the Dalaverse

I've got a recipe for Butternut Squash Soup but it's British so the measurements are a bit different. Do you want it?

I offer Pasta e Fagioli, a bunch of pureed stuff: Potato Leek, Roasted Butternut Sweet Potato, Ginger Avocado, and, if I write it up soonish, the Turkey-Barley-Kale-Mushroom I just made a batch of. Ooh, and my Borscht-of-a-Sort. They should all be in my memories under 'recipes' aside from the turkey one. So, er, happy cooking.

This is NOT a pureed soup. It's also not remotely heart-healthy, but by gum, it's good.

Potato and Bacon Soup
4-6 cups of potatoes when peeled and chopped
6-8 pieces of bacon
Small onion, chopped
2/3 cup flour
6 cups chicken broth or stock
2 cups heavy cream or half-and-half
1/4 cup parsley
1-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1-1/2 tsp. basil
1-1/2 tsp. hot sauce
Ground black pepper to taste
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Peel potatoes and quarter, then cut into bite-sized wedges (like fried potatoes). Put in microwave-safe dish, cover with 1/4 cup water, and make sure the lid is on loosely. Microwave for 6-10 minutes, depending on your machine, until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain off the water and set aside.

Fry bacon over medium heat (for best results, buy fatty bacon). When bacon is dark and stiff, fork out the strips and set aside. Fry onion in bacon grease for 3-5 minutes, then slowly add flour until golden.

Add broth slowly, as well as parsley, basil, hot sauce, black pepper, and garlic powder. Then add cream. Do this all over low-medium heat, since milk can easily burn if heated too high or fast. Add potatoes and simmer all together for 30-45 minutes, until potatoes are soft enough to your liking, but not mush. Then add your cheese and crumble the bacon strips into it.

This is very rich and heavy and will feed a few people, or if you can refrigerate it, it's great heated up later. One big bowl can make a whole meal for me.


(now ... here's the antidote *G*)

Hearty Vegetarian Stew

1 tsp. oil (I like olive)
Small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smooshed
4-5 carrots, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
4 cups mushrooms, sliced
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in bite-sized chunks
2 regular or 4 roma tomatoes, chopped
12 ounces of kidney beans, canned
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
Black pepper to taste
For later
3 tbsp. flour
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup red cooking or regular wine

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms, then cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add little splashes of water, if needed, to keep it from sticking.

Add all other ingredients except for the last three listed, then cover over low heat for 30 minutes or so to simmer, stirring occasionally.

While this is cooking, in a small bowl stir the last three ingredients until smooth. When the soup is done cooking, add this mixture and stir for 5 more minutes, until stew thickens a bit.

Fish out the bay leaf and throw it away, then serve soup with rolls or bread.

(Just a note: You can use packaged things like dried onion or canned tomatoes or mushrooms if that makes your life easier. It's just that I despise canned or frozen vegetables and feel like fresh tastes better and has fewer preservatives or sodium. You'll notice neither of these call for salt - I cut those out of the originals.)

Except with somewhat less butter.

*snicker*

Yeah, that's probably a good idea!

If you have access to an oven to roast vegetables, here's a recipe from The Traveler's Lunchbox, one of my favorite foodie blogs. The recipe is less of an actual recipe than a template, and you can play around and change ingredients. I've always made simple vegetable soups, but when I made this for the first time, it tasted like it came from a restaurant.

Easiest smoothie ever: half a cup of milk, a cup of frozen blueberries or blackberries, and a nice ripe banana. Whir with the hand blender. If you want to thin it out a little, add some more milk.

A word about The Traveler's Lunchbox -- she's been having some issues with her server, so you may have to refresh the page a few times before it actually comes up.

My soup & smoothie recipes are startlingly similar...

Soup: get veg, peel, sweat, add water, whizz in blender, add cream if you want.

Smoothie: get fruit, peel, chop etc., put in blender with yoghurt & whizz.

I generally go with playing around & if something works out I'll do it again, if it doesn't I won't...

Italian escarole soup. It's pretty freeform so I don't really have measurements. But it's terribly difficult to screw it up.

Heat a large can of chicken broth.

Add in some greenery. Traditionally it is done with fresh escarole, which is chopped into small pieces, but fresh or frozen spinach works just as well. If you use frozen, thaw it out or microwave it and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.

Take 2 eggs and beat them with a fork until they are well mixed. Add in a little salt and pepper and a nice palmful of Parmesan cheese. Mix it all up well.

Bring the soup up to a slow boil and add in the egg mixture by slowly pouring the egg mixture into the soup while stirring the soup briskly with a fork. It will cause the eggs to scramble into tiny bits

That's it. It's easy, yummy and great with some toasted garlic bread.

How about another potato soup recipe?

Cheeseburger Potato Soup:

Wash, peel, and chop three or four potatoes. Cover with water plus a couple of inches and season with salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, whatever. Meanwhile, brown 1/2 a pound of hamburger. (More if you want more meat. I'm good with 1/2 a pound.) Throw in some chopped onion with the hamburger too. Once the potato pieces are cooked enough, add the hamburger (after draining, of course). Stir in about a cup to a cup and a half of milk and a chunk of butter. Then add in a handful or two of grated cheese of your choice. Really simple, really easy, really fast. Nothing fancy, but it's quite filling and good for cold days. We get about 5 or 6 bowls out of it.

If you have a crock pot, you can also make beef stew. Add salt and pepper to about a quarter cup of flour and mix it around. Roll chunks of stew meat in it til they're coated, then dump it (minus the excess flour) into the crock pot. Add whatever veggies you want, chopped up. (Mmmmm, peas.... :P) Add in beef broth, diluted some with water if that's your thing, til everything's pretty well covered. Season with whatever you want. I do a couple peppercorns, a bay leaf, some thyme, and some garlic powder. Cook about 5ish hours on high, about 8 on low. Stir it well before serving. Nice and thick, and really good as leftovers.

I have a soup post which includes Rum Chicken Chile Verde, French Onion, and heresluck's Spicy Squash-Corn Soup. I hope that one of those may appeal :)