Mom's Split Pea Soup

Don't have a picture...I'm posting this for my friend over at The Greening of Westford.  It's a really delicious split pea soup, perfect for those long lazy weekend days.  Total cooking time is 4 hours, but total working time is about 15 minutes, so it's really an easy soup to make when you're going to be around to stir every once in a while.

Very few ingredients and most available locally this time of year--dried split peas, onions, carrots, and maybe even ham are all relatively easy to find locally in the fall.  So eat up!

Ingredients:

• 1 ham hock (or any ham is fine, though the bone in the ham hock really adds flavor)
• 16 oz package of split peas
• 8 cups chicken stock (low sodium if you're not using homemade)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup carrots, finely chopped
• garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pick over split peas then add to a large pot.  Add 8 cups of chicken stock and 2 cups of water, finely chopped onions, garlic powder, pepper, and ham hock.  Simmer for one and a half hours over low to medium low heat.

Remove ham hock and take meat off the bone, returning the meat to the pot.  Discard the bone and continue simmering the soup for another hour and a half.

Add carrots and simmer for an additional hour, stirring often.  Add extra water if the soup starts to look too thick, in 1/2 cup increments.  It will be a really thick soup, but shouldn't be porridge-y.

Cabbage and Beet Borscht

I know I've posted before about how I don't like cucumbers, and now I have to rag on another vegetable:  beets.  They taste like dirt.  There, I said it.  Their sweetness just makes the dirt-flavor more pronounced.  They're what I imagine a mud pie would taste like.  Yuck.

But, a lot of people like beets.  They're beautiful.  We get them quite frequently in our CSA share.  And I'm not one to give up--there has to be a way to prepare these that will be better than palatable.  Something I'll think is good.

And I may have found that recipe.  Cabbage and beet borscht.  My mother-in-law likes borscht, and she was coming over for dinner so I figured I'd use up my dreaded beets on a meal I knew at least one person would enjoy.  I scanned around the internet looking for a recipe, and ultimately settled on this one since I also had a head of red cabbage sitting in the fridge from the CSA.

I followed the linked recipe from Allrecipes pretty closely (except I omitted the optional caraway seeds, and vegetable quantities were approximate based on how much I had on hand).  It appears to be a near-clone of the Borscht recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook, a cookbook that is sadly lacking from my bookshelf.  Perhaps this will be the impetus I need to finally add The Moosewood Cookbook to my collection!

End result was a soup where the beet flavor was tamed from "dirty" to "earthy".  I can live with earthy.  I mean, I wouldn't want to eat this borscht every day, but for the times when we get beets in our CSA share, well, this isn't such a bad way to use them up!

Fresh pea soup

My CSA has been giving us a bag of shelling peas each week--a lot of work, but yummy!

I wanted to try to find a use for pea shells, so I decided to try this recipe that uses the pea shells to make a broth for pea soup. Well, I started with that recipe, and then took out all the "fancy" and made it "homey".

I'm also going to try my hand at making this recipe universal for any starting quantity of peas. I hate when recipes call for x amount of something and I get either more or less in my CSA share. So this is all approximate quantities--use what ya got!

Ingredients:

Whole peas in pods, washed well
Water
Onion
Butter
Salt
Pepper
A few sprigs fresh thyme
Heavy cream
Sour cream

Directions:

Shell the peas, reserving the shells in a separate bowl. Remove any very dirty/icky parts of the shells.

Place the pea shells in a large pot. Add water to cover the shells. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 or so minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard the pea shells.

Continue simmering for about 20-30 minutes, until the broth has reduced by half.

Meanwhile, slice an onion and saute in butter until browned and softened. I used one small onion--I started with about one pound of shelling peas and it ultimately made 2 bowls of soup. If you like onion, use a lot. If you're not a huge onion fan, just use half a small onion.

After the pea shell broth has reduced, add the peas, sauteed onions, and the leaves off a few sprigs of thyme. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, until the peas have cooked.

Remove from the heat and hit it with a stick blender (or put it in a regular blender). Be careful here--let the soup cool a bit so it doesn't splash and hurt you. Also, if your soup is too low in the pot and the stick blender is splashing a lot, either transfer it to a smaller pot or add some vegetable stock until the liquid level is high enough for the stick blender.

Blend until chunky. You don't need to get it totally smooth.

Stir in one tablespoon heavy cream and one tablespoon sour cream. Taste, and add more cream and sour cream if you'd like. I found one tablespoon of each was perfect for my 2 servings of soup. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve warm or cold. Yum!

