Chilled Roasted Strawberry Soup

I love cold fruit soups in the summer. There's something so fun and expected about them, like having dessert before dinner. What makes them appetizers, though, and not dessert, is that they're not out and out sweet.

The blueberry soup that I wrote about a few years ago (still a regular in our summer rotation) definitely leans more towards sweet than savory, with its strong hit of blueberry and cinnamon undertones. But it's not so sweet that you feel like you're eating blueberry yogurt.

This roasted strawberry soup is even more restrained. I add only a teaspoon or so of sugar. Just enough to cut any tartness in the berries. Roasting the berries intensifies their flavors. The sherry adds a bit of richness. And the yogurt smooths it all out.

Serve this soup very cold, in small clear glasses, with or without spoons. It's a really fun and informal way to kick off a summer meal.

Start with red, ripe strawberries.

Halve berries and toss with sherry.

Spread berries evenly on a large baking sheet.

Roast until the strawberries start to break down and caramelize a little.

Transfer the berries and their juices to a food processor. 

Process until smooth.

Add Greek yogurt to the food processor.

Blend again until well mixed. Thin with water if needed.

Refrigerate the soup until cold. Enjoy!

  

Chilled Roasted Strawberry Soup

Recipe slightly adapted from The View From Great Island

2 pints strawberries

3 Tbsp dry Sherry

16 oz Greek yogurt 

1 Tbsp lemon juice or Sherry vinegar if needed

1.    Set oven to 400F

2.    Wash and trim the strawberries. Cut the larger ones in half. Put them in a bowl and toss with the Sherry.

3.    Spread out the berries in a baking dish big enough for them to be in a single layer. Roast for about 20 minutes or until the strawberries start to break down and caramelize just a little bit.

4.    Scrape the berries and any juice into the bowl of a food processor, and puree.

5.    Add the yogurt to the processor and blend. Add a little water if the soup seems too thick.

6.    Refrigerate until chilled. Taste before serving and add the lemon juice or vinegar if the soup needs a little tang.

7.    Serve very cold, in small glasses or bowls.

Serves 4 to 6

Creamless Creamy Vegetable Soup

  

On the one hand, I’m so ready for spring. We enjoyed our share of sledding, snow tubing and skiing. But this was one of the coldest, snowiest winters I can remember. I’m ready to walk down the sidewalk without slipping on a patch of ice. I’m ready to leave the house without snow boots, a down coat, hat and mittens. And I’m so ready to put away the shovels and ice scrapers.

But I’m not quite ready to get into shorts and a t-shirt. Blame the hearty stews. The rich pastas. The creamy hot chocolate. That “it’s okay, spring is months away” mentality seems really convincing when there’s two feet of snow on the ground. But I really need to be a little more grounded in reality when the calendar says it's March.

So what to do when the calendar demands healthier, lighter eating but the thermometer suggests that comforting winter dishes are still in order?

Start by making this soup. The creamy texture fools you into thinking you’re eating something rich and indulgent. But you’re not. It’s just tons of veggies simmered in water or stock and then pureed into a creamy soup.

Have a bowl of this soup for dinner. Or have a bowl right before dinner. It’ll fill you up so you won’t eat as much of everything else. Before you know it you’ll be ready for those shorts and t-shirts.

Just please don’t mention bathing suits.

Potatoes give the soup some substance. Other than that, you can really use whatever veggies you have in your fridge. Butternut squash, parsnips, turnips and cauliflower would all be great. This time I used potatoes, zucchini, carrots, leeks and a couple of tomatoes. 

Chop up the veggies and put them in a large saucepan. 

Add enough water, vegetable broth or chicken broth to cover. (I also threw in some thyme.)

Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

Use a regular or immersion blender to puree to whatever consistency you like. I like a smooth puree. But you can leave it a little chunkier if you prefer.

Serve hot.

Creamless Creamy Vegetable Soup

Recipe from The Garlic Press

2 potatoes

2 zucchini

2 leeks

2 carrots

2 tomatoes

(or whatever combination of vegetables you like, in addition to the potatoes)

1 sprig fresh thyme other herb

6 cups (approx.) water, vegetable broth or chicken broth

Salt

Pepper

1.   Chop up vegetables and place them in a large saucepan.

2.   Add enough water or broth to cover.

3.   Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

4.   Remove thyme sprig (if using). Puree using an immersion blender or regular blender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6 to 8

Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta e fagioli. Pasta and beans. We all know the rhyme about beans and what they're good for. But while we tend to remember the second part of the rhyme, we often forget the part about them being “good for your heart.” Beans are naturally low in fat and high in fiber, iron and protein. And they're filling, delicious and easy on the wallet.

