Spring Soup with Carrots, Apple and Fennel

This delicate combination of springtime flavors (young carrots and fennel with a couple of apples and some fresh ginger tossed in) is the perfect warm-up for those chilly Spring evenings when you're craving warm comfort food but still want to keep things light.

It was a HUGE hit with the Bear, even though he was a little skeptical when I told him this was all I had time to make for dinner. Turns out it was not only good enough for him to go back for seconds, it was filling enough that he couldn't finish! Love it when that happens...

Carrot-Apple-Fennel Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced; fronds reserved and chopped
1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
2 medium apples, cored and cut into chunks (I used Gala)
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4-5 cups vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon ginger, freshly grated
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large, heavy saucepan, warm oil over medium heat. Add the fennel slices, and cook, stirring, until softened. Add the carrots, apples and garlic, and cook for another minute or two. Pour in only 4 of the 5 cups of vegetable broth and reserve the last cup.

Season with salt and simmer, covered, until you can easily cut the carrots with a spoon, about 20 minutes. Add the ginger at the end (this keeps the flavor bright) and cook for a couple of minutes more.

Remove the soup from the heat, and stir in the orange juice and reserved fennel fronds. Use an immersion blender to purée the soup directly in the pot. Or, if you don't have one, transfer it in 2-3 batches to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth.

Adjust seasoning as necessary and serve warm.

Rustic Winter Stew Over Polenta

Photo & Recipe courtesy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Post Punk Kitchen

The Bear love-Love-LOVES polenta! This hearty winter stew is so full of flavor he'll never notice it has no meat.

Plus, it doesn't fit in the bowl anyway. Enjoy!

Olive oil (1-2 tablespoons)
1 small onion, diced medium
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
Several dashes fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup green lentils
1 1/2 cups baby carrots
2 lbs plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
1 lb small yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 bay leaves
3 leeks, white & light green parts only, in 1 inch chunks (and washed well)
Fresh sprigs of rosemary or thyme

4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry polenta

Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium heat. Saute the onion in olive oil, along with a dash of salt, for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, celery seed, pepper and salt and saute a minute more.

Add the lentils, baby carrots, tomatoes and vegetable broth. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally for about 20 minutes, until lentils are slightly softened.(now is a good time to start the polenta.)

Add potatoes and leeks. Lower heat to simmer. Cover and cook for about 20 to 30 more minutes, until potatoes are fork tender and lentils are soft. Let sit for 10 minutes or so to allow the flavors to meld.

To make the polenta, bring vegetable broth and salt to a boil in a 2 quart pot. Add oil. Lower heat to simmer. Add the polenta in a slow steady stream, stirring constantly with a whisk. Whisk for about 5 minutes, until polenta is thickened. Keeping heat low, cover and let cook for 20 more minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Serve the stew over polenta and garnished with fresh herbs.

For more amazing recipes from Isa, check out her book Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

Sassy & Spicy Lentil Soup

Here's a nice hearty soup to warm up a winter night.

It's so fragrant and flavorful that the Bear didn't even notice he was eating nothing but beans and veggies...
but he did scrape his bowl (and mine) clean.

Yay!

This recipe comes courtesy of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef - thanks Shauna & Danny!

SASSY & SPICY LENTIL SOUP

Basics:
1 cup lentils
8 cups cold water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8oz canned tomatoes with juice

Finely-diced veggies:
1 medium-sized yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1 small carrot (peeled)
1 rib celery
1 red pepper

Spices:
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon turmeric - I substituted 1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt (with more, to taste, at the end)
1 teaspoon black pepper

Finishing touches:
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
1/4 cup vegan sour cream (try Tofutti Sour Supreme)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Mix the spices together in a small bowl and set them aside.

In a BIG pot, sauté half the onion with one clove of garlic in one tablespoon of oil on medium heat. Stir it occasionally so you don't burn the garlic. When the onion and garlic are nicely translucent, add half the spice mixture and cook for one minute. Add the lentils and the water. When the water has come to a boil, reduce the heat to low and allow this mixture to simmer until tender, about 25-30 minutes or so.

