Posts tagged soup
Have you tried eating velvet? – Cream of fava bean and edamame with poached quail eggs
Jun 28th
Avez-vous déjà mangé du velours – Crème de fèves et edamame aux oeufs de caille pochés
Quail eggs are underused in my opinion…aren’t those adorable? l love those tiny and cute eggs, they’re so delicate with a very fragile shell, and certainly can enhance any velouté. I like anything that comes in a small portion, the beauty of such a tiny egg is that you can fit it all in your mouth and break it inside if you like or break it on top of your soup. As far as eggs are concerned, I have this thing about breaking them, and I hate to see the yolk all over the place.
You can make this soup with just fava beans or peas, or also a mixture of both, they both have very velvety and sweet flavors when puréed. The edamame remain a little crunchy, so it’s important to cook them a little longer and blend them longer too so they are completely puréed into a smooth texture.
If you cannot find quail eggs, you can always use one regular poached egg instead.
When poaching eggs, adding some vinegar is quite an important part of a successful process. Usually the quantity of vinegar is about 10% of the water quantity, and the water needs to boil at high temperature, then to be decreased when pouring the eggs, this way, the whites coagulates around the yolks and don’t get spread out in the water.
Ingredients for 4
- 12.34 oz (or 350 g) fava beans (net weight without the pods)
- 3.52 oz (or 100 g) edamame (fresh or frozen)
- 1.5 shallots, chopped
- 2 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tbs crème fraîche
- vegetable broth
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 12 quail eggs
Preparation
Cook fava beans in a pot of boilng water for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and peel them. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a pan, then add shallots and garlic and brown them. If using frozen edamame, add them and cook for about 10-15 minutes, then add peeled fava beans.
Cover with broth, adjust with salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes. Add cream and blend in mixer or using an immersion blender. Pass the soup through a sieve and keep warm. IF the soup is too thick add broth to desired consistency.
For the quail eggs, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil with vinegar (preferably white vinegar). Reduce heat. Break carefully quail eggs in a container, then pour them in water, making sure the whites remain around the yolk, using a spoon, keep whites close to the yolks. Cook for one minute, remove from water, and place in a cold water to stop the cooking process.
Divide soups in bowls, then add three poached eggs, sprinkle with paprika and olive oil and serve.
Old soups are back – Roasted vegetable soup and oregano with tofu croutons…and 300th post!
Jun 10th
Les anciennes soupes sont de retour – Soupe de légumes grillés et croutons de tofu…et 300 ème post!
Yes time flies and I just realized that this is my 300th post! I completely forgot the 100th and 200th…
I knew when I ordered a new washing machine and dryer that something was going to happen and something did happen…today’s delivery has been canceled because they were in back order. So I have to keep running the dryer six cycles to have the clothes dry. I bet PG&E are thrilled and my mom to lift me up, told me “you don’t need a dryer, it ruins all the clothes”. Very few people have a dryer in Europe, so for most Europeans it’s an unnecessary item…let’s not put all Europeans in the same basket, let’s just say for my mom…but I don’t know anyone who has a dryer among my friends and family.
I was somehow disappointed and bummed, and not in the mood for cooking long and complicated meals…and since I had all the ingredients without rushing to my Greek grocery store, there was no question, I was going to make this soup. I used to make it quite often, then for whatever unexplained reason, it stopped appearing on my table…let’s go back to old recipes, sometimes you forget how great they are. This soup is filled with vegetables and is absolutely a, and 100% vegan. The tofu croutons do add this chewy/crunchy texture that blends beautifully with a spoonful of fragrant creamy soup. You can serve this with a tapenade tartine, so the leftover tapenade from yesterday came in handy. The olives complement the flavors of the soup to perfection. For the broth quantities, you will have to adjust it to your tastes, some people like their soup thicker, some people prefer it thinner, so you will have to play around with it.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 eggplant, sliced crosswise
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 zucchini, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and sliced
- 4 tomatoes, peeled and seedless
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbs oregano
- 1 tbs olive oil
- vegetable broth
- extra firm tofu
- flour
- fleur de sel
- pepper
Preparation
Grill bell pepper under broiler until the skin get charred. Peel and remove seeds. Cut in slices.
Place all the remaining vegetables in a tray, sprinkle with fleur de sel, pepper and olive oil and broil under broiler. Turn the vegetables both sides to grill them.
