Roasted Vegetable Pear Soup

One of the issues many people face in subscribing to a CSA is that they are left with produce that they would not normally buy, or that is unfamiliar to them. Enter soup - the greatest vessel for miscellaneous foods that have no home.

I make most vegetable soups vegan, but I thought this soup might do nicely with some meat flavors, and I think that was a good decision. This soup has a pork stock base, which marries particularly well with the pear, pumpkin, and beets. The pork stock adds not only flavor, but also lots of nutrients, most notably calcium. If you prefer to make this soup vegan, it would still be very tasty using a vegetable or onion stock, or even plain salted water.

This soup can be prepared as a puree or as a chunky soup. I think the latter is really the better option, but I made it as a puree so that my little guy could eat it more easily (and so he has!). The recipe below is written as a puree with noted adjustments to make it chunky instead.

Roasted Vegetable Pear Soup
2 lb. pumpkin (or other winter squash), seeded, peeled and cubed (small dice for chunky)
1 small rutabaga, peeled, trimmed of ends, and cubed (small dice for chunky)
12 small turnips, trimmed of ends and cubed (small dice for chunky)
3 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed of ends, and cut into thick slices (small dice for chunky)
2 medium beets, peeled, trimmed of ends, and cubed (small dice for chunky)
3 shallots, peeled and quartered (chopped for chunky)
2 stalks celery, cut into chunks (small dice for chunky)
2 Tbsps. olive oil
2 Tbsps. safflower oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 lbs. pork neck bones (your local sustainable meat farmer will likely have this very inexpensive treat in the freezer)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 ripe pears, cored, peeled and cubed
2 bay leaves
10 cups water
1/4 cup chopped fennel fronds

Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Combine the pumpkin, rutabaga, turnips, carrots, beets, shallots, celery, and oils in a large covered baking dish. Season well with salt and pepper. Cover and roast for 1 hour and 20 minutes, stirring twice along the way.

Transfer roasted vegetables to a large stock pot. Add the pork necks, vinegar, pears, bay leaves, water and additional salt and pepper. Bring to a bubble, and then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer, covered, for 2 hours.

Remove bones and bay leaves. Pick apart the meat from the bones, and set aside (roughly 1/2 - 1 cup).

Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender), puree the soup (if you prefer a chunky soup, skip the pureeing). Return the meat to the pot. Add the fennel fronds. Adjust seasonings. Serve hot.

Serves 10-12.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Lemon Basil

My daughter cheers for tomato soup year round, even in this sweltering heat we've been enduring. Somehow, she hasn't taken to gazpacho, which would be the more refreshing choice, I think. This week, since we were inundated with tomatoes from our CSA, and we picked an interesting assortment of specialty basils at the farm, I thought I'd try a new twist on tomato soup. The result is a sort of Thai-American fusion soup.

For a more traditional tomato soup, substitute standard basil and heavy cream for the lemon basil and coconut milk. If you can't find lemon basil, you could use lemongrass or just plain lemon juice.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Lemon Basil
8-10 medium ripe tomatoes, rough chopped
2 Tbsps olive oil
2 stalks celery, rough chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, smashed
4-6 shallots, rough chopped
2 Tbsps lemon basil leaves
salt & pepper, to taste
1 14 oz. can light coconut milk

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large baking dish, toss the tomatoes with the oil and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

Add the celery, garlic and shallots, stirring to combine. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Add the lemon basil and adjust seasonings, stirring to combine.

Cool completely. Pour the tomato mixture into a blender and puree. Pour puree into a stock pot or dutch oven. Add the coconut milk and heat the soup through. Adjust seasonings. Serve hot.

Serves 4-6.

Miso Soup with Wakame, Carrots & Tofu

Miso soup sounds like a daunting culinary embarking, possibly because it's something most of us have only had in restaurants. The reality is that it's about the easiest, and certainly the fastest, soup you can make. All of the work is done for you in the fermenting of the miso paste, so all you need to do is throw a few things together, boil water, and serve. Super simple!

My recipe for miso soup is loosely based on this one. I like to add wakame, a sea vegetable, to mine for a little authentic Japanese something-or-other. It also happens to be a very nutrient-dense food, particularly in iodine, which is essential for thyroid health. Wakame is a dry vegetable (so don't look in the produce aisle), and can be found in most health food stores, and even in many well-stocked supermarkets.

Many vegetables can go into a miso soup, traditional and non. One of the best ones is cabbage, particularly napa cabbage. Radishes (daikon) and turnips also compliment this soup well, but prepare them as I do with carrots (below). You could introduce fish or shellfish into a miso soup, as well.

