Vegetable Soup for the Wilful Poor

Uh...

Wow.

I just logged in to write a new post and the little infomatic graph thing told me that on October 17th there were 160 views of this blog. That is astonishing. Previous to that, more than ten views per post was a banner day. Not quite sure what I did, but thank you. ^_^

Two things about me: among my many other hobbies, I play D&D. My friend Dave jokes that my alignment is Chaotic Shiny and he just might be right. I am also a Master's student, planning on a Ph.D someday, which makes me joke sometimes about my alignment being Wilful Poor. This month in particular I've had a few unexpected expenses combine with a few I knew were coming and it's left things pretty tight in terms of cash flow as I get to the end of the month. Most students I know are in this position - it kind of comes with the territory.

I wanted to share this soup recipe as it is something I make when things need to stretch a bit because it makes a lot for not much money, is quite filling, and is fairly healthy. The original recipe is vegetarian and from a Cook's Illustrated magazine, but it's quite flexible depending on what you have on hand. You can add meat to it if you'd like - I've tried adding chicken, beef, or lamb cubes to it on separate previous occasions. Usually I add (canned) beans instead though, convenient and trusty cheap protein sources that they are. My favourites in this soup are black beans for the colour contrast, although occasionally kidney beans or chickpeas have been known to make an appearance as well. If you have mushrooms, they can be sliced up and sautéd  for a bit before adding the sliced leeks to them. If you don't have leeks, you can use onions, although if you make that trade, consider spending the time to caramelise your onions quite well, as it will really add to the flavour of the soup. Fresh herbs added at the end really brighten the presentation. I also tend to add roughly a cup each of (frozen) corn kernels and peas to brighten things up in the colour department as well. As a bonus, this soup freezes very well. I like to portion it out in sizes I can take to school for lunch for the convenience of grabbing it out of the freezer and going in the morning.

Farmhouse Barley Vegetable Soup 
(in the style of Cook's Illustrated, kind of)

1/8 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
8 sprigs fresh parsley, plus 3 tablespoons chopped and reserved
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 bay leaves
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 lbs leeks, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces and washed thoroughly (white and light green parts only)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
2 celery ribs, cut into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup dry white wine (or apple juice or apple cider if you don't have wine)
2 tsp soy sauce
salt and pepper
6 cups water
4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup pearl barley (or more if you prefer; you'll need to add more stock at the end to compensate for what the extra barley soaks up)
1-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (or diced finely, your call)
1 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I use the yellow skinned baby potatoes and cut them in half)
1 1/2 cups chopped green cabbage
1 tsp lemon juice

Prep: The original recipe says to grind the dried mushrooms in a spice grinder and add 2 tsps of the resulting powder to the soup, but that seems a bit fussy to me, so I just put the dehydrated mushrooms into the mix and then pull them out at the end of cooking if I remember. You can tie the herbs together with kitchen twine for easy removal from the pot; alternately, you could just throw everything into the pot and remember to fish out the sticks later.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. If adding mushrooms to the soup, add them first and cook them until they release their juices and start to darken. Add the sliced leeks, carrots, celery, wine, soy sauce and up to 2 tsp salt and stir everything together. Cook for for ~10 minutes, until celery has softened and the liquid has mostly evaporated, stirring periodically.

Add the water, broth, pearl barley, garlic, dried mushrooms (or powder if you made it), and the fresh herbs. Increase the heat to high and bring everything to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot with a lid, and leave to simmer for ~25 minutes.

Next, add the potatoes and the cabbage and let the pot return to a simmer partially covered; cook everything until the barley, cabbage, and potatoes are tender, a further 18-20 minutes.

If adding beans, corn, or peas, add them during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking so that they come up to temperature with the rest of the soup.

When cooking is complete, remove the mushroom bits and herb stems if required and then add the chopped parsley and lemon juice and stir to distribute within the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then ladle into bowls and enjoy. Or portion into containers for freezing and let come to room temperature before putting into the freezer.

I really enjoy this soup with a biscuit. You could probably even make dumplings on top of the soup while it's in the final cooking stages if you wanted to... I might have to try that next time. I'm also tempted to try subbing out the Yukon Gold potatoes for cubed sweet potato and seeing how that goes. In terms of yield, the tall containers on the far left hold 3 cups each, the next two over hold 2 cups each, the next three to the right hold roughly a cup each, and the final container is much deeper than it appears and likely is holding four cups of soup. So yes, ~20 cups of delicious soup in fairly short order. Win.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup

I fell in love with adding Parmesan rinds to soup the Thanksgiving that my friend Orion made his minestrone for our group feast. It was a diversity of beans, slow-cooked all day until they were creamy with Parmesan rinds in the broth slowly breaking down as the day progressed. As a soup, it was almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in. As a memory, it is vivid. I asked him how he'd come up with that idea and he kind of shrugged and said something like "We're Italian, it's just what we do." It seemed so obvious to him, but to me it was a stroke of genius.

