Leek and Sweet Potato Soup

This recipe was included in our first winter CSA newsletter. It is actually a great combination (I was happy not to be including any type of squash in this soup, to be honest). I made a couple of adjustments, just to bring down the calories a little bit - butter and cream are great and everything, but maybe not for a soup I wanted to enjoy several weeknights in a row! I love soups like this that get blended because prep is so easy - you don't have to worry about your knife skills, just chop everything up and throw it in the pot!

Ingredients:
2 Tbs olive oil (original recipe calls for butter)
2 leeks
1 medium onion
1 Tbs curry powder
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 can coconut milk (I used 'lite', use full strength if you prefer)
~2 cups chicken stock*
2 Tbs hot sauce (your choice, I used sriracha)
1/2 cup cilantro
heavy cream or milk
fresh lime juice

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Wash leeks thoroughly and slice into thin rounds. Add the leeks and roughly diced onion to the pot and season with salt and pepper. While the leeks and onions are sweating, roughly dice your sweet potatoes. I didn't peel mine - you can if you really want, but you don't have to, since this will all be cooked down and then blended. Once the onions and leeks are translucent, add the sweet potatoes and curry powder and stir to combine. Then add your coconut milk and chicken stock. *The reason that I say about 2 cups above, is that you can just rinse out the coconut milk can with the chicken stock and add that to the pot. To make this veggie, just substitute vegetable stock, or water and vegetable stock cubes as called for in the original recipe. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Add chopped cilantro and hot sauce (I used the full 2 tablespoons, be sure to moderate this if you don't like things too spicy) and cook until the sweet potatoes are soft.

Using either an immersion blender or regular blender, blend until smooth. This is where the newsletter instructions got a little vague. It says to blend the soup base with equal quantities of fresh cream and water and that the final texture should be that of runny cream. It doesn't tell us how much water and cream should be used - I ended up using about 3/4 of a cup of milk. The reason I know that was fine is because it tasted GOOD, which should be one of your indications that you are doing something right.

To serve, squeeze fresh lime juice into the bottom of a bowl (I used a half a lime for one serving) and carefully pour soup over the juice. Do not stir. The lime juice is a kick in the pants and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It literally made my mouth water as I was eating it. I can see adding some shredded chicken to this upon serving to up your protein intake, or even topping with additional roasted vegetables or brown rice. Hope you use your in season produce to make this, it was very easy and unexpected!

butter-roasted butternut squash, quiche, and fast fake aioli

I have to share with you this insanely delicious, absurdly simple way to cook winter squash.  Once again what I'm giving you is a recipe adapted from a Mark Bittman recipe (he calls it Roasted Winter Squash Slices), and I'm sure you get it by now - Bittman makes great, simple recipes we should all cook all the time... but I feel the need to share this in particular because the recipe says "oil or melted butter" and if you're anything like me, you usually opt for oil when given the choice between the two, especially for oven roasting.  But I'm here to say, forget the oil for once, TRY THE BUTTER!  It is COMPLETELY different from roasting in olive oil.  The butter - it browns! and turns nutty and fragrant in the oven during the roasting time, and I've never tasted more complex, rich, delicious squash flavor.  I'm also going to tell you about a version of a crustless spinach quiche my friend Emily recommended (which she adapted from a recipe on Smitten Kitchen), and which we ate together with the squash for a very delicious eat-the-rainbow type vegetarian meal.

Butter-Roasted Winter Squash

(this works well with a sturdy squash you can peel and cut into slices, like butternut, i.e. I don't think acorn would be ideal here.  However, delicata would totally work because you can eat the skin, plus it makes pretty flower shaped slices).

1 winter squash, peeled, seeded and sliced somewhere between a 1/4 and 3/8ths inch thick
3 tbsp salted butter, melted
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375.  Brush a sheet pan generously with some of the melted butter using a pastry brush.  Lightly butter both sides of each slice of squash, again with the pastry brush, placing them on the sheet pan as you go.  Sprinkle the tops with salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, flipping halfway through.

That's it.  And now...


Spinach Quiche Minus The Hassle of Pastry Making

1 tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 to 6 eggs
salt and pepper
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk or cream if you have it
10 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out very throughly
3/4 to 1 cup frozen peas, thawed (optional)
1 russet potato, microwaved for 3 minutes or until cooked through (optional), peeled and diced
4 to 6 scallions, sliced thin
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar or other melty cheese (jack or swiss or PEPPER jack! etc)

Preheat oven to 375 (at this temperature, you'll have to bake it a relatively long time, probably 45 minutes, but I chose to do it at that temperature so it could bake along with the squash; if you're in a hurry and this is all you're baking you can put the oven up to 425 and it will probably only take 20 minutes or so).

