Thai Squash Soup

I love Thai food. If you are like me then this simple and flavorful soup will completely satisfy your cravings. The recipe does not require expensive, exotic ingredients and special skills. The result is absolutely delicious and especially perfect for cold winter days.

I have cooked the soup with butternut and kabocha squashes, but my favorite is the kabocha squash version.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 large kabocha squash, peeled and cubed
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 stalk lemongrass or lemongrass paste
• 1.5 " knob of ginger
• 5 keffir lime leaves ( check Indian supermarkets )
• 1 hot chili, for example serrano
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• Cilantro, for garnish
  

Instructions:

• First, prepare the ingredients. Cut the lemongrass into 3 pieces and bruise the pieces until slightly broken. Peel the ginger and grate it.
• Mix the broth with the squash, the coconut milk, and the rest of the ingredients in a pot. Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes. 

• Fish the lemongrass out of the pot and puree the soup using a stick hand blender

• Garnish with chopped cilantro, and peanuts to serve.

Stinging Nettle Soup, aka "Supa ot Kopriva" or "Супа от Коприва"

Words cannot describe how much I like nettle soup and how excited I was today when I saw fresh nettle leaves at the farmers market... I went CRAZY!!! I ran to the ATM to get some cash and got myself a bag of fresh stinging nettle leaves and as soon as I got home I started cooking. Last time I had nettle soup was in 2006 when I went back to Bulgaria and my grandma made it for me. I have been craving it ever since and today I finally had some of this amazingly delicious soup. The flavor is very unique and nutty and it just tastes so so good.

 
INGREDIENTS:

• 1lb fresh nettle leaves, stems removed, washed well and chopped
• 3 - 4 small carrots, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 - 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup white rice
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• some feta cheese to garnish
• salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika to taste

In a large boiling pot sauté the onions and garlic in some olive oil until soft and translucent. Then add the carrots and cook for 5 min until soft.

Then add the chopped nettle leaves and cook about 5 min, or until all the water is released (nettle leaves behave like spinach and will pretty much evaporate upon cooking so do not get alarmed if the 1 lb of leaves seems too much) and season with salt, black pepper, red pepper and some cayenne pepper.

Then add water (add little by little until you reach a desired consistency), the rice and the walnuts and bring to a boil and cook for ~ 15 minutes, or until the rice is ready.

Serve as is or with crumbled feta and a spoon of plain yogurt and ENJOY!

Spinach and Sorrel soup, aka "Supa ot Spanak i Kiselec"

 
Another one of my all time favorites and a great soup for all you vegetarians and vegans! Alternatively, it can be made with spinach only, but I really like the taste of sorrel - it adds slight sour-flavor that is surprisingly refreshing and delicious. As always, feel free to scale up or down, depending on how many hungry throats you will be feeding :) ... And I have to give Plodova Salata credit for this soup, since she made it for me first and kindly provided sorrel from her garden!

INGREDIENTS:
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 carrots, sliced
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 lb fresh baby spinach, washed (or 2 lbs if you are not adding any sorrel)
1 lb sorrel (this is "киселец"... I only had frozen kiselec), washed and coarsely chopped
1 cup rice
Spices: salt, black and red pepper, cayene pepper, cumin, savory

In a large pot, saute the onions and garlic with some olive oil over medium heat. Then add the carrots, celery, bell peppers and all the seasonings / spices and continue cooking until all the vegetables are soft (5 min). Then add the washed spinach and sorrel and cook for additional 5 minutes or until all the leaves have released water. Add water (~ 1.5 - 2 Liters) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the rice and simmer for 20 min. (TIP: If you are in a hurry, you can reduce the cooking time by adding pre-heated water to the spinach.)

Serve and ENJOY!

Also for the non-vegans, this soup goes incredibly well with a spoon of plain yogurt and some feta cheese! Double Enjoy!

ETL: Bulgarian Bean Soup - "Zrial bob"

This dish is the most popular Bulgarian dish. All Bulgarian women and probably 95% of the Bulgarian male population know how to cook "bob". The recipe is so wildly popular, so I would never think of posting it, if Marulka did not ask me to do so. She needed to refresh and re-validate the recipe she remembered from her childhood.

So here is my version:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of beans
• 1 tbsp dry mint
• 1 tbsp dry savory (chubritza)
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
• 1 whole dry chili pepper
• 1 bunch savory of special type, known in Bulgaria as "rogata chubritza" ( optional )
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2-3 sweet peppers or 1 bell pepper of any color
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• salt to taste
•  fresh mint and parsley to garnish

Step 1. For good digestion soak the beans overnight. You can use any kind of beans you like. I used cannelloni.