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Part of why I've been lax about posting recipes here is that I got a job writing for a local Patch site. Every week I post a recipe, often featuring local ingredients. How lucky am I--to have a job writing, cooking, and sharing my love of eating locally? Feel free to visit me and say hi! I have a new recipe published each Tuesday morning.

Kale, Sweet Potato, and Bean Soup

I'm not sure what to call this soup. Sure, it has kale, sweet potato, and beans in it, but it's the squash-flavored broth that really makes it outstanding. It looks like a lot of extra work, and it kind of is (though really, it's not too bad). But believe me, this makes the most AWESOME tasting broth ever...kind of sweet and rich and delicious.

This soup is also easily adaptable to a vegan recipe. I'll include notes if anyone wants to make it vegan.

This is also just the basic recipe--feel free to add other vegetables. I usually throw in whatever other root veggies are in the house, like carrots or parsnips. You could play around with what type of greens you use instead of kale. You can swap out different types of beans. Basically, this is an easily-customizable recipe. I'm just giving you my favorite version :)

This will make a big pot of soup. I like to make a big batch, and then just freeze the leftovers. But if you're unsure about this recipe, or don't like leftovers, you'll probably want to half this recipe.

Ingredients:

Approximately 3 lbs winter squash (any kind is okay--I've made it with delicata squash, and a combo of butternut, delicata, and dumpling squash. Feel free to experiment! Also, you're just going to puree this into the broth for flavor, so it's fine to use more or less squash. Just use what you've got!)
1 large apple, peeled and coarsely diced
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Olive oil for drizzling (I don't know, maybe 2 tablespoons approximately)
Honey for drizzling (again, about 2 tablespoons) (Omit honey if you're making a vegan recipe. I've made this without the honey--the resulting soup still has that sweetness from the squash and sweet potatoes. I just like the faint smoky-depth you get from honey!)
12 cups stock (I like turkey stock for this, though clearly use veggie stock if you want to make vegan soup :)
1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes
2 cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves torn into bite sized pieces
1 teaspoon sage
Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the squash in half and discard seeds. Place the squash cut side up on a baking tray. Place the diced apples, onions and crushed garlic into the cups in the squash where the seeds were. Drizzle with olive oil and honey. Roast until squash is fork-tender, about 45 minutes (it will really depend on how thick your squash is, so just keep checking). Remove from oven and let cool.

Once the squash is cool enough to touch, scoop the onions, apples, garlic, and squash flesh into a large pot. Add 4 cups of stock. Simmer for 30 or 45 minutes, until everything is pretty soft.

Turn off the heat and let cool for 15 minutes or so. This is important--danger, danger! The next step is to blend this up and the soup can splash and burn you. If you make this often, I know one day you'll say "oh, I won't burn myself. I'm not going to wait." Then it'll splash and hit you and burn. I know, I speak from experience! Okay, warning over, back to the recipe. Using an immersion (stick) blender, blend the soup until it's smooth. Feel free to add more broth if the liquid level isn't high enough and you're getting splashing from the stick blender. You could also process in batches in a regular blender as well.

Turn the stove back on to medium. Add the remaining broth (you may not need the full 12 cups--it's up to you how soupy you like your soup to be. I usually keep adding as time goes on so it maintains the soupiness I like :). Add the diced sweet potatoes. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Add the sage, beans, and kale. (Depending on the size of your bunch of kale, you may not need to add it all. Just keep adding kale until it looks like enough kale to you. I usually make Jules' kale chips with the leftover kale!) Simmer for approximate 30-45 minutes until the kale and potatoes are tender. Season with pepper.

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This has quickly become my favorite soup. I first "invented" it when I was getting all these vegetables in our fall CSA share. I made it for Thanksgiving dinner. I've been making it all winter, with fewer and fewer local ingredients. I just made it yesterday, and the only local ingredients I could find were apples, garlic, and winter squash, but at least this time I finally remembered to write down the quantities as I was cooking so I could post the recipe. But I think it's about time to retire this for the year--I'll be looking forward to next fall when I can find all these ingredients again!

Bean Soup

I was reading the winter issue of Edible Boston, and there was an article about Baer's Best, a local grower of dried beans. And even better, it mentioned they're sold at Idylwilde Farm, a place I frequently shop! So I headed out and bought myself some beans. There were plenty of varieties to chose from, and I decided on the mixed bag of Heirloom Bean Soup.



Isn't it pretty? How could I resist?

There was a recipe on the back of the bag that I used for a jumping off point. I added some ingredients based on what was in my fridge. Here's my version of the recipe:



Heirloom Bean Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb mixed dried beans
Lots of water (see recipe)
1 Tbsp salt
1 ham hock or 1/4 lb finely diced ham
1 large onion, diced
1 or 2 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes (I used two cans, but thought it turned out a little too tomato-y, so you might just want to start with one can)
1 parsnip, peeled and sliced
3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
Juice of one lemon
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Wash the beans, then place in a pot with 4 cups of water and 1 Tbsp salt. Let stand overnight.

