Winter Soup Makeover

When I first made this soup back in the fall, it was to combine the compatible flavors of vegetables in our CSA box in a dish that was hearty, warming and delicious. I probably added the bacon because I was on a squash-and-bacon kick after eating this dish. It was quite successful and I was going to post it, but there were a few minor issues, one of which was that I realized the soup could really be seen as a winter makeover of White Bean Soup with Fresh Herbs.

It has become my habit to start seeing and writing recipes as variations on basic themes. (If you read enough food and cooking literature, you might start to see things this way, too.) I don’t suppose I’ll ever reach a Grand Unified Theory of recipes, but there was no point in writing up a completely independent white bean soup recipe just because I had added some seasonal ingredients. I looked at the soup again, compared the recipes, re-wrote it, and finally tested it recently with a butternut squash from our winter CSA share and a giant bunch of kale that I found at a local store. I think this time it was even better because I was thinking about it in a more streamlined fashion. The way was clearer to me.

Okay, so there was another reason the soup was better this time around. When I made it before, I stirred all the bacon into the pot of soup at the end. The result was flabby, water-logged bacon that contributed so poorly to the texture of the soup that I considered not making it again. It was even worse in the portion of the soup that I froze to eat later. Sometime between then and now, it occurred to me to just sprinkle crisp bacon on top of each serving of soup (not particularly enlightened, but I’m a bit slow sometimes), and the result was much, much more pleasant.

Since there’s usually just two of us eating, we never eat an entire pot of soup in one meal, so I reserved some of the bacon in the refrigerator and heated it up to serve on top of leftover soup. I only cooked 3 strips of bacon, though the soup serves 4 to 6, because I knew I would be freezing about half the soup. When I thaw out the soup and serve it again, I’ll just cook up some more bacon to garnish each serving. Sure, it’s a little more work than just heating up frozen soup, but the porky rubber that was floating in that frozen soup was something I’d gladly make a little effort to avoid.

Of course the soup could also be served without the bacon garnish. In fact, you could skip the bacon altogether, and use your favorite cooking oil in place of the rendered bacon fat to sauté your vegetables. The bacon really just plays back-up to the mild white beans, sweet squash, earthy kale and herbs. I used what herbs I could get in fresh form, that is, those that are still surviving the season by gleaning as much light as they can from the gloomy winter windowsill. I ended up with sprigs of sage and rosemary (the thyme was a casualty), but use what you can easily get, even dried herbs if that’s what’s available. Just use a small amount of the dried herbs and taste the soup as you go to see what more it may need.

And while you’re varying the soup, you could add some cooked grains to make a complete protein with the beans, use either vegetable or chicken stock, add some canned tomatoes to approach something like minestrone, use sweet potatoes in place of the squash, or put in whatever vegetables or meats you like. Need I go on? It’s likely that I will, but the next makeover of this soup will probably be looking forward to spring.

White Bean Soup with Bacon, Squash and Kale
I usually use lightly salted homemade broths, and add more salt to taste when making soup. Adjust the salt and other seasonings to your own taste. If you do not have fresh herbs, you can use dried, but consider using them sparingly.

You could use another kind of winter squash. I find butternut squash to be easiest to peel and chop.

6 strips thick-cut bacon
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped carrot
½ cup finely chopped celery
1 teaspoons coarse salt, divided, or to taste
2 cups peeled and chopped (1-inch cubes) butternut squash
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
a few sprigs fresh herbs such as rosemary, sage, thyme, or whatever is available
1 dried bay leaf
4 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
4 cups cooked or canned white beans, such as navy or Great Northern (drained and rinsed if canned)
4 cups chopped kale

1. Decide the number of servings you will need on the first day the soup is served. Select 1 to 1 ½ slices of bacon for each serving. Refrigerate the rest to cook and serve with leftovers. Place the bacon strips in a large pot over medium-low heat. Cook, turning often, until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan. Set aside to drain and cool. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the pot.

2. Raise the heat to medium. Add onion, carrot, celery and ½ teaspoon salt. Saute about 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent and the carrot and celery are beginning to become tender. Add the squash and sauté another 5 minutes, or until the squash begins to soften and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring occasionally. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 1 minute more.

3. Tie the herb sprigs and bay leaf together with kitchen twine. Add this bundle and the chicken broth to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and boil gently for about 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

4. Stir in the beans and kale, and cook, stirring occasionally 10 minutes more. Remove the herb bundle. Taste for salt and add more if desired. Crumble the reserved bacon and sprinkle some on each serving.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Other recipes like this one: White Bean Soup with Fresh herbs, Sausage and Spinach Soup

One year ago: Roasted Red Pepper, Garlic and Onion Dip

Pears and Cardamom

I’ve had a mini-obsession with the combination of pears and cardamom since trying a cardamom-pear scone at a local coffee shop something like a year ago. That generous dose of cardamom was fresher and spicier than any taste of the stuff I’d had before, and I knew I had to have more. Earlier this month, I made a sweet bread laced with cardamom, and I decided that would be a great foundation for a dish featuring the ubiquitous winter pear.

