Garden fresh gazpacho

This year I planted green pepper basil in my garden. It is exactly as you can imagine - green leafy plant that tastes like a mix of basil and green peppers. I had never seen it before and didn't really know what to do with it but wanted to use it...so the combination of many ripe tomatoes and this new fangled green pepper basil led to the following gazpacho recipe.

I also didn't feel like cooking. This whole operation took about 10 minutes including picking things in the garden.

Green pepper basil

Yield: 2 large servings

Ingredients

1 beefsteak tomato
1/4 white onion
1/3 English cucumber
1/3 red pepper
2 green basil leaves
1/2 garlic clove
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt

Basically cut all the vegetables up a bit then put it all into a blender with the vinegar, oil, and salt. Waz it up for about 30 seconds - you still want a bit of chunkiness in your soup. Check the seasoning and add salt or more vinegar to suit your taste.

Serve and enjoy.

© 2018 Gail J Cohen

Beet and sweet potato soup

This is a hearty vegan soup that has a little warm heat from the delicate Kashmiri chile.  I love beets and this seemed like a great way to use them and sweet potatoes, which I’d also like use in more dishes.  And pink soup, woo hoo!

6 servings

Ingredients:

4 small beets

2-3 small sweet potatoes

1 onion

1 tsp whole cumin

1 tsp whole coriander

1 green cardamom pod

1” piece of ginger

4 cups veggie stock

1 tsp Kashmiri chile

4 tbsp oil

Salt

Peel the beets and sweet potatoes and cut into smallish pieces. There are two ways you can prepare them to get a deeper and richer flavour. One is to roast them in the oven: Heat oven to 375F. Sprinkle veg with oil and a tiny bit of salt. Wrap in a foil package and then roast for about 45 minutes.  

The second is to saute them in oil for a bit in a frying pan so they get a bit caramelized and soft around the edges, which takes about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, take the cumin, coriander, and seeds from the cardamom pod and grind them in a mortar & pestle or spice grinder. The flavours are best when freshly ground but you can always use already ground spices.  Finely chop or grate the ginger.

Dice the onion. Add 2 tbsp of oil to a medium sized pot and sautee the onions with a pinch of salt until just starting to brown. Then add the ground spices, ginger, and chile and fry for just a minute.

Add the veggie stock and roasted vegetables. Bring to the boil. Then lower the heat and simmer for about half an hour until the vegetables are soft. 

Remove from heat and blend until quite smooth. Adjust the seasoning. Serve with a small dollop of sour cream or cashew cream.

© Gail J Cohen 2018

Roasted butternut squash and poblano soup

Summer is over, leaves have changed, temperatures have dropped. It must be soup time!

While the weather has turned nasty, we’re still on the trailing edge of harvest season up here in the great white north and there were still a whole bunch of poblano peppers dangling from the bushes in my front yard. And in my world, soup and poblano peppers go together like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – magic! 

Roasted butternut squash soup is also the poster child for Thanksgiving soups so as we’re between Canadian and U.S. Thanksgiving, now’s the time to bust it out. 

I wanted to put the two together. I did. It was delicious.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash, roasted
1 large or 2 small poblano peppers
1 onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3 cups homemade chicken stock
4 fresh sprigs of thyme
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper

To roast the butternut squash peel, remove the seeds and then cut it into three inch cubes. Salt them and drizzle a bit of oil over them then spread onto a cookie tray covered in foil and bake in the oven at 425F for about 45 minutes. Flip them over at least once during cooking and remove when they’ve got a bit of crispy golden bits on the outside.

While the butternut squash is roasting, you can roast the poblano peppers. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred. (Get your little garlic clove into this action as well to roast and sweeten it up).

Put the hot peppers in a bowl, cover them with a tea towel, and let them sit/steam for 10 minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it. Remove as much of the skin as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse the peppers to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Slice them.

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil and melt the butter. Sautee the onions until lightly browned, about five minutes. Add the chopped garlic and sautee for another minute. Pour in the chicken stock and bring it to the boil. Add the sliced peppers, butternut squash, thyme, salt and pepper. Turn the heat down and simmer for half an hour.

Remove from heat and blend until smooth. Taste for seasonings and serve.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Red, red soup

I don't know why but I was thinking of this recipe today so I've reached back in time to bring it back.

From the archives

At one point in time, I used to eat a lot of borsht but it was always the stuff in the bottles and it was farily purple. I loved it. I dreamed up this easy recipe tonight to use up some of the beets in the fridge. Traditionally it's made with cabbage but my body doesn't agree with it very well so I left it out.  It should be served with a dollop of sour cream but I didn't have any. No matter, it was super delicious.

