Not-Chicken Noodle Soup

Whenever I get a cold, my mom helpfully remarks, “Well, I’d tell you to eat some chicken-noodle soup if I thought you would.”  And to this, I typically respond with something along the lines of “yes, yes that would be good advice if I were someone who ate chicken.”  Then she tells me to take a Zinc supplement and drink some juice, which I always agree to do.

It’s the little predictabilities, you know, that make family relationships so special.

At any rate, while I don’t eat chicken or chicken broth, this recipe is one that I love even more than the real thing.  It’s warm and rich and flavorful and comforting, and it great if you have a cold (as I did when I made it), or if you just want a bit of coziness in your life.  My method here is a vegetarian adaptation of Tyler Florence’s Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup, so if you want more specific measurements, check his recipe out.  Because this one is an Erin special–meaning ‘short on details, long on making stuff up as you go along.’

To start, I sauteed the following in a big soup pot:

• 1 diced yellow onion
• 2 ribs of celery, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced (add this a bit later to prevent burning)

In another saute pan, caramelize one diced onion, and preheat your oven to about 375.  You’ll see why later!

After the veggies get a bit softened, I added a bunch of vegetable stock (let’s say about 5 cups), and seasoned this.  My favorite things to season the stock:

• Creole seasoning
• salt
• cayenne
• thyme
• oregano
• fennel seed
• Worcestershire sauce

After this began to taste the way I wanted it (rich, peppery, herb-y), I got started on the not-chicken “meatballs.”  This sounds a bit crazy, but trust: it is delicious.  Tyler’s recipe is “ultimate” chicken-noodle soup because all of the elements are a bit more decadent than you’d expect.  So instead of plain chunks of chicken, he makes meatballs out of chicken-apple-sausage, and instead of flat noodles, he uses cheese tortellini.  I’ve done both the sausage and tortellini adaptations before, but for this round, we kept is simple with just the “sausage.”

To start, you need the caramelized onion from earlier (it should be just about ready now, if you’ve cooked it slowly enough).  You also need some fake chicken: in Canada, this one from PC is the best; in the States, I’d go with this one.  Once your fake chicken is thawed, put the following into a food processor:

• 2 not-chicken cutlets, chopped
• the caramelized onion
• 1 egg
• sage
• bread crumbs
• chopped parsley
• + applesauce, if you want to replicate the flavor of chicken-apple sausage

Pulse this until it’s broken down enough to form into balls.  Form the entire mixture into slightly-flattened balls about 1-2 Tbsp each, and place them all onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake these in the oven for about 10 minutes on each side.  (Alternatively, you could fry them in a little bit of oil on the stovetop.  This is tasty, but makes the soup a little greasier than I like it.

When you have 10 minutes left on your meatballs, taste the broth and re-season it if necessary.  Then, add whatever pasta you want.  This time, we used bowties, but tortellini is also great.  If you’ve timed things correctly, your pasta should be cooked at about the same time that your meatballs are done.  To serve, put a few meatballs in the bottom of each bowl, then ladle the noodle-soup on top of them.  Top the whole thing with some extra chopped parsley and serve with some crusty bread, and you’re in business.

Superbowl Champion Veggie Chili

This is not *my* veggie chili. But it bears a striking resemblance to it.

By this time, you have no doubt heard that the New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl (which, as my friend Nick points out, is like the Grey Cup, but with 4 downs and no “rouges”).  As a Louisiana native, I am extremely pleased with this development.  I vividly recall the days of bag-headed fans venturing into the Superdome to watch the “Aint’s,” and not getting to see home games on television because the failure to sell enough tickets meant a TV blackout within a 100 mile radius.  So, I really never expected this day to come, but I am pretty stoked that it finally did.

To celebrate the Saints’ competition in this, the most glorious of sporting events, I made Veggie Chili, which, as far as I’m concerned anyway, rose to the occasion.  The recipe is an adaptation of Emeril Lagasse’s Texas-style chili (which is definitely not vegetarian), and is both hearty and complex.  Here’s how it goes.

