Brunch Delight Part I: Creamy Carrot Soup

I recently hosted a brunch for my Book Club.  Despite the fact that we've moved into the South American "Spring," our weather has been drizzly and cool, so I was all about a comfort food menu.  Naturally, soup came to mind, but I wanted something pure and essential in flavor.  You could not ask for a simpler and tastier soup than this Creamy Carrot - I promise.

Creamy Carrot Soup

 Servings:  4-6

Ingredients (don't get too overwhelmed):

• 4 cups Carrots, sliced (about 6-7 carrots)
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 5 cups Milk (I used whole)
• Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions (so simple, there's not pictorials):

• Clean* and slice all the carrots
• Chop the onion
• In a Dutch Oven, sauté the carrots and onion in the butter for about 10 minutes 
•  Add the milk, salt and pepper, and let simmer for about 30 minutes
• Pour contents into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.   *You might need to do this in a couple of batches. 
• Garnish with a touch of cream, if desired and serve warm

*Tips*

*  I never peel my carrots.   A good majority of the vitamins and minerals in a carrot lie just beneath the skin.  Peeling can remove a lot of that goodness.  Instead, I scrub carrots with soap and water to remove any dirt or residue.

*  The original recipe I used suggested straining the soup after pureeing, however, I found it unnecessary.  Besides, I didn't want to strain out all that good veggie fiber!

I know this is one I'll come back to time and again for its elegant simplicity.

Recipe adapted from here

Meatless Monday: Hearty Veggie Soup

This is a quick post featuring a real-quick answer to dinner when you can't devote much thought or time to what to prepare (that was the case for me today). Still sticking with a Meatless Monday theme, though...

Do you remember the (now seems ancient) Cabbage Soup Diet? The theory was that if you spent a week eating the prescribed Cabbage Soup, you could lose up to ten pounds. I hope none of us (ahem) ever subscribed to such nonsense! However short-term the weight-loss benefits, some people found they actually liked the Cabbage Soup!

In a nutshell, you dump a lot of vegetables into a soup pot, along with cabbage, obviously, and let it simmer away. The variations on the theme can be endless, but the basic recipe served as my inspiration for today's Veggie Soup.

My Hearty Veggie Soup

• 2-3 cans Diced Tomatoes with juice *
• 1/2 head of Cabbage, cut into small chunks
• 1 bag frozen soup veggies: carrots, peas, green beans, corn, potatoes*
• 2-3 stalks & leaves celery, chopped
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic
• Salt and Pepper to taste
  

Put all ingredients into a soup pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. I imagine this recipe would work great in a crock pot as well.
To bulk up the recipe, but keep it veggie, add a can of beans, or some cooked brown rice.

* I only had one can of diced tomatoes on hand, so I pureed three fresh tomatoes for the soup base, and added some vegetable broth for volume and flavor.
*If you can use fresh chopped veggies - awesome!

Nutrition Round Up

• All of the veggies add up to a good amount of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals
  
• Tomatoes are a good source of lycopene - an antioxidant
  

Meatless Monday (sorta): White Bean, Butternut and Kale Stew

Last Sunday morning, I suggested to Ben that he take control of planning dinner, and he said OK.

A little later, I walked into the kitchen and saw this:

Not my pic, (hers) but it's what I saw....Camera not handy - I'm a last-minute food post planner.

With the exception of our 4 year-old, I'm probably the snobbiest foodster in our casa, so the idea of an entire meal of white beans didn't have me doing cartwheels. Now that I think about it, I can't even recall what we DID eat that evening, but the beans soaked overnight, and I told Ben I'd "deal with them."

On Monday, I found this recipe for White Bean, Butternut Squash and Kale Stew. I still wasn't overly excited about this impending meal, but at least it would be nutrient-dense.

Bit of Background: We live in Brazil. Brazil is very carne-centric, and we probably eat more than our fair share of beef and pork, lean though it may be. Anyway, I'm trying to make an effort to cook at least 1-2 meatless meals per week. "Meatless Monday" being a good start, and this recipe fit the bill.
....except I promptly forgot, and put bacon into the bean pot. We'll get there.....

I can't wait forever and a day to cook beans, so a pressure cooker ("PC") is THE way to go. Don't freak. Today's models are not your grandmother's PCs. They have safety mechanisms, won't explode, and are without a doubt, a staple in our kitchen. They'll cook dry beans in 30-45 minutes.
While the beans were hissing away in the PC, I prepped the other veggies: fresh kale, butternut squash, and red bell peppers. (I'm simplifying the recipe, you know)

To prepare them for the stew, I cooked them in a Dutch Oven with some onion and oil until tender, then added vegetable broth. When the beans were done, I added them in, too. The final result looked something like this:

image via WholeFoods

...which neither of our kids would touch with a ten-foot pole.

*Lightbulb* What if we puree it - disguise all that veggie goodness?

After mere moments with the blender (immersion-style rocks if you've got one) we ended up with a smooth, even more savory soup. Ben thought the puree actually tasted better than the stew version. Served up with some warm, crusty bread, and we were set. We ALL ate it like champs.

*NB: The original stew recipe called for black olives, which I omitted. If you plan to puree the stew, I think it's probably better to leave the olives for your martini. ;)

So, our lesson for the day is: Never underestimate the possibility of a bag of beans!

Nutritional Round-Up:
White Beans: Very good source of Fiber and Folate. It is also a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Manganese

Kale: A very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

Red Bell Peppers: Very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin B6 and Folate, as well as several other vitamins, minerals, and

Info via here