Ingredients
1 large beet, 2 medium, or 4 small - peeled and grated
1 large carrot - peeled and grated
1 medium potato - peeled and grated
1 stick of celery - finely sliced
1/2 an onion - finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic - crushed
4-6 cups of beef broth
juice of about a half of a lemon
1 tbsp dried dill
salt and pepper to taste

Basically you throw everything into a pot of boiling broth and let it cook for half an hour. Serve and eat. You can obviously drop in a tablespoon of sour cream, but you really don't need it.

Nutritious and delicious. And it's a great colour. The picture does not do it justice.

 

(c) Gail J. Cohen 2013

Corn and poblano soup

There really are few things I love more than corn and poblano peppers (well avocados but who’s counting). So any opportunity to have them together is a win-win for me. Poblanos have to be roasted before you use them, which gives them a beautiful smokey flavour. And while it’s a little finicky to do it and clean them, I absolutely adore the smell as they are roasting over the flames of the gas stove. Try it, you’ll love it. 

It sure is easy eating green.

This soup can be spicy but it totally depends on the poblanos you have. You can also add other green chiles or peppers if you want. If you want to ensure heat, toss in a jalapeno or serrano. I had some Anaheims kicking around so roasted and added one. 

And consider this my latest installment in the poblano soup series, which also includes Poblano, Leek, and Potato soup, and more to come.

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 or 3 poblanos, roasted

3 cups chicken stock (use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)
1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1-2 tbsp butter or oil

couple of sprigs of fresh thyme

1 stick of celery

1 can corn niblets

1 can creamed corn (oh yeah!)

or one or two ears of fresh roasted corn cut off the cob

1 tbsp lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

Roast the poblanos. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred. Put the hot peppers in a bowl, cover them with a tea towel, and let them sit/steam for 10 minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it. Remove as much as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Then roughly slice or chop.

Thinly slice the onions and celery then chop the garlic.

Heat the butter or oil in a medium to large pot and then add the onions and celery. Sautee until the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.

Add the stock, pinch of salt, thyme, and chopped up peppers to the pot. Slowly add the corn so you don’t splash yourself.

Stir it up a bit, bring to the boil and then lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat and use a hand blender to waz it all up and make a smoothish soup. With the corn, it’ll never be velvety, but don’t worry about it. Just make sure there aren’t chunks.

Taste, add salt and pepper as required. Squeeze in the lime. Stir and serve.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Sopa de albondigas de pollo

Wanted to try something new with the ground chicken we had in the freezer. I love soup and meatballs so figured I could Mex it up and create a deeply flavoured broth with some beautiful chiles. If you like it smoky, use chipotle or my absolute favourite pasilla Oaxqueno, otherwise guajillo would work well.

6 servings

Meatballs

1 lb ground chicken

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp breadcrumbs or matzoh meal

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 tsp tomato paste

3 tbsp chopped onion

1 clove garlic

Salt and pepper

Broth

½ onion

1 garlic clove

1-2 dried chiles

1 bay leaf

1 cup pasata or crushed tomatoes

6 cups chicken stock

¼ cup rice

Juice of half a lime

Salt and pepper

Slice an onion in thick rondelles and put that and the unpeeled garlic cloves on a comal or non-stick pan and dry roast.

Stem and seed your chiles and dry roast them quickly on the comal and then put in a bowl of boiling water for 15 minutes to soften.

Take a couple of the slices of onion and one of the cloves of garlic (peel it first) and chop them finely for the meatballs.

Put the beaten egg, ground chicken, chopped onions, chopped garlic, breadcrumbs/matzoh meal, cilantro, oregano, and tomato paste into a medium sized bowl and get your hands in there and mix it all together. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Take about a heaping teaspoon worth of the meatball mixture and roll it into a small ball with your hands. Put the balls on a cutting board. Continue until you’ve used up all the meat mixture.

For the soup broth, put the rest of the roasted onion and peeled garlic into a blender with the tomato sauce and chiles. Waz it all up and add a little bit of the chile water for extra oomph.

In a medium-large pot, pour in the chicken stock and then add the tomato mixture and bay leaf. Add a bit of salt and pepper then bring it to the boil. Once it’s boiling CAREFULLY drop the meatballs in. Finally add the rice, turn the temperature down to med-low and let it simmer away for at least half an hour.

Once it’s cooked, give the broth a try and add more salt if you need to. Add the lime juice to taste (you may want a bit more or a bit less), and then serve this up. With a salad, or all on its own, this makes a nice light dinner. Of course, if you have fresh tortillas, do eat them with the soup. Crispy tortilla strips served on the top would also be a nice touch.

