Guest recipe: Poverty Soup

Judy and I have been brainstorming some excellent fall soup recipes, but in the meantime, the guest recipes keep rolling in! This one comes from my friend Randy who lives in Quebec- it gets pretty cold up in those northern regions and the Quebecois need all the soup they can get. This is actually a modification of a recipe I sent Randy years ago. He was finding it difficult to eat healthily on a small budget so I sent him a recipe for a VERY easy, VERY cheap veggie soup. He spiffs it up with chicken and/ or coconut milk. We like to call it "Poverty Soup" but even though it's low in cost, it's high in taste. Enjoy!

Poverty Soup

3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large white onion chopped
4 garlic cloves chopped
a few celery stalks copped
3 potatoes chopped
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin powder
1 Knox-brand vegetable-flavored bouillon cube
1 half-pound chicken breast "chopped!" (optional)
KEY INGREDIENT--Coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the carrots and oinions in a big saucepan with a little bit of olive oil until they're soft. Then add garlic, cumin, chili powder and potatoes. When the potatoes start to cook through, add the vegetable stock and bring everything to a boil, stirring often to avoid burning. Once boiling lower heat to simmer the soup for 30 to 35 minutes.

The soup can be served as is or mixed with creamy coconut milk. The milk will help bring down the spiciness and saltiness of the soup. I recommend only adding the milk at the serving stage. If you're going to store servings of the soup in the fridge or freezer, do so without the added coconut milk.

We have our first guest soup blogger! James has been kind enough to share with us his miso soup recipe. Every guest soup blogger gets a cuddly creature posted with their recipe. James chose a bunny, of course. As there are some ingredients in this recipe that are unfamiliar to me, and maybe others, I have starred them and given definitions at the bottom.

'On the Sunday before Labor Day, I found myself without plans so I made some calls around to my friends to see what was going on; then I took a nap. When I woke up I was hungry, and no one had called me back, but instead of getting depressed, I decided to go play in the kitchen with some fresh vegetables I picked up at the farmers market. On the way home I’d been smart enough to stop at the Japanese grocery too, so I had fresh Dashi-Miso* and some dried Kombu*-- perfect for Miso soup.

Now, when I cook I try to take care to use everything. Often I’ll use the tops of broccoli for example, and keep the stalks in the freezer for soup stock later. This time I wanted to use the turnip leaves in my stock, but didn’t want them floating around in my clean, clear soup. I decided to make some turnip leaf furikake* for onigiri* to fill out the rest of the meal.

Soup stock

Leaf tops from 4 small red turnips, stems removed
1 piece dried kombu about 2 inches (will grow by about 3 times during cooking so be bashful when you cut from the dried bundle.)
1 bashful handful of katsuobushi*-- if you're vegan this can be left out or use more wakame* or other favorite seaweed.
1 palmful of wakame
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce or 1 tablespoon amino acids
3 cups of fresh water (if you use a filter pitcher, make new water for your soup stock, not just the water that’s been sitting in the fridge for 3 hours. Fresh water really does make a difference)

Place ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil; cover and turn off burner as soon as the water begins to roll. Let stand for at least one hour, then remove kombu and discard. Take the turnip leaves out and place in a colander to drain for later, but don’t strain stock.

Soup

2 small red turnips peeled and diced to ¼ inch (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 ½ cups fresh small oyster mushrooms
1 ½ tablespoon Dashi-Miso, maybe more
Soy sauce after cooking to taste

Bring ingredients except Miso to slow boil; once rolling. add Miso and continue boiling for 5 to 10 minutes--it can be longer, but less is more. If you like less crunchy turnips add them first and cook for 10 minutes and then add mushrooms for a final 5 minutes.

Serve immediately in beautiful dark colored bowls.

Furikake

1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoon light soy-sauce
Turnip leaves
2 dried Thai chili peppers (less if you can’t handle the heat)

Take the turnip leaves that have been draining in the colander and with a lint-free cloth press as much water out as possible. Take leaves and roll loosely, then slice very thin; separate when done. Using a very sharp knife cut chili peppers lengthwise into narrow strips; discard seeds. On high heat add oil to frying pan; let stand till oil is very thin but not smoking. Add turnips and chilies and fry on high heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute constantly moving, push everything to one side of pan then add soy-sauce and let come to a sizzle on bare side of pan; then quickly toss together and remove from heat.

Serve as a topping with fresh brown rice or mix 1 cup Furikake with 2 cups cooked rice and form into golf-ball size balls; eat with squares of roasted Nori, yum.

Serves a clean, light, romantic dinner for 2.'

*Miso: soy bean paste

Dashi: a vegetarian stock used in many Japanese dishes

Kombu: dried kelp.

Furikake: a seasoning sprinkled over rice, often containing soy sauce, dried fish, and miso.

Onigiri: a ball or triangle of hot or cold rice.