While that's going on, sauté the rest of the onion and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil in a separate skillet, also on medium heat. Next, add the carrot and celery and cook until the carrot and celery start to soften. They don't have to be totally soft as they'll be cooking in the soup soon enough. Add the red pepper pieces and cook for 2-3 minutes more. Then throw in the rest of the spices and stir it up for a couple more minutes.

Now, toss it all into the pot of lentils, which should be tender by now. Mix in the tomatoes (with juice) and let it simmer for another 30 minutes or so.

You will probably find yourself taste-testing a lot at this point - it's just so freakin' good - so take this opportunity to add salt to your taste.

Here's a nice little tip from Danny, otherwise known as "the chef": just before serving the soup, stir in the finely-diced ginger and stir it in well. Cook for a few moments more. Apparently this keeps the taste of ginger "bright". Taste the soup again (yeah, I'm twisting your arm) and if you need more salt and pepper, season to taste.

Serve it up and top with a small dollop of [vegan] sour cream and a little bit of chopped cilantro.

The claim that it "serves six" is valid - the Bear was so stuffed after a bowl and a half that we actually had leftovers to freeze.

And that never happens...

For more great recipes from Shauna & Danny, pick up their book Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

Jamie Oliver's Early Autumn Minestrone

They say that every Italian wife worth her salt can whip up a minestrone with her eyes closed.
I ain't there yet.

Fortunately, I found a great recipe from Jamie Oliver. Love him.
A friend just showed me his iPhone application. What a rabbit hole that was...

Anyway, the irony in using a British guy's minestrone to validate my position as a proper Italian wife is not lost on me. But I made some adjustments to take out some of the steps that the Bear says "a real Italian would never do" (while also quietly ignoring the call for rashers/bacon) and, as usual, there wasn't a drop of it left on his plate.

So between me and the Brit, we must be doing something right!

Photo by David Loftus

JAMIE'S EARLY AUTUMN MINESTRONE
"Italianized" by the Bear and "Veganized" by me
(serves 4-6)

Gather the following:

• 200g cannellini or borlotti beans*
• 1 bay leaf* (optional)
• 1 tomato, squashed* (optional)
• 1 small potato, peeled* (optional)

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 2 small red onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 small potatoes
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
• ½ a head of fennel, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

• a small bunch of fresh basil (leaves and stalks separated**)
• 2 x 400g tins (or 14-15oz cans) of good-quality plum tomatoes
• two glasses of red wine (one for the soup and one for me!)
• 2 small courgettes (zucchini), quartered and sliced
• 200g chard or spinach, washed and roughly sliced (including stalks)
• 565ml (about 2-1/2 cups) vegetable stock, preferably organic
• 55g dried pasta (about 1 cup)

*Ok, so this is the main part we ditched. Neither of us are fans of throwing away perfectly edible food that's used to "flavour" something. I also didn't have fresh, dried beans handy. So I bought a bottle and cut 30 minutes off my time. Win-win.

Otherwise, start making your soffrito by heating a good splash of olive oil in a saucepan and adding the chopped onions, carrots, celery, fennel, garlic and the finely sliced basil stalks.

**This is another thing the Bear swears a real Italian would never do - we threw it all in, stalks, leaves and all. You're supposed to sweat the veggies, not the details, right?

Anyway, saute whatever ends up in the pot very slowly on a low heat, with the lid just ajar, for around 15 to 20 minutes until soft, but not brown. Add the tomatoes, courgettes and one glass of red wine. Simmer gently for 15 minutes...and enjoy the second glass yourself.

Then add the chard or spinach, veggie stock and beans.

At this point Jamie suggests putting the dried pasta into a polythene bag, squeezing all the air out, tying the end up, and "bashing gently" with a rolling pin to break the pasta into pieces. Personally, if I want to bash something, it's not going to be gentle and that whole process sounded waaaaay to complicated when there is a plethora of different pastas available in my local market. I opted to use some organic Sicilian gomitini (tiny little macaroni).

Whatever you choose, put it the soup, stir it up and continue to simmer until the pasta is cooked.

If you think the soup is looking too thick, add a little more stock. Then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve it sprinkled with the torn-up basil leaves and some extra virgin olive oil drizzled over the top.

It was good. Really good. So good, in fact, that the Bear almost forgot to smother it with fresh Parmesan.
Almost.

Oh well,  you can't win 'em all...