Miso Soup with Wakame, Carrots & Tofu
8 cups water
1 1/2 pieces wakame (usually comes in 4-5" lengths), cut into bite-size pieces
1 Tbsp. unpeeled ginger (I use the little nubs on the root)
1 Tbsp. dry sherry or brown rice vinegar
1 carrot, cut into strips with a peeler, and then halved
1/2 c. white miso or brown rice miso (available in health food stores and Asian markets - refrigerated section)
2 scallions (green and white), sliced or julienned
4 oz. soft or firm tofu (avoid silken and extra firm), cubed

In a stock pot, bring the water, wakame, ginger and sherry to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the carrot (or other vegetables) and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Remove 1/2 c. of broth and dissolve the miso into the broth. Return this mixture to the soup. Turn the heat off. Add scallions and tofu to each bowl, as you are serving.

Serves 4-6.

Chicken Soup

Yes, this is the kind of soup your grandma used to make. I say, if it ain't broke ...

With the whole family sick during various parts of the week, what better way to heal ourselves than with a good, brothy chicken soup? Apparently, the ability of chicken soup to help make us well is not just an old wives' tale. There is some truth to it (see here). At the very least, the warmth of the broth will make you feel temporarily better, and the liquid in the broth will help to hydrate you. It certainly can't hurt.

For vegetable matter in this soup, I use a traditional mirepoix (fancy French word for onions, carrots and celery). You can feel free to add or replace additional veggies. Some of the best are root veggies, such as turnip, celery root, and parsnip. If the soup will be frozen, I'd stick to heartier vegetables like these, but if you'll be eating it quickly, you could include leafy greens, like spinach, kale, or swiss chard. For a twist on the traditional, you could add some stewed tomatoes, grated horseradish, cabbage, or any other number of things that pop in your head. I find it a very versatile soup.

The addition of vinegar in this recipe helps to draw the nutrients from the chicken bones into the broth. It's a great way to boost you calcium intake from a natural, and very bio-available source (but make sure you also have enough vitamin D coming in, so you can actually make use of that calcium). The vinegar also adds a little acidity to the taste of the soup, which means you'll need less salt to achieve the same depth of flavor.

Chicken Soup
1 3-4 lb. whole chicken, innards removed
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced (halved lengthwise if carrots are very thick)
3 stalks celery, trimmed of ends and sliced
1 large onion, peeled and quartered (ends left in tact to avoid separation)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbsps. white wine vinegar
3 bay leaves

Add all ingredients to a stock pot. Add cold water to the pot until the whole chicken is submerged. Heat over high heat until boiling. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered for 2 1/2 hours. During simmering, skim the "scum" off the top of the broth every so often. This will prevent your broth from becoming cloudy.

Cool the soup somewhat. Remove the chicken, onions, garlic and bay leaves from the pot. Discard the onions, garlic and bay leaves. Pick apart the meat from the bones of the chicken. Discard the bones. Add back however much chicken meat you'd like in the soup, and store the rest for another use.

Adjust seasonings in the soup. Refrigerate overnight or until the fat in the soup has risen to the surface and congealed. Remove the fat from the top. Heat and serve.

Note: If you'd like, you can add some cooked brown rice, wild rice, couscous, egg noodles, barley, or any other grain you like. I'd keep these separate from the soup to avoid them over-absorbing your broth, making them soggy and the soup too thick. Just add them when serving.

Serves 8-10

Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup

I was looking for a creamy, wintry soup to make, and came up with this. The spices were an experiment that I thought would work, but differently than they actually did. I consider this spice combination fairly Caribbean in origin (if not downright Jamaican), and I think they also pair well with the sweetness of butternut squash. Halfway through simmering the soup, I was sure I'd overdone it with the cloves, but by the end it mellowed very nicely. As it turns out, the soup doesn't actually resemble anything Caribbean in the least, which is fine. The spices are perfect, no matter the nationality.

The heavy cream could be cut back, although it's delicious as is. I wouldn't go with less than 1/4 cup heavy cream if you're wanting to lighten the dish. Alternatively, you could use the heavy cream strictly as a garnish, adding a little bit to each bowl as you serve, but that's too fancy for lunch with the family for me. To make the soup vegan, you could substitute a soy creamer or coconut milk; both will result in a different flavor, but I think will still be good.

This is one of my favorite soups of all the ones I've come up with recently. My daughter devoured it, so that's always a good sign. My only regret about it is that it made less than I anticipated. Most of my soups feed 10 easily. This one is more likely to serve 6. So, double up if you want a big, lasting pot of soup, or if you're cooking for company.

Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup
2 Tbsps. butter
1 1/2 lbs. butternut squash, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
5 c. homemade or low-sodium veggie broth
3 c. water
2 bay leaves
2 tsps. dried thyme, crushed
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
salt & pepper, to taste
2 Tbsps. apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. heavy cream

In a stock pot or dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the squash, carrots, onion and celery. Sweat the veggies over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the broth, water, bay leaves, thyme, nutmeg, cloves, salt and pepper. Add the vinegar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Remove the bay leaves.

Using an immersion blender (or a regular one), puree the soup. If you prefer a very smooth texture, you can force the soup through a fine mesh strainer. Add the heavy cream. Adjust seasonings. Remove from heat and serve.

Lentil Soup

This recipe is directly out of a book that is, incredibly, still in print. I received it as a gift many moons ago, when I was in college, and I've found that it has a few recipes that I really like. They are almost all very simple, light, and healthy. Unfortunately, I don't have much opportunity to cook with shellfish, or I'd make much better use of this book. It's called Coastal New England: Summertime Cooking, by Sherri Eldridge.

Lentil Soup

1 lb. package lentils (green)
10 cups weak vegetable bouillon broth (I use 6 cups homemade veggie broth and 4 cups water)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 clove garlic (I use more like 3-4), minced
2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon curry
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (I often double this, just because I love cilantro)
1 1/2 cups chopped stewed tomatoes (diced or crushed canned tomatoes work well)
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons vinegar (I use white or red wine vinegar)

Rinse lentils in cold water. Combine all ingredients in a large covered pot (I reserve the cilantro for the last 5 minutes of cooking). Stirring occasionally, simmer about 3 hours, adding water if needed. Discard bay leaves. Adjust seasonings to taste (salt!!!). Serve hot.

Curried Squash & Red Lentil Soup with Mint

This is a vegan recipe, so it's good to serve to just about anyone. If you're a die-hard meat-eater, this would convert easily to a stew by adding some sausage to the mix. Even as is, it could be a meal in itself, since it's very hearty, but it's also a good first course.

I think this recipe received the most compliments at my Hanukkah dinner. Since it's a seasonally appropriate soup, it can keep you warm all winter long.

Curried Squash & Red Lentil Soup with Mint
2 Tbsps. safflower oil
3 leeks, chopped
2 lbs. butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
2 quarts low-sodium veggie stock
2 Tbsps. curry powder
salt and pepper, to taste
1 lb. red lentils, rinsed and picked over
2-3 cups water
2 Tbsps. fresh mint, minced

Place the chopped leeks in a bowl of cold water and allow the grit to settle to the bottom. Using a slotted spoon, remove leeks from the water.

Heat oil over medium heat in a stock pot or dutch oven. Add the leeks, squash, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring frequently, until leeks have softened, about 10 minutes. Add the veggie stock and curry powder and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Using an immersion blender (or a regular one), puree the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Add the red lentils and 2 cups of water. Simmer an additional 1 hour and 20 minutes. Add more water to thin to your desired consistency.

Adjust seasonings, as needed, and add mint. Remove from heat, and serve. This soup keeps very well in the refrigerator or freezer.

Broccoli, Potato & Cheese Soup

Soup should just about always be made from scraps and leftovers. That's really the purpose of soup ... to help get rid of miscellaneous bits of stuff you have around. It turns out that, as long as the stuff you keep around the house is pretty healthy, your soup will be pretty healthy, too. And it will keep you warm you on those snowy winter days (which we happen to be enjoying right now)!

For this soup, I use all the broccoli stalks that I've accumulated in the freezer. When they build up enough, I add just a little fresh broccoli, some homemade veggie stock (also from frozen scraps), and a few other ingredients, and voila! Soup!

Broccoli, Potato & Cheese Soup
3 cups of broccoli stems, cut into chunks
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 stalks celery, cut into chunks
1 cup thin-skinned potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large onion, peeled and halved
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 quarts low-sodium veggie broth
1/4 cup dry white wine (or 2 Tbsps white wine vinegar, if you prefer)
1 tsp. dried tarragon
2 bay leaves
1 cup broccoli florets, cut into very small bits
1/2 cup non-fat milk
8 oz. shredded cheese (I used Monterey Jack, but you could use anything that you like)
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine broccoli stems, carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, garlic, veggie broth, wine, tarragon and bay leaves in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, covered, for 1 hour.

Remove the bay leaves. Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender), puree the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Return to moderate heat, adding the milk and cheese. Adjust seasonings. Serve.

Turkey Carcass Soup with Maztah Balls

No wonder the protein of choice for Thanksgiving is the turkey! It's such a giving animal ... weeks after Thanksgiving is over, you might still be left with frozen bits and pieces waiting to morph into new dishes. It seems to never end. Even when you're left with nothing but skin and bones, that turkey isn't nearly done yet!

