BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER

I like to serve smooth soups when I entertain, they are appetizing but not heavy and very unfussy to prepare. You can make them ahead of time when entertaining and then just reheat.  If you wish you can add a little bit of heavy cream to "rich" it up and make it a bit fancy for your guests, or if serving  for your family, a garnish of parsley makes it just as festive .

BUTTERNUT SQUASH WITH GINGER
2 butternut squash about 4-5 lbs in total
2 T vegetable oil
2 C thinly sliced onions
1 T golden brown sugar
2 tsp.minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves coarsely chopped
1/2 cinnamon stick
5 C vegetable/or chicken broth ( you can use more broth if desire)

Pre-heat oven to 375.
Oil a baking sheet.
Cut your squash in half and place  flesh side down and bake until soft , at least 50 minutes.
Using a paring knife cut off the skin on your baked squash and then cut in chunks.
Heat oil in in your soup pot, add the onions, garlic,ginger and cinnamon stick.
Cook about 15 minutes until onion are tender.
Add your broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for another 20 minutes.

At this stage you can  puree in batches to your desired  consistency,serve immediately or refrigerate for use the next day.
Garnish with a dollop of heavy cream swirled to impress your guests or
garnish with parsley.

Easy Beer Bread and Corn Chowder

 I'm not really a fan of corn I know everyone is in shock now... don't get me wrong I enjoy my corn on the cob, especially with a good lobster boil, or roasted on the grill yummy... but by the third time I tend to pass on this summer crowd pleaser. Last week, my neighbour offered me some corn and because it was a busy week I am ashamed to say that the corn never even made it to the fridge. I hate to spoil food so the corn was quickly grilled then scraped off the cob. I quickly sauteed 3 sliced celery ribs with a large diced onion in some olive oil. Added that to 4 cups of milk, 2 cans of creamed corn 2 potatoes that I cubed and then in went the roasted corn for a quick corn chowder soup.Bacon Garnish optional

Over at Stone Gable , Yvonne had posted this or a similar recipe and included this super simple Beer Bread that I just had to make . Not only is this a simple bread recipe but quick to make in a pinch.

Beer Bread

21/4 C. flour

3T. sugar

1/2 tsp,bakeing sodar

1 T bakeing powder

Mix all the above ingredients.

1 bottle beer

1T oil

ix the oil in the beer and then pour into the flour mixture. Mix just until batter is incorporated. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes until golden. ( If you wish pour 1 T. melted butter over beer bread before bakeing.)

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP

 'No matter how long the winter Spring is sure to follow." Proverb

For me nothing says Spring more than asparagus and rhubarb. After a bit of a hiatus from blogging and having to host a family dinner party on Sunday, I knew that I was going to build a menu around these two ingredients.
The asparagus soup started the meal and the rhubarb pie and a  coffee were the perfect ending to a wonderful meal that was shared between my family and my son's future in-laws.

 There are many great versions of asparagus soup, but I was in particular, looking for a lighter version of a cream of asparagus soup. Came across a few that substituted the cream with yogurt, but in the end decided to go with the basic 'tried and true', version and left the cream as an individual option.

As you can see, the soup , after blending, can stand alone. It was tasty, smooth and velvety even without the addition of the cream. In the end I chose to add the cream as a garnish and swirled it around the asparagus tips. ( not shown in the photos).

The recipe is very basic and quantities will vary accordingly depending on how many people you are serving.
The basis starts with, leeks that are washed and cleaned and sliced, in this case you can use both the white and part of the green stems. Saute these with a sliced onion in some butter and olive oil.
I like to roast the cleaned and sliced  asparagus ( discard woody ends) in the oven with a coating of olive oil salt and pepper. Add everything to either a homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock . I like to include a large diced potato. Simmer until everything is soft, adjust seasoning and then blend when cool in small batches.
 The soup can be made a day ahead,  then reheated before serving. At this point the addition of cream/yogurt can be added for additional richness, garnishes can be shredded cheese, bacon bits, asparagus tips or swirls or dots of extra cream. Enjoy

CHILLED GASPACHO

Gazpacho soup today is basically known as a chilled tomato soup,but it is started out as traditional peasant soup from Portugal and Spain where it was a simple bread soup or stew, and back then it was all about the bread and not the tomatoes and peppers. Skipping the bread is actually not a bad thing if you are watching your weight,because the soup itself has tons of lovely vegetables it. So the choice is yours although I feel that the addition of the bread really makes the soup.