When I saw that Yotam had a soup calling for Parmesan rinds, I actually despaired a little at first. I'm on a fairly limited budget and cheese is an expensive luxury. I was lamenting this to my Aunt one night - who dug around in her freezer and came out with a bag of rinds she had been saving for some future use. Score!

The soup comes together pretty quickly, although I found I needed to play with it a bit to get the flavour I wanted. It was a little bland right off the start, so I added a bit more cheese and a bit of truffle salt - and then I realized I hadn't added the shredded, sautéed cabbage and chile mixture. Bingo. I'd make that garnish again just as a side - it was delicious. And it added a lot to the soup. Definitely plan on making it if you are going to put the soup together. It doesn't take much extra time and the results are very worthwhile.

As usual, the recipe is as outlined in the book, and the written description includes any of my own alterations and observations.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup
(p. 104, Plenty)

Serves 4

6 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp caraway seeds, plus extra to garnish
1 medium savoy cabbage
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
5 cups vegetable stock
3 oz Parmesan rinds, plus about 1/3 cup grated Parmesan (optional)
course sea salt
1/2 mild fresh red chile, seeded and thinly sliced

To begin, heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the sliced onion. Saute until the onions start to get soft without starting to turn golden, roughly 5 minutes. Add the garlic (I grated mine on the rasp grater) and caraway seeds and allow everything to cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove four outer leaves from the cabbage. Shred them finely and set them aside for later - they will become the garnish. You can shred more than the four leaves if you'd like - I think next time I'd double it. Shred the remaining cabbage roughly and add it to the onions in the pan. Stir to combine. Add the diced potato (smaller dice cooks faster) and continue to fry everything for another 2-3 minutes, stirring actively.

Add enough of the stock to barely cover the vegetables in the pan and bring everything to a boil. Add the Parmesan rinds, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for ~10 minutes, or until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork. Remove and discard the Parmesan rind at this point (or remove it, grate/dice it finely and add it back to the soup later... I did.). Add the grated Parmesan, if using. Stir to incorporate. Taste the soup and add salt to taste. I also added some white pepper at this stage.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow everything to cool down for a few minutes - you don't want to risk getting burned while you are pureeing the soup. If you have an immersion blender, use it to blend the soup right in the pot until you get a smooth consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work, it will just take a few more batches. I used my food processor and it did a good job of getting everything silky, so that is another potential option. If you feel the soup is too thick after blending it, feel free to add more of the stock until you reach a consistency you like. If you add additional stock, you may need to add more salt and pepper, in which case, add and taste again until you get a balance you like.

Heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a a frying pan and saute the shredded cabbage you'd set aside earlier with the sliced chile and some salt (the course salt here is wonderful, as is truffle salt - go with it if you've got it). Ideally, the cabbage will just start to soften but still appear bright green when you take it off heat.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with the shredded cabbage and some caraway seeds, and possibly more Parmesan if you are feeling so inclined. Enjoy!

The soup didn't wow me as much as other recipes from Plenty have - but the shredded, pan-fried cabbage was unexpectedly delicious. I'd make it again on its own. The soup held well and reheated decently the next day. I opted to dice the Parmesan rind into tiny chunks and add it back to the soup rather than discard it and I feel that was a good life choice.

Two-Potato Vindaloo

I wrote this recipe up originally in early September. My apologies for the delay in posting - life got a bit hinky for a while, but thankfully is now settling out.

.....

This is the 41st recipe I have made from Plenty. I am four recipes away from being done the chapter on Roots, three away from being done the chapter on Tomatoes, two away from completing the chapter on Peppers, and four away from being done the chapter on Zucchini and Other Squashes. Noting this kind of surprises me - I anticipated ripping through the chapter on Grains far more than I have, ditto for the chapter called Funny Onions. It's interesting to see how this project has gone for having so little structure to it when it was started. I am not certain I'll complete all 128 recipes in the book before the end of the year, but to be roughly a third through is pretty good. Farther than I thought I'd make it, to be honest.