Mix bell peppers with the rest of the vegetables, add broth garlic, oregano and using a hand blender, mix to obtain a smooth purée.
For the tofu croutons, cut tofu in small cubes, coat them with flour, remove excess flour. Heat olive oil in a pan saute tofu at high temperature until both sides turn golden brown. Serve in bowls, add tofu croutons in the middle and drizzle with olive oil and extra oregano.
This soup can be eaten lukewarm or hot. If you like it hot, just heat it up on the stove for a few minutes before adding tofu.
A happy match – Cream of fennel and cannellini beans with marinated feta tartine
Apr 8th
Un mariage bienheureux – Crème de fenouil et haricots blancs, tartine de féta mariné
Fennel and cannellini is a very Mediterranean combination, then if you accompany it with feta, there is no more doubt about it. Fennel is perfect for soups and purées, and of course in so many other ways too. When I make those purée types of soups, I cannot help it to accompany it with a tartine of country bread and with some kind of cheese, Roquefort, ricotta, feta, goat cheese, anything that will enhance a spoonful of that sweet fennel flavor.
My favorite alcoholic aperitif being pastis, I love fennel since its sweet anis flavor reminds me of Marseille and the South of France. If you ever end up in Marseille, you have to drink a pastis, it’s the local drink and incredibly refreshing during summer time…of course if you like anis.
Technically what is the difference between a cream, a velouté, a bisque, when talking about a soup? Their main common point is that they’re thick and blended soups. Yes, in the French language there are quite a lot of words to describe “a soup” but they all have very distinct and precise meanings, there are so many nuances that sometimes it’s intricate to explain them accurately.
The velouté is a blended soup, creamy and unctuous and enhanced by cream that contains meats and crustaceans. The cream is made out of pure vegetables combined with crème fraîche.
Bisque is a velouté in which its main ingredient is a crustacean and thickened by yolks and cream.
Then of course, we have the bouillon and the consommé, which are broth based and have a liquid texture. The word soup is a generic one, and does not give you any information on the type of soup you are eating…just a soup.
I did not add cream in my cream of fennel, so technically it cannot be called “cream”, you can add crème fraîche at the end like it should, I am just keeping things light, so au revoir la crème.
Ingredients for 4
For the soup
- 2 fennel bulbs, sliced
- 1 medium size onion, chopped
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1/2 lb cannellini beans, cooked
- vegetable broth
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs mint for decoration
For the tartines
- 4 slices country bread, cut in halves
- 4 tbs feta, crumbled
- 1/8 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp olive oil
- cracked black pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot and brown onions, then add fennel and thyme. Stir well to coat the fennel, then add broth (enough just to cover the fennel mixture), adjust with salt and pepper.
When the fennel is cooked, add cooked cannellini beans, and let the soup for about 10 minutes (adjust broth if necessary).
Remove from heat and blend in a blender into a thin mixture.
For the tartines, crumble carefully feta cheese in a container, add spices, herbs and oil. Mix carefully not to break the cheese. Toast slices of bread and top if with cheese.
Ready for a chill? – Chilled avocado and cucumber soup
Mar 26th
Prêts pour l’été? – Soupe d’avocat et concombre froide pimentée
Il y a du citron mais pas de vanille! Doesn’t this feel like summer? I am so ready for it…well a real summer somewhere…where it’s warm and sunny, where you can wear tank tops without a sweater on top, and where the fog doesn’t make your hair curl (it was my teenage nightmare, now I cut it, so no more curls). Oh well, I’m sure I can find this place, I just have to drive 20 miles North or South from the city. In the meantime, I got myself in the summer mood with a chilled soup. I made this a while ago and since I had a lot of ripe avocados left, I thought it would be a good remake.
When I think of avocado, I think about skin care products, avocado’s flesh is incredibly smooth that I just want to spread it on my face, extremely delicate and subtle. Cucumber is also a wonderful ingredient for skin care as a matter of fact, so eating this soup makes me feel like I am just getting double benefits, nutritious and beautiful skin, even though I doubt that I will wake up tomorrow with a smooth and peachy skin like you see on magazines! Anyway, on peut toujours rêver, you can always dream about it.
I bought so many of those mini glasses for mise en bouche while I was in France, and they did not even break in the suitcase, so now I have to use them, and this chilled soup is perfect for these mini presentations. Actually I like to use mini glasses for avocado soup, avocado being quite high in calories, it’s better to serve it in small portions than regular plates.