Katsuobushi: dried bonito flakes (a type of smoked fish)

Wakame: an edible seaweed

Nori: edible algae

Special Feature: A Soup Blog Idea Is Born

Last winter, when the idea of a soup blog was still nascent, Judy and I took a field trip to Flushing Queens to make soup at a shabu shabu restaurant. Shabu shabu is a Chinese- influenced Japanese hotpot cuisine and it is cooked in individual pots at the table. It may seem strange to pay to eat out at a restaurant but then cook your own meal, but this really is a delightful experience and you don't have any dishes to clean when you're done! When you enter the restaurant, you are given a big plate of veggies and other shabu shabu staples like fish balls, an egg and tofu skin. You can then order various types of meat, fish or noodles to add to your soup. Most importantly, there is an amazing sauce and condiment bar where you concoct your own special mixture. The sauces include sour tofu sauce, soy sauce, spicy red pepper sauce, fish sauce, etc. There are also scallions and garlic available. No matter what your combination is, the soup inevitably tastes amazing! Here is more information on the shabu shabu restaurant we went to called Minni's Shabu Shabu in Flushing, Queens: http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/minnis-shabu-shabu-and-bbq/

Shabu shabu perfection!

Some Late Summer Soup Spice

One evening at the end of August, Judy and I decided we wanted to make a spicy Thai peanut soup. We hadn't seen each other in over a month, and a soup- making adventure was an ideal way to catch up, reconnect and also to fill our bellies. We found a recipe on allrecipes.com that turned out great and we made some minor revisions. As Judy mentioned, we try to make meat- free soups so instead of chicken broth we used vegetable bouillon. In a moment of brilliance, Judy suggested adding some rice vinegar. We also added more curry and red pepper than the recipe calls for to give it more of a kick. You'll just have to improvise a bit!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 stalks celery, minced
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
• 2 cubes of vegetable bouillon diluted in some water
• 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
• splash of rice vinegar
• 
  

Directions

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Cook the celery and onion in the butter, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Stir in the flour, curry powder, and red pepper; cook and stir 1 minutes. Pour in the vegetable bouillon and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Mix in the coconut milk and peanut butter and a splash of rice vinegar; continue to heat while stirring until completely heated through. Remove from heat.

We made some yummy, easy spring rolls to accompany the soup. We just lightly fried some ready- made egg roll skins (though next time we might bake them) and filled them burrito- style with a mixture of fresh chopped greens, carrots, soy sauce and rice vinegar. The soup actually also made a nice dipping sauce for the spring rolls. The soup was delish both hot and cold!

Vegetarian borscht: our first soup adventure.

If you're in Brooklyn and you need a ton of

very fresh veggies, try Choice Greene in Clinton Hill

Growing up, my folks used to buy these jars of Manischewitz borscht (beet soup) and eat it with sour cream. I always thought it looked like a scary jar of soupy hearts, and the taste didn't please me much either. But recently, I found out how delicious fresh-made borscht can be, especially when you add dill and other veggies.

I looked up a vegetarian borscht recipe online; Dara and I want to make most of our soups meat-free. This one on cooksrecipes.com looked good, with a couple of changes (more veggies and herbs):

Russian Vegetarian Borscht

1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp Butter

1 onion, chopped

3 medium sized carrots, peeled and sliced

1 small parsnip, diced

3 or 4 medium beets, diced

3 or 4 garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp sugar

6 cups vegetable broth or a couple of veggie bouillon cubes

1 small cabbage or kale, chopped

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1/4 cup tomato puree

salt and pepper

1/4 cup balsamic or red wine vinegar

a good handful of fresh dill

sour cream or plain yogurt

In a big, deep pot, heat oil and butter over medium heat and saute onions, carrot, parsnip and beets until onion is translucent.

Stir in the garlic, bay leaf and sugar and cook for a minute. Add broth, greens, potatoes, tomato puree, and salt and pepper.

Simmer, covered, until veggies are tender, about 20-30 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in vinegar.

Add a dollop of sour cream or yogurt on top. Eat warm or chill. Both ways are pretty tasty.

On the whole, Dara and I felt this was a successful soup endeavor, though next time I'll add half the amount of vinegar and taste test it before adding the rest--a little vinegar can go a long way.

soup magik is happening...

The finished product!

We ate it with sour cream and toasted biscuits.

But why is soup so magical?

I was having a bad day. It was wet and cold outside, and every muscle in my body felt tense and my forehead was all crinkled up. Time to make soup!

After chopping some veggies, cooking them with garlic, ginger, and olive oil, then adding some water and red lentils, I waited about 20 minutes, and poof! Pretty colors, yummy taste, my body feeling stronger...magic!

But really, what is so special about soup? I checked the definition in the dictionary in hopes it could express to me some of its essence...

SOUP, from Merriam-Webster dictionary
Pronunciation: \ˈsüp\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English soupe, from Anglo-French supe sop, soup, of Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse soppa soup, Old English sopp
Date: 14th century
1 : a liquid food especially with a meat, fish, or vegetable stock as a base and often containing pieces of solid food
2 : something (as a heavy fog or nitroglycerine) having or suggesting the consistency or nutrient qualities of soup
3 : an unfortunate predicament.

Hmm, adequate I guess, but not really helpful in describing what happens when liquid food and solid food comes together in infinite combinations…it can only be described as MAGIK! Well, maybe with a little science thrown in there too.