The recipe is basic and very easy to make and another lovely addition to any summer meal or BBQ. It needs to be chilled and I like to chill the plates also, but another thing this recipe has going for it , besides the flavour, is that you can make it a day ahead which all helps in marinating all the flavours together.

INGREDIENTS

1. 
   
   8 medium ripe Roma tomatoes
2. 
   
   1 green bell pepper seeded
3. 
   
   1 red bell pepper seeded
4. 
   
   1 slice of day old bread
5. 
   
   1 cucumber
6. 
   
   1 med. onion
7. 
   
   2 cloves garlic 
8. 
   
   1/4 cup olive oil
9. 
   
   2 T. red wine vinegar
10. 
    
    1/2 tsp. dill weed
11. 
    
    1/2 tsp.celery salt
12. 
    
    salt/pepper
13. 
    
    Dash of Worcestershire sauce
14. 
    
    dash of tobacco sauce(optional)

(If soup is too thick for your taste you can add some tomato or vegetable juice or a vegetable broth to make it a consistency that you prefer, should it be too liquidy you can add more bread or some tomato paste to thicken it.)

PREP

1.Roughly chop all vegetables

2.mince garlic

3.Tear bread into chunks

4.Add every ingredient to food processor and puree.

5.Do not over process , you may want to do this in batches.

6.Fresh herbs such as Parsley and cilantro make a nice addition.

7.Can be garnished with avocado slices or a large shrimp.

Chill and serve ( makes 8 generous servings)

BLACK LENTIL SOUP

I really don't know why it is called Black Lentil Soup,other than it does call for black lentils. I have never seen black lentils, I used brown ones, I have seen orange lentils and green ones, but regardless of the colour, all I do know is that this is a different version from the German lentil soup (My Mom's recipe) that I usually make.
I am always on the look-out for a good hearty soup recipe , as Ron and I often enjoy just a soup for an evening meal. We love it's simplicity, comfort and many times, we just don't feel like thinking about what to make. A soup is easy, it usually requires no special ingredients, just clean out the fridge's vegetable drawer usually works for me, soup is easy to freeze or to keep in the fridge for a few days.
This soup actually has a story attached to it, I found it in the November issue of the Food and Wine magazine that I subscribe to. I love Indian food, and the magazine had an excellent article about a chef/sommelier Rajat Parr who puts an Indian twist on some of his dishes, the Lentil soup, was one of the lovely dishes highlighted, and the one that I had decided to make . Lentils are something that my family enjoys eating. either as a main meal or an a accompaniment to a meal. The soup turned out to be a huge hit and as I was raving about it to my girlfriend Seeta, telling her about this article and the chef's spin on food, doesn't she say that she knows of this young fellow (Rajat Parr and his family and his success in California) needless to say I am now saving the article for her and enchanted to once again learn how small our world is and how we are all connected.
But back to the soup. This earthy soup is Parr's take on an Indian dal .

BLACK LENTIL SOUP
1 cup lentils (about 6 ounces)
2 cardamom pods
One 1-inch piece of ginger peeled and thinly sliced plus
2T. minced ginger
6 T. unsalted butter
1 diced onion
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. garam masala
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
Salt

1. In a pot, cover the lentils, cardamom and sliced ginger with 1" of water. Bring to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the lentils start to soften. Approx 10 mins. Drain the lentils and transfer to a bowl, discard the cardamom and ginger.
2. Melt 3T of butter in the pot. Add the onion, garlic and minced ginger and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened (8 mins). Reduce the heat to low. Add the coriander, cumin, cayenne and garam masala and cook stirring until fragrant (approx 4 mins).
3. Add the stock, tomatoes and lentils and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer over moderate heat until the lentils are softened and soup has thickened (approx 1 hr). Stir in the remaining 2T of butter and season with salt. Ladle into bowls and serve.

(As a slight variation and because I add carrots to my mothers lentil soup recipe I also add 2 chopped carrots to this version.)