French toast was going to be the way to go and I wanted to add sautéed pears to it. I didn’t just want a sauce and I certainly didn’t want to perform the delicate operation of cutting into a thick slice of bread in order to stuff it with something gooey, especially first thing in the morning. Instead, I made a sort of French toast casserole, which, to the discerning eye, will look suspiciously like bread pudding. I assembled the whole thing the night before I wanted to bake it, then could just bake it in the morning, which is hardly a delicate operation at all, even for a non-morning person like me.

I sautéed the pears in brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and a little lemon juice, then layered them between thick slices of my cardamom bread. You certainly use other breads to make this, but I think a soft, rich bread, such as Challah or Brioche, would be nice. For the custard, I consulted several recipes and even Ratio by Michael Ruhlman, and think I came up with a decent proportion of eggs to milk. The resulting dish is quite moist and not too eggy, a little sweet, but not cloying. And the cardamom-pear combo? Still a dynamic duo if you ask me. And this milieu is another good place for them to shine together. If I make this again, I might try adding even more pears.

I made a small-ish batch of this dish, since I wasn’t going to be feeding a crowd, but I think it could be doubled and baked in a larger baking dish (say 13” x 9”). It’s a great way to make a weekend brunch ahead of time, and the leftovers are pretty good reheated in the microwave a day or two later. If you don’t want to do pears, apples would probably work as well, but would probably need to be sautéed longer to make them tender. Other fruits might also be good when they are in season. If you hate cardamom, leave it out and double the cinnamon, or try a little nutmeg. If you hate bread, you’re going to have to eat something else for breakfast.

French Toast Casserole with Cardamom and Pears
This dish is not overly-sweet, so you can serve it with maple syrup if desired (I did).

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
3 medium-sized pears, peeled and sliced about ¼ -inch thick
4 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
½ teaspoon cinnamon, divided
½ teaspoon cardamom, preferably freshly ground, divided
1 tablespoon lemon juice

10-12 ounces rich, slightly sweet, day-old (or slightly older) bread, such as Finnish Cardamom Bread, challah or brioche, thickly sliced (or enough for two layers of your baking dish)

3 large eggs
1 ½ cups milk (I used low-fat. Full-fat is probably even better.)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Melt the 1 tablespoon butter in a medium-size skillet over medium heat. Add the pears and two tablespoons brown sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pears are tender and the liquid around them is thickened. Add ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cardamom, and lemon juice. Cook and gently stir until the liquid is thick. Remove from the heat and cool.

2. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish (or coat it with cooking spray). Place half of the bread on the bottom of the baking dish, overlapping slightly if necessary. Arrange half of the pear mixture on top of the bread. Layer the remaining bread on top of the pears.

3. In a medium-size bowl, beat together the eggs and milk with a whisk. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar, remaining ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, remaining ¼ teaspoon cardamom and vanilla and beat until combined.

4. Pour the egg mixture over the mixture in the pan. Press down slightly on the top layer of bread. Arrange the remaining pear mixture on top of the bread. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight (or at least 4 hours).

5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F. Bake, covered, at 350 F for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes more, or until the custard is set. It should be moist but no longer runny. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes.

Makes 4-6 servings. Refrigerate leftovers for a day or two and reheat in the microwave.

Other recipes like this one: Apple Cinnamon Pancakes, Triple Ginger Peach Shortcakes, Apple Turnovers with Dried Fruit

One year ago: Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Sausage and Vegetables

I love the whole process of roasting vegetables.  It cleans out the refrigerator or other vegetable storage container. It warms the kitchen on these numbingly cold days.  It results in a nutritious side dish with lots of vitamins and fiber.  It’s incredibly easy.  Oh yeah, don’t let me forget the most important part: it makes delicious, delicious food.

Lately, instead of trying to come up with an appropriate protein to serve alongside my vegetables, I’ve upgraded the roasted vegetable side dish to a one-pan main dish by adding sausage.  Just put some sausage in the pan with the vegetables and roast them all together.  Everyone gets along just fine.  It’s just that easy.

I prefer spicy, uncooked and uncured sausage links, such as the spicy chicken Italian sausage from Trader Joe’s that I used most recently.  I like the way a bit of the spicy flavor of the sausage mingles with the vegetables, but this is much more subtle when a lean sausage is used rather than one that can render plenty of flavorful fat to contribute to the vegetables during the roasting process.  Either way, the sausage gets browned and a little crusty, just how I like it.  And if it overcooks? Well, I tend to enjoy a well-browned and gnarly hunk of sausage just fine, thank you.  What you’re really concerned about is undercooking, anyway.  Just make sure that your sausage is appropriately cooked through before serving it. If you use a fully-cooked sausage, just add it later in the roasting process to prevent overcooking.

Since I’ve been eating this stuff on weekend afternoons while watching the end of the football season, I have also found it necessary to serve this with a dipping sauce.  Football and dip just go too well together to pass up this garnishing opportunity.  Lots of dips will work, but I’ve been making an aioli (garlic mayonnaise) with parsley that almost upstages the beautiful vegetables and sausage.  It’s quite simple to make (you need something to do while waiting for the oven’s work to be done anyway), involving just mayonnaise, garlic-salt paste, and a bit of parsley.  I use homemade whole egg mayonnaise, using this recipe from Delicious Days, but if you don’t care to make your own, you could use a good store-bought mayonnaise.  If the taste isn’t where you want it, try adding some lemon juice.

