Leek and Potato Soup

When I decided to make some touriere last week I had to buy some leeks. And of course it's cheaper to get a bunch of them rather than only 2 or 3. And as it happened they were on special, big bunches of 6 big leeks for under 5 bucks. Yippy! I immediately thought of making this soup. It's one of my favorite soups ever. Tastes really smooth for a bunch of onions! And when it's cold outside and you feel like having something velvety and comforting, especially after eating so much on Christmas, this soup is amazing. Sometimes I add chick peas to this for extra protein but not this time. I really wanted only the vegetables and that nice leek flavor.

So here's how simple this is to make. You'll need:

3-4 leeks, chopped (i only used 3 'cause they were pretty big, and also keep in mind they will wilt down when they cook!!).
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped.
1 medium yellow onion
2-3 cloves garlic
4-5 cups chicken broth
Salt, pepper, dried thyme, to taste.
1 TBSP each of butter and oil

Saute the leeks, onion and garlic in the butter and oil, on medium heat until it startes to soften. Add the potatoes, season, stir and add the broth.
Bring to simmer than turn down to med-low, semi-cover and cook until everything is soft.
In batches, puree in the blender, until it's all nice and smooth. Return to the pot, on low heat, check the seasonnings, add a bit of milk or cream if you feel like it ( I added about 1/3 cup 2% milk) and you good to go.



The perfect dunking item for this is a nice toasted bread with melted gruyere. Potato and gruyere and really good friends.



Bon appetit!

Veggie-Lentil Soup with Ginger

This is a soup I've been making very often, for the past 5-6 years. It's like a cross between minestrone and curry lentil soup. Sometimes I put italian spices in it but this week I had a bit of fresh ginger left, and since I felt a little cold coming, it was gonna be a gingered soup! By the way, the cold didn't make it!! Killed it right in the bud with this wonderful natural medecine. Seriously, the chinese have it right. Ginger heals. Every time I feel a cold coming, I drink ginger tea or use it generously in a soup, like this one, and done the cold is. Miraculous!
Anyway. Other than that I also had a few vegetables that were getting a little soft in the crisper, and soup is the best for rescuing those rather hopeless veggies...



Like any other soup or stew, start by chopping (and peeling those that require peeling)all the vegetables:

1 carrot
1 celeri
1 onion
1 parsnip
1/2 zucchini(or a whole one, but that's what was left in the bag...)
5-6 asparagus
1/2 yellow pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 big chunk fresh ginger

In 1-2 tablespoons of oil, sautee on medium-high heat, first the carrot, celeri, onion, parsnip and ginger. Those are the ones that take longer so I throw them in first. Don't forget the salt and pepper...
After a few minutes add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper again, and stir.



Then add:

1 cup canned tomatoes (or if you like throw in the whole can, but again, I only had that leftover from a few days ago when I made a pasta sauce and didn't use the whole thing...)
1/2 cup lentils (I used brown lentils for this one)
1-2 tsp curry powder
1-2 tsp cumin powder
1-2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp crushed chili

Then add about 4 cups of vegetable broth and when it starts to bubble turn the heat to medium-low, semi-cover and let it simmer until all the veggies are soft and the lentils are cooked. Should be about 20-30 minutes.


Adjust the seasonning and enjoy!

Roasted Squash Soup

Here's one of the reasons why I love fall so much: SOUPS!! I can eat soup for lunch AND diner no problem. I love the warmth of it, the versatility, and because it's hot you eat it slowly, which is good for the digestive system, so I've heard...
And I love fall for this star vegetable: SQUASH!! There are so many varieties, and yes you can do a lot more than soups with them, but they are the AMAZING for soups. They make everything turn into velvet. Also they can stay on the counter for a long time without going bad. This one here I've had for at least a month, chillin on my kitchen table, taunting me... So today on my day off, on a rather gray gloomy/rainy friday I thought it was time. Plus, I still had some home-made chicken broth I'd brought from work last week and it was now or never the time to use it.
Today because I had nothing else to do I decided to take the long route; I roasted the squash nicely with some spices and cooked the base really slowly...All together I think it took about 2 hours to make this soup. But when pressed for time it's possible to make it quicker, by skipping the roasting and just cubing the squash and cooking everything together. But I assure you, if you have time to do it like this, do it, it makes a big difference!

For the flavors I got the inspiration from Jamie Oliver, in his first ever cook book, "The Naked Chef". The fennel seeds is a great flavor for squash! I would've never thought of it myself, so Thanx Jamie!
I should also mention that adding lentils to a soup is a great way to get a dose of protein, and by no means does it change the taste of the soup, at all. So go for lentils they're sooooooo good for us!

Here are the ingredients list:

1 big butternut squash
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp chili flakes
1 1/2 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp corsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1-2 tsp brown sugar
Canola oil (1-2 TBSP???...)

1 big or 2 medium onions, chopped.
2 big celeri stalks, peeled and chopped.
1 big carrot, peeled and chopped.
2 cloves garlic, minced.
1-2 white potatoes, peeled and cut.
2/3 cup red lentils.
4-6 cups chicken broth.
1 bay leaf.