This time of year, I can't imagine anything much more comforting that a bowl of beans and pasta. This pasta e fagioli recipe is a little unusual. I think. Not being an Italian grandma, I can’t say this with absolute certainty. But in my (limited) experience, pasta e fagioli is a brothy soup with beans and pasta.

This recipe calls for pureeing half of the beans, which results in a thick, almost stew-like texture with whole beans and pasta mixed throughout. I prefer this texture, particularly in the midst of a Polar Vortex. In the spring or fall, I'd probably leave all of the beans whole, and make this more of a soup. You can also go for a texture that's somewhere in between by adding more broth or pureeing a smaller portion of the beans.

Soak the beans overnight.

The next day, transfer them to a large pot with onion, bay leaf and garlic cloves.

Simmer until tender.

In the meantime, cook bacon in a large saucepan, then remove.

In the same saucepan, lightly brown onion, carrot and celery.

Add thyme and saute for another minute.

Add half of the cooked beans.

Then the chicken broth.

And the diced tomato.

Puree (or mash) the remaining beans with their cooking liquid.

Add the pureed beans to the tomato/bean mixture in the saucepan, along with the pasta.

Give everything a good stir and cook until the pasta is tender.

Stir in the bacon and serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

Pasta e Fagioli 

Recipe slightly adapted from De Lallo

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb dried cranberry beans

4 slices bacon, cut into small pieces

2 onions, 1 halved and 1 chopped

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

8 oz ditalini or other short pasta

Salt and pepper

1.    Rinse and soak dried beans in a large bowl of water overnight.

2.    The next day, drain and rinse the beans again, then transfer to a big pot and add enough cold, unsalted water to cover the beans by 3 to 4 inches. Add one onion, cut in half, one or two bay leaves, and a couple of cloves of garlic, and bring to a boil. Cook briskly for 10 minutes, removing the foam that comes to the top. Reduce the heat and cook the beans gently, uncovered until they are tender. This will take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

3.    In a large saucepan, heat bacon until it is cooked and renders its fat. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

4.    Wipe the pan with a paper towel and heat olive oil over a medium flame. Sauté onion, carrot and celery, until vegetables begin to brown. Add thyme spring and saute for a minute.

5.    Add half of the drained, cooked beans to the saucepan, maintaining a low heat on the remaining beans. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to the saucepan, and cook on a high flame. Add the chicken broth. Next, add the canned peeled tomatoes and stir continuously.

6.    Purée or mash the remaining half of the beans and cooking liquid in the big pot. Add the mashed beans to the soup.

7.    Add the ditalini pasta to the boiling soup. Turn down the heat and simmer until the pasta is cooked. (If needed, add more chicken broth. You may have to cook the pasta longer than the cooking time on the box.)

8.      Once pasta is cooked, stir in the bacon. Cook for another few minutes. The soup will be thick.

9.      When you are ready to serve the soup, top with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Note: You can easily make this soup vegetarian. Just omit the bacon and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Serves 8

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

I'm going to guess what you're thinking. "It's the week before Thanksgiving. Why on earth is she posting a recipe for chicken stock? Why not turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes. Or even gravy, for the love of God?!"

I'll tell you why. Because chicken stock is going to be the backbone of nearly everything on your Thanksgiving table. It's going to moisten the bread in your stuffing. It'll be the foundation of your soup. And you'll reduce it down and add turkey drippings to it to make your gravy. Even my green bean recipe uses a cup of chicken stock.

To put it simply:

delicious chicken stock = delicious Thanksgiving spread

The recipe is here a bare bones, basic chicken stock. It's made with chicken wings (great bone/meat ratio), water, onion, garlic and salt. The flavor is pure chicken. It's a wonderful base for chicken noodle soup, gravy, or any other recipe in which you want the chicken flavor to really shine through.

You can modify this recipe to suit your needs. If you want a more intensely flavored stock, roast or saute the bones first. Or transfer the stock to a saucepan and reduce it down until it's strong enough. (A word of caution: if you think you might reduce the stock, be conservative when adding salt. As the stock reduces down, it will get more and more salty.)

There's also plenty of room to personalize. If you like a more complex stock, add celery, onion, peppercorns and/or a bay leaf. If the stock is destined for matzoh ball soup, throw in some dill. If you're going to use it for an Asian soup or curry, consider adding fresh ginger or star anise.