What’s more perfect for informal dinners where you want to serve small bites and cute apéritifs to nibble on without feeling stuffed?
I don’t know about you, but my favorite dishes to prepare are appetizers and hors d’oeuvres. It’s where I have the most fun, probably because they are related to entertainment and that’s really one of my favorite activity (if that can be called one).
This soup needs to be consumed chilled, so you can prepare it in advance and leave it in the refrigerator until serving. It’s quick, tasty and delicious, so a “keeper” in my food world.
Ingredients for 15-20 mini glasses
- 1.5 avocado
- 1/2 English cucumber, peeled and seeds removed
- juice of 1 Meyer lemon
- 3 tbs Greek yogurt or regular yogurt
- 2 scallions, chopped
- cayenne pepper
- 1 cup or more vegetable broth
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Remove the flesh of the avocado, mix with cucumber and add lemon juice. Mix all ingredients well. Add all other ingredients and, using a hand blend, mix to obtain a smooth consistency.
For the broth, I added it gradually until I got the consistency I wanted. Avocado being creamy, you might need to add more broth.
Refrigerate for a few hours, and serve chilled.
Guest post at Peasant Chef – Minestrone soup
Feb 11th
Minestrone di verdura
Dachary Carey of The Peasant Chef, asked me if I would be interested in a guest post discussing healthy food, organic and local raised products and why I decided to be a chef. I thought that Peasant Chef was really in line with my values and beliefs and without hesitation accepted the invitation. I wanted to feature a traditional and very healthy dish that my mom used to make with our garden vegetables and Minestrone came to my mind. It’s a very hearty soup, with so many different types of vegetables and vitamins so a gold mine in a bowl. Recipe and article at Peasant Chef.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 large potato, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 cup green chards, chopped
- 2 cups green beens, cut in 1 inch pieces
- 1 cup fresh peas (or frozen)
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 2 celeri sticks, diced
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and seedless
- 1/2 cup dry cannellini beans (or 1 cup can organic cannellini beans)
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs basil, chopped
- 2/3 cup Ditalini pasta (optional)
- 1.5 liters vegetable broth (slightly more)
- parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated
- salt and pepper
________________________________________________________________________________________
From Dachary Carey
The focus on healthy cooking and using fresh, local produce is important to us at Peasant Chef. It was in looking for other food lovers who share that focus that we came across Silvia’s website and blog. We love her concept as a personal chef who focuses on healthy, fresh cuisine, and her Italian and French background gives her an edge in creating tasty food that’s still a pleasure to look at and eat! That’s what caught our attention about Silvia’s blog – the beautiful pictures of her tasty food, and the passion that came through about cooking healthy foods with fresh ingredients.
Support local farms and be good to your body.
One of the great things about living in most parts of the United States is that there are local farms almost everywhere you go. While there are large tracts of land devoted to corporate farming, local farms haven’t vanished entirely, and are actually making a bit of a comeback. As people are getting more and more focused on healthy eating, sustainable farming practices and organic, pesticide-free ingredients, local farms are filling this niche.
By using produce and ingredients from local farms, you’re supporting the local farmers and simultaneously putting good things into your body. By using organic, pesticide-free foods, you’re not putting dangerous chemicals and hormones into your body. Not only is it good for the farmers, but it’s good for you – it’s a win-win!
Fresh ingredients just taste better.
One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that fresh ingredients just taste better! If you look at the average packaged food at your grocery store, it’s loaded with artificial flavors and preservatives. The reason that companies need all that garbage is because the food isn’t fresh!
If you cook with fresh ingredients, you can tap into natural, fresh flavors. Fresh herbs and spices provide so much more flavor than dried versions, for example, that your mouth will be in for a real treat. And by cooking fresh foods instead of preparing packaged foods from the store, not only are you eating healthier, but you’ll even enjoy your food better!
Try it at home sometime. Make your own tomato sauce for pasta out of tomatoes, hamburger, onions, garlic and maybe even some green pepper. Add some salt and pepper, and maybe some herbs or oregano for extra flavor. It typically only takes 15-20 minutes to whip up a batch of fresh pasta sauce – it doesn’t have to take forever! Taste it, and you’ll realize what you’ve been missing by eating canned pasta sauce all those years – and you’ll never go back.
