Vegetable soup and dumplings (chicken and dumplings for the vegetarian)

I stopped in the store desperately searching for something to serve for dinner. I wanted something seasonal and something that feels like fall. Although the sky is blue and sunny, there is a fall chill in the air that makes me seek warm and comforting food. In the organic section were these beautiful carrots in a rainbow of colors with rich green tops. That was it! I was going to cook with those carrots tonight! I decided on vegetable soup with dumplings.

Making soup in only a few hours is hard because it doesn’t typically build the depth of flavor that I would like. Making vegetarian soup is even harder because meat adds a lot of flavor to soups. Here are a few tricks I've come up with to help solve this problem.

1)      Brown your butter
2)      Add nutritional yeast
3)      Add booze
4)      Add condensed soup

All of these things develop flavor in the soup that otherwise you wouldn't get to experience. Nutritional yeast is exceptionally helpful with "chicken" dishes because it adds a chickeniness that otherwise you'll be missing.

Soup Stock:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 white onion

2 organic carrots

2 stalks celery

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock (or chicken free chicken stock)

1 tablespoon poultry seasoning

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

8oz hard cider (4 for the soup, 4 for the chef)

8oz cream of mushroom soup

1 cup frozen peas

In a large dutch oven melt butter on low until pan is preheated and butter is golden brown. Add onions, carrots and celery and cook until they are slightly soft and browned. Add 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock, poultry seasoning, nutritional yeast and hard cider. Allow to cook until vegetables are tender and alcohol is cooked out.

 

(this is a really good time to enjoy that cider!)

Add cream of mushroom soup, and frozen peas and allow to reach a boil again.
 

While soup is cooking prepare dumpling dough. In Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything he says "You can make dumplings with almost anything even flour and water. But I strongly believe they out to taste like something." I took that to heart when making dumplings adding soup stock and an extra punch of flavor with cream of mushroom soup.

When it comes to cream of mushroom soup I'm also pretty brand loyal to Pacific Natural Foods Organic Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup. This soup is so good that I will eat it on its own! If a condensed soup is so bad you can't eat it straight why put it into food?

 

Dumplings:

4 tablespoons softened butter

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon cream of mushroom soup concentrate

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

Stock  (about 3 tablespoons)

Cream softened butter, add eggs and cream of mushroom soup until just combined.

Sift together flour, baking powder and poultry seasoning. Add gradually to egg mixture. Add stock from soup one tablespoon at a time until dough looks like a thick pancake batter.

Add to boiling soup stock by dropping with a spoon and allow to cook covered for about 10 minutes. Flip dumplings and cook uncovered for another 5 minutes until dough is cooked through.

 

There you have it! A house that smells like fall, and a warm tummy from your apple cider consumption. :)

 

 

Vegetarian Red Cabbage Borscht A.K.A Purple Soup!

We started a spending freeze today- where we don’t plan to bring out the debit cards, or cash in our wallets or anything not vital, pre-planned, or required for us to get to work for the rest of the month. Because of the spending freeze, it means making smart choices with the items that we have on hand to maximize flavor, and taste. I decided to start this freeze off with a beautiful hearty soup. Red cabbage borscht!  A flavorful tasty and warm soup perfect the last little bit of winter. This soup is made with pickled beets, shredded red cabbage, orange juice, potatoes and celeriac. It’s topped with two tablespoons of sour cream for a stick to your ribs feel and a little extra protein. My daughter liked it because it was purple, and purple is of course a princess color. I have to be honest, I like it because it's purple too!

In a large Dutch oven combine:

1/2 TBSP butter

1/2 TBSP coconut oil

1 small white onion diced

1 large carrot peeled and diced

1 celeriac peeled and diced

Cook until onion is translucent

Add 2 cloves garlic minced

1 small head of red cabbage shredded

2 small peeled potatoes

1 granny smith apple peeled, cored and diced

Add:

4 cups water

2 cups orange juice

1 can pickled beets diced and their juice

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 TSP caraway seed

1 TBSP dried dill

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

Allow this soup to simmer for about two hours until all the flavors are melded together and an amazing soup forms.

On a side note relative to the soup above, for soups like this I fell head over heels in love with my Staub La Cocotte Dutch oven. It allows me to simmer my soup on low, and keeps all of the heat and broth inside the pot. There are times I want a broth reduced to concentrate the flavor, but this is not one of those times. I put so many flavorful things in this soup that I wanted to keep as much flavor in the soup as I could. I’m not a champion of expensive cookware, or kitchen toys, but I believe every home cook should have a heavy enamel coated cast iron Dutch oven for soups and cooking beans. There are of course less expensive brands to start out with, such as Lodge that will do the trick. I promise once you go cast iron though you will not go back to a lightweight aluminum pan for simmering soups.

Potpie- And a little bit of courage

I enter cooking contests now and again- sometimes because there is an amazing prize like a Kitchen-Aid mixer, or a trip to California, but more often because it challenges me to make something that I’ve never made before, forces me to flex my cooking muscles a little bit, and challenges me to make something that has stumbled me in the past. One of those major stumbling blocks in my culinary world has always been pie crust! Chewy, heavy, dense pie crust has always been all I’ve managed to turn out, but it’s never really bothered me because honestly, I don’t really care for pie, with one exception. Potpie! Potpie is one of those amazing dreamy rich comfort foods that I love, but always top with mashed potatoes due to my crust fears. When the Today Show asked for our best potpie recipes I decided it was time to face my potpie dilemma head on and find a way around not only not being able to make a decent crust, but also not enjoying crust. The solution I came up with is this: Greek Pot pie! With puff pastry atop a savory Greek inspired filling I couldn’t be happier with my dish. Plus my daughter ate something chocked full of strange vegetables just because it had the word pie in it. Even though the Today Show didn't choose to feature my recipe, facing my potpie fears, and getting my daughter to eat more vegetables makes me a winner with this recipe anyway! And I will be adding this to our dinner rotation.

Greek Potpie:

2 TBSP olive oil

1 white onion

2 cloves garlic

1 eggplant diced small

1 yellow squash diced small

1 portabella mushroom diced small (or 1 cup baby portabella mushrooms)

1 cup frozen spinach

1 Tbsp. dried oregano

1 Tsp. fresh dill

1 Tbsp. fresh parsley chopped fine

1 can garbanzo beans drained

1 can petite diced tomatoes

1 1/2 - 2  cups vegetable stock

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt and pepper

Buerre manie of 1 Tbsp butter, 1 Tbsp wheat flour kneaded together

4 oz reduced fat feta cheese crumbled (or as much as you like!)

1 sheet puff pastry

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a large Dutch oven heat 2 tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion and cook until softened, add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add all other vegetables and herbs, season with salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables release their juices. Add canned beans and tomatoes. Add just enough stock to resemble a very chunky soup, and the juice of 1/2 lemon.

In a zip lock bag knead together 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp wheat flour. When well incorporated scoop out of bag into soup. Stir into soup and let simmer until stew is just thickened. Add crumbled feta cheese.

Place thawed puff pastry on lightly floured surface and roll out until it’s just a little larger than your pan

Scoop stew into a pie dish or tart pan and cover with puff pastry dough cutting away extra.

Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.