Post
by wosnes » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:27 am
A few more favorites...soup, bread and fruit is not only my usual lunch, it's my favorite lunch. Thought they're all in storage right now, I have 10 soup cookbooks. Soup is good food!
This one makes a LOT of soup. I usually cut it in half. Don't let the ingredients list scare you, it's mostly herbs
Pasta Vegetable Soup
8 cups water, divided
1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
1 cup dried lentils
1 cup sliced carrot
1 cup sliced celery
1 tablespoon brown sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1/2 teaspoon dried whole basil
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried whole thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried whole oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes, chopped
1 (9 ounce) package frozen cut green beans
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 cup small seashell macaroni, uncooked
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese (optional)
Combine 4 cups of the water and the next 16 ingredients in a large soup pot; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes. Add remaining 4 cups water and vinegar, bring to a boil. Stir in macaroni, and cook an additional 8 minutes or until macaroni is tender; discard bay leaf. Ladle soup into bowls; top with cheese if desired. Yield: 17 cups (or, enough to feed a small army!)
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine
Potato Cabbage Soup
4 cups coarsely shredded cabbage*
2 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
4 cups water
2 1 lb cans chopped tomatoes, undrained*
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
In large soup pot, combine cabbage, potatoes, onion, carrots, and celery. Add 3 cups of the water (might need more to cover veggies), cover and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, until vegetables are tender. Makes 8 servings (1 1/4 cups each serving)
*Lately I've been using 2 cups of cabbage and 1 can of tomatoes. Still makes a good soup!
I made this a few years ago, then lost the recipe and had to do a search for it. It's very good.
Pistou Vegetable Soup
Soup:
2 15-1/2 ounce cans white beans (navy or Great Northern)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 15-1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes OR 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup cabbage, shredded
3-4 leaves kale, shredded
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Rinse and drain beans. Puree half (1 can) of the beans in a food processor or blender until smooth; set aside. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Sauté onion until transparent, about 2 minutes, then add garlic and sauté another minute. Add carrot, celery and potatoes, and sauté for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes (and their liquid if using diced tomatoes), beans, bean puree and simmer for 5 minutes. (If mixture is drying out, add some of the broth.) Add broth, cabbage, kale and seasonings; cook until vegetables are tender; about 20 minutes.
Serve soup with one big soup spoon full of pistou stirred in and crusty bread on the side.
Pistou:
2 cloves garlic
2 ounces romano cheese -- cut in 1" pieces (can use Parmesan or Asiago)
1/3 cup pine nuts, heaping (pignolia)
1 cup basil leaves
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Combine first 3 ingredients in food processor and process until combined. Add basil and pulse until combined. With machine running, add olive oil in a slow stream. Scrape out of work bowl and use, or freeze in ice cube trays. Remove pistou cubes from ice cube trays and store in a plastic bag in freezer until needed.
Hint: make the pistou before pureeing the beans; cover and set aside. Without rinsing the food processor, puree the beans. Get a little extra basil flavor in the soup!
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."