Broccoli Cauliflower soup

My friend Magdalena and I have been wanting to make yummy soup together for a couple of months now. The fact that she lives in Germany has not deterred her. "We'll just make it together over Skype," she proclaimed optimistically. Though the interweb can do wondrous things these days, I don't think they have created smello/tasto-vision apps yet. Fortunately, Magda came for a visit a couple of weeks ago, and enhanced the soup-making process in a way no fancy technology could have done. Here is our recipe for sage tempura and broccoli-cauliflower soup below. Köstlich!

Simple Sage tempura:

A few handfuls of sage leaves

Dip leaves in a paste of flour and water (it should be pretty soupy) then

fry in oil until crispy, about 5 min. each side. Soo good, and you

can do it with other herbs and veggies, as long as they're cut flat and thin.

For broccoli and cauliflower, cut really thin.

Creamy Broccoli-Cauliflower soup

It will be blended at the end, so no need to make your chopping super-neat.

1 large onion, chopped

2-4 cloves garlic, chopped

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

2 medium heads broccoli, chopped

1 head cauliflower, chopped.

1 cube vegetable bouillion

3-4 cups water

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk (optional)

1/2 cup fresh-grated parmesan (optional)

red pepper flakes or paprika if you've got it

fresh herbs (parsley, sage, mint? take your pick)

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the onions and garlic in an aluminum soup pot until translucent. Add broccoli and cauliflower and cover to steam it a little, about 5-10 minutes. Stir every few minutes to prevent burning. Add a tsp or so of pepper flakes and paprika.

Add veggie bouillion cube and water, just enough to cover the veggies.

Let water come to a boil, then lower to simmer. When veggies seem pretty soft, turn off heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Blend with a hand-blender, or put in a blender to process.

Blend until creamy, but still with some yummy broco-cauliflower chunks in there.

Add fresh chopped herbs, parmesan, and 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk if that's your thing.

Feel virtuous that you are eating your cruciferous vegetables.

Fall is upon us... time for pizza soup!!!

Dear soup fans,

Judy and I realize that we have not graced you with any new soup recipes lately, but believe us.... this one was worth the wait! We're glad that fall has arrived in full force here in Brooklyn, because now it is prime soup weather. Back in early fall, we were brainstorming some good fall soup recipes and we discussed a yummy tomato soup, perhaps with some cheese involved. I spontaneously suggested a "pizza soup" and Judy loved the idea! I have to admit that I thought I had come up with an original idea, but the internet proved me wrong. There are a bunch of pizza soup recipes out there. We used ideas from some of those recipes, but I must say that we took a pretty unique pizza soup approach. Let me explain the magik of pizza soup....

Ingredients:

3-4 tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

About 2 cups mushrooms, sliced

3-4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 medium red or green peppers, chopped

2 veggie Italian sausage links, sliced (of course you can use real sausage if you want this to be a meat lovers pizza soup)

1 vegetable bouillon cube, diluted in two cups water (or use chicken bouillon for meat lovers)

28 oz. can of peeled tomatoes

fresh basil

salt

fresh oregano

black pepper

red pepper flakes

1 large block of mozzarella cheese, sliced

For garlic bread:

One loaf of bread (we used a ciabatta)

3-4 cloves of garlic

3-4 tbsp. of butter

fresh basil

black pepper

salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees for the garlic bread. Heat the olive oil in a large pot and sautee the onions, mushrooms, peppers and garlic until mixture is soft and onions are translucent. Add the sliced sausage and stir so it gets heated through. Add the can of tomatoes and mush up the tomatoes in the pot with a spoon or fork. Add the vegetable bouillon and stir several times. At this point, you can start seasoning to taste with pepper, salt and fresh herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes. The soup should look something like this:

While occasionally stirring the soup and letting it simmer, prepare the garlic bread. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Slice the loaf of bread lengthwise and in half. Put 5-6 pats of butter on all sides of the bread and sprinkle the chopped garlic on as well. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper and a few basil leaves on the bread. Stick it in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, until the butter has all melted andthe bread is a little crispy.

This is when we got really creative. Judy had a flash of soup brilliance and she suggested that we put the garlic bread and mozzarella on top of the soup and bake it briefly (think French onion soup). We went with it.

When the soup is done simmering and is seasoned to your taste, carefully pour 3/4 of the soup into an oven-safe baking dish or oven-safe individual bowls. Save the other 1/4 to pour into bowls later because the bread absorbs a lot of liquid. Slice the garlic bread into individual pieces and place them on top of the soup, like this:

Then, add the slices of cheese on top of the bread. Don't forget to wear a funny apron.

Turn the heat up to 450 degrees or switch to broil if you can, and place the pizza soup-to-be in the oven for 5-8 minutes. The cheese should be melted and a little bit brown and bubbly. Place the bread/cheese/soup mixture into bowls and pour the left over soup over that. Voila! Pizza soup!

Even Luanna kept begging for pizza soup scraps...