JeffreyW’s Vegetable Beef Soup
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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I thought I’d focus on vegetables this week. A nice rich vegetable soup as our featured recipe (below) and some ideas to spice up your vegetable sides.
Up first, Ginger Glazed Carrots (recipe here). A really nice side to a roast or fish, a little bit of sweet, a little bit of heat.
Next a Vegetable Stir-fry served over rice or in a bread bowl (recipe here).
And a Cheese and Lemon Cauliflower that is a step above a standard cheese covered cauliflower side (recipe here).
And finally, our featured recipe. It’s vegetarian, but if you want to make vegetable beef soup as in JefferyW’s photo above, do what he did, add leftover roast beef, or a package of browned stew beef, with dash of red wine is never a bad idea. And the best thing about a vegetable soup is, you can add just the veggies you like. Skip the turnip, add some peas, maybe some spinach, forget the mushrooms – whatever makes you happy.
Chunky Vegetable Soup
6 mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 onion, peeled and sliced
2 red potatoes, cubed (peeling opt)
8 oz baby carrots
1 turnip, peeled and cubed
15 oz can white beans
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp basil, crushed
¼ tsp pepper
½ to 1 tsp salt
½ tsp marjoram
32 oz chicken broth (vegetable broth if you prefer vegetarian)
4 cups water
6 oz Ruote (wheel shaped pasta)
4 oz shredded mozzarella
slow-cooker, skilletIf you have time, sauté mushrooms and onions in 1 tbsp of butter before adding to the slow-cooker. Otherwise, add all ingredients, except pasta and cheese, to the slow-cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours (following manufacturer’s directions as slow-cookers can vary). Add pasta 20 minutes before serving, turning the slow-cooker up to high and bringing soup to a low boil. Once pasta is tender, serve with shredded cheese.
Count Ulster
Try using Guinness in lieu of red wine.
Raven
Make potato peel and garlic stock instead of chicken to be a true lettuce head.
Violet
Oh my gosh I can’t wait to try that lemon cauliflower recipe. I harvested some cauliflower a few days ago and have plenty more to use up and more on the way. Yum!
TaMara (BHF)
@Violet: Have you ever tried mashed cauliflower? It’s made like mashed potatoes, and has a creamy texture and buttery flavor.
I think this is the recipe my friend uses: foodnetwork.com/recipes/george-stella/mock-garlic-mashed-potatoes-recipe/index.html
Violet
@TaMara (BHF): Yeah I have. It’s yummy.
Yutsano
@Violet: Cauliflower is on sale at the store. I’m very tempted to get a bunch and indulge myself mightily before my two and a half weeks of unmitigated hell.
RSA
The Vegetable Stir-fry looks really good. (The lattice bread bowl, too, but too much work for me.) I didn’t realize you could use olive oil in a wok, but checking online I discover that different kinds of olive oil have different smoke points.
Maude
@Yutsano:
If I don’t see you in a thread and you are talking about surgery, good luck. I’ve known people who have had it and it isn’t as bad as they thought it would be.
Yutsano
@RSA: EVOO has a really low relative smoke point. The later in the pressing, the more the smoke point goes up. They actually use olive oil for deep frying in Italy and it’s supposed to taste fantastic.
Yutsano
@Maude: They’re discussing two possible courses, maybe three depending on what the MRI shows. Last time I had an X-ray there was no visible scarring, this time it showed up, so there has been some further deterioration. I’m thinking they shouldn’t try to save me so drastically in the future. :)
scav
my current love is roasted cauliflowers but the real reason of this is the solid chortle provoked from reading “Lots of Vegetables” while still having the “First Day of Congress” neuron firing.
David in NY
Made this last night for today. Great if you get a good chuck roast and cook slowly, about three hours for a three-pounder. Will not serve more than 4 — three of us (including one male under 30) demolished it, it was so good.
markbittman.com/sunday-supper-classic-pot-roast
bemused senior
The pictured dinner looks much like ours. But I made soup from the backs, necks, wingtips and giblets of our Christmas Eve ducks, with added garlic (5-6 cloves), carrots (1/2 a frozen bag of baby carrots), 2 onions, a poblano pepper chopped, 2 ribs of celery, and the approx. half a can of pumpkin puree left after the New Years pumpkin pie. Seasoned with a handful of Spice Hunter garlic-herb sensation (highly recommended), salt and pepper. Baked and served the second half of the New Years dinner rolls (from the Sunset Book of Breads 1st edition.)
RSA
@Yutsano:
Thanks for the info. (I don’t think I’ve ever had deep fried food the few times I’ve been in Italy. But I have liked some calamari and stuffed rice balls at Italian restaurants here in the U.S. Maybe it was olive oil…)
Cathie from Canada
My father used to say that no beef stew should ever be without a turnip, and I have found this to be true. Though I am no turnip fan, they give a flavour to beef stews that you just cannot get any other way. And they don’t taste particularly strong themselves when they’re part of a stew. So gird the loins, take out the sharp knife, and give your wrists a workout by peeling then chopping a small turnip, and throwing it in.
bemused
@scav:
Roasted cauliflower is one of our regular side dishes. Love the sweetness that roasting brings out. I coat it in olive oil with some ground pepper and add grated parmesan when it’s done. Sometimes I add minced garlic toward the end of the roasting. Yummy and so easy. I will often roast carrots too for the same meal. Great healthy comfort food in the cold winter season.
It’s a little surprising that more people haven’t caught on to roasted cauliflower. I brought a side dish to a couple of pot lucks, people loved it and now they are frequent cauliflower roasters too.