CHICKEN BARLEY STEW

Well kids , summer has finally arrived to Ottawa, the weather has been downright balmy and yes I should be blogging about a beautiful summer salad or cold gazpacho,but hubby was in the mood for a comfy cozy stew/soup. As luck would have it I just came across just the thing in the Clean Eating magazine, a new take on the standard beef barley soup. The bonus to this recipe is that you make it in the crock pot the night before and voila supper is ready for the next day.
We woke up this morning to the wonderful fragrance of this hearty stew/ soup and had to fight down the urge to have it for breakfast, so we did the next best thing and had it for lunch.

Chicken Barley Stew

32 oz. low fat/ sodium chicken broth

1 T.minced garlic

1 tsp. garlic sea salt

1/2 T. thyme

1/2 T. basil

1/2 T. cilantro

1/2 T dill

2 bay leaves

1/2 T. freshly ground pepper

1 lb. cubed boneless, skinless chicken breast (uncooked)

1/2 cup uncooked black -eyed peas, rinsed

1/2 c. barley

1 medium sweet onion, cubed

3 large carrots cleaned and cut into 1/2 inch slices( I cubed them)

3 potatoes cleaned and cubed

8 T. low fat sour cream (optional)

Fill a slow cooker with broth, 8 oz water. garlic, herbs, and pepper. add chicken, peas and barley, then layer the onion,potatoes and carrots over top. liquid should just cover the vegetables. Do not stir.

Allow to simmer overnight. or at least 4-6 hours. Remove bay leaves before serving. Spoon one cup into each bowl and garnish with sour cream if desired. (230 cal. without sour cream)

SPLIT PEA AND HAM SOUP

I had a huge spiral ham bone left over from a meal last week. Today I tackled cleaning up the ham. There was enough ham that I planned on preparing three meals out of it. The cubed ham will be a lovely addition to some homemade mac and cheese and I will add some to the hash browns for Sunday brunch, but the bone was going to be used up for the pea soup.

You could make this soup by just following the directions on the back of the package, or you could hearty it up by adding any left over vegetable that you have around. I have even included chopped spinach or lettuce leaves, and the green stems of leeks when making green pea soup. Experiment , it's soup, you can't go wrong. This soup is even better the second day. If it thickens up on you as pea soup has a tendency to do just add some broth to it.

Split Pea & Ham Soup

2 cups dried split peas, soaked for 1 hour in

cold water, then drained

1left over ham bone/or some diced up ham

5 c. water and 2 cups stock (Vegetable)

2 T. butter

1/2 c. salt pork finely chopped OR 1/2 C chopped bacon

1 med. onion chopped

2 ed. carrots chopped

1 potato diced (Optional)

1 bay leaf

1 sprig thyme

salt/pepper

sugar(optional))

Place the ham bone in the water , add the peas, broth , bay leaf and a few pepper corns.

Bring to boil, skim, cover and cook slowly while preparing the following:

melt the butter add the onions and salt pork or the bacon and fry up until they are softened. Add the carrots potatoes thyme and cook for a few minutes. Add this mixture to the peas. Continue cooking all together for at least an hour or until the peas are soft. Remove the ham bone and trim off any pieces of ham or add cubed ham to the soup. Return to simmer and reheat the pea soup. adjust the seasoning. Serve with croutons or a chunk of bread, although this soup is hearty on it's own.

TUSCAN SOUP

Ottawa no longer has an Olive Garden Restaurant, I really don't know why they left , I was always under the impression that they were successful, at least they were at lunch time which is when I would usually go there with friends for an all you can eat soup and salad. My favourite was the Tuscan soup, full of spicy sausage, potatoes, lots of kale, yummy, yummy. I recreated this recipe a few times before, and think that I've pretty much got it . After all it's soup, that's pretty basic as far as ingredients go. The nice thing about this recipe is that it lends itself easily to substitutions. For example, you can use spinach or Swiss chard instead of kale, white beans instead of potatoes or add both, hot Italian sausage instead of mild (except, the first time I made it with the hot sausage, most comments were that it was a bit spicy...although I liked it.) How ever, if you are like me and missing this Tuscan soup. and have perfecter the recipe , please feel free to e-mail me and share your version. This is mine

TUSCAN SOUP

1 pkg mild Italian sausage (or Hot)
1 onion diced
1 large clove garlic minced
dash of olive oil(optional)
5 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 lb. peeled and diced potatoes
1 bunch washed and chopped kale, (spinach or Swiss chard)
2 cups milk
salt/pepper

Break up the sausage an fry in the soup pot. Add the onion and garlic an continue frying until meat s done. ( I find that the sausage renders off enough fat, but you may want to ad some olive oil at this stage to enhance the flavour. Add the stock and diced potatoes, bring the soup to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Add the kale and continue to cook until kale is soft. (If you are adding some canned white beans, I would do it at this stage.) At the end add the milk check seasoning and reheat to serve, as I particularly like a soup that arrives hot. That's it. Now how easy was that!

