So a week after my promise to try to keep the posting momentum going, I’ve fallen behind again. I haven’t been idle, tough. In addition to the day job and the freelance work (which takes me longer and longer to do, the less of it I have, ironically enough), I’ve been making soup. Lots and lots of soup! The weekly soup pot is my new cooking obsession. It’s simple, healthful, there are new options with every season, and there’s no better way to stretch your dime with good home cooking. And as things get chillier outside, nothing satisfies like a hot bowl of soup! (Skub would agree)
Ever since reading Michael Polan’s excellent The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve tried my best to stick to seasonal and local foods whenever possible, which is not only good for the Earth, but it’s great for improving your cooking skills as it keeps you from falling into culinary ruts. Last week, the market was overflowing with fresh Dungeoness Crabs, so I decided to make a crab gumbo served over wild rice. (Okay, so I cheated the seasonal thing here with out-of-season Okra…) This week, it was the fresh greens that moved me, so I made a Kale/Lentil/Soyrizo soup with yogurt that fused Indian and Spanish tastes to remarkably good effect. I started with a recipe on Epicurious, then went to town with some variations that I’ll share here:
A recipe, for you:
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 bunches of fresh kale, stems trimmed away, coarsely chopped
- 1 package of Soyrizo
- 1 cup red or green lentils
- 1 can garbanzo beans
- 2 large carrots, sliced
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 10 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tbps each curry powder, garam masala and cayenne pepper
- Plain Yogurt (1/4 cup per serving)
- Cilantro (for garnish)
- Salt and pepper to taste (preferably grey salt, right, Michael Chiarello?)
- Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender
- Stir in ½ the Soyrizo and the spices
- Stir in the Kale and cook until wilted ( 5 minutes)
- Add everything else!
- Simmer for about half an hour, with a lid on the pot, until the lentils are tender
- Heat up the rest of the soyrizo until crumbly
- Serve soup with a healthy dollop of yogurt on top, sprinkled with soyrizo and a few leaves of cilantro.
I know, I know. Actually reading recipes is so old fashioned – but we can’t all do our cooking with the Nintendo DS like Lisa Kudrow. But if you’re looking for a new tastesplosion of the soupy kind, this recipe’s a keeper. I’d post a picture, but right now I’m camera-less. It looks something like this, though (only tastier). I wonder where the farmer’s market will lead me next week? As long as I don’t stuck with just persimmons for my soup, I’m sure it’ll be okay.
PS, Wordpress 2.7 is great!
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And here’s my recipe for soup:
1. Boil Water
2. Put noodles in pot
3. Cook Noodles.
4. Put noodles in bowl (Optional)
5. Eat.
Pretty damn good recipie if I don’t say so myself! (University cuisine at it’s finest!).
I’ve become quite fond of cooking lately. My mom’s been keeping me busy by asking me to make cookies for a christmas work dinner their having this week. Yesterday’s didn’t look quite well. Today I’m making “chocolate bonanza” with nuts.
Other cuisines I’ve dared myself and my lackluster kitchen to make are:
omelet,
noodles,
ravioli,
and shrimp.
Kristi, your recipe makes me so thankful I am well past the days of university cuisine x_x
Kristi,
When I was in university housing, I had a trick for cheap/easy meal diversity. Basically, I kept a tupperware container with onions, garlic, red bell peppers and mushrooms chopped and ready to go. Then, as needed, I’d toss them into ramen, an omelet or pasta. Supplement with olive oil, cheese and basil, and you’ve got a diverse and super-cheap menu to choose from!
Ha! Ironically, D and I just finished making chocolate cover pretzel sticks to give as Xmas gifts. Last year we tried to do it didn’t turn out that well…
I mean, who’d suspect you could burn chocolate?
Remember that chocolate bonanza thing I told you all about? Yeah, that didn’t go so well. Added too much water so…yeah, not good.
I missed the chocolate bonanza thing. Care to bring me up to speed?
My sister L can burn water. No joke.
You’re sister’s name is “L”? Death Note! Death Note!
Seriously, she would be the ideal match for L. And they even sit similarly. It’s too freaky at times… The only thing Death Note L wouldn’t like about her is the fact that if she gets to much sugar or caffeine she loose all coherency. And I don’t mean she becomes bouncing and happy like Misa-Misa-chan; she just sits there and twitches and laughs at really weird things.
Hmm… Sounds like the polar opposite of L. He just sits there and shares his genious. Your sis just twitches and laughs. Haha. Misa-chan has her serious moments. I don’t understand how anyone can survive with a posture like L’s.
Oh, Spanish food! What can I say about Spanish food if I’m from Spain? I think the ingredient which makes the mediterranean food so healthy is olive oil. We use olive oil for any fried plate.
In Spain, a similar plate of this recipe [with garbanzos, chorizo (a soyrizo animal, not vegetable), olive oil...] is called cocido. It’s typical from my city (Madrid) but we don’t add yogurt! I suppose that is from Indian food.
Maya,
I totally agree about olive oil being the secret ingredient. Jess and I use it in practically everything (except when I do Asian food). When I first started buying groceries for myself, I though oil is oil and got the $3 vegetable oil — what a mistake! Now I get a good quality oil that costs a lot more, but tastes so wonderful, you can use it plain on bread or pasta and taste the olivey goodness. Considering that your oil informs the flavor of everything you make, this is no place to skimp!