Recipe: Winter Squash, Leek, & Apple Soup

today marked the start of my marathon of thanksgiving cooking with this soup. I won't lie...it was an all-day event making this soup. it wasn't difficult, it just took a long time to roast the squash. in the end, though, my taste test proved that this soup is worth the time.

ingredients:
4.5 lb of winter squash, halved with the seeds removed (I used acorn squash)
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and quartered (I chose a pink lady apple)
1 Tbs olive oil
2 medium leeks, white parts only, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
2 pinches ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 bay leaf

directions:
1. preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place squash cut-side down and apple quarters in large baking dish. Add one cup water, cover, and roast 35-40 minutes, or until squash is tender. Allow the squash to cool then scoop the flesh out from the skin.
2. heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1 pinch of pepper. cook 3 minutes or until leeks begin to soften. stir in garlic and wine, then cook another 3 minutes, or until pot is nearly dry. add squash, apple, vegetable broth, remaining salt and pepper, and bay leaf. bring to a boil, then simmer over medium-low heat uncovered for 20 minutes. remove bay leaf, then puree with immersion blender until smooth and creamy. cook over low heat for 15 minutes.

as I type this post, I am roasting two sugar pumpkins for various thanksgiving recipes to appear in the future.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Soup

Yes, I am back in action! And just in time for fall, I've come up with this recipe. I was inspired by a recipe for spicy sweet potato soup, but because I was unable to find my stash of spices, I decided to do away with the spicy part and just make a sweet potato soup.

ingredients:
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp grated lime zest
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp grated ginger root
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 lime, juiced
salt and pepper to taste

directions:
1.In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream and lime zest. Set aside in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to blend.
2.Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add sweet potatoes, and vegetable stock. Season with ginger. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
3.Puree the soup using an immersion blender or regular blender. If using a counter top blender, puree in small batches, filling the blender just a bit past half way to avoid spillage. Whisk peanut butter into the soup, and heat through. Stir in lime juice, and salt/pepper.
4.Ladle into warm bowls, and top with a dollop of the reserved sour cream

this soup was incredible! I actually licked my bowl clean. For me, the best part of soup as a dish is how easy it is to store. Leftovers can be frozen, which means that I have enough soup stored in my fridge so I dont have to think about cooking when I get home from my night classes this week.

I'll try to remember to post a picture later.

Recipe: Vegetarian Chili with Bulgur

I fell in love during a recent trip to my favorite restaurant in Milwaukee, Beans and Barley (their website is www.beansandbarley.com). The object of my affection is their chili. I'm pretty sure what sealed the deal for me was their use of chili to create a meaty texture. After putting recipe requests on two livejournal communities for vegetarians for a similar recipe, I got a response with what looked like something similar. I made a big pot of it last night and was very happy with the result! It's easy to make, though it does take a fair amount of preparation (the hardest part for me was opening the jar of salsa). I did forget to add the onion in until it was too late, but I didn't miss it (I'm not a huge fan of onions, anyway).


Ingredients:
1 tbsp Pure Canola Oil
2 cups Onions
1 medium Green bell Pepper
1 medium Red Bell Pepper
3 Garlic Clove
2 cups Mushrooms-sliced
19 oz Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
19 oz Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup Bulgur Wheat
28 oz Crushed Tomatoes
1 cup Salsa
1/2 cup Tap Water
2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 tbsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Dried Basil
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tbsp Cocoa
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin

Directions:
Heat oil in a large pot. Saute onions, pepper and garlic for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add mushrooms and sauté 5 minutes longer. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 25 to 30 minutes.

I ate this last night with shredded cheese, and it was incredible. I brought some for lunch today, along with tortilla chips.

Guest Post from Willie and Henrietta

Well, when cooking on a budget we generally turn to soup. Soups have long been the BFF of country food. It seems every great cuisine has food which was invented by an industrious farmer’s wife looking to get as much use out of her ingredients as possible. Being the grandchildren of farmer’s we feel this type of cooking is in our bones!
A wonderful soup which is both inexpensive and healthy is Minestrone.
What we love about this soup is that you can really throw in any number of vegetables you have on hand or get on super sale. So please take this recipe as a guide not as map.
We had on hand cabbage (which truth be told really should be a mainstay in this soup for two reasons- it’s so inexpensive and it’s packed with vitamins.), onions, zucchini, and red pepper.
Here was our list of ingredients:
14 oz Canned Tomatoes
1/3 c. Whole Wheat Pasta
2 cans Cannellini Beans (you can use Great Northern Beans if you can’t find Cannellini and you can always used dry we were taking a short cut)
1 tbsp. Chicken Bouillon add more to taste after you’ve cooked- it gets really salty fast!
6 c. Water
½ head cabbage shredded
2 Zucchini chopped
3 cloves Garlic
1 Red Pepper Chopped
1 onion chopped
1 tbsp. Italian Seasoning
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1. Heat 2 tbsp. Olive Oil in pan and add onions. Throw a little salt in there to sweat the onions. After a couple of minutes add the garlic. Once onions become translucent add shredded cabbage and pepper.
2. When the vegetables have started to cook down. Chop half of the tomatoes and sauté them with the rest of the vegetable. Continue to cook until vegetables have cooked down to half their volume.
3. Add 2 c. of water, bouillon, seasonings, pepper, and tomato liquid (reserve the rest of the tomatoes for now)
4. If you have a food processor, blender, or immersion blender, coarsely pulse puree the soup mixture. We still want to see some of the vegetables.
5. To the puree add: beans, rest of the tomatoes, and Zucchini. Cook until zucchini is soft. Add cooked pasta. Season to taste.
6. If you have it serve with a little Parmesan cheese on top and a slice of garlic bread.
The fun part of simple cooking is that really anything goes: you could sauté onion with bacon for more fat and flavor. You could throw in carrots and celery or add chicken. Whatever your fancy!
We hope you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed coming up with it! In the words of our great inspiration Julia Child --Bon Appetit!

