Root Vegetable Soup - Rutabaga, Cabbage, Potato, Daikon

If you are looking for a hearty winter soup that banishes the cold, look no further than root vegetable soup.  The inclusion of beans and spelt berries make this soup a filling, complete meal in a pot.  From start to finish it can be ready in an hour and it uses several recent offerings from CRO.  

Spelt is an ancient grain rich in manganese, copper, zinc and iron and is a good source of protein and fiber.  The spelt berry is the spelt grain kernel.  It has a chewy texture and nutty flavor.  I cooked my own (like cooking dried beans), but if you don't want to bother with all that and you can't find them already cooked, you could substitute something like couscous or even macaroni noodles.  

Root Vegetable Soup

2 medium onions, chopped (CRO Week 18)
olive oil cooking spray
1 cup rutabaga, peeled and cubed (CRO Week 19)
1 cup peeled and cubed daikon radish (CRO Week 21)
1 1/2 cups peeled and cubed gold potatoes (CRO Week 21)
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 tsp each of dried rosemary, thyme, marjoram
2 bay leaves
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup chopped Green Cabbage (CRO Week 20)
1 15 oz. can Great Northern Beans
2 cups cooked spelt berries*
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sweating the vegetables draws out their flavor

Spray a soup pot with olive oil cooking spray and place pot over medium heat on stove.  Cook onions for 5 minutes stirring often and add rutabaga, daikon, potato, carrots, celery, dried herbs and bay leaves.  "Sweat" these vegetables by cooking over medium heat about 10 minutes.  Add the vegetable broth and cabbage and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat so the soup just simmers, cover it, and continue to simmer about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Add cooked spelt berries and beans with their liquid.  Continue to cook about 10 more minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste.  The soup will thicken as it sits so if you refrigerate any you may need to add more vegetable broth or water to thin it to the desired consistency.  Serves 6-8.

*You can find basic cooking instructions for spelt berries here: How to cook spelt berries.

Not Your Typical Minestrone Soup

I guess technically any soup that contains beans, vegetables, and noodles can be called Minestrone, right?  At least that is what a recent article in the Wall Street Journal said.  I have always thought of Minestrone as having a clear tomato broth with green beans, kidney beans, a few other common vegetables, macaroni noodles and some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.  But the following soup can be called "Minestrone" because it has those three basic elements: beans, veggies, and starch.  I could just keep inventing new "Clarion River Organics Minestrone soups" every week depending upon what CRO sends us, but then that would get confusing!   I am fairly certain you can't mess this up.  Just use what you still have in your fridge from CRO, throw in some beans and a starch and call it "Clarion River Minestrone Soup"!

Clarion River Minestrone Soup with Rosemary Pesto
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced plus 2 whole cloves
3 stalks celery
1/2 of a large Clarion River Organics rutabaga, peeled and diced
6 cups vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1 can (15-oz) white beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup lentils, rinsed and drained
3 cups Clarion River Organics chopped cabbage (about 1/3 of the head)
1 small apple, peeled and diced OR 1/2 cup apple cider
1/4 pound dry spaghetti, broken into thirds
Salt and Pepper to taste
For the Rosemary Pesto:
1 cup kale, chard or other leafy green (the Clarion River Organics bok choi greens would work well)
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/4 cup rosemary sprigs
2 Tbsp olive oil

Spray a large cooking pot with cooking oil and place over medium heat.  Add onions and minced garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and just beginning to brown, about 8 minutes.  Add a little water to the pot as necessary to keep onions from sticking and burning.  

Stir in celery, rutabaga and cook another 5 minutes.  Add 4 cups vegetable broth, bay leaves, white beans, lentils, cabbage, and apples or apple cider.  Stir to combine.  Bring to a simmer and then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.  Add the additional 2 cups of broth as needed to keep enough liquid to make this a soup and not a porridge!  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  

Add the dry spaghetti and continue to simmer about 10 more minutes.  Make the rosemary pesto: in a food processor, puree greens, pecans, whole garlic cloves, a pinch of salt and oil until mixture is reduced to a paste.  