It is delicious and super-low calorie! (3 points per serving if you're counting it in Weight Watchers Smartpoints)

(c) 2016 Gail J Cohen

Poblano, leek, and potato soup

I love poblano peppers. I’m not entirely sure when I discovered them, but they were a revelation and for the past few years I have been addicted. While they are a little bit finicky to prepare, I love the smokiness and slightly hot bite they lend to dishes. I try to use them whenever I can, and soups are a particularly great vessel. This is one I concocted for the first time just recently. This recipe makes quite a thick soup. You can use a bit more water or stock if you prefer it a little thinner.

This ugly poblano really packs some delicious flavour when it's roasted.

5-6 servings

Ingredients:

1 or 2 poblano peppers. I’d go for 2 as it makes it a bit hotter and gives more of the poblano flavour.

2 big or three small leeks

3 medium potatoes

3 litres chicken or vegetable stock

1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano or marjoram

2 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. olive oil

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam for 10 minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it.  Remove as much as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse the to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Then roughly slice or chop.

Clean the leeks: chop the top darkest green bit off, then slice the leek in half longways, but not all the way so you don’t have two pieces. This should give you access to all the dirt that hides inbetween the layers when you rinse it.

Slice the leeks. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch chunks. You can peel them if you want but most of the time, I’m not bothered with that nonsense.

Sweating the leeks

Melt the butter along with olive oil in a medium to large pot. When it starts bubbling add the leeks and about a teaspoon of salt. On a med-high heat, let it all sweat and get delicious and soft for about 10 or 15 minutes.

Add the stock, and a bit of extra water — maybe ½ a cup — as well as the potatoes, poblano, oregano, a pinch more salt and pepper to the level you prefer (I love lots of pepper but others are not so enthusiastic about it.). Bring it all to the boil and once it’s boiling turn the heat down and simmer for half an hour.

Let's get smooth and silky.

Once it’s cooked, use a hand blender to make it smooth and creamy. Do it for longer than you think you should, about 3-4 minutes because that will ensure it’s very luscious and free of chunks.  If it’s too thick, add a bit of water or stock. Taste to make sure it’s got enough salt and pepper and serve.

We like to have this hearty soup with a grilled cheese or turkey sandwich for dinner. It’s a great weekday meal and there’s usually leftovers for lunch the next day.

This poblano, leek, and potato soup is a keeper.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Chestnut soup

This soup has Christmas written all over it. Every recipe that I found for this soup had cream in it. However, this Christmas my Jewish family were coming over and we were having prime rib as our main course, so cream was out. I toyed with using coconut milk as a non-dairy cream substitute but really in the end there was no need for it. The soup was all kinds of delicious on its own.

Roasted chestnuts just out of the oven

 Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of fresh chestnuts or two packages of vacuum packed chestnuts

2 ribs of celery

1 clove of garlic, chopped

2 medium onions

Pinch of nutmeg

2 small/1 big bay leaf

1.5 litres of chicken or vegetable stock

Couple of tablespoons of olive oil

Sprig or two of Italian parsley

Salt & pepper to taste

If you have fresh chestnuts, they need to be roasted.  Heat the oven to 425F. Place the chestnuts flat side down on a cutting board and with a small, sharp knife cut an X into the top of the nut. Place them on a baking tray and cook for about 20 minutes. The shells will burst open when they’re ready.  Take them out and let them cool, then peel. Either chop or crush with your fingers (more fun) so you have little bits of nuts. You can do this all a day or two ahead and keep the peeled chestnuts in the fridge.

Peel and thinly slice the onions. Clean and thinly slice the celery.  Put the olive oil in a large pot and when hot add the celery and onions. Sautee/sweat for about 10 minutes, adding the garlic near the end so it doesn’t burn.

Add the stock, nutmeg, bay leaves, and parsley. Add almost all the chestnuts leaving a couple of tablespoons for later. Bring to the boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Toasted roasted chestnuts

While the soup is cooking, heat a bit of oil in a small frying pan. Add the remaining bits of chestnut and fry for a few minutes until it’s all crispy. Be careful that you don’t burn the little bits as it’ll make it all bitter.

Remove soup from heat and let cool a little. Remove the bay leaves and parsley.  Then blitz up the soup mixture until it is very smooth – don’t be impatient. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve steaming hot with a bit of the crispy bits drizzled on top in each bowl.

The verdict from my nephew who is a picky eater: "Add this to the list of things I'll eat."

© 2015 Gail J. Cohen