To roast the squash:

Cut the thing in half, clean out the seeds, and cut into reasonable sized pieces...the bigger they are the longer it will take to cook, but if they're too smalll it'll be a pain to peel. You be the judge...
Smash all the spices in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, brush the squash with oil and sprinkle the spices over it.
Bake in the oven at 400F until fork-tender, for about 40 minutes.



Let it cool before peeling.
Meanwhile, sautee the onion, celeri and carrots in some canola oil on medium heat until the onions are soft and transluscent.
Add the garlic and potatoes, season with salt and pepper and sautee for 1-2 minutes.
Add the lentils and the stock, throw in a bay leaf.
Bring to a light boil and simmer on low-medium for about 30 minutes, until everything is soft.
While this is simmering peel the squash and cut into chunks. Set aside until it's time to add to the rest of the soup.
(If you need more liquid add a little more broth, or water)
When the vegetables are cooked and the squash been added and warmed up and everybody seems to be well aquainted, TAKE OUT THE BAY LEAF and start the pureeing process! Either with a hand blender or a traditional blender, it's up to you, but make sure it's all smooth!
If it seems too thick add a bit of milk, check the seasonnings and adjust to your liking.



Don't forget the bread on the side for dunking!!

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Carrots are the one vegetable I always have in the fridge no matter what. I like them mostly raw but when they cook they get really sweet, almost like a different vegetable. I love making soups with carrots because of that! And currys. Well, actually this soup is a curry soup so there you go!! Carrots are best friends with ginger, and ginger is a main component of curry so...you get what I mean, right?
So at the moment the vegetable situation is not that hot in my fridge, I reeeeeally need to go to the market this week-end..so that's when that never-ending bag of carrots comes in handy! And those never ending bags of lentils also!!



For this soup, I used:

1 yellow onion, chopped
1 branch celeri, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 golf-ball size FRESH ginger, peeled and grated(or finely chopped)
4-5 carrots, peeld, chopped
1-2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup red lentils
3-4 cups chicken stock(start with 3, the lentils will thicken the soup..)
salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin, tumeric, red chili flakes

Throw all the veggies in a pot, with the broth and seasonnings. When it starts to boil add the lentils, and simmer util everything is cooked.
Puree in 2 batches, to make it all nice and smooth. I blend it twice, so that it's REALLY velvety and creamy-like(but no cream!!). I may have added a bit of milk because I put in a lot of chili flakes, it was a bit too spicy. But that's totally optional, go with your taste buds, they never lie!!



I sprinled a bit of parsley on top to be fancy, and to make nice pictures!!

Onion and Chicken Soup with Mushrooms and Spinach.

Mother Nature is acting up today. April 27th, it's snowing. Personnaly I don't mind it so much because it is late april, it's gonna melt and tomorrow we'll be running in shorts again. But, today, it feels like late november. And in late november I make soups and stews and comforting hot meals. So the snow outside inspired me to make this awesome chicken soup loaded with onions and mushrooms. Earthy and delicate.



I already had cooked chicken in the freezer so I used that.
I started by sauteeing one big leek and one big yellow onion in oil and a little butter, for about 5 minutes. Then added about a cup of mushrooms and 2 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, a bay leaf, couple sprigs of fresh thyme and dried chili flakes. Sauteed for another 2 minutes, added chicken stock(3 cups)and simmered until the onions were well cooked. About 15 minutes...
At the end I threw in the cooked chicken, 2 cups chopped baby spinach and 1/4 cup chives, let it all heat up and done!



With bread on the side, that's a pretty decent lunch.

Potato, asparagus and chick pea soup.

Soup is one of my favorite things to freestyle with. Anything can go in a soup. I love making it when it's cold outside(God knows it gets freakishly cold here in Quebec!), or raining like today, with a good piece of bread on the side or good crackers...mm-mm-mm. Plus, since it's hot it forces you to eat slower which is what Mom always told me to do...I can say without a shadow of a doubt there will be a lot of soup recipes on this site!
Today I decided to honor my Irish roots and make something green, with potatoes:



Ingredients:

1 TBSP oil
1 TBSP butter(unsalted)
1 big white or yellow onion, diced
1-2 parsnips, diced
1-2 branch celeri, chopped
2-3 medium potatoes, diced
1-2 cloves galic, sliced
1-1 1/2 cup asparagus, cut about 1 inch long.
1 cup canned chick peas(rinsed of course...)
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup milk(i used 2%)
salt and pepper to taste
some kind of herb, i used tarragon fo this one...

-Sweat the onion on med. heat in oil and butter for about 2-3 minutes, until they start to get transluscent. Add celeri, parsnips, potatoes, garlic, season to taste.
-Add asparagus. Sautee for another 2-3 minutes.
-Add stock and milk, bring to boil, reduce to simmer until the veggies are all cooked.
-Add chick peas.
-In a blender(or with a hand blender), puree half of it so it gets a little smooth but it's still chunky.
-Check for seasonning...
-Enjoy.



Happy St-Patrick's Day.