The Perfect Fall Soup: Celeriac, Leek and Potato Soup

     Oh so creamy, without an ounce of cream! Can you believe it? Well I can!

     This recipes features one of the so called 'monsters' of the garden -- Celeriac. Celeriac is gnarly looking root vegetable that can get to about the size of your head. Typically this veg is harvested late in the fall, after the first soft frost, but before a hard frost (just in case you feel like growing some yourself next year!). Celeriac is a really cool root, also known as celery root, it has the texture of a potato but tastes like the most delicious celery imaginable! We cut one up raw on the rooftop garden the other day, and it was amazing! So don't let the crazy appearance dissuade you from picking a celeriac up from your local market or grocer.

     I've been waiting to cook up this soup all season! Ever since I saw the roots sticking out from under what I originally mistook as celery. Through in some Rye's HomeGrown leeks, garlic and my last couple potatoes, and we have the makings for a delicious soup. The hardest part of making this soup is cutting up the celeriac, once that's done, it's smooth sailing. Spice up this soup a bit with some pesto or an herb oil.

Serves: 8

Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 celeriac, peeled and cubed
• 2 large (4 small) leeks, white and light green only, roughly chopped 
• 2 large white or russet potatoes, peeled and chopped 
• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• Black pepper and salt to taste 

Preparation

1. In a large, thick bottomed soup pot, heat oil on medium heat with the bay leaf.
2. Add celeriac, leek, potato and garlic. Let sweat for about 10 minutes.
3. Add vegetable broth. Cover, increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until celeriac is tender.
4. Let cool for 20-30 minutes. Remove bay leaf, and blend soup in blender (may need to to blend in batches). If I have to blend in batches, and I know that there is going to be left overs, I usually put the first batch into Tupperware containers for tomorrow night's dinner.
5. After blended, return the soup to the pot, and warm over medium heat, for about 20 minutes, or until warm.
6. Serve will a dollop of pesto or a couple drops of an herb oil.

Green Goddess Soup (Hearty Leafy Green Soup with Green Lentils)

       Last night I decided I hadn't had enough greens for the day, so I decided to make a soup PACKED full of greens. I figured I was better off making soup than turning the oven on to make a lasagna. My fridge was filled with a variety of greens from my CSA basket from Rye's HomeGrown. I've been loving my weekly helping of fresh veg. It's really cool. Every Wednesday I work a shift selling the produce at Ryerson's Farmers' Market, and I go home with my bike basket overflowing with local organic produce. We've barely had to do groceries these past couple of months, besides our staples.

      The trick to this soup is putting pretty much every green you have into it. Seriously, I put turnip greens, spinach, swiss chard, kohlrabi, and a bit of kale. (I had to use up last weeks bounty before I get more goodies tomorrow!) Throw those luscious greens with a delicious stock, some lentils, onions and potatoes, and you have yourself a scrumptious soup. And for those trying to watch their waste line, eating more greens is a great way to start. One 2-cup bowl of this hearty green soup will cost you under 250 calories (and it's totally worth every calorie).

       I topped  my hearty green soup with a mixture of microgreens from Rye's HomeGrown, including basil and cilantro microgreens along with pea shoots. So tasty!

Serves: 6-10
Time: 1h 10min

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/8 tsp red chili flakes
• 2 medium-large onions, roughly chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander 
• 1 cup green or french lentils
• 4 cups water

• 2 medium potatoes, diced
• 1 medium kohlrabi bulb (about the size of a fist, alternatively use turnip or an additional potato)
• 1 small bunch of swiss chard ( about 7-8 leaves), stems and greens separated and chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 cups stock + 4 cups water or 1 bouillion cube with 6 cups water

• 10oz/280g spinach, kale and/or turnip greens, stems removed, chopped 
• Kohlrabi greens (or about 2oz/56g more greens, such as collard greens or kale), stems removed, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 2-3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. In a large soup pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil with chili flakes over medium heat. When hot add the onion.
2. Let the onion saute for a couple of minutes before adding the minced garlic, cumin and coriander. Let saute for about 2-4 more minutes or until onions are transleucent.
3. Next, stir in the dry lentils, add the 4 cups of water and cover. Raise the temperature and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile chop the potatoes, kohlrabi (discard stems) and chard stems, and the rest of your greens.
5. After 10-15 minutes, add the diced potatoes, kohlrabi and chopped swiss chard stems and let simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes before adding the greens.
6. Add the chopped fresh greens in batches, stirring in between.
7. Add seasonings, including salt and pepper, nutritional yeast and lemon juice. Let simmer for about 10 minutes before removing from the heat.
8. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving with toasts, microgreens, sauteed mushrooms, whatever you feel like!

Red Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew

       Oh, stew. How you warm my heat. Sunday was day light savings (Spring is slowly coming to Canada) so amazingly, we actually ate dinner in daylight....though it was more of a lupper, seeing as we had brunch at 12.30. Anyways, we wanted some comfort food, so we decided on a hearty red lentil soup. Ryan wanted a soup, but I prefer stew, and it just happened that the pot wasn't big enough for him to add anymore liquid, so I won the soup vs. stew battle and we settled on a robust red stew with buttery drop biscuits.

       Also just to give you guys a heads up, I'm going to be offline for the next two weeks and will return on the 21st of March for a my birthday post (oh the options!). Two weeks four projects and four papers. Its going to be a very busy next couple of weeks. But don't worry, just because I'm not publishing recipes, doesn't mean I'n not making new recipes or testing old ones. A girl's got to eat after all.