Oatmeal Breakfast

Well ,today just called for a nice cup of coffee and steaming bowl of oatmeal with a drizzel of maple syrup! Why you ask? and surely we didn't need to serve the coffee in a Christmas mug?? has this blogger gone out of her mind? No not really!! If you scroll down you will see what greeted Ottawa this morning.

SNOW, SNOW,

SNOW!!

and more snow.

Boo , enjoyed the first snow fall and was eager to blaze trails!

and then of course she needed to be cleaned off!

Cauliflower Soup and The Schnauzers

It's a good day to clean out the fridge, have a bowl of soup and a good chat. No recipe today because it just isn't necessary. Bought some leeks and cauliflower and other vegetables at the market last week, but with all the traditional foods prepared first for Thanksgiving, other veggies just ended getting shoved further back in the fridge. Clean and chop the leek and 2 cloves of garlic sauteed in pan. In the meantime cut off the little black bits off the cauliflower, one was already getting those black marks. Separate the florets, dice 2 small potatoes and while I usually like to boil my cauliflower in milk I had around 5 cups of chicken broth left over from the holidays. Add everything to your pot season with salt and pepper and boil until tender. I cored and chopped 2 apples and added them to the soup a brought everything to a boil again for around another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, emulsify when cool add about 1 cup of heavy cream, again this was a left over, use milk if you are watching your weight. Lightly reheat and and adjust seasoning ,I added some nutmeg, then garnish with some sharp cheddar and chopped parsley. Lunch is served.



Meet Boo. Her real name is Blue Moon over Kentucky. Her mother's name was Tuck short for Kentucky. She is a miniature black schnauzer and she has a wonderful sweet, timid disposition. She is fiercely independent, but will come for a cuddle every know and then. The family connection is that she is the daughter of my sister's dog Skyler who was a champion and is her father.
Because of her good lines the breeder wanted her to have a litter and that was the condition of us being allowed to purchase her. Little did I know at that time that I would have 6 puppies in my home for 8 weeks after they were born. The short story is that Boo gave birth during a snow storm, my sons Ryan and Rob had to help with the birthing, and because of he weather there was no way these puppies were going home with the breeder, henceforth, our family room became a kennel for 8 weeks. Boo had 3 black schnauzer and 2 salt and pepper and 1 sort of salt and pepper puppy.




Meet her daughter Cherish (Cheri Pie as we call her). She was born not breathing, not quite sure what her coloring was and the breeder didn't think she was going to survive and as a result gave her to Ryan for his help with the birthing. Well she did survive, actually she is quite a butterball!. She is the total opposite from Boo. She is feisty, a talker, fearless, loyal, loves to give "kisses', is a ,"Cling-on" , and the laziest dog on the face of this earth. When she isn't in trouble, she sleeps under my bed and we literally have to drag her out from under there so that she can go out. She is forever looking for food and pretty much has her nose to the ground hoping that something will come her way. I could write a book about their escapades...but that will have to wait for another post. Gotta go and rake the leaves now.

Meatless Beet Soup

My sister brought over some beautiful baby beets that she purchased from the ByWard Market. In my household and in the Ukrainian cuisine Borscht is a a staple and national dish. There are numerous adaptions to what people claim to be borscht, and to be honest every time I make it I too take liberties with ingredients. But the one constant is that it is made with beets.

My borscht turned into a very hearty soup, as my sister also included a zip lock bag full of cleaned and diced vegetables. It was a difficult week for me as I had a recall notice to a mammogram that I had done a week earlier. Even though I put on a brave front I was a little freaked, as I was diagnosed with breast cancer a year earlier, and went through treatment all winter and spring, I couldn't believe it was possibly happening again. Anyways , I digress, I just didn't want you to think that I was too lazy to cut my own vegetables, my sister was just being thoughtful and helpful as she knew I had other things on my mind.

