"Go To" Black Bean Soup

This is the perfect soup when I don't have time to A. think about what to eat, B. go grocery shopping, and C. don't have time to cook at dinner-time.  I try to keep all of these ingredients in my pantry or fridge at all times. They work great in this and many other soups.


Because I work many evenings, I often have to prep the food before-hand so my family can eat while I'm off at work.  I often prep dinner at lunch time or if I'm organized enough;-) maybe the night before. For this recipe, I sauté the veggies ahead of time and then pop it all in the slow-cooker so it's ready when we need it. If you didn't want to take the time to sauté the veggies, you could skip that step. Just chop 'em up and put it all in the slow cooker. If you are making dinner at dinner time, skip the crock-pot. Just sauté your veggies in a big soup pot. And simmer until the beans are warmed through.

Heat a skillet over med-high seat. Add 1-2 Tb. olive oil to coat the pan.

Chop these veggies into a fine dice and add them to your pan as you go to soften and caramelize them: (Rachael Ray named this technique "chop and drop.")

• 1 small onion
• 3 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. coriander

Add the veggies to your crock-pot (or keep them in your soup pot) along with:

• 2 cans of black beans*
• 1 can of tomatoes (I like Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted)
• 2 cups of water
• another 1/2 tsp. sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper

Cook on low heat until you are ready to eat.

You can leave the soup as is or blend it up. I like to blend about 3/4 of the soup and leave 1/4 so there are some veggie bites for texture. 

* I like to use organic beans and then feel comfortable adding the bean liquid in with the beans. If the beans aren't organic, I'll usually drain and rinse them before cooking. You may need to add a little extra water if you drain the beans before cooking. 

Enjoy!

Better Than Chicken Soup

This soup is a sure-fire pick me up when you are feeling down. It's quick and easy to make with simple ingredients. With a base of packaged vegetable stock and hearty root vegetables, you can keep the ingredients on hand so that even if you don't feel well enough to go to the store, you'll have everything you need to treat yourself to a healing and nourishing soup.

Ingredients to have on hand:

1 box of vegetable stock - I prefer organic and low sodium

1 small onion

4 carrots

3 stalks of celery

2 large potatoes or about 6 medium new potatoes

Seasoning

• Put your soup pot on the stove and drizzle in a thin coating of olive oil 
• Finely dice 1 small onion, place the onion in the pot and turn the heat up to medium to soften the onion
• As the onion softens in the pot, peel and cut 4 carrots into coin-shaped slices and add to the pot
• Add 1 cup vegetable stock (water will work if you don't have stock) this will keep the veggies from sticking but will also allow them to get some direct heat to bring out their flavor
• Slice the celery stalks into half moon slices and add to the pot
• Chop potatoes into a dice that is similar in size to your carrot and celery slices
• Add to the pot and add the remaining stock
• Add seasoning* 
• For this soup, I used 1 tsp. celtic sea salt, 1/2 tsp. turmeric, and 1/2 tsp. cumin

*Different spices and herbs can have a different effect on each individual and in different situations. I'm guided by Ayurveda in many of my seasoning choices. Check out this link for an intro article on Ayurveda http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1722 and then maybe join them for their 7 day Ayurveda cleanse starting September 12 http://falldetox.yogajournal.com/. My daughter has a fever so I'm going a calm, cooling soup. Tumeric is a little heating but it's anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic are so powerful that I use it a bit. Read more about turmeric here http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78

Last Day of Summer Break Simple Supper - Simple Tomato Gazpacho and Easy Cheesy Quesadillas

I spent most of this day soaking up quality time with my soon-to-be second grader. Like most parents, I'm ready for my kids to get back to school but the change is so drastic it makes me a little sad. We'll go from spending almost every waking moment together to just having a couple of hours between school, work, activities and bedtime. As the kids get ready for school and my hay-fever allergy starts to settle in, I also am acutely aware that summer is waning. It's time to really savor the signature flavors of summer. Looking for a quick, easy and summery menu I thought of tomato gazpacho and an easy side.

I had always resisted gazpacho, thinking, "soup should be warm and comforting. Well one year a friend made the most delicious gazpacho while we were vacationing at the beach and my mind was changed forever. It's a simple recipe filled with loving care and crisp, bright flavor. His recipe and many other gazpacho recipes call for worcestershire sauce but this isn't an ingredient I usually use so I've modified the recipe with ingredients from my pantry and backyard garden. I've got more common ingredients in parenthesis next to my sauce ingredients which are more normal to me but probably more exotic to most.

I knew quesadillas would be a hit at the table but I had no idea everyone would love the soup. There were arguments at the dinner table. Not about disliking the food but about who was more right about the soup being "delicious" or "good."

Simple Tomato Gazpacho
Prepare the Veggies
The loving care in this recipe comes from dicing these veggies super small. It takes some time but it's worth it! The soup flavors meld and deepen with time so feel free to make it a day ahead.

Dice these veggies super small and add to a bowl:

• peel, seed and chop 2 tomatoes 
• peel, seed and dice 1 cucumber
• seed and chop 1 bell pepper (I use yellow just to round out the colors but feel free to use your favorite)
• 1 shallot (or small onion)
• (opt. hot chili pepper)
• 2 Tb. basil chopped

Dress the veggies:
In a small bowl whisk up this simple dressing and then pour over the veggies you've prepared above.

