Spring green vegetable soup

Here's a spring green vegetable soup for you--creamy, full-flavored and perfect for an April evening. It's fast to put together, and you won't believe how many vegetables I managed to fit in here. Check it out: broccoli, spinach, carrots, potatoes, onion and garlic! First, I just want to note--the amounts are very flexible! If you have a little less broccoli or a little more spinach or one fewer carrot, do not worry about it. It all gets blended up together and will taste great no matter what. Start by prepping all your vegetables. Chop 3 small heads of broccoli, including the stems (peel them first)...And roughly chop 1 small onion (or, because I actually had really big onions, use 1/2 of a large onion). Depending on how much you love it--smash and peel 3 to 6 cloves of garlic. Peel and chop 2 medium carrots into small chunks. And about 2 cups total of peeled, chopped Yukon Gold potatoes. Combine 1 tablespoon each butter and olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.And add in all those gorgeous vegetables. Saute together in the butter and olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add in 3 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. The baking soda addition is taken from Cook's Illustrated--apparently it works to break down the broccoli and brings up the vegetal flavor. Bring it all to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Since we have a few minutes to spare, you can make some croutons for the soup! At least that's what I did anyway. I had a bunch of ends of bread in the freezer and I had let them get a bit stale. Cut them into cubes... And toss them in a big bowl with olive oil (at least 2-3 tablespoons) and salt and pepper.Add some fresh parmesan cheese... And spread out on a baking sheet. Let them bake at 300 until crispy, stirring them around occasionally. It will probably take about 10-15 minutes but keep an eye on them because they can burn easily.After 25-30 minutes of cooking, all your veggies should be quite soft. Add 2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock for a completely vegetarian version) and bring it up to a simmer again. Remember your big pile of spinach?Chop it up--should be more or less 2 cups worth. Add to the pot and let it wilt for about a minute or so into the hot soup. And now get your beloved immersion blender (seriously, from a totally non-gadgety person,this is the best gadget ever)and puree it all up together!This is optional but I added in 1/2 cup shredded cheese--this time it was a combination of jack and gouda.Puree again after adding in the cheese...And it really looks pretty, doesn't it? Taste and add salt and pepper, then serve with a handful of the croutons and a spoonful of Greek yogurt.

French blue lentil soup

It's cold and wintery and the entire city is snowed in! Let's make soup!I love blue potatoes. I love their nutty flavor and ancient pedigree--they're from the Andean highlands of Peru and look like potatoes must have looked like seven thousand years ago. You just need one big one--peel it and cut open to see a beautiful tie-dye inside.Chop into little chunks roughly the same size and set aside.You need one small onion, diced.And about 1/2 cup of diced celery.And bacon! Truthfully, this soup could use more but this was all I had in the house--about 1/4 pound. Chop it up into little pieces and fry until crispy in a big pot.Remove the delicious nibbles and set aside, hiding them from yourself, if necessary.
Add the onion and celery to the bacony pot over medium heat and saute until softened, about 5-7 minutes.
Add 1 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon chile powder to bloom in the fat.
Then 1 tablespoon tomato paste, sauteed briefly.
Rinse about 1 1/2 cups of french green lentils (aka lentilles du Puy). You can use regular lentils if you want but I like these because they hold their shape even after they're cooked. They're especially delicious with our blue potato.
Add to the pot and saute for a minute or two...
Then add in your blue potato along with 2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed.
Add 6 cups of chicken stock and a bay leaf or two, and bring to a low boil, then turn down to simmer for about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, stir 1/2 cup of greek yogurt until very smooth.
Take a peek at your soup--you might want to skim off some of the bacon fat.
When it is all done it will smell divine. Taste it and add salt as needed and drizzle in 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar. I actually also tossed in a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce for more dimension but that might not be to everyone's taste. I think it would also be good with a tablespoon of miso stirred in there.
Top with spoonfuls of the greek yogurt and a handful of crisp bacon.

Tortilla soup

New cooking ideas sort of fell by the wayside while I finished up the semester, but now I'm back! With tortilla soup and/or vengance. This is really good and spicy but the heat is tempered by mellow toppings like crumbled queso fresco and cubes of buttery avocado. I had a really lousy cold last week and this was the perfect soup to revive me--like a super amped up chicken soup. When I lived in Milwaukee I would always order the sopa Azteca from Cempazuchi on Brady Street. What I ended up making here was kind of a cross between that and the version in the fantastic Alice Waters book, The Art of Simple Food . Hey, since we're in the holiday season, that's another amazing one that would make a fantastic gift. And this soup is the perfect festive meal! All red and green.Start by simmering half a chicken breast (including skin and bone) in 1 quart of chicken stock until cooked through--should take about 25 minutes. While that is going on, prepare some crispy tortilla strips for the topping: slice 4 corn tortillas into more-or-less even strips... Fry them on both sides until cripsy in vegetable oil over medium high heat. You'll probably need to do this in batches. Set them aside to drain on paper towels until it's time to eat.Now chop up one small onion, plus any mild green chile of your choosing (I think I used an Anaheim chile), and 2 cloves of garlic.Sauté together in a soup pot in 2 tablespoons olive oil until soft but not too browned (about 5 minutes).By now your chicken is probably done cooking. Remove it from the hot stock and let it cool off. You'll thank me for that later.Now chop up a dried red chile--I used an ancho chile but a chipotle chile would add more smokey goodness. You can de-seed it to de-spice it a bit (probably a good idea).Pour the hot stock that you used to cook the chicken breast into your pot with the sautéed onion and pepper.Then add in your chopped dried chile...And some tomato. I used 5 canned, whole peeled tomatoes from a big can, plus about half the juice. I mashed them up a little bit in the pot.Brought it all to a boil, then turned down to a simmer. After 20 minutes, I puréed it with my immersion blender. You can leave it chunky if you prefer, but I like it smooth. Besides, there will be lots of toppings and chicken and stuff going in it to provide textural contrast, so I think it's best to go ahead and purée. Let it cook over low heat for another 10 minutes while you get the chicken ready. Take that now-cooled chicken breast (see? no fun if it's too hot to touch!) and pull it apart into shreds. Add the shredded chicken into the soup.Now it's toppings time!You can put all kinds of good stuff on top. Some other ideas would be crispy julienned radishes or jicama, or pickled jalapenos. This time I used crumbled queso fresco (cotija would be good here too)...Cilantro...Perfect, fresh avocado slices...And of course the tortilla strips. It's called tortilla soup after all. Juice half a lime into the soup, then ladle it into bowls and spread your toppings over all. Serve with extra lime wedges.