Brush a pie plate with the melted butter (ok if the excess pools up in the bottom).  Combine the panko and the parmesan, and sprinkle them into the pie plate, tilting to coat all the buttered surfaces with cheese and breadcrumbs (ok if more sticks to the bottom than to the sides).

In a large bowl beat the eggs with the salt and pepper.  Add the milk or cream (you could also add a little sour cream - amounts are very flexible).  Add the spinach, peas, potato, scallions and cheese, and stir to combine.  Pour into the pie plate, and put it in the oven.  Mine took the better part of 45 minutes to get fully cooked all the way to the middle.  You can just check with the tip of a knife starting at about 35 minutes.

Let it cool a bit before serving.  It's good hot, warm... leftovers were delicious cold, even. 

You could serve the quiche with a super fast fake aioli for a dipping sauce (spanish tortilla style):

Super Fast Fake Aioli

1/2 cup Hellman's/Best Foods Mayonnaise
1 medium to small sized garlic clove, finely minced (I grate mine on a microplane zester)
juice of half a lemon (less even, maybe a quarter)
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Mix the mayo, garlic and lemon juice.  Whisk in the oil a little at a time.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Mark Bittman Couscous casserole, veggie style

This recipe (from How to Cook Everything) is fairly easy, and the results smell and taste a lot like lasagna (yay!), but without the hassle of boiling/wrangling noodles or the long bake time.  The original recipe calls for sauteed ground meat, which you could do if you want, but the way I made it was all vegetables (plus chickpeas and cheese), and it was very filling and satisfying.  In the original Bittman recipe he implies that you can used cooked leftover... anything in this (meat or vegetable), and I'm inclined to agree.  Also he says it can be assembled up to a day in advance before baking, which is helpful. 

Ingredients:
4 cups of your favorite tomato sauce*
1/4 cup water or veggie stock
2-3 pounds of whatever veggies you like (2-3 pounds uncooked if you're going to roast them for this recipe, or about 3-4 cups of already cooked leftover veggies/beans/etc)
1 roasted pepper, seeded peeled and chopped (optional - I didn't have one, but it seems like it would be good)
1/2 cup couscous (whole wheat or regular) (I think you could substitute fine bulgur or quinoa if you are gluten free, without any adjustment to the recipe except maybe a slight increase in stock/water; or other heartier grains you'd want to par cook first, and maybe measure about 1-1 1/2 cups of cooked grains)
1/2 to 1 cup of cheese (I used feta and parmesan) (amount to taste and dictated by what you have on hand - goat cheese would be fun too I think, but feta and parmesan were a great combination)

First, preheat the oven to 400, and cut up your veggies (if you're not using up already-cooked leftover veggies) into smallish chunks or slices.  I used sliced zucchini and summer squash and a drained can of chickpeas.  You could use things like diced eggplant, winter squash, carrots, peas, any cooked beans, etc.  Whatever you choose, if it needs cooking, cut into small and roughly equal pieces, put it on a big baking sheet, drizzle with oil and salt and pepper, and roast till things start to brown, 10-15 minutes or so.  I think greens might be good in this - you could sautee (or blanch, drain/squeeze out) and chop chard, spinach, or kale and mix it in with the roasted veggies once they're out of the oven.

Heat your tomato sauce along with the stock or water in a large-ish saucepan until bubbling (I maybe used a bit more than 1/4 cup stock).  Stir in the roasted bell pepper if you have it and the couscous, stir, cover, and remove from the heat.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350.

Oil a 2 quart baking dish (not metal), and layer the couscous/tomato mixture alternating with the roasted veggies and cheese, till you fill the dish (if you're using leftover pre cooked vegetables, I'd recommend warming them up a bit before layering them, so they don't slow down the baking.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melty.  Cool a bit before serving.  This was great with a green salad on the side.

It also made delicious leftovers (the flavor might even improve!) with a fried egg and sriracha on top.

*easiest tomato sauce I make:
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
as many garlic cloves as you like (4 or so), chopped
a 32 oz can of crushed tomatoes
whatever seasoning you like (basil, oregano, parsley)
salt and pepper

fry the onion and garlic in oil until softened (you could chop a carrot very small for this too if you wanted).  Add the can of tomatoes and a little water if it seems thick.  Add herbs and salt and pepper to taste and simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes.

EVEN EASIER: Trader Joe's sells 32 oz cans of Marinara Sauce which I was shocked to find is pretty decent tasting.  Actually, they sell several different kinds - look for the kind that has the shortest ingredient list (it's impressively short).