The turkey carcass is probably one of the most overlooked and underused culinary gems, at least in home kitchens. Those bones have so much flavor, and so much to offer nutritionally, that it might actually make more sense to toss the meat and keep the carcass. OK, slight exaggeration, but you get my point.

Any bone broth is full of calcium, since it is drawn out of the bones into the liquid. The amount of calcium that comes out the bones can be multiplied by the addition of an acid ... in this case, vinegar. Of course, just as Mom's chicken soup will cure your ills, so will turkey carcass soup. And that's no myth! Adding to the comfort-food factor, I thought I'd throw in some matzah balls this year. They just make soup feel so much more homey. Even if you're not Jewish, try this. You'll never crumble crackers in soup again!

What amazes me most about this soup is that even when you're sick of the smell of turkey, as so many of us are after several days of leftovers, this soup still tastes amazing. You may not want another turkey dinner, but you you WILL want this soup!

A little pointer: Please learn from my mistake! I usually freeze the carcass at Thanksgiving and use it when I need it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the size of my carcass (17 lb bird), and I should have cut it in pieces before freezing. That made it fairly difficult to fit the whole thing in my stock pot, but it worked nonetheless. A little extra wrestling and a lot of persistence, and the whole thing ended up in the pot.


Turkey Carcass Soup with Matzah Balls

Soup
1 turkey carcass (including any bits of meat, skin, and fat attached)
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
4 celery stalks
5 carrots
1-2 onions, peeled and halved
2 c. mushrooms (any you like), sliced
3 Tbsps. parsley, minced

Place the carcass in a very large stock pot. Add cold water until carcass is submerged (or in my case, to the top of the pot). Add vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Season well with salt and pepper.

Cut the tops and ends off the celery and carrots and throw those into the pot, reserving the middles for later. Peel the carrots, and throw the peel in as well. Add the onion.

Once boiling, reduce to low and simmer, uncovered, for 2-2 1/2 hours. Occasionally, you will see a bubbly scum rise to the surface. Skim this off with a slotted spoon.

Strain the soup. Separate the meat from the carcass, break into bite-size pieces, and return to the soup. Discard the rest. Refrigerate overnight.

Skim the fat off the surface. You will notice that the broth is gelatinous when cold. This is normal, and it will return to a liquid state when heated.

Bring the soup back to the stove, and bring to a boil over high heat. Slice remaining carrots and celery. Once boiling, add carrots, celery, and mushrooms to the pot. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add mushrooms and simmer for another 30 minutes. Add parsley, and adjust seasonings.


Light & Fluffy Matzah Balls (from The Kosher Palette by Joseph Kushner)
1 c. matzoh meal (can be found in the Jewish food section of your supermarket ... get whole wheat, if you can find it)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c. light oil
1/4 c. water
2 tsps. salt
1 quart chicken broth

Combine matzoh meal, eggs, oil, water and salt in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Add the chicken broth and 1 quart water to a stock pot and bring to a boil over high heat. With slightly wet hands, form the matzoh meal mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls (15-20), and drop into the boiling broth. Reduce heat to medium and cover the pot, allowing to boil for 30 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, move the matzah balls into the turkey soup. Reserve remaining chicken broth for other uses (you can cook rice or other grains in it for added flavor).

If you prefer, you could simply boil the matzah balls directly in the turkey soup, but they might absorb too much of the stock.

Root Vegetable Soup with Coconut Milk

I made this soup for Thanksgiving. The ingredients are very seasonal and inexpensive, so it's a good soup to make for a crowd. It's also very low in fat and rich in nutrients. Of course, no one needs to know they're eating healthy food. It's also a vegan recipe, so it's appropriate for just about any diner.

We had 12 people, and several people had seconds. We had no leftovers. I think that's a good sign.

Root Vegetable Soup with Coconut Milk
2 Tbsps. safflower oil
2 leeks (green & white), chopped
1 ½ c. sweet potatoes, peeled & chopped
1 c. beets, peeled & chopped
½ c. turnips, chopped
½ c. carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, smashed
5-6 c. low-sodium veggie broth
¼ c. lime juice
½ c. lite coconut milk, divided
½ c. cilantro, minced
salt & pepper

Place chopped leeks in a bowl filled with cold water and allow to sit until grit settles to the bottom. Skim the leeks off the top with a slotted spoon, and set aside.

Heat oil in a dutch oven or soup pot. Add leeks, sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, celery and garlic, and sauté over medium heat until slightly softened, about 10 minutes.

Add veggie broth and lime juice, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer at low heat for 1 hour. Turn heat off. Using an immersion blender (or regular blender), puree soup. Stir in 1/4 cup coconut milk and cilantro. Season with salt & pepper, to taste.

Ladle into bowls, and add a drizzle of extra coconut milk in the center of each bowl before serving.