The recipe is as spare the list of ingredients. Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and turn it on. Ten hours later, strain it. That's it. You're done. This recipe is perfect for the days before Thanksgiving when you're already running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (sorry -- couldn't resist)!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, we haven't finalized this year's Thanksgiving menu yet. But here's what we're thinking, a mix of old favorites and new recipes we're dying to try:

Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Turkey

Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Fennel

Mark Bittman's Make Ahead Gravy

Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Fuji Apple

Sweet Potatoes TBD

Mashed Potatoes TBD

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Super Pumpkiny Pumpkin Pie

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie

Place the chicken wings in your slow cooker.

Add onions, garlic and salt.

Add water and turn the machine on. I cooked the stock on low for 10 hours. And had to be very patient. After 5 hours, it didn't look all that different than it did at hour 1. I started to doubt. 

I shouldn't have. Because at hour 8, it suddenly started to look like this.

And by hour 10, it looked and smelled divine. Okay, I lied. It didn't look divine yet. But it did smell divine.

 Strain out the wings, onions, and "bits."

And you'll have this.

And if you're lucky, a bowl of this.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated

3 pounds uncooked chicken wings

2 1/2 quarts water

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, smashed

2 tsp salt, or more to taste

1.    Place all ingredients in a slow-cooker. Cook on LOW for 10 hours or HIGH for 5 hours.

2.    Strain out chicken parts, onion and garlic. (I strained it twice. The first time, I used a "spider" to remove the chicken pieces and onion. The second time I poured the stock through a sieve lined with a paper towel to catch the little bits that I don't want floating around in my stock).

3.    Use right away, or freeze.

Yield: about 3 quarts

Notes: This stock is not very fatty. But if you'd like, you can refrigerate the stock for a few hours. The fat will congeal, and you can remove it. Also, you can portion the stock out into 1 quart zip loc bags, freeze them flat in your freezer, and use as needed.

Google's Braised Chicken and Kale

  

I came across this recipe in Bon Appetit. It caught my eye because my brother-in-law works for Google and I've heard tales of the food. There's a salad bar of course, and soups and sandwiches and pizza and burgers and pasta. But there are also Chinese and Indian stations, serving noodles, tofu stir fry, daal and saag paneer. You can get carnitas burritos, bi bim bap, sushi and empanadas. Nuts, berries, and freshly squeezed juices. And did I mention that it's all free?

With such a strong reputation for their food, I figured any recipe that Google shared with Bon Appetit would be a winner. But I was stuck on the kale.

My long lost friend, kale.

I haven't eaten kale for almost two years. Not because I don't like it. I do. I did. Until I joined a CSA and got a fat bunch of kale in my box every week for five straight months. I ate it shredded, torn and tossed in salads. I stir fried it with olive oil and garlic, and I served it steamed, with a pat of butter. I made kale chips. And then I just couldn't eat any more kale. 

But now here it was again. And I was considering it. Seriously considering it. When I tasted it in this recipe, it was as if we'd never met before. I'd forgotten its rich earthy flavor. And how it stays just a little bit crisp even when it's cooked.

The recipe was a winner. And kale is back on my grocery list.

Start with bone-in chicken thighs. I bought thighs with skin and bones, then just pulled the skin off. (It's easy if you just grip the skin with a paper towel and pull.)

Sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.

Cook until the chicken is golden brown. It won't be cooked through yet. Give the chicken enough space to brown; you may have to do this step in two batches, as I did.

Cook garlic and onion until tender and golden brown.

Add the chicken (and any chicken juices) back to the pot.

Then add broth, wine, and herbs.

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer...

...until the chicken is cooked through.

 Add the kale. Cover and simmer for about five more minutes...

...until the kale is wilted but still bright green.

I served the chicken and kale over polenta, which was perfect for soaking up the tasty sauce.

Google's Braised Chicken and Kale

Recipe slightly adapted from Bon Appetit

4 chicken legs, drumsticks and thighs separated (I used 8 chicken thighs with bones, skin removed)

1 Tbsp paprika

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced

6 garlic cloves, sliced

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine

2 sprigs rosemary

2 sprigs thyme

1 large bunch kale, center ribs and stems removed, leaves cut into 1-inch strips

Lemon wedges

1.    Sprinkle chicken with paprika; season with salt and pepper.

2.    Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chicken skin side down and cook, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides, 8-10 minutes; transfer to a plate.

3.    Add onion and garlic to pot and cook, stirring often, until softened, 8-10 minutes.

4.    Return chicken to pot. Add broth, wine, and herbs. Bring to a boil; cover. Reduce heat; simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.

5.    Add kale to pot. Cover; cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Discard herbs.

6.    Serve chicken and kale with lemon wedges.

Serves 4