You are what you eat – literally!
Everyone has heard the phrase “you are what you eat,” but most people don’t realize exactly how literal that phrase truly is. If you eat unhealthy foods high in saturated fat all the time, your body will become saggy, listless and sluggish. On the other hand, if you eat healthy, fresh foods, you’ll have more energy and your immune system will perform better than it ever has!
Countries that eat a healthier diet have significantly lower rates of obesity, drastically reduced rates of heart disease and even live longer lives. The things you put in your body directly affect how your body performs, so give it good fuel and you’ll get a lot of healthy years out of it!
Keep eating healthy – and enjoy it!
Thanks, Silvia, for making a website focused on eating healthy, tasty foods! Hopefully you can help people realize that healthy food doesn’t have to lack flavor, and delicious food doesn’t have to be unhealthy.
No soup for the holidays – Soup of cauliflower, chickpeas and quadretti
Jan 31st
Zuppa con cavolfiore, ceci e quadretti
I heard California got a lot of rain this season, all the news talked about it when I was in France and I heard it from my neighbors when I got back. The good things is that it’s clearing up. Eventhough France was very cold with -10C temperatures some days, my mom never made soup and neither did I. Of course during the holidays, we tend to eat “holiday meals” and strangely enough soup is not entitled to the be on the “holiday” list, so I somehow missed it.
One soup I really like is this cauliflower soup with chick peas and small pasta, you can put potatoes instead of the pasta, or even both. You can use any small pasta such as quadretti (little squares), ditali (small cylinders) or any small pasta to be used is broths or soups. I had none left so I cut some fettucine into small pieces, and it worked quite well. The difference is that quadretti are a egg pasta and thinner than fettucine which are not supposed to be used in soup as per the pasta étiquette. So I went against the étiquette, nonetheless it was really enjoyable. I think some ingredients can be substituted and some others, cannot. In this case, I would say it could be.
I am not sure how the word “pasta” is used in the US, if it refers to a particular pasta dish cooked in a particular way and not in soups. Then not sure what the word “noodle” refers to either, so I will try to be as accurate I can be. For me noodles reminds me of the Asian pasta, and not Italian pasta. Every kind of pasta in Italy has its own name, that makes it quite easy to what type of pasta you are talking about.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 medium size cauliflower
- 2 potatoes
- 4 medium tomatoes, seedless, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbs onions chopped
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1/2 lb chick peas (either canned or dry and soaked overnight)
- 5 tbs quadretti or small pasta for soups
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot, brown onions, then add garlic, stir a few minutes. Add tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes to let the water evaporates, then add potatoes, cauliflower and rosemary. Stir well to coat all the vegetables and cook for about 7 min stirring. Add enough broth to cover the vegetables (you might want to add extra to have enough liquid to cook the quadretti). Let it cook until the vegetables are tender but not mushy, remove rosemary then add chick peas. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add pasta and 1 garlic clove and cook until desired texture (I like them al dente). Sprinkle with olive oil, cracked pepper and serve.
Fall colors – Soup of Spinach, broccoli, leeks with whole wheat orzo and mimolette
Dec 16th
Couleurs d’Automne – Soupe aux épinards, broccoli et poireaux, aux risoni complets et mimolette
Winter is soup time, and when I ran into mimolette, I could not resist. I had not seen Mimolette before in the US and I was so excited. I had planned to make a gratin, and a soup with it, but the cheese did not not make it to either dish. I just ate it all and in a very quick and fashionable manner.
Mimolette is a French cheese made in Lille, the North of France. It’s also called “Boule de Lille“, it’s a cheese produced with cow milk, with a condensed raw flesh (pâte pressée). Its deep orange color comes from a natural coloring called “roucou” which is a plant used in some cheeses such as Gouda, Cheddar or Edam and used in Europe as food coloring. Mimolette’s hard texture is similar to Dutch Gouda. The older it gets, the harder the texture becomes, and I really love extra old Mimolette, it tends to have a more pronounced character.
I somehow love salty cheeses, they go perfectly well in soups, gratins, and enhance many dishes. This soup made with three green vegetables is full of vitamins and flavors. When I make “creamy” and thick soups like this one, I like it served either with toasted bread or sometimes with small pasta cooked in the soup. You get a wholesome and wonderful meal. Risoni is the Italian name for “orzo”which in Italy is barley, so it can get confusing. My mom used to make soups when I was a child with risoni, it’s very common in Italy to use small pasta like this one or ditalini in soups.