Pretty much all of the winter storage vegetables will work to make this dish.  Most recently, I made it with butternut squash, turnips, parsnips, carrots and potatoes.  If you, or someone you love, doesn’t “do” these sweet, bitter and hardy vegetables, the dish is great with just potatoes and sausage.  And you can use whatever dip you like, too.  Heck, try it with ketchup for all I care.  Just don’t miss out on this easy, warming and flavorful one-pan meal.

Roasted Winter Vegetables and Sausage

If you use a fully-cooked sausage, add it later in the cooking process, say after the first 20 minutes, to keep it from becoming hopelessly overcooked.

6 cups fall/winter storage vegetables (such as potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, parsnips, winter squash), peeled if appropriate, and cut into 1-2 inch cubes

¼ cup olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons coarse (kosher) salt, or to taste
a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
3 links (10-12 ounces) sausage (I prefer spicy sausage) with casing

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl, combine the vegetables with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir together to coat the vegetables well with the oil.

2. Place the vegetables in a large roasting pan or a sheet pan. Cut the sausage into about 2-inch pieces. Add the sausage to the vegetables in the pan.

3. Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally with a spatula to prevent sticking. Check to make sure the vegetables and sausage (especially the sausage) are cooked completely. Serve plain or with dipping sauce, such as Garlic Parsley Aioli (recipe follows).

Makes 4 servings

Garlic-Parsley Aioli

1 garlic clove
¼ teaspoon (or more) coarse salt plus more to taste
1 cup mayonnaise
pepper to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
lemon juice to taste (optional)

1. Make a smooth paste with the garlic and salt. Stir the garlic-salt paste into the mayonnaise. Stir in the parsley. Add lemon juice to taste if desired and adjust seasonings. Chill until ready to serve.

Makes 1 cup

Other recipes like these: Roasted Vegetables; Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas and Olives; Cilantro Cream Dipping Sauce; Lime Herb Dipping Sauce

One year ago: Pumpkin Oatmeal Quick Bread with Dates and Pecans

Garlic-Salt Paste

There are several techniques and recipes that I go to again and again.  Some of them, such as pie crusts, broths and an indispensable garlic-salt paste, are buried in posts as part of recipes for dishes that are the real stars.  If I link to these posts to refer you to a technique, you may have to sift through the rest of the post to find what you are looking for.  In order to alleviate some of that annoyance, as well as save myself the trouble of re-posting a set of directions or ingredients over and over again, I think I’ll start making a few posts that feature those techniques or recipes directly so I can link to them when I need to.  I think I’ll start right now.  I think I’ll start with garlic-salt paste.

This is a recipe and technique that I learned watching various Food Network hosts prepare such things as sauces and dressings. It’s a great way to use garlic to flavor something like an aioli or vinaigrette without having chunks of garlic marring its delicacy. I like to whisk it into a salad dressing or stir it into a sour cream or mayonnaise-based dipping sauce.

To make this paste, garlic is finely chopped, then mixed with coarse salt (I use kosher salt) and pressed and crushed with the flat of a chef’s knife. The salt draws out the liquid in the garlic while its abrasive qualities crush up the pulp. You work it and work it until a paste is formed that is smooth enough to mix well into liquid or creamy ingredients. The garlic is tamed a bit by the process, but only, I believe, in that it can be distributed better in your dish. You’ll still be eating raw garlic, and garlic-breath protocols will still be standard procedure.

This technique may take a little practice if you’re not already best friends with a chef’s knife, or some other knife with a wide blade. You will need a wide, flat implement to crush the garlic. A cutting board with a surface that is not completely smooth will also be helpful as it gives the garlic paste some traction and helps the salt abrade the pulp into a paste. (Just be sure to clean the board very well after using it this way.) You might also be able to make this in a mortar and pestle, but I haven’t had much success, or perhaps much patience with getting that to work.

This is something relatively simple that’s worth learning especially if you’re ready to wow your friends and family with a homemade salad dressing or dipping sauce with a little extra flair. It can be made in any amount you need, but I wouldn’t recommend storing the completed paste for more than a day or two. I typically throw together a garlic paste just as I need it, since it only takes a minute or two to make once you get the hang of it.

Garlic-Salt Paste

Fresh, juicy garlic cloves and coarse salt work best for this technique.
garlic clove(s)
coarse (such as kosher) salt (about ¼- ½ teaspoon per clove garlic)

1. Mince the garlic.

2. Add the salt to the minced garlic and chop the mixture to incorporate the salt

3.  Press the garlic-salt mixture into the cutting board with the flat of a knife with a wide blade.  Press and crush the garlic and salt together, extracting the garlic juice and abrading the pulp.  Use the edge of the knife to scrape up the pulp and juice and push it all together again. Continue to press, crush and scrape until a paste is formed.  The paste should be relatively smooth with no immediately visible chunks of garlic.