Step2. Add the beans to the pot and cover them with water. Turn the stove on high heat to get the water boiling. Then discard the water, and repeat the same procedure 2 more times. Discarding the boiling water makes the beans easier to digest.
Step 3. Add water to the pot, approximately 1.5 inch above the beans.
Step 4. Add all of the ingredients without the salt.  Putting the salt at the beginning,  increases the cooking time.

Step 5. Cover the pot with the lid and cook the soup at low heat for about 3 hours, or until the beans become soft.

Step 6. Add salt and fresh mint and parsley. The soup goes well with "shopska salad". Look at the recipe posted by Slaninka.

Smoky Ribollita

Ribollita ("twice boiled" from Italian) is a Tuscan classic made from reheated minestrone. I found this delicious soup recipe  in "Food and Wine" magazine and could not pass. It is pretty much like the minestrone with an addition of sweet smoked paprika, that makes the soup much more fragrant and tasty.
Ingredients:
Adapted from "Food And Wine" magazine

• 3 strips bacon, finely cut
• 3 large celery ribs, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 shallot, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 cups cannelloni beans, soaked and boiled
• 1 bunch Lacinato kale, deveined and chopped
• 1 bunch red chard, deveined and chopped
• One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 4 thyme springs, the leafs finely chopped
• 1 rosemary spring, the leafs finely chopped
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp pimenton
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 tbsp good quality olive oil

In a large pot cook the bacon. Add the celery, carrot and onions. Cook them until softened. Stir in the garlic, paprika, and crushed red pepper.

Add the tomatoes, greens, thyme, and rosemary, and cook stirring occasionally, until the tomato juices are evaporated. Season with salt and pepper. Add the stock and beans to the pot. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

At the end stir in the vinegar, and the olive oil. Serve with Parmesan and crusty bread.

My Grandma Chicken Soup

I have cooked and eaten this soup since my childhood. At first my grandma cooked it for us with home grown chickens. The taste of these chicken cannot be compared to the chicken we buy from the grocery stores, or even to the most expensive super organic versions one can find on the market. Nowadays, when I go back to Bulgaria, my mom cooks this soup for me and it still tastes amazing, the same as the one from my childhood memories.

Here is my version:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 3 carrots, cut in small pieces, or shredded
• 1 cup, shredded celery head
• 1-2 potatoes cut in small pieces, or shredded
• 2 cubes chicken broth. Home-made chicken broth would be the best.
• 2-3 tbs olive oil
• salt, black pepper, cumin to taste
• 1/2 cup rice
• 1-2 eggs
• 1 tbs vinegar
• 1/2 cup parsley

PREPARATION:

Cover the chicken with water and boil it. Use a large spoon to remove residue floating on surface. This residue  will occur at first boil and decrease after you skim it for the first 15 minutes.   If you are bored to do this, just strain the broth to get a clean liquid.

Add the broth, salt, black pepper, cumin, a little bit olive oil. When it comes to boil add the celery and the carrots. You can change the quantity depending on your pot size and how thick you like the soup.

After the carrots get softer, add the potatoes. Take out the meat and cut it into bites.
Add the meat back to the soup, and add the rice.
When the rice and the potatoes are done turn off the heat and wait for the soup to cool off a little bit, for max 1/2 hour.
Meanwhile whisk the eggs with the vinegar. Slowly add soup liquid to the eggs mix and whisk. If you do this fast the soup will loose its smooth texture.
At the and add the parsley. You can add some fresh black pepper before serving.

Good appetite!

Two birds with one stone... or Moussaka and Soup!

I made these two dishes last week. I have been really busy at work lately and wanted to cook something that was going to be easy and would yield enough food so that I can take with me to work. Also i did not have time to do any shopping so i decided to use up all the ingredients that we had accumulated in the refrigerator. I had leftover ground beef and pork (~1lb) and used 3/4 lb for the moussaka and 1/4 for the soup. The ingredients that went in both dishes were onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potatoes, bell peppers, muchrooms and the ground beef. Despite the fact that these were made of almost exactly the same starting materials, to difference in texture was sufficient to make me think that I was eating completely different items so I managed to eat these for a week without getting burned out:)

For the Moussaka:

• 7 good sized potatoes, cubed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• one stick of celery, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 lb of baby bella mushrooms, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added
• ~3/4 ground beef and pork seasoned with salt, black and cayenne pepper, cumin, savory

Sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft. Then add the meat and cook for ~10 min over medium heat with occasional stirring. Once the meat is ready, add the carrots, celery and the bell pepper and cook ~ 5 min. Then add the mushrooms and the frozen peas and cook additional 10 min. Season to taste with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, savory and cumin. Lastly, add the tomatoes and the chopped potatoes and ~1 cup of water, and transfer the whole mixture to an oven-safe dish and bake at 375F for ~30 min (or until the potatoes are completely cooked). Voila!