• 2 Tb. olive oil
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp. salt

While the veggies soak up their marinade,
Prepare the soup base:
In a large bowl, combine:

• 1 cup tomato juice (I love that I have a juicer now and can make my own! V-8 works too.)
• 1 Tb. balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tb. Organic Shoyu (soy sauce)
• 1 Tb. Umeboshi Plum Wine Vinegar (red wine vinegar/worcestershire sauce)
• 1 tsp. jalepeno pepper sauce
• 1 tsp. chili powder

Add the veggies to the soup base and let it rest until ready to serve. Most recipes will suggest you let the soup sit for at least 4 hours (or overnight) before serving but I don't have time for that. I let it sit while I made the quesadillas. No one noticed that I didn't "follow the rules."

Easiest Cheesey Quesadillas
So simple!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
On a baking sheet, sandwich grated cheese between two 8" tortillas. Cook for about 8 minutes until cheese is melted and tortillas are slightly golden.
That's it... enjoy.

Friday Night Alfresco

Friday is a day I have a little more time to prepare; and more importantly, to actually savor dinner before rushing off to work or practices. I'm always appreciative when I have a little time peruse my plethora of cookbooks and food magazines to find something new, healthy,  and delicious. I had come across a recipe for cucumber gazpacho that I wanted to try and  was looking for something special to go with the simple cold soup. I came across two meal plans (links below) and, as usual, pulled from a few places to come up with a meal that fit my family's tastes and needs. I ended up making:

• Gazpacho of Cucumber and Green Tomato (better known as Pickle Soup)
• Sweet and Spicy Pepper Relish
• Balsamic Glazed Roma Tomato and Goat Cheese Crostini

Click the links above for my recipes and keep in mind the photo of the crostini does not do it justice. This is one of the tastiest bites I've had in a long time. It is on a classic white french baguette but the ingredients would be just as good on a gluten-free cracker or rice bread toast if you are looking for healthier alternatives.

Inspiration for my Friday Night Alfresco Meal Plan

Natalia Rose's Cucumber Gazpacho in Detox 4 Women

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_554109_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/cook/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,COOK_41503_468966_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html#

As I'm typing this I'm watching Kelsey's Essentials on The Cooking Channel. She's making this pomegranate glaze for steak. It looks amazing! I'm going to have to try to come up with something to go with it.
Pomegranate Glaze
??? Pom juice
1 Tb Dijion Mustard
3 Tb. Balsamic
1 t. Cornstarch
1/4 brown sugar

I also came across this cocktail recipe to try:
http://www.marthastewart.com/318052/pineapple-and-mango-rum-cocktails

Green Gazpacho

This is a very easy cold soup perfect for a hot summer day. Because I tell my kids that cucumbers are pickles, this soup has the nickname of pickle soup.


Marinate your green veggies:
Prepare veggies and place in a long shallow dish:

• 1 english cucumber sliced thin
• 2 green tomatoes (if you can't get green tomatoes, use another cucumber)
• 1 shallot, chopped (garlic is a fine replacement)
• 1 jalepeno pepper, chopped - discard the seeds and ribs if you want a more mild soup
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 t. ground coriander
• 1 cup of water

Marinate veggies for at least an hour and up to 24 hours.

When it's supper time, simply blend your soup.

Here I've topped it with Spicy Sweet Pepper Relish and Served it with Balsamic Glazed Tomato and Goat Cheese Crostini.

Spicy Sweet Pepper Relish

Green Gazpacho with Spicy Sweet Pepper Relish

In a large bowl, prepare the veggie marinade:

• 2 Tb. white balsamic vinegar (you could also use citrus juice, rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Prepare veggies by chopping into a small dice and add to your marinade:

• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 english cucumber
• 1 small jalepeno pepper
• 1 shallot
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1/2 cup pickled banana peppers

Emerald Green Vitality "Soup"

In keeping with my recent theme of cocktail inspired soups, this could be called Margarita Soup and I do think it's yummy enough to drink out of a glass. You just whiz it up in a blender and you are good to go. The color might be scary if you aren't used to eating the freshest of food so just think "I am eating (or drinking) pure vitality when I take this in."

Recipe is for one large serving or two smaller portions


Prepare the veggies:

• Chop 1/4 english cucumber* (reserve a little for garnish if you like)
• Halve an avocado **

Place the ingredients into your blender

• chopped cucumber
• half of an avocado
• a large handful of baby spinach
• juice of one lime
• small handful of cilantro leaves***
• 1/2 teaspoon good quality sea salt
• 1/4 cup water

Puree the soup in the blender and add water as needed to bring it to a pleasing consistency. Pour into you bowl or glass and enjoy. If using as a soup you might garnish with a bit of chopped cucumber and pine nuts.


*English Cucumbers have thin un-waxed skin and barely noticeable seeds so they require less prep work and no worry of eating wax. If you are using a conventional cucumber you should peel and seed it first)

**To preserve the other half of the avacado, keep the pit in one half. This is the side you will save the pit helps keep it fresher longer. Sprinkle a little citrus juice on the exposed portion of the reserved avacado. Place in an airtight container in the fridge. You should use the second half within a day or two. When you go to prepare the second half, remove the pit and scrape off the browned top layer. Everything underneath will still be nice and fresh.

***When using this as a drink, I leave out the cilantro.