Roasted Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 bell peppers, sliced and with seeds removed

olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 or 2 carrots, chopped

2 or 3 stalks celery, chopped

2 to 4 cloves garlic

1 clamshell cherry tomatoes (or 2 to 3 large tomatoes, or 4-6 smaller ones)

1 1/2 quarts vegetable broth or water plus 2 cubes bouillon

herbs, fresh or dried—try any combination of basil, thyme, oregano and/or marjoram

salt and pepper to taste

TOPPINGS— Try serving with croutons, tortellini, crusty bread or even tortilla chips, and of course, pile on this week’s purple kohlrabi microgreens (or any microgreens you’ve got around) and parsley (or other chopped leafy greens like kale or arugula) to feed the good stuff to your gut microbiome! Don’t forget the slice of lemon or lime on the side.

INSTRUCTIONS

Pan roast the bell pepper in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes, until the skin starts to blister and it gets brown in spots.

Add the onion and saute for a few more minutes until it’s a bit transparent and also starts to brown

Add the carrots, celery, garlic, salt and pepper with a bit more olive oil and saute a couple more minutes

Add the tomatoes and stir fry another minute or two.

Add the broth or water and bouillon and herbs and cover and let simmer for 10 to 20 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup or remove from heat, let cool a bit and then puree in a blender.

Serve with your choice of croutons, crusty bread, tortellini or tortilla chips (so many directions to take it!) and top with microgreens, parsley or other leafy greens, and a slice of lemon or lime on the side.

Minestrone Soup

This flexible recipe is a lovely meal all on its own. It’s specially exciting if you have some pesto and croutons to top it.

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 or 4 carrots, sliced

2 celery sticks (optional, but add lots of good flavor)

4 to 6 cloves garlic

1/2 cup tomato paste, or 1 cup of tomato sauce, or 3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

2 potatoes and/or 1 or 2 zucchini or other summer squash and/or green beans, or other seasonal veggies, chopped

2 cups spinach and/or kale and/or turnip greens and/or beet greens or other seasonal greens

1 tbs fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

2 or 3 bay leaves

8 to 10 cups water and 3 cubes vegetable bouillon or 8 cups liquid vegetable broth

1 tsp salt or more as desired

1 tsp pepper (optional, but cooks in to add wonderful flavor)

1 cup pasta (elbow, rotini or shell pasta works well)

2 to 3 cups cooked white beans (black eyed peas work well, too!)

Optional Toppings—

lemon juice

parmesan or nutritional yeast

parsley

basil

microgreens

INSTRUCTIONS

In a pan, saute onions with olive oil for a few minutes, when starting to become translucent, add chopped garlic, carrots and celery and saute for 3 more minutes. Add a splash of water if it’s looking too dry

In a pot, add the water and bouillon or vegetable broth, cooked beans, sauteed onion, carrots, celery and garlic, chopped potatoes/zucchini, summer squash/green beans, herbs and spices, cover and bring to a medium boil for 10 or 15 minutes, until the potato is cooked through

Add pasta and greens and boil for a few more minutes until the pasta is cooked.

Serve hot and serve with any or all of the optional toppings for your steamy enjoyment!

Green Potato Leek Soup with Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 to 3 large leeks, thinly sliced

3 to 4 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 to 4 cups greens, thinly sliced and then chopped up into small short pieces (Here, you can consider using up all the limp celery you didn’t get to in the last weeks, leaves and all! Kale, collards, spinach, turnip or beet greens, chard all will work. Mix and match. This is your chance to clear out the old greens to make space for the new!

2 to 3 potatoes, sliced into 1-inch slices and then cut into half moons (No, I don’t peel my potatoes! But I do make sure they’re organic. If you don’t have access to organic potatoes, maybe it is worth the trouble of peeling them. Potatoes are amongst the heaviest-pesticide-carrying crop in the industrialized agriculture fields.)

salt and pepper to taste

2 to 3 bay leaves

1 to 2 tsp thyme

8 to 10 cups veggie broth (or chicken broth if that’s your jam) If I’m using bouillon cubes, I will use 2 cubes Edward & Sons Not-Chick’n and 2 cubes Garden Veggie.