Now for the soup:

• 1 onion, 3 carrots, 1 bell pepper, 2 sticks of celery, 4 potatoes, 1 yam - all finely chopped in the food processor
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 lb of baby bella mushroom - cut into larger pieces so that the soup will have some texture
• 1/4 lb of ground beef/pork mixed meat.
• Spices: salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, savory and fresh parsley for garnish

In a large pot, saute the garlic with the ground meet until the meet is well cooked. Then add the mushrooms and cook for additional 10 min. Add spices to taste (salt, pepper, cumin, savory etc...) and finally add the potatoes and the yam. Add water and bring to boil and cook for ~20 min. Serve and garnish with parsley...Yum!

LEEK + POTATOES = SOUP

I had some leek leftovers and wanted a soup! Something lite and warm. The recipes I checked called for much more leeks that I had, so I decided to add more veggies and see what will come out of it. Soup was very good!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of chopped leeks, the dark green part included
2 carrots
1 stalk celery
1 red bell pepper
8 midsized potatoes
3 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt, black pepper, dill, Cayenne to taste

STEP 1

Put the olive oil and the butter in a pot. When heated, add the leeks, increase the heat and cook for about 8 min, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots, celery and bell pepper, and cook another 8-10 min.

STEP2

Add evenly cut potatoes, cook for 3-4 min, add salt, black pepper, dill, Cayenne (optional). Cover with hot water - about 6 cups. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are soft - about 20 min. I use Zepter and when the thermometer riches the red zone I turn off the heat and live the soup for 1 hour. You can do the same with dutch oven, but the regular pot is just fine.

Next time I will make a cream soup out of this recipe and serve it with croutons.

Hearty Minestrone + Crusty Ciabatta Rolls on MLK day (Part 2)

As I was mixing and kneading and patiently awaiting the rise of the ciabiatta, I imagined that a hearty minestrone would be the perfect match for the bread rolls. I could almost taste the contrast (and harmonious marriage!) of the sweet and salty tomatoey broth and the crisp, flavorful crust and chewy, open crumb interior of the ciabatta.

The issue was that my minestrone is more often than not a blander version of the hearty Italian perfection I was dreaming of...I took a quick look at ATK's recipes and Bittman's cooking bible and came up with the following broth base concoction:

To combat the blandness that sometimes plagues this wonderful soup, I first focused on the broth. Bittman advises roasting the ingredients that are used to make the broth. I decided this was too much hassle and instead chopped them very coarsely and browned them in a small Dutch oven.

• Fennel
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Parsley stalks
• Coarsely ground black peppercorns
• Fresh thyme
• Fresh rosemary
• Chubritza
• Italian seasoning
• Chili pepper flakes
• Garlic powder
• Bay leaf

Bittman also suggests adding soy sauce + dried mushrooms and the water they were soaking in to add some complexity - I followed his suggestion and wasn't disappointed. The liquid helped with deglazing the dutch oven (at that point the vegetables were almost charred and stuck to it).

While it was simmering, I prepped the vegetables for the minestrone - more fennel, celery, carrots, a yellow pepper, onion. I also chopped 2 slices of reduced fat bacon and sauteed them a bit of olive oil in my large dutch oven until the bacon fat had rendered. I then added all the vegetables and cooked them until they were softened and lightly browned.

The broth was ready so I removed the vegetables that were used to make it and transfered it to the large dutch oven (along with the chopped soaked mushrooms).

ATK also suggests adding some V8 juice for optimal bright tomato flavor and vegetable taste - I simulated those attributes by blending a can of diced tomatoes with half of the vegetables that were cooked in the veggie broth. The other trick that ATK has is throwing a parmesan rind in the pot - mmm!

Off they went into the large dutch oven along with the 2+ cups of black eyed peas and the last of my weekly batch of kamut+ spelt wheatberries. After 15 -20 minutes of simmering, I topped the thick and hearty minestrone with fresh parsley and grated parmigiano reggiano (from Trader Joe's) and served it with the ciabatta. Voila!

...and finished off with Slaninka's delightful Christmas gift: