Soup's On (and there's plenty more where that came from)

Wow. I made a rookie mistake. The grocery post below should explain it all. I pored over my two brand-new cookbooks carefully selecting meals for the week that would cover me through lunch and dinner taking into account servings per dish and making sure that each day was pretty balanced. I figured a soup, two salads, a pasta, and two tofu dishes might get me through the week. Look at all the leftovers from today's lunch!


Backing up a moment though, I made a spinach and lentil soup for lunch. It was ok, but not better than that. I was short on spinach and threw in a bit of kale to make up the bulk, but it's still definitely missing some major flavor. I'll blog the recipe for this one once I've figured out what it needs. Even adding some shredded Parmesan didn't add as much as hoped, but I have a couple more tweaks in mind.


I doubled up (quintupled, I think!) on the veggies with a roasted vegetable salad with a bit of mozzarella and parmesan. So tasty! Throw whatever veggies you have on hand (in this case zucchini, eggplant, tomato, red pepper, and a red onion) into a pan lined with cooking spray, toss with a bit of oil, basil, fennel, salt and pepper and pop in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. YUM!


I realized I hadn't added any grains so I popped a slice of whole-grain bread into the toaster and topped it with a little bit of cranberry sauce for a sweet finish.



I guess I have a lot of soup to look forward to!

Meaty, Manly Meal

They say the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. This man's already been won (go me!) but a home-cooked reminder never hurts! I figured a hot beefy stew, some fresh biscuits, and his favorite apple cookies were in order. Earlier this week I found myself in a rather, er, compromising position and he did everything he could to make me more comfortable and put his man-sized foot down with some uncooperative lab assistants. He even ventured out in the freezing rain to bring back some miso soup without complaint when I didn't feel like cooking. Thanks Beanpole!

I made a couple last-minute adjustments but the stew tasted much better than the canned variety. I forgot bay leaves at the market, but we didn't miss them. I also neglected to notice the two hour simmer and at 9pm threw the chopped carrots and potatoes in a bowl, added a bit of tiny bit of beef stock, loosely covered the bowl with plastic wrap, and microwaved for about 5 minutes to steam everything. I added them to the stew and let them fully soften, probably another 5-10 minutes at most. No problem!


Beef Stew (Annie's Eats)

3 lbs. beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 ½ -inch cubes

salt and pepper

3 tbsp. vegetable oil, divided

¼ tsp. salt

2 cups chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 cup dry red wine

2 cups low-sodium beef broth

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into ¼ -inch slices

1 cup frozen peas

-Dry beef thoroughly and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 of the meat so pieces are spread in one even layer and cook, not moving, until brown (about 2-3 minutes). Use tongs and rotate until all sides are browned (about 5 additional minutes). Transfer beef to a medium bowl and add another 1 tablespoon oil to the pan, repeating previous steps with remaining half of beef.
-Reduce heat to medium and add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to now empty pan, and swirl to coat bottom. Add onions and ¼ tsp. salt and cook, scraping bottom of pan for browned bits until softened (about 5 minutes). Add garlic and continue to cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook until lightly colored (1-2 minutes). Add wine, scraping the bottom and stirring until thick and flour is dissolved.
-Gradually add beef broth, stirring constantly, scraping up the remaining browned bits on bottom of pan. Add bay leaves and thyme, return to simmer. Add beef, return to simmer, reduce heat to low, and cover. Simmer for 1 hour.
-Add potatoes and carrots, leave uncovered, increase heat to medium and cook for an additional hour. Add peas, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves, adjust seasoning and serve immediately.

Challenge One, Round One - Butternut Squash

Butternut squash is not for those who question the virtue of patience. It's not complicated but the nature of the squash does make working with it time consuming. In other words, it's a vegetable you could still respect the morning after. Those wiser often turn to considerably faster recipes and simply halve, seed, and roast the darn thing. I'm not known normally for being patient but in the kitchen a better self emerges. Here I rarely use words acceptable on Saturday nights but never on Sunday mornings, but always up for a test, I chose a more involved recipe.


Having a craving for both curry and butternut squash soup choosing a recipe that involved both was a no-brainer. The first I stumbled upon was from The Food Network's own Ellie Krieger, host of Healthy Appetite. Two butternut squash remained at the local market - gargantuan, and even larger. Ellie's Curried Butternut Squash Soup recipe called for one small butternut squash so I set about the task of splitting this guy in half verrrrry carefully. He's HUGE!


Several minutes later the giant gourd finally yielded and the seeds came out effortlessly. I've read that when simmered or roasted the skin becomes as tender as the squash itself and is reminiscient of a potato skin but I wasn't feeling particularly faithful last night and decided to remove it. Finally The Hulk was ready to be chopped into small cubes. Butternut squash is tough to cut through but does have some give and eventually the prep work was done. I would suggest starting the prep work about thirty minutes before needing to cook.


Once the dish had simmered I set about pureeing it in my favorite new plaything (aka the food processor). I had no interest in letting the dish cool off prior to pureeing but somehow avoided any major damage to person, machine, or more importantly recipe. Once pureed I served up a dish to The Beanpole with a dash of non-fat Greek yogurt and waited for the official verdict. The yogurt was too tangy for him so I ended up with the final say. I think this dish could have been a little better in a couple of ways. The soup ended up being more like a mush due to the gigantic squash. Even half exceeded a small squash. I'd also pay closer attention to the amount of curry used and NOT use my hand to measure this out. The apartment now smells and tastes like curry! It's worth another try though and with some tweaking could be a delicious accompaniment to other dishes but doesn't stand up well as the main course.