10 to 12 mushrooms (or more!), sliced in fourths (This is about what you’d find in an 8oz box at the grocery store)

fresh parsley leaves and/or microgreens for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

Place mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, or until beginning brown, sizzle and crisp a little bit.

Heat oil in pan and saute sliced leeks sprinkled with salt and pepper on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add garlic (and celery, if you’re going with that!) and stir fry for a couple more minutes.

In a pot, add the veggie broth or water and bouillon cubes, bay leaves, thyme, potatoes, greens and your sauteed leek and garlic goodness. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and simmer until potatoes are cooked through. Turn off heat when ready.

Now, the quick and easy way to finish up is to get your potato masher (metal please! Don’t stick plastic into your boiling liquid!) and semi-mash your potatoes directly in the soup pot. This leaves you with a soupy/chunky mix that I love to serve topped with croutons and pan-fried veggie italian sausage. Although, doubling the mushrooms is healthier and often filling enough for me to skip the sausage.

Alternatively, and perhaps, more traditionally for a potato-leek soup, you can blend it smooth. An immersion blender works great and you can better control how smooth you want the soup to be. The last method I would suggest, if you love your soup smooth and creamy, is to let it cool a bit, then transfer into your blender. The big blender is faster than the immersion blender, gets it smoother, but takes more patience waiting for the soup to cool enough to transfer to the blender, and then, of course, there’s more clean up because you’re stuck washing the blender. Blend and return to your pot (reheat if necessary) and serve topped with your garnish and mushrooms. The upside of blending to me, is that the kids tend to eat more greens this way. Can’t pick them out if it’s all blended up!

Beet Soup

For the more authentic Classic Polish Borscht (a.k.a. Barszcz) recipe that inspired this post, click here! My version has simplified the process (I didn’t boil the beets whole, then remove half to dice them up, for example…) and includes more of our in-season veggies (gotta get the greens in when you can!).

Sometimes you just need soup on a cold winter day. Other times you just need soup to have a good excuse to eat more bread on a cold winter day. Once in a while, beet soup is just the right thing to nourish your body and brighten up your afternoon. Try it this week!

INGREDIENTS

2 or 3 beets, chopped into small cubes

1 or 2 turnips, chopped into small cubes (optional)

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 or 3 celery stalks, chopped

a couple of handfuls of dried shitake mushroom (or other dried mushrooms)

3 vegetable bouillon cubes (I used Edward & Sons Not-Beef)

and/or (if you’re not going for a vegetarian meal) 1 lb beef bones

8 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

3 bay leaves

2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp marjoram (optional)

1 to 3 cups greens, finely chopped (try using your turnip and beet greens here, and/or spinach and/or kale)

4 to 6 green onions, chopped

3 tbs fresh lemon juice

parsley, cilantro and/or microgreens (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Add all ingredients (except the greens, green onions,lemon juice, parsely, cilantro & microgreens) to a pot with around 12 cups water

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so, until beets are cooked through.

Add greens and green onions and simmer for 3 to 5 more minutes

Turn off heat and stir in the lemon juice before serving.

Serve with crusty bread or croutons. Garnish with parsley, cilantro and/or microgreens!

Vegetarian Menudo Recipe

I know, I know, it’s a stretch, for anyone acquainted with authentic menudo, to believe it can be made vegetarian. For those of you standing in disbelief—disregard the title of this post and let’s just call this a caldo de verduras. For those of you, like me, that have been witness to the wonders of menudo the morning after a long night of New Year’s Eve partying…but just happen to have made the choice to stick to a vegetarian diet, try this nourishing soup and call it what you want! A special thank you to my Tia Carolina and her audacious friend that invented a recipe and called it veggie menudo. Prior to her sharing it, I, too, thought it impossible. I’d always just stuck to veggie pozole. They aren’t that different, given the absence of meats that differentiate the traditional versions. To fulfill my own crazy need for categories, I’m reserving the cabbage and radish toppings for my veggie pozole. So, here is my version of veggie menudo, using this week’s in-season veggies. If you’d rather make the “real thing”, here’s a recipe for you.

Ingredients:

For the soup—

1 large onion, chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 handful celery tops

2 big handfuls dried shitake mushrooms (we buy these at our local Vietnamese grocery store)

2 tbs dried oregano

1 tsp lemon pepper

1 tsp dried chile flakes (optional)

6 small carrots or 3 large ones, sliced

1/2 head of Napa cabbage, sliced

1 cup spinach, sliced

6 cups hominy OR 1 large yucca root, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch slices (yes, I know this isn’t traditional but it saved me a trip to the grocery store and it did the trick!)

radish microgreens

lemon

tortillas de maíz

For the sauce— (mind you, this step is optional, if you’re ok with less work and a lighter broth or just spicing it up with chile flakes. Yes, I used chiltepin! On the other hand, if you want to go for it, you can make lots and then use the leftover sauce to make enchiladas another day)

6 guajillo (dried) peppers

1 tsp cumin

1 cup broth (from your menudo pot)

3 cloves garlic

Instructions:

Set aside a little bit of onion for garnish and sauté the rest of the onion in a pan with a little olive oil until translucent and a tiny bit browned.

Add the garlic and celery leaves and dried mushrooms with a little more olive oil and sauté for another minute

In a pot, add about 10 cups water along with the sautéed onions, garlic and celery leaves, 4 cubes veggie broth (this time, I used two “Not Beef” cubes, one “Not Chicken” and one “Garden Veggie” cube from Edward & Sons), oregano, lemon pepper and optional chile.

Once it’s boiling, add your veggies and the cooked hominy or yucca root.

If you’re going for the sauce, too, here’s what to do:

Toast the guajillo peppers in a pan

Break or slice the peppers and soak them in a bowl with broth from the soup until soft (maybe 10 minutes). Press them down into the broth so they soak thoroughly and put a lid on the bowl to keep the heat in and speed up the process.

Then blend them in the blender along with the broth, cumin and garlic.

Serve your menudo topped with radish microgreens, a squeeze of lemon, sauce to taste and a warm tortilla on the side.

Chard Carrot and Potato Dal

Chard is a powerful, nutrient dense green—standing out for its vitamin K content, lots of vitamins A C and E, iron and calcium. It’s known as anti-inflammatory to promote heart health and regulate blood sugar.

Thanks to Kelli Mcgrane for the recipe that informed this post. I have tweaked it a bit, doubling her original recipe, simplifying the steps a bit and changing the order so the greens don’t cook as long. Finally, this version has more liquid because any kind of dal makes me crave the first course served at Taste of the Himalayas, which is simply soupy and delicious. What better way to eat lots of chard?

Serves 6

Ingredients

4 tbs oil (try 1 tbs sesame and 1 tbs olive or coconut oil)

6 cloves garlic , peeled and chopped

3 inch piece of ginger, chopped or grated

2 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs ground turmeric

1 tbs salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped

4 to 6 carrots, sliced

1 bunch swiss chard, chopped

4 small or 2 large potatoes (try gold or red potatoes!), chopped into large cubes

1 cup red lentils

6 cups water

1 cube veggie bouillon

pea shoots or microgreens

Instructions:

Heat oil in a pan. Add spices and cook for 30 seconds.

Add onion and garlic and cook until onions are translucent.

Add carrots and cook until they start to crisp (maybe 6 minutes)

Add potatoes, water and veggie bouillon and bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 20 minutes until lentils and potatoes are cooked. Add chard and cook for a couple more minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy. Goes well with a side of rice and topped with microgreens or pea shoots!