Begin by sauteing the following in a big pot with canola oil:

• 1 large vidalia onion, diced
• 1-2 jalapenos, chopped
• 1 chopped carrot
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
• 4 Tbsp. chili powder
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

After these have cooked for a couple of minutes, add:

• 1 Tbsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. salt
• black pepper
• 28 oz can of diced tomatoes

When this is fragrant, add:

• 1 bottle of dark beer (we used a dark Belgian that we had on hand, but I’ve also used Guinness with pretty good results)
• 4 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, chopped
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Bring this to a boil, and taste it.  If your beer is on the bitter side, you may want to add about a tsp of sugar or honey.  Then, add 1.5 cups of dry, green lentils (make sure that you have washed and picked these over to get rid of any dirt or stones).  Boil for about 10 minutes, then reduce head to med-low and cook, covered, for 1 hour (or until the lentils are tender, but not mushy).  When the lentils have almost finished cooking, add a can of cooked kidney beans, and allow to simmer for another 15 minutes.

We served the chili with cheddar and chive scones, like these (made by Josh, of course),

plus a dollop of sour cream.  I don’t mind telling you that I think this chili is fantastic.  It’s satisfyingly spicy without being too much, and the flavor is big and bold without being one-note.  I also really, really like what the lentils do for the texture.  I’ve previously made this dish with TVP instead, and I think the ever-so-slight al dente character of the lentils is worlds better than the texture of TVP, which can get pretty mushy in soup.  It’s also a fun contrast with all of the other veggies, as well as the kidney beans.

By the end of the night, there were exactly zero servings of chili left–this recipe makes anywhere from 8-12, depending on how much other game-grub you have on hand–so I have a feeling that my chili-feelings here are deserved.    And, thankfully (finally!), so are my feelings for the Saints.

Soup’s On!

Those of you who know me well know that in my other life as a philosopher, I work in feminist theory–which means, of course, that I’m a humorless bitch who ruins all “fun” things for everyone through my inability to “take a joke.”  I usually do most of my writing about politics, law and political representation, but recently I found myself drawn into a much more everyday sort of controversy by–of all things–a soup commercial (originally pointed out to me by my friend and fellow blogger, Sharon).

I found this pretty irritating–not because I hate soup (though, let’s be honest, Campbell’s Soup is decidedly not awesome, and I have a feeling that 80 calorie Campbells would have a taste somewhere between dirty water  and dishwater-with-floating-food-bits)–but because it’s absolutely ridiculous to suggest that 300 calories is too much for a woman–and notice, they’re all women–to eat for a meal.  And not only is it too much, the commercial suggests, but you’d have to be blind not to notice it’s too much.  Once we’ve enlightened you, however, you can embrace our 80-calorie (or 60-calorie, in some cases) soup as the reasonable alternative lunch.  That, friends, is not just gross soup.  That is a starvation diet marketed as a smart choice, and it is definitely not cool, as the blog at this link explains well.  As she puts it, even if a dieting person replaces one restricted-calorie meal with this tiny soup-snack, the resulting calorie reduction is significant:

Now let’s replace that 340-calorie frozen meal with a 60-calorie serving of Campbell’s. Whoops! The total is 1120. We’ve gone 80 calories below the lower limit recommended by nutritionists. If you also take away half of those butter noodles, because (horrors!) we went above 340 calories for dinner, that brings us to a grand total of 995 calories for the day. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone recommending that level of calorie restriction without medical supervision.

I thought these were important points, so I posted the article on my twitter feed.  And what happened then?  Well, none other than @CampbellSoupCo replied, to accuse me and the blog’s author of extremism.  (Now, shut up and buy our soup!)  Naturally, I replied to let them know that I disagreed with that characterization, and then the whole thing wound up on the mother of all humorless feminist websites, Jezebel.

So that was fun.  If you feel like it, you can let Campbell’s know that you aren’t a fan of marketing campaigns that promote disordered eating.  Or, maybe just as effectively,  just keep reading my blog and discovering with me the joys of making your own soup at home, where no one will shame you for eating more than 300 calories at a time.

Vegetarian Pho

I promised when I started this blog that I’d let you know about the ups and downs of cooking at home, so here I am, telling you about a culinary adventure that wasn’t all I hoped it would be.  I got this recipe from an old issue of Vegetarian Times, which is typically pretty reliable–but sadly, while this soup looked great, it was a bit of a disappointment, taste-wise.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup, and authentic Pho is definitely not vegetarian.  It typically uses a beef broth base, and some kind of meat.  We made this one with vegetable stock and tofu–admittedly not the tastiest of ingredients, but there was enough prep that I thought it might turn into something delightful.  In fact, the broth itself was a pretty lab0r-intensive process.  I simmered for an hour in store-bought vegetable stock: a bunch of garlic, ginger, mushrooms, a cinnamon stick, fennel, basil and cilantro, soy sauce and a bit of sugar.  After this was done, I poured off the solids and reserved the liquid, which did smell pretty nice.  I then poured this broth over cooked rice noodles and the tofu (which Josh fried and sliced), and topped it all with green onions, basil, cilantro, and sugar snap peas.