Guest Post from The Empty Kitchen

Having to feed yourself, or a family, when you’re on a very tight budget is hard work. It’s exhausting trying to think of meals that are inexpensive, tasty and can stretch for more than one sitting. It’s also important to keep some variety so boredom doesn’t set it (think of the cacophony that is the whining sounds of “spaghetti again?”) For me, I’ve found that the best way to eat a varied diet on a limited budget is encompassed in one word—soup.
I don’t care what season it is. I will eat soup whether it’s 4° or 84°. There are endless possibilities for soup. It can be vegetarian, vegan, meat based, hot or cold. They can have lots of vegetables or no vegetables. They can be cream based or broth based. The list goes on and on. Almost every Sunday, you will find me in my kitchen making at least one pot of soup (I typically don’t eat sandwiches so soup serves as my lunch most days).
One of my favorites soups is a broth based black bean soup. I found it on All Recipes years ago when my husband and I had a $30 a week grocery budget. I have been making it ever since. It’s a simple soup that can be made for approximately $5-7, depending on sales and where you shop.
A few comments about the ingredients and cost: if you have a fully stocked pantry and spices on hand, this recipe is even less expensive. For instance, I always have cumin, chili powder, jarred garlic and vegetable oil on hand; as such, the cost of those ingredients in this recipe is nominal. I buy the large “Bugs Bunny” carrots ($2.99 for 5 lbs) so the cost of the 2 carrots is also nominal. I also prefer to buy vegetable bouillon cubes for the broth ($1.59 for 6 cubes or 12 cups of broth); I find that for the cost, the bouillon cubes stretch my money a lot farther. So, to make this soup I had to buy: 1 box vegetable bouillon cubes, 2 cans black beans, 1 can tomatoes, 1 onion and 1 package of corn which came to a grand total of $4.87 or $.61 per serving. That’s not a bad deal.













Black Bean Soup (adapted from a recipe found on All Recipes)
Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced (I use a big heaping spoonful of jarred minced garlic)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 can corn (can substitute with one package frozen corn)
• ¼ tsp ground pepper
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I use vegetable bouillon cubes)
• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can stewed tomatoes (I use a can of diced tomatoes)





Directions:


1. Heat the oil in a medium-large pot.
2. Add the onion, carrots and garlic. Sauté until onion is soft, approximately 5-7 minutes.
3. Stir in the cumin, chili powder. Cook for 1 minute. Then add corn, pepper, broth and 1 can black beans. Bring to a boil.
4. Puree remaining can of black beans and tomatoes in a food processor (note: I have never done this. I usually combine the beans and tomatoes in a bowl and mash with a fork. ) Add to the rest of the soup.
5. Lower heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Makes approximately 8 cups.


This is a really versatile soup. You can make it as describe or you can make it your own. You can add peppers or celery to the soup or you can top it with some shredded cheese or sour cream (or both!). You can even add some leftover chicken. I usually have it with a roll or tortilla strips.

Anyone with a small grocery budget will tell you that finding satisfying, nutritious and healthy meals is close to impossible. So I recommend soup. It’ll keep you full, it’ll keep you in budget and it’ll give you a lot of food. That’s a combination that definitely tastes good!

You can find more of Jana’s recipes, kitchen disaster stories and thoughts on food at her blog, The Empty Kitchen.

Recipe: Creamy Tomato Soup

(NOTE: I will add a picture to this post this afternoon)

I've been craving creamy tomato soup since last week, so I finally got around to making some last night. I lightened this recipe by using Promise light spread instead of butter, and I don't think it made a huge difference in terms of taste. Ideally, I would have used low sodium tomato juice, but I couldn't find any at Metro Market. I probably should have looked at pick 'n save, since they have a better selection for that sort of thing.

ingredients:
4 roma tomatoes, chopped
4 cups tomato juice
28 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 cup fat free half&half (I used kemp's, but land o lakes makes this, too)
1/2 cup butter

directions:
Place tomatoes and juice in a stock pot over medium heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Puree the tomato mixture along with the basil leaves, and return the puree to the pot. Place the pot over medium heat, and stir in the half & half and butter. Heat, stirring until the butter is melted. Do not boil.