Persian-Inspired Pomegranate Soup

Two of my favorite things in life—caldo (that is, soup) and granada (that is, pomegranate). So, what a mind-expanding experience, for me, to learn that they go together beautifully and that Persian culture has been eating this for many, many generations. We are lucky enough to have a tree in our yard and another hanging over from our neighbor’s yard. So, I’ve learned as that pomegranates are a delight to share. I think one of my warmest memories of early motherhood will always be sitting out in a sunny spot in our yard and sharing a pomegranate with an eager two-year old—the excitement of carefully opening it up and seeing that it’s a good one(!), the joint effort to not waste a single juicy seed, and the rush to gently remove each section fast enough to satisfy our two appetites. But, this beautiful experience takes time and it’s not a meal. The soup, on the other hand, is warming, filling, delicious and quite nutritious.

Ingredients:

1 bulb onion

2 cloves garlic

2 1-inch pieces of fresh turmeric root or 1 tsp turmeric powder

2 celery stalks 

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup red lentils AND 1/2 cup mung beans (or 1 cup of either)

1/4 cup barley

1 heaping tsp salt

1 veggie bouillon cube

1 cup tightly packed greens (swiss chard, spinach, collards or kale)

1 tbs thyme

1 pomegranate (½ crushed and put in the soup, ½ fresh as a topping)

Cilantro (as a topping)

Pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Saute onion, garlic, turmeric, celery and cumin

2. Add sauteed mix to pot with lentils, mung beans and barley with 6 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes or until barley is cooked.

Note on Barley: Pearled barley cooks faster, but is less nutritious because it’s been stripped of its bran; Hulled barley takes 20 to 25 minutes longer to cook, but has more nutrition and is considered a whole grain. Read more on the different types of barley and how to cook them here.

3. Add mashed pomegranates and greens. I like to add these ingredients towards the end of the simmer so the greens are just slightly cooked.

Serve hot and top with cilantro, pomegranate and pepper to taste.

Cheese Squash Soup with Collards and Fried Pear

This recipe is inspired by this Sage and Apple Soup NYT Recipe, but I’ve slightly modified it to better use what’s in season and in our box this week.

Here goes!

Ingredients:

1 long island cheese squash (any other winter squash could also do!), cut in half

1 onion

6 cups veggie broth

12 sage leaves (good excuse to go on a hike and harvest a few!)

a few collard leaves, finely chopped

1 cup olive oil

2 pears

salt and pepper to taste

microgreens

Instructions:

1. Remove seeds from squash (clean and set aside to roast for a yummy snack!)

2. Rub open face of squash with olive oil, sprinkle with salt. Place on a baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake at 400 for 30 to 45 minutes, or until soft.

3. Chop onion and saute with a bit of olive oil then set aside.

4. Add rest of oil and fry sage leaves for about 8 seconds, then remove leaves and set aside on a plate lined with a paper towel.

5. Add the pumpkin seeds to the sage-infused oil and for about 20 seconds or until they look toasted. When ready, remove the seeds from the oil and place on a plate lined with a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

6. Once squash is cooked, scoop out the meat and put in a large pot if you have an immersion blender or place in regular blender with some veggie broth, onion and 1 sliced pear. Blend then cook in the large pot with rest of veggie broth, collards and a spoonful or two of the leftover sage-infused oil for about 10 minutes.

7. Saute rest of pear slices for a few minutes in the last bit of sage-infused oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

8. Serve up the soup! Add the fried pear, squash seeds and microgreens as toppings.

Long Island Cheese Squash is a winter squash named after its shape that resembles a wheel of cheese. If you have the space, buy or save a few seeds to try growing this beautiful pumpkin next year!

Green Barley Soup with Roasted Root Veggies

This simple barley soup is nourishing and filling—it leaves me feeling warm inside. Barley is known for boosting milk production in breastfeeding mothers, but it’s good for you in so many more ways. Together with the root veggies and greens, this is a stay-healthy-and-strong meal for all.