The results were…well, bland.  I tried adding a bit more soy sauce to my bowl, but this (unsurprisingly) just made it saltier.  So, a disappointment.  I’m trying to figure out what would have made it better (other than beef stock, obviously)…more sugar?  More broth?  Fewer basil leaves on top (which have a really strong and slightly overwhelming taste on their own)?  What do you think?  And while we’re on the subject, do you have a favorite vegetarian version of a traditionally meaty dish?

Butternut Squash Soup

Today is a chilly, dreary day: perfect soup weather.  Plus, since it’s a Saturday, there was time enough to make a good one while doing some chores and watching the LSU game on the internet (no SEC football on my limited cable, unfortunately!).  I’d gotten a butternut squash on my last trip to the store for just such an occasion, and I have to admit that I was more than a little excited to use it.

Last summer, Josh and I actually grew (several!) butternut squash in our garden in Nashville, and we love using them in the fall.  They keep a really long time in the pantry, and since they’re also super-delicious and good for you, they’re a great garden item.  In case you’ve never had them, the flavor is somewhere between a sweet potato and a pumpkin.  So, between their tastiness, health benefits and general economy, I’d have to rank butternut squash as one of my absolute favorite fall vegetables (even though, technically, it’s not a vegetable at all).

Though I was looking forward to making a butternut squash soup, I actually wasn’t quite sure what I would do, recipe-wise.  I’ve recently fallen into watching a Canadian cooking show called “It’s Just Food,” which is great for getting basic ideas; their butternut squash soup used carrots, garlic, onion, green apples, and a dash of maple syrup, but I had no apples or syrup, and wasn’t quite sure that I wanted my soup to be sweet at all.  All too often I believe people make the mistake of thinking that if they’re using fall vegetables with fall-esque spices, everything needs to come out tasting like pumpkin pie, which becomes overwhelmingly cloying really quickly.  But enough of my soap-box.

I decided to do my own thing–inspired by, but not directly derivative of, the “It’s Just Food” recipe.  I did follow their tip of doing a preliminary browning of the chunks of squash and carrots and yellow onion (the carmelization brings out just enough sweetness for me), butI used potatoes instead of apples.  After these got a bit of color, I added several cups of vegetable stock and a few cloves of garlic.  Before letting this boil away, I went to town with the spices–which, by the way, is my favorite part of the cooking process.  This time, since I was really just winging it, I added quite a bit.  What ended up being most prominent, though were the following: ginger, coriander, cayenne and dried chipotles (as I mentioned earlier, these give the smokiness of bacon flavor to vegetarian foods), plus a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and sage.  After everything simmered together for about half an hour and the vegetables were all tender, I hit the whole thing with my immersion blender till it was pureed.  Things were pretty thick at that point, so I decided to finish the entire thing with a bit of milk, which toned down some of the heat and made the finished soup really rich and creamy.  In the end, I was super happy with how it turned out–warm, spicy and savory, with just a hint of sweetness–and maybe just a little too proud of myself for coming up with something so great on my own.  I’m hoping the LSU game turns out so well!

Minestrone

Things are starting to get a little on the cool side in the evenings, which means that I’ve started to get a hankering for soup.  I love making minestrone in particular because it’s quick, cheap, flavorful, and has everything I want in a vegetarian meal (beans, veggies, and starch).  For this one, I started by sauteing yellow onion, carrots, new potatoes and garlic.  Once those started to get a little color, I added canned diced tomatoes and vegetable broth, and seasoned everything with an Italian seasoning blend, plus a little extra oregano and basil, salt and pepper.  And, in what I thought was a real bit of smart thinking, I added a handful of dried chipotle chiles to give the soup a smokiness reminiscent of bacon drippings.  After letting it all simmer covered until the potatoes were almost done, I added a can of kidney beans and some corkscrew pasta.  When the pasta was cooked, I tossed in a handful of frozen green peas for some extra color and sweetness, and in just a minute, the whole thing was done.

I love the heartiness of this soup–especially because it’s almost entirely vegetables–and the chipotle chiles really added a nice depth of flavor (plus a kick of heat) that I think had been missing from my previous minestrone attempts.  And it’s a good thing, too, since it seems that fall is not to be avoided…