soup

Recipe: Basil and White Bean Soup

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My pre-move experiments in simpler, faster cooking continue.  This is a simple and fast-to-prepare soup, the only challenging ingredient being fresh basil (which many stores have anyway, but its not something you’ll likely have lying around without a garden). It has a nice, light taste, though may need a bit more salt depending on your preferences – fair warning, a little salt goes a long way with this dish.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Yellow onion, diced
  • 1 cup carrots, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic (about 1 TBSP) crushed.
  • 3 cups of Cannellini beans (2 14.5 oz cans)
  • 3 cups vegetable broth (may need a bit more depending on how you make it)
  • ½ cup chopped fresh basil.

 

Preparation:

  1. Dice onion, and dry-sauté it with carrots and garlic until onion starts to soften.. Add 1 or 2 Tbsp of water if it gets sticky.
  2. Add all other ingredients, bring to boil, then simmer until the carrots are tender, but still a bit firm. Usually about 15 minutes.
  3. Serve.

 

– Steve

Lemon Broth Chazuke

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Remember how I’ve been experimenting with chazuke for a quick meal?  Well here’s my latest creation, a chazuke uses lemon-flavored teas. Bigelow’s Lemon Lift was the one I used, but you can find others using lemon zest and the like. It has a taste reminiscent of chicken broth – enough I think you could use just the tea-garlic-soy mixture as a broth substitute.

Seriously, this is delicious – and remember you could probably whip this up at cons, especially with the right canned goods or a little refrigerator.

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cup lemon tea
  • 1 tsp crushed garlic (one clove)
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 cups steamed green vegetables – I use broccoli, collard, spinach (you can steam them in a microwave, but spinach will blanch if you pour boiling water on it, from say a coffee maker)
  • Either 1 cup garbanzo beans or 7 ounces of tofu, cubed. (Use 1 ½ cup beans/14 ounces tofu if really hungry or add a cup of rice)
  • ¼ cup frozen corn. (leave out if you use rice)
  • 1 tbsp chives.

Directions:

  1. 1) Make the tea by mixing the water, garlic, and soy sauce together. Add the tea bag after heated and let seep.
  2. Mix the vegetables, beans/tofu, and corn. Add the tea.
  3. Heat if necessary in microwave to unthaw corn/heat tofu
  4. Add chives, serve.

Recipe: Curried Split Pea Soup

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This is a recipe I’m extremely proud of because I always wanted to make good vegetarian split pea soup.  Done right, it’s high in protein, nutritious, low in fat, and filling.  This is the 5th version of the recipe, and I’m quite happy with it – took nearly a year to perfect.

I think you’ll agree it’s worth it!

INGREDIENTS (Broken up in stages)

  • 3 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 tbsp chopped garlic
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 6 cups water
  • 2 cups dried split green peas (picked over and rinsed) – This will be about a pound, but measurements are a pain.
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1 Tbsp Soy sauce (was 1/2 tsp salt)
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground thyme.
  • 1 tsp smoked  paprika
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice.

 

  1. Saute onion in 1 tbsp olive oil until it softens and browns.
  2. Add garlic, curry.  Stir in oil until fragrant (really 20-30 seconds)
  3. Add water,peas, soy sauce, pepper, oregano, thyme.
  4. Bring to boil covered, then reduce heat as low as possible  simmer until peas are cooked (should be al dente) – maybe 20-30 minutes.  Careful, near the end they swell up FAST.
  5. Puree soup in blender or in immersion blender.
  6. Return soup to pot (if you used a blender).  Add lemon juice, Paprika, rest of olive oil.
  7. Reheat the pureed mixture.
  8. Serve.

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