgrimage out to get eggs periodically and would eat those. I wish I could raise my own! But this is good for now. More about this thought process later.
Last but not least…after two years of thinking and experimenting, I decided to add occasional eggs back into our diet, and this is a wonderful plate of stir-fry greens, pan roasted sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs. My decision was based on my thoughts about interdependence, and when I was able to find someone who keeps their chickens (doesn’t kill them after their two peak laying years), I decided I would make the pilgrimage out to get eggs periodically and would eat those. I wish I could raise my own! But this is good for now. More about this thought process later.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.