Green day...

I would have to say that one of my favorite, super fast soups to make is a "green" soup.  Totally vegetarian and I kid you not when I say it takes about a half an hour to make ... probably including prepping time.   This one has potatoes in it, onions, spinach and parsley.  That's it! ... well, salt and pepper too.

Most people associate a good potato soup with some form of cream in it, (and probably bacon too).  But potatoes are so starchy, that they don't really need anything to cream them up, the starch does the job.  

I begin by browning some onions (2 medium) in some olive oil (a tablespoon or so) and as that is cooking at medium heat, I chop some potatoes (red or white about 8-10 medium without skins) and toss those in.  If you have some veggie broth toss that in (enough to cover the potatoes and have about an inch extra of water on top)... but if you don't, toss in some water (cover the potatoes leaving an inch above them of water).  I like to add a vegan veggie bouillion cube if I don't have veggie broth.   I like the brand "rapunzel".   I then add salt and pepper to taste and bring that to a boil.  I test the potatoes for softness.  If the potatoes are done, I lower the heat and  toss in about 10 oz of baby spinach, and a handful of parsley leaves.  (I am generous with the parsley since i love the taste...but that is up to you.)

I then use my hand held blender to puree the whole soup and turn off the heat.  

The trick I love is to wait till the soup (mainly the potatoes) is done, to then add the greens and puree.  It helps to keep them bright green and retains most of their vitamins.

And you know what?  kids love it.  Its been well tested here by many.

I also snuck in some pickling... 

(though daddy did most of the work :)

These are from the same pickling book i used before,  (the joy of pickling by Linda Ziedrich)  and are called "honey sunshine".  

They contain cucumbers, onions, raisins, jalapeños, celery seeds, mustard seeds, honey, ginger and turmeric.

Today ended with some running around in the green grass of the day.

The breeze reminded us that fall is around the corner 

and summer is saying goodbye for now.

Looking forward to the colors of fall.

Cider-vinegar pickled beets

We made these lovely pickled beets today and the recipe comes from the September issue of food and wine magazine. The beets were delicious and so quick to make.









The recipe calls for:

1 cup of cider vinegar
1 cup of water
One small red onion thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves quartered
1 tsp of mustard seeds
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
1 1/2 tsp of black peppercorns
2 tsp of dried thyme
1 tsp of dry oregano
And 2 lbs of red beets peeled and cut into 2 by 1/2 inch sticks

-boil the beets in salted water for about 10 minutes and they are crispy but tender
-boil the rest of the ingredients in a separate pot
-drain the beets when they are done cooking and in a glass, heat proof bowl or jar, add the boiled liquid (vinegar etc)
-refrigerate over night

Enjoy !


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Let's get picklin'....

A friend of mine recently gave me a jar of the most delicious pickles ever called "Wickles".  Seriously, WOW!!!  Wickedly delicious!  (here)  and I thought it would be great to make our own ... (since each jar kind of costs $12).  I think we ate the jar in one sitting.

This is a great book for starting pickling and I'd like to add that pickling is SUPER EASY.  

This book, "The Joy of Pickling" by Linda Ziedrich, (here) has  250 recipes to pickle just about anything.  What I like best is that the book includes recipes from many different places, from Asia, to Europe and the America's.  Nothing like a good spicy kimchi to get that blood circulating!  Imagine pickled beets, lemons, cantaloupe, radishes or daikon... mmmm.

We pickled these gherkins last week but today we are undertaking some sweet pickled beets with red wine and also some moroccan-style preserved lemons.  I'll share how that goes later.

There are many recipes for pickles but this is a quick and super easy one for a first time pickler and all the recipe calls for is...

Really quick dill pickles (from the joy of pickling by Linda Ziedrich)

4 pounds of 4" pickling cucumbers

24 whole black peppercorns

1 garlic head cloves separarated, peeled and chopped

6 small dried hot peppers 

6 dill heads with sprigs (or 6 tsp of dry dill seeds)

2 and 3/4 cups of apple cider vinegar

3 cups of water

1/4 cup of pickling salt.

(I'd like to add that this amount of cucumbers fit nicely in 5- single quart jars and because of that, I had to double the vinegar, salt and water bringing it to 1/2 a cup of pickling salt, 6 cups of water and 5 1/2 cups of the cider vinegar in total).

1. half and quarter the cucumbers length wise 

2. Divide the pickles, the garlic, peppercorns, dill seeds and hot peppers 

and place inside your jars

(I addded a 1/4 tsp of turmeric to each jar just to add a bit of color and an extra hot pepper for more kick and I also added a grape leaf to each jar for a firmer type pickle.  

You can find jarred grape leaves at your international section of the supermarket... normally a greek ingredient) 

3. Bring to a boil the salt, vinegar and water, stirring to dissolve the salt.  

(I added 1/2 of a cup of sugar to the mixture to give it a bit of sweetness since I sliced the hot peppers in half to give it more wicked kick but Linda does not call for that.)

4. Pour the liquid equally inside each of the jars, leaving a half inch head space and close each jar with the 2 piece caps. 

5.In a boiling water bath, process the jars for 15 minutes (about 185* F) 

Resist temptation and store the pickles for at least a month 

in a cold, dry place before eating them.  

And after opening the jar, store in the rest in the refrigerator... if there are any left!