I'm excited to be back at school again. September has always seemed far more like New Year's than January first for me, and the entire month flew by so much faster than I anticipated. It's taking a bit of getting used to being back in my office as I spent much of the summer and previous semester working from home, but I keep outfitting my desk with more tea and comfortable scarves, nesting and getting cozy. I made the decision to tweak my medication and as a result my ability to focus is much improved, so I'll be at my desk until this thesis is finished. It occurs to me that it's easier to focus at school because it lacks a kitchen to tempt me away from my books. ^_^

Part of being back at school is renegotiating my cooking schedule. I now need lunches that are ready to go in the morning, and I might not have the desire or patience to cook when I get home. I also have stored up a lot of different pantry items that I enjoy that have nothing to do with the Plenty project, so I am needing to balance cooking fun and random things with still working my way through this cookbook. I'm sure I'll manage. My office is hosting a potluck for our department once a month, so that will be a good time to share some of the things I've been making. My friend Jenn is heading back to her home country of Australia mid-November as well - she's been my constant tasting companion since I started this project back in January. I'm hoping to feed her all of the rest of the good things before she goes. I might have to get her a copy of Plenty as a going away gift - we've certainly spent a lot of evenings sharing food from this book. Good memories.

I've been looking forward to making this recipe for a while now, as it contains two spices I ended up special ordering. Curry leaves smell incredible and add an interesting visual element to this meal. They don't taste strongly of curry but are unique to themselves, and unfortunately, I can't think of a great substitute for them if you can't track them down. I don't recommend eating them as they are a bit tough in texture. The fenugreek has a smell I can't quite describe, other than it's sort of sweet and nutty and lovely. I might play around with it in some naan or dinner buns at some point. The fenugreek is called for in such a small quantity that omitting it from the dish won't really change it too much, so if you can't find it, don't let its lack hold you back from making the vindaloo. Hopefully you manage to track some down, though. I think it's worth seeking out. Regardless, your kitchen will be *very* aromatic while and after you are preparing this dish. Promise.

Two-Potato Vindaloo
(p. 18, Plenty)

Serves 4

8 cardamom pods
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp vegetable oil
12 shallots (~10 oz in total), peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
25 curry leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 fresh red chile, finely chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 3/4 cups water
1 tbsp sugar
salt
2 1/2 cups peeled, waxy potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
2 1/2 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
2 small red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch dice
mint or cilantro to serve
yogurt or sour cream to serve

To start: Prep your shallots, vegetables, and spices. I chose to grate my ginger on a rasp grater and I think I'd do that again - it helped it to really melt into the sauce.

I ended up blending spices that were pre-ground, but if you want to follow Yotam's method for roasting and grinding your own, it goes like this:

"Dry-roast the cardamom pods and cumin and coriander seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat until they begin to pop. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and add the cloves. Work to a fine powder, removing and discarding the cardamom pods once the seeds are released. Add the turmeric, paprika and cinnamon and set aside." (p.18)

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Once the oil is hot, add the shallots, mustard and fenugreek seeds and saute on medium low for roughly 8 minutes, or until the shallots start to turn golden.

Add the spice mix, curry leaves, ginger, and diced chile to the shallots and continue to saute together for another 3 minutes. Everything will start to smell really fantastic right about now.

Add the tomatoes, vinegar, water, sugar and some salt and stir until everything is well combined.

Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium, cover, and let simmer for ~20 minutes.

Once the base has simmered, add the waxy potatoes and the diced bell peppers and let simmer, covered, for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finally, add the sweet potatoes to the pot.

It's important at this stage to make sure that the vegetables are submerged in the sauce in order for them to cook properly - if you don't have enough sauce, add a bit more water to make up the difference. Cover the pot again and continue to cook for ~40 minutes, or until both types of potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.

Once the potatoes are tender, remove the lid from the pot and allow everything to simmer for ~10 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit. Serve hot, over rice, couscous, or quinoa, and garnish with the fresh herbs.

This recipe makes a very generous amount and is *very* fragrant. It holds well in the fridge and might even have been slightly better the next day. I found that I preferred to add a bit of yogurt or coconut milk to the sauce to soften it a bit, but I am far more accustomed to coconut milk-based curries than water and cider based ones, so that might just be personal preference. The fresh herbs really helped the flavours to pop, as did a tiny squirt of lime juice. I think I'd add chickpeas to it next time... they seem like they'd be a good fit.

Enjoy!