       But anyways, back to the stew.... This stew is inspired by Indian dhal, and so uses some warm spices, like cumin and turmeric, but also some more floral spices like thyme and oregano. This stew is hearty enough that it doesn't need an accompaniment, but if you, like myself, enjoy dipping bread or biscuits into your stews and soups, give my vegan drop biscuit recipe a try.


Serves: 6-8
Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2 medium-large carrots, sliced into rounds or semi-circles
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• I bunch red or rainbow swiss chard, stems separated from greens, stems chopped, greens chiffonaded
• 2 cups red lentils (dry)
• 1/4 cup white wine (or 2 tbsp white or red wine vinegar)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 can or jar tomato puree, or alternatively diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1-1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 3 medium white or red potatoes, chucked 
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation

1. In a large soup or stock pot, heat olive oil on medium heat. Sauté onions, carrots, garlic and chopped swiss chard stems for about 3 minutes or until onions are translucent. 
2. Add lentils, stir and let toast for a couple of minutes. Add the wine and let the alcohol burn off for an additional two minutes.
3. Add broth, water, tomato products and spices. Cover, bring to a boil on high heat, and then reduce and let simmer for 10 minutes. The lentils will absorb a lot of liquid so add more water as needed.
4. Add chopped potatoes, and simmer for an additional 15 minutes on medium heat.
5. When the potatoes are starting to get tender, add the swiss chard greens, slowly while stirring the soup to avoid greens from clumping together. Let simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes until all vegetables are tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.
6.  Remove from heat, and stir in lemon juice. 
7. Serve with biscuits or garlicky toasts and enjoy.

Asian Soup

I've been a very busy bee these past few days. With class, exams, labs and work, its nice to come home and make a good hot meal, even if it only takes 30 minutes. I've always been a fan of Asian soups. Miso, hot and sour, vegetarian pho, its all good. This recipe is pretty simple, in that it doesn't contain many crazy Asian ingredients that you may not necessarily have on hand.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 packages soba noodles, cooked following package directions

Olive oil
10 oyster mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced
1/16 green cabbage or napa cabbage
1 large carrot, shaved
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 mirador pepper or Long chilli pepper, minced
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, steps removed, rinsed and chopped
1 handful dried seaweed
1/2 bunch Chinese broccoli or 1/2 a head of bok choy, chopped
1/4 cup, pack fresh cilantro leaves
2 cups vegetable broth
5 cups water
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Asian 5 spice
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ginger powder or 1" fresh ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce

Preparation

On medium heat in a medium large pot, lightly brown oyster mushrooms in oil. Add garlic, and fresh ginger, if using.
Add cabbage, liquid, dried mushrooms, hot pepper, seaweed, sesame oil, spices and soy sauce. 
Bring to a boil and then add carrot and green onion. 
Let simmer on medium for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile cook soba noodles as directed on package.
After 10 minutes add greens to soup and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Check seasoning and liquid level and add more soy sauce, salt or pepper, or water as desired. 
When all vegetables are cooked, add cilantro, remove pot from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
Serve soup on top of noodles and add hot sauce if desired.

Hope you enjoy! 

Minestrone Soup

A great minestrone that anyone can appreciate. This Italian classic is very versatile and can include any of your favourite vegetables, beans or pasta noodles. This recipe goes well with fresh bread or biscuits. But beware, will all these vegetables, this soup is quite filling.

Serves: 8-10

For this batch, we didn't add the extra cup of  water at the end,
but in hindsight, we should have. Also, The pasta continues to
absorb the liquid while in the fridge, so you may have to add
more liquid and a bit more salt and pepper when reheating.
.... Also, we forgot the celery. Woops.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large carrot, diced

1 lg celery stalk, diced

1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1" pieces

1 large red potato, cubed

1 cup fresh (or frozen) green beans, cut into 1" segments 

2 cups roughly chopped kale

1 28oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups tomato purée (if not available, use more broth)

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups boiling water

1 16ox can mixed beans, with liquid

1 1/2 cup large shells, or 1 cup medium shells or other noodles

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. 

Add onion, garlic, celery, carrot and potato.While cooking add the dried spices. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned and quite possibly starting to stick to the bottom of the pot.  

Add tomatoes, tomato purée, broth and half of the water. 

Turn heat to high, stir then bring to a boil. 

Add canned beans, green beans and zucchini and reduce to a simmer. Then, stir in pasta noodles and simmer for an additional 20-30 minutes until all vegetables and noodles are tender. (If the pasta is a bit al dente, its all right,it will continue to cook off the heat.) 

Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Remove from heat. 

Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Broccoli and Potato Soup

This recipe is my all time favourite blended soup from a great vegetarian site, vegangela.com. It consists of ingredients that can commonly be found in the fridge or pantry and can be whipped up in less than 40 minutes.

Serves: 2 large servings, or 4 small

Perfect with sautéed mushrooms & a dollop of vegan sour cream

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1 head of broccoli florets (2 cups)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/4 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté onions and garlic for 3 minutes.
Add potatoes and broth. Cover, bring to a boil. Reduce reduce and simmer until potatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes.
Add broccoli and thyme andcover for 5 minutes, until fully steamed, but still bright.
Purée the soup with a stick blender.
Season with salt and pepper as desired.