Back to the borscht , as mentioned it can be made various ways, with meat, without, with cabbage, or potatoes or mushroom dumplings ( like I included) with sour cream,or without, as a clear broth or full of winter vegetables or summer vegetables. I think you get the picture that , you can really improvise with this soup. It can also be eaten hot or cold and still tastes great.

My MIL used to take out a bowl of soup , let it cool mix the sour cream into it and then return it all to the pot . This would turn the red soup into a lovely pinkie rose color. I prefer to keep my soup au natural, and let everyone decide how they would like to garnish their own soup.

When preparing the beets, you also have a choice as to whether you prefer to boil or roast the beets or just peel them as they are. roasting the beets adds a nice flavour and boiling them provides you with an additional beet broth. These methods also make peeling the skins easier without loosing much of the flesh. You can do this a day ahead, or when in a time pinch you can just peel the beets and add them to the diced vegetables at the same time. The recipe I am giving you calls for boiling the beets.

BORSCHT

2 pounds beets

1 carrot

1 parsnip

1 turnip

2 celery stalks

2 med. onion (i had leeks)

1 bay leaf

3-4 pepper corns

3 dried boletus or 1/2 lb. chopped mushrooms sauteed (optional) but i will include them in the directions

1 tsp. sour salt or lemon juice sour salt is a crystalized citric acid

salt/pepper to taste

fresh chopped dill

sour cream to garnish

If using mushrooms... soak boletus over night,cook in a little water until tender cool and chop, and reserve liquid for later use . If using fresh mushrooms saute and set aside to be added to soup after vegetables are tender. If preparing beets ahead, scrub and cover with water and cook until tender over low heat about 1 hour. Cool and peel, strain liquid and reserve for later use. (wear rubber gloves when peeling beets or you'll have purple hands).

Peel and cut up other vegetables. Add bay leaf, peppercorns, and boletus or mushrooms to vegetables.

Cover with enough water and cook until tender.

Add reserved beet juice to vegetables. If you did not boil beets ahead and just included them in the vegetable preparation, you may want to add some tomato juice at this point for added liquid.

Shred beets in food processor and add to soup. Simmer gently.

add mushroom liquid (if you prepared the boletus) citric acid or lemon juice, salt and pepper and bring to a gentle boil, then turn heat to low.

Taste, the flavour should be TART, mellow and full , adjust all seasonings including the tartness.

Garnish with mushroom dumplings (vushka)3-4 in soup plate, sour cream and dill. Enjoy!

The mushroom dumplings are optional, the soup is excellent without them as a garnish, usually we do not include them, but it just happened that I had some frozen.

Boletus can also be replaced with dried Porcini mushrooms.

Spring Vegetable Soup with Wieners

Yes, I know that it is finally hot enough outside to fry an egg on the driveway, but believe me, my fridge really needed to be cleaned out and what better way to use up all those "older vegetables". but in a soup?
Not to mention the package of left over wieners that I bought at Costco to serve with the potato salad. I usually buy my sausages and frankfurters from Adam's deli, they make the best in all of Ottawa, but they are in the east end and I live in the southwest , and I had a very busy week with my sister who was visiting from Delaware , so it was easier just going to Costco and buy the wieners there, the drawback is that I ended up with more than I needed or could possibly eat in a week! So why not add them to the soup?
There really is no recipe for this soup, as you use up whatever veggies you have left in the fridge. In my case it was,carrots, celery, a small piece of cauliflower, a package of left over baby spinach, green beans, and some diced potatoes (about four). First I sauteed some double smoked bacon (from Adam's deli),and a small diced onion in some olive oil, then added the carrot and celery , and then around 6-8 cups of boiling water, then the potatoes, cauliflower and beans. To that , I also included a cube of fat free all vegetable bouillon by McCormick, just for a little extra flavour. Bring it all to a boil and then simmer until the veggies are soft, and at the end I added the wieners and some salt and pepper.
By the time the soup was ready, the sky turned dark and the heavens opened up with rain! All in all, the soup turned out not to be such a bad idea after all.
Serve with a rustic bread and garnish with some parmesan cheese. (optional)