The next day, drain the beans. Return beans to the pot and add 8 cups water. Add the diced onion and ham hock or diced ham. Simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, adding more water as necessary if the water level starts getting low. Over the entire course of cooking, I added about 5 more cups of water, so you might need to add quite a bit more than the initial 8 cups.

If you used a ham hock, take the bone out of the soup, pick off any meat, and return the meat to the soup. Discard the bone.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer until carrots and parsnips are tender, about 45 minutes, adding more water if the soup is too thick for you.

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The end result was outstanding! Bean soups take a lot of time, but my husband and I both love them so every once in a while, it's worth the effort. One of my kids even ate quite a bit of this soup, and since neither of them ever eat anything new, it was pretty exciting!

And I went back to the store and bought 3 more bags of beans: one bag of black beans, one bag of split peas, and of course another bag of the Heirloom Soup beans. Delightful! Plenty more soups in our future!

Butternut Squash Soup

One of my favorite fall/winter dishes is butternut squash soup. I don't have a picture yet as we haven't gotten any butternut squash from our CSA this year, but I'm posting this recipe for my sister-in-law.

I originally got this recipe from my other sister-in-law, who made it for Thanksgiving a few years back. I've been making it ever since!

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons honey
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Approx. 3 lbs butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
2 yellow onions, peeled and quartered
1 or 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered, and cored (okay to use other varieties of apples, though tart, firm apples are best)
5 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup half and half
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pistachios (I put them in a ziplock, squeeze the air out and seal, then pound them with a mallet) OPTIONAL
Balsamic vinegar OPTIONAL

Preheat oven to 450.

In a small bowl, stir together honey and oil. Arrange squash, onion, and apples on a rimmed cookie sheet. Brush the cut side of the squash and all the onion and apples with the honey mixture. Bake, until tender and well browned, approx 1 hour. Remove from oven, let cool.

Scoop out squash and add the squash, onion, and apple to a large soup pot over medium heat. Add stock, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Partially cover and cook until very tender, approx. 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

****NOTE: you can stop here and put it in the refrigerator for a day if you'd like*****

In a blender or food processor, puree soup in batches until smooth. Return to pot and place over medium heat. Stir in half and half and bring to a simmer.

Serve with pistachios sprinkled on top. Or, if you're dealing with nut allergies (or just want to try something a little different), it's also good with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar swirled on top of each bowl. Though quite honestly, the pistachios are better, says the mom of the kid with a severe pistachio allergy! So it's balsamic vinegar in our house...

Harvest Soup

As I commented on Lisa's post below, the cool, crisp days of autumn move me to cook. Okay, okay, before someone points out to me that the official start of autumn is still a week away, let me go on record as saying I know it's not here yet, but it feels like it is and that's the only excuse I need.

Last weekend I found our fridge/pantry loaded with kale, sweet link sausage, garlic, tender young leeks, fresh potatoes and free range chicken stock. If you've never had free range chicken, I have to say - "what ever are you waiting for?" Once you discover what chicken is really supposed to taste like, you will be hard pressed to buy chicken from your local grocer, but I digress.

I decided these ingredients were begging (yes, the food in our household often speaks to me) to be combined into a soup for the soul that would be greater than the sum of it's parts. Who was I to begrudge them their final wish? And so I began....

I tossed a few cloves (3-4) of chopped garlic, 4 tender, young leeks (again, chopped) and sliced sausage (casing removed) into a stock pot. In the meantime, I quickly chopped a few potatoes (probably 1 1/2 cups worth) into bite-size chunks and tossed them into the pot. The sausage (from pastured pork raised at Holiday Brook Farm alongside the veggies in this soup) was pretty lean so I actually had to add a bit of butter to the mixture to get the potatoes to brown. Then I added a healthy dose of kale (probably 3-4 cups loosely packed) torn into bite-sized pieces with stems removed, along with a cup or so of chicken stock. Once the kale began to wilt, I added another 3 cups or so of chicken stock. I let this simmer for a while...maybe 30 minutes or so, then tossed in a can of white beans. I really debated on whether to do that, since everything else was sourced locally, but it just needed the beans.

This honestly was one of THE best soups I've ever made. Much of that was, I'm sure, due to fabulous, fresh ingredients. But I'm also going to take a little credit for the recipe. The photo below doesn't even begin to do it justice, but here it is. This one's for you, Meg!















Bon Appetit!