Ingredients

2 cups barley

3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

8 cups water

bouillon (I used 1 cube Edward & Sons Garden Veggie, 1 Not-Chick’n and two tbs mushroom seasoning)

1 tbs pepper

4 cups root veggies (carrots, turnips, radish and/or beets) thinly sliced (to about a 1/4 inch)

salt

pepper

olive oil

1 box tofu (optional for a protein boost), in 1/2 inch slices. Try it sprinkled with garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper.

1 or 2 bunches of greens, sliced (try turnip greens and/or spinach)

3 cups water (or enough to cover the immersion blender blades)

microgreens (we have pea shoots this week!)

lemon or lime

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a pot, add barley, garlic, bouillon, 1 tbs pepper and 8 cups water. Bring to a boil then simmer over medium heat for about an hour until barley is cooked. Hulled barley may take 20 minutes or so longer to cook than pearl barley. If you presoak your barley overnight, or at least a few hours, it will cook in 40 minutes or so.

3. On a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper for easy clean-up), spread a layer of root veggies (I used carrots for first layer). Salt and pepper to taste and drizzle with olive oil. Then add second layer (I used radish and turnips this time, but beets also make a delicious addition to this combination). Salt, pepper and drizzle again. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until they are tender and a bit crispy.

If you’re adding the tofu to this meal, spread it on a second baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with oil. Try roasted sesame oil for extra flavor. Bake along with the root veggies.

4. In another pot, add three cups water and the sliced greens. Cover and cook over medium heat until just wilted. Then blend using an immersion blender, if you’ve got it. Otherwise, you can let cool a bit, then transfer into a regular blender. Add the blended greens to the barley pot.

5. Serve a bowl of green barley soup and top with roasted veggies and fresh microgreens and a dash of lemon or lime.

Sinigang-Inspired Tamarind Soup

This recipe was adapted from here.

Right up front, I want to tell you that I’m not of Filipino descent, nor have I had the pleasure of tasting an authentic bowl of Sinigang (which is Tagalog for “stewed [dish]”). However, I’ve heard of this dish for years and have yearned to try it. Being vegetarian, I haven’t found a Filipino restaurant that offers veggie options. If you have, PLEASE let me know where it’s at! In the meantime, I want to thank Vicki for reminding me that this soup exists and encouraging me to try to make it myself. Being Mexican, I am always excited about any food with tamarind in it! And I can’t seem to get enough caldo (stew), no matter the weather or time of day. So, here’s my attempt at making a pot of vegetarian Sinigang using in-season veggies from this week’s Fresh Five CSA.

INGREDIENTS:

2 small onions, chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbs oil (palm, or olive)

1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms (these, I get from our local vietnamese market)

12 cups water

28oz can of tomato sauce or 4 fresh tomatoes, finely chopped

2 or 3 tbs tamarind paste (more if you love sour; I use Aunt Patty’s Tamarind Paste, which I can usually find at Sprouts. I love it because I don’t have to spend a bunch of time picking seeds out)

3 cups turnips or radish, chopped

3 cups carrots, chopped

1 bunch of turnip greens and/or spinach, finely chopped (2 to 3 cups)

1 or 2 boxes tofu (depending on whether you want this soup as a side dish or the main course)

1 tbs salt

1 tbs pepper

miso paste

microgreens (This week, we have kale, kohlrabi and arugula. The more spicy ones are great for soup toppings, too—Try last week’s cress!)

Instructions:

1. Saute onions in oil (I used palm oil) until translucent and slightly browned

2. Add garlic and shiitake and saute for another minute

3. In a pot, add water, tamarind paste, tomato, chopped root veggies, greens, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer until veggies are cooked.

4. Serve hot and mix in a spoonful of miso paste to each bowl. Top with a handful of microgreens.