To serve, ladle soup into bowls.  Place 1 or 2 dollops of pesto on top of each bowl.  Serves 6.

Great Green Veggie Soup!

Here is the first of what will be "Sandy's Soup Series"!  From here on out a number of my recipes will be for soup.  It is that time of year when there is a damp chill in the air and fall vegetables lend themselves so nicely to warming soups.  Root vegetables, squash, apples, and greens all make for flavorful soup additions and endless possibilities.  And is there really anything like the scent of a pot of soup simmering on the stove?  I think not.  

Great Green Veggie Soup
1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
1 32-oz. carton vegetable broth
1/2 head broccoli, including stalk, cut up (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup frozen green peas
2 scallions, sliced
1/2 fennel bulb, chopped
1 inch piece ginger, minced
1/2 tsp dried dill
2 to 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 bunch greens (I used the CRO brussel sprout greens), chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

In a small container, combine the couscous with 1 cup boiling water.  Cover and set aside. In a soup pot, combine broth with 2 cups water and bring to a simmer.  Add broccoli, peas, fennel, scallions, ginger and dill.  Return to a rapid simmer, cover and cook 3-4 minutes until the vegetables are done.  Stir in soy sauce to taste, greens, and cilantro/parsely.   Cook about 5 more minutes or until the greens have wilted and are tender.  Stir in the couscous and serve at once.  Serves 6-8.

Tomatoes, Banana Peppers, Black Beans

Mile-high Rice and Beans

I still had those two beautiful Clarion tomatoes resting on the sill of my sunny kitchen window this week.  I loved looking at them because they remind me of summer and growth and new crops coming.  Now fall is here, the sun is waning, the nights are much cooler and there are no new crops on the horizon.  I was almost reluctant to use them because that would signify the end of the growing season.  But earlier this week I had a craving for one of our household mainstays as plant-based eaters - rice and beans.  We call ours "mile-high" because we pile on so many veggies!  We use all sorts of combinations of vegetables so use the recipe below (which is adapted from the Engine 2 Diet book) as a rough guide and create your own version with whatever vegetables you like. The sensory experience of the warm rice and beans with the cold vegetables is a metaphor for this transition from late summer to early fall.  Enjoy!  

Mile-high Rice and Beans 
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained (or cook up your CRO dry black beans if you still have them!)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)
1 tsp chili powder
2-3 Clarion River Organics Tomatoes, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup corn, frozen or canned
2 carrots, grated
2 Clarion River Organics banana peppers, seeded and chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, course stems removed and chopped
2 avocados, peeled and cubed
3 cups cooked brown rice (you can cook the rice while preparing the vegetables) 

Heat the beans with vegetable broth, Bragg's and chili powder.  To serve place several spoonfuls of rice onto large plates and ladle beans on top.  Pile generous amounts of the chopped vegetables, cilantro, and avocado on top of the beans.  Serves 3 to 4.  

Radish Greens

Quick!  If you haven't eaten (or thrown away) those radish greens yet, now is the time to use them!  They do not keep.  If they already look a little wilted, they are still useful as sautéed greens.  I removed the entire tough stem (just didn't have time to chop all that up) and used only the green tops.  Nothing could be simpler or healthier than this quick recipe that tastes very much like cooked spinach.  

Sautéed Radish Greens

1 bunch Clarion River Organics radish tops, green only, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced or grated

2 Tbsp water

1 tsp soy sauce

olive oil cooking spray

Coat a medium fry pan with the cooking spray and heat pan over medium.  Add garlic and ginger and stir fry about 1 minute until fragrant.  Add radish greens and toss to combine with ginger and garlic.  Add the water and soy sauce.  Continue cooking 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the greens are completely wilted.  Serves 1 as a side or 2 as a small side.