Posts filed under ‘Soup’
Creamy Cauliflower Garlic Soup
The mercury has taken a decidedly sharp turn downward and soup season, at least here in Pennsylvania, is in full swing. I hadn’t made a big pot of soup since…um, let’s see…filing through the archives…ah, there! Well, August wasn’t so long ago. But before that, the last batch was made in January. It’s high time to start stirring the pot again, don’t you think?
I’ll start off this winter’s soup making with a recipe I’d clipped years ago (2004 to be exact) and, frankly, forgot. You’d better believe I won’t be forgetting this Creamy Cauliflower-Garlic Soup again. Ever. It is so simple to make, and yet it’s outright luxurious, like a fuzzy white bathrobe that engulfs you after a long hot soak in the tub. Who knew cauliflower could be so dynamic?
I have to shamefully confess that I had this soup prepared and all eaten a couple weeks ago. I hate when my archives get backed up so I’m not posting the day after trying a recipe. But this log jam in the drafts is auspicious in a few ways. First, I can tell you that even now, several days and outstanding new recipes later, this soup still makes me drool. Second, I can say with complete confidence that the leftovers are equally delicious and keep for several days in the fridge.
So, go ahead! Snuggle up with a bowl of this creamy wintry-white soup full of robust garlicky flavor. You should still be able to find some local cauliflower at a farmers market or stand. As for me, I happen to stash away a few bags of prepped florets in my freezer so I can make more soup as the flurries fly. If you can get the extras, I’d recommend blanching it for two minutes and flash freezing it on a tray before bagging it up for future use.
Use ‘Em Up!
It’s almost here and I thought I’d better prepare all of you for it. It’s the ying to the yang of vegetable gardening. Those of you that are fortunate to have a little piece of ground to grow your own food will be very familiar with it. Perhaps you shudder a bit just to think about it. Or, if you’re like me, you lie in bed, eyes wide open, conjuring up ways to creatively sidestep it.
“It” is that deluge of fresh produce that starts to haunt every corner of your kitchen and basement, taunting you as it slowly deteriorates while you fret over and hunt out ways to use it up. By late summer, you’ve grown a tad tired of zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, peppers, and even tomatoes. Actually, I never tire of tomatoes, but I do get full before I can finish each new batch that comes off my prolific vines. I’m no psychic, but I’m pretty sure making a batch of oven-dried tomatoes is in my near future.
For now though, I found some inspiration for fresh uses over in the archives of Simply Recipes. I modified the original recipe and gave it a new name – Use ‘Em Up Cold Summer Soup! How full of promise is that title? Question is, does it live up to the hype?
The Unthinkable
I turned on the heat the other night! Do you know how crazy a statement that is for mid-August in southeastern Pennsylvania?? It’s utterly unthinkable. But the unthinkable happened when the normally muggy hot night time temperatures started falling to the 50s this week. The 50s!! I adore autumn weather so I was in my glory, sporting sweaters for my early morning work in the garden and wearing my favorite threadbare hooded sweatshirt while I studied on the porch in the evenings.
I immediately started thinking about all the stuff I needed to get done in the garden before frost, like dividing some of perennials and digging out the sweet potatoes. I had to stop my racing thoughts and remind myself that it was still just August and that things will no doubt warm up again for quite some time before autumn is truly here. I have to say, though, that if it stayed like this, I wouldn’t complain a bit.
Besides thoughts of putting the garden to bed for the winter, I started craving soup. And not just a light summery soup either. Nope, I wanted a hearty thick soup that warms you from the inside out. A ”stew” really… I started looking over the basket of produce I’d just brought in from the garden and contemplating my options: lots of yellow cherry tomatoes, a big bunch of King Midas carrots, and some lovely tender Black Beauty eggplants. A quick search and I found the perfect recipe: Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Soup.
Week of Soup: Anything Goes
Wow, I can’t believe it’s Friday. Know what that means? We’ve reached the end of SFTF’s Week of Soup – already! I have to say this has been one of my favorite weeks to date here on the blog. I mean, how could it not be? I love soup. And many of you do too, it seems, from all your great feedback!
Back on Monday, when this whole affair started, I mentioned that I’d be ending the week with a little self-challenge to prove that making soup doesn’t require a fancy recipe as long as you have the basic blueprint for building your own. While I observed that anything can go into soup from watching my mom, I really learned this basic soup blueprint from a wonderful woman named Mary. About a decade back (gosh, writing that makes me feel old), I did a stint in Northern Ireland – Belfast to be exact. I was studying at Queen’s University and just soaking up life in my favorite part of the world (I’d been there before and I’ve definitely been back since…there’s just nothing quite like it).
Since renting a flat there wasn’t cheap and my savings were meager, I needed a job and set out looking for one right away at some of the cafes with “help wanted” signs in their front windows. I guess my accent turned them off as I didn’t get a single bite. Dejected, I walked the 20 or so blocks back home to save the cab fare. Just across from the university’s campus where I’d be studying in a few weeks, I saw what I thought was a used book store. Nothing, save for a good piece of chocolate cake, cheers me up like browsing the dusty shelves of a used book store. I pushed open the heavy red door and entered a world that would, over the coming months, literally re-shape who I was.
Bookfinders, as it turned out, was really a tiny bookstore in the front and a cave of a café in the back, presided over by Mary, a chain-smoking, outspoken, aged-beyond-her-years, passionate-as-heck cook/owner. I sat down for a bowl of her Five Spice and Courgette Soup and, even though there was no sign in the window, immediately knew I had to work there to learn how to make that soup.
Back then, I was a timid country mouse, not used to going after the things I wanted with the same bull-headedness I possess today. I shyly approached Mary, who was obviously in charge, and hesitantly asked if she might be looking for some help. I’m not sure why she hired me. I came to find out she didn’t need the help. I think she wanted to see what I was made of…to see if she could put some fire in my bones. Or maybe it was just because she, unlike the rest of the Belfast population, enjoyed hearing the American accent.
Someday I’ll write the novel that my time at Bookfinders deserves, including its entire cast of characters – Jo (crazy Aussie trying to find her way home), Neil (ridiculously talented concert pianist gone slightly mad), Maeve (second-tier British royalty with the most lovely personality) and the other Mary (wizard behind finding the most obscure old books for the operations up front). But all you really need to know about now is the way my time in the tiny kitchen in the back changed my cooking habits forever.
Week of Soup: Zesty Zinger
I find myself giggling over here, tucked behind my computer monitor. What’s so funny, you ask? I’m just realizing as I type in this post for Citrusy Cream of Carrot Soup that I’ve already discussed the two things I was planning to this time…
I was going to rave about A Good Day for Soup.
PBeen there.
I was going to talk about how adding the parsnip gives just a hint of extra sweetness.
PDone that.
And here I was trying to get a really diverse group of soup recipes together for you. Now I’m starting to feel a bit sheepish…
But, wait! This recipe is unique! How many of you have managed to mix the three distinct flavors of sweet, tart, and creamy all into one bowl of vitamin C and beta-carotene overload?!? Hands in the air, people! Yeah, that’s what I thought. I only saw two hands. The rest of you will find this recipe refreshing, both on the page and in your mouth.
I’ll step aside now and let the pretty pictures do the rest of the talking. See, carrot soup is good for your eyes!!
Recent Comments