Guiltless Leek and Potato Soup (in only 4 ingredients!)

Posted by amanda in budget, butter, easy, healthy, leek, potato, recipe, soup, vegetarian

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Leek season is upon us! It's a fleeting time of year - a brief period of time when it makes any kind of budgetary sense to buy leeks. Onions and I have a troubled relationship made complicated by my uncooperative digestive system. Leeks however, have never done me wrong. What's more, leeks, like other onions, are great for lowering cholesterol, which is all well and good as long as you don't slather them in cream and butter, which are the leeks most common pot-fellows. So, with that in mind, here is a super easy recipe for leek and potato soup sans cream (but with butter). I think this would be worth a shot with margarine, or even without butter at all, but I can't say I've tried it. Let me know how it works out if you do!

You'll need:

• Soup pot
• hand blender (other blenders are fine, just messier)

• 3 large leeks, cleaned and sliced
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 2-3 tbsp butter (depending on how much leek you get...they tend to vary a lot in size)
• two russet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 bay leaf (optional)

 Let's do it!:

•  To prepare your leeks:
•  wash all visible dirt off the outsides to keep your cutting board clean
• Chop off the dark green leaves, leaving light green ones (they're perfectly fine in a soup)
• Slice off the root and about 1/2-1 inch of the bottom white section, leaving as much as possible.
• cut in half the long way. It doesn't have to be perfect- remember you're going to puree these anyways
• Wash out all the dirt you can (I like to give them a good scrub using a vegetable brush) from the outside and inside of the leaves
• Slice width-wise to get nice, manageable half-rounds of leek. 

• Melt butter in your soup pot.
• Add the leeks, and stir to coat.
• Cook down for anywhere from 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until your leeks look translucent. I set my burner to medium heat and it worked well.
• Add potatoes, stir.
• Add bay leaf, if you're using one.
• Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until potatoes begin to soften.
• Add stock.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for another ten minutes or so.
• Let cool.
• Remove bay leaf .
• Once cooled, blend with the hand blender.

Serve hot, with freshly cracked black pepper if you like.

Sweet and Spicy Squash Soup

Posted by amanda in easy, recipe, soup, squash, vegetarian

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Unfortunately, my photo makes the soup look a little blue.

 It's not.

Butternut squash is a great fall staple, and it's becoming a regular in my house. This soup makes excellent use of its nutty sweetness by balancing the squash with silky coconut and a bright kick of ginger.

You're gonna need:

• a big soup pot
• a blender or some kind (preferably immersion/hand)

• 1-1.5 butternut squash, peeled and in big chunks
• 1 onion, diced/chopped
• 1-2 tbsp minced ginger (you can add this as you go along, tasting until you've added what's right for you and your buds)
• 1-2 dried chillies (again, evaluate your own interest in spice)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 can coconut milk (light if you can get it, but I used the regular cooking kind)
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tsp curry powder (optional)
• freshly cracked black pepper 

To peel and dice your squash:

Use a heavy kitchen knife (I used the biggest one I had) to slice the top and bottom "caps" off the squash, creating a flat bottom to make it stand safely.

Use a potato peeler to skim the skin off the squash - try to take the layer of tough skin off without removing too much of the flesh.

Cut the squash lengthwise and widthwise, into four pieces. Scoop out the guts with a spoon. Cut the now cleaned and naked squash into large chunks.

To make the soup:

Sautée the onion, chillies, and ginger in the olive oil over medium heat until the mixture is fragrant and the onion becomes translucent.

Stir in the butternut squash and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add stock, curry, and coconut milk, mixing well. 

Cook until the squash has become tender.

Once the squash is softened, blend right in the pot if you are fortunate enough to own a hand blender.

Serve hot, seasoned with fresh black pepper.

Variation: if you like your soup thicker than thinner, try including a cauliflower as a thickener. Add cauliflower florets to the first mixture so it can absorb all the soup's great flavours.

Easy Peasy Split Peas Soup!

Posted by amanda in easy, healthy, soup, vegan, vegetable

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OOOOhhh BABY those cold nights are coming on! Nothing says cozy on a crisp Fall evening like pea soup and a fuzzy blanket! Here's a super easy recipe courtesy of my Nanny!

Metric	Ingredients	Imperial
500 ml	split peas (green or yellow)	2 cup
2 L	cold water	8 cup
2	celery stalks, chopped	2
2	medium carrots, chopped	2
2	small onions, chopped	2
-	salt & pepper to taste	-

Rinse peas in colander with cold water. Place in large saucepan. Add cold water and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to simmer and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until peas are soft.

Add celery, carrots, onions, salt and pepper. Bring back to boil and simmer, covered, for another 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Serves 6

Chunky Healthy Hearty: Fresh Mediterranean Tomato, Spinach and Lentil Soup

Posted by amanda in healthy, lemon, mediterranean, recipe, soup, spinach, vegetarian

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In my first summer of vegetarianism I quickly realized how hard it is to get a good canned soup that fulfills all the needs I was speedily coming to understand as a veggie newbie: how do you keep vegetables from getting boring? How do you keep homemade soup from coming out stringy or too salty? The answer on that fateful day was lemon lemon lemon. And spinach. And a giant pot.

This soup is incredibly inexpensive to make, lasts for days, and only gets better the longer it sits in your fridge. Besides what's listed here you can throw in basically any vegetable you've got on hand, which for me is usually carrots (throw them in first). I've tossed in precooked chunks of potato in the past too (only to heat them if they're well cooked), to great avail. I almost always double this recipe. Your house will smell sooooo good I promise.

You're gonna need:

1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp (5 mL) dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp (2 mL) each dried oregano and thyme leaves

Pinch each dried rosemary leaves, crumbled, and pepper

My pinches are more like small handfuls to be honest

3 cups (750 mL) vegetable stock

1 can (28 oz/796 mL) diced tomatoes, including juice

1 can (19 oz/540 mL) lentils.

DRAINED AND RINSED PEOPLE, DRAINED AND RINSED. Nobody likes Lentil juice.

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3 cups (750 mL) fresh baby spinach leaves

Of course you can use frozen, but it's just not the same. Frozen spinach will break up more easily and does taste a little bit different

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Optional, but highly recommended if you can get the good stuff

Have on hand:

Large (and I mean large) soup pot/saucepan, preferably with handles for leverage when you stir this baby - the soup's really chunky so it can take a little muscle and you don't want this all over your kitchen floor (believe me).

Go to!:

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery, onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in seasonings, vegetable stock, tomatoes, lentils and lemon juice.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 5 minutes. Stir in spinach leaves until wilted, about 30 seconds, really not much longer. Serve with Parmesan, if desired. Grate lemon zest as garnish if you're into that and love the lemon.

Makes 8 cups (2 L), 4 servings.

Bonus!

Tomato Tip: If you have canned whole tomatoes rather than diced, an easy way to cut them up is using kitchen shears. Pour tomato liquid into soup (to avoid messy overflow) and cut tomatoes in the can.

Nutritional Info

Per Serving: 280 cal, 20 g protein, 6 g fat, 42 g carb, 10 g fibre, 1265 mg sodium. Excellent source vit A, vit C, folate, niacin, thiamin, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc. Very high source dietary fibre (take note!)

Calories : 280 (AMAZING)

photo from: www.treehugger.com