The other important ingredient in this soup is the garlic that adds a lot of character to the broth, it balances out the earthy flavors of the green vegetables.
Ingredients for 4
- 100 g orzo
- 1 1/2 leek, diced
- 2 cups broccoli
- 2 cups raw spinach
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and whole
- 6 tbs mimolette, grated
- 2 tbs olive oil
- vegetable broth
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a large pot, heat olive oil, add broccoli and leeks and cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are coated with olive oil. Add 3 garlic cloves, whole and peeled. Add broth. For broth quantity, it needs to cover vegetables to about 1 cm of liquid. Adjust with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables are cooked all the way through about 20-30 minutes.
When vegetables are cooked add spinach leaves (if using baby spinach, no need to chop them, otherwise you will have to chop them roughly). Cook and extra 5-10 minutes. Add crushed garlic and cook an extra 5 minutes.
Keep about two laddles of vegetables aside. Blend the rest in a blender into a smooth purée. Place the vegetables pieces back into the pot with the purée and place back on pot at low heat. When it starts boiling, add orzo, and stir well. Keep on stirring for a while to prevent pasta from sticking. If the consistency is too thick add a little broth. Cook until al dente and serve in bowls. Add 1 tbs of mimolette and sprinkle with olive oil.
A soup for my new cocotte! – Brussels sprouts, potatoes and mushroom velouté
Dec 7th
Une soupe pour ma nouvelle cocotte! – Velouté de choux de Bruxelles, pommes de terre et champignons
I have already made Brussels sprouts soup with cannelli beans a while ago, this is another version that is as good as the other one, just a little greener. I prefer Brussels sprouts in soups than as a side dish, I think their flavor gets smoother and more subtle. It has a velvety and creamy texture, with a nutty flavor from the mushrooms but very delicate. The weather forecast predicted a rainy week and season as a matter of fact and I am getting ready for some winter dishes and brussel sprouts being a winter vegetable, will be occasionally on my table this winter.
I know many people are not fond of Brussels sprouts, but I think it’s good to try new ways to prepare things. I like them, I am not crazy for them like I would be for artichokes but I like to make velouté with those cute little round balls.
I got a new cocotte Le Creuset (I think in the US it’s called Dutch oven), I had an old one that was too small. That’s wonderful to cook anything such as stews, sauces, soups, and I cooked the soup to celebrate its first use. I think every one who cooks has a cast-iron cocotte. It is indispensable in cooking. The advantages of enamel cast-iron pots is that they diffuse the heat evenly and are perfect for slow cooking, braising, roasting, etc…
Le Creuset line tends to be a little on the expensive side in the US, it’s not that cheap in France either but still cheaper than here, in my opinion, it’s worth it since those pots last a lifetime.
Ingredients for 4-5
- 1 lb Brussels sprouts, cut in halves
- 4 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms, roughly cut
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 thyme leave
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 4 tbs crème fraîche
- 4 slices prosciutto (optional)
- 1 vegetable bouillon cube
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Wash the sprouts, cut the extra stem and remove the hard leaves from the outside.
In a large pot, heat olive oil, add onion and brown them. Add thyme and stir for another 5 minutes.
Add Brussels sprouts, potatoes and stir again to coat the vegetables with olive oil and onions. Add bouillon and water. For water quantity, I cover the vegetables with about 1 cm water showing above level of vegetables. That is the perfect quantity I use when making velouté. Adjust with salt and pepper.
Cook until all the vegetables are cooked. When cooked remove thyme branch, and blend using a blender or a mixer.
Serve with a small spoon of creme fraîche and a slice of grilled prosciutto.
Where are your roots? – Root vegetable soup with turnip chips and tarragon cream
Oct 19th
Où sont vos racines? – Soupe de légumes racine aux chips de navets et crème d’estragon
I got a little sick this weekend, another weird migraine that made me drained, so anytime I get sick, I like to eat soups…I know I made one not that long ago, but when I feel sick, soups are great to get re-hydrated and they seem to coat my stomach very nicely. Do I sound like a grandma? maybe. I haven’t made that root vegetable soup for a long time, and had everything in the refrigerator to make one…so here we go grandma started to peel the vegetables and the soup was on its way.
I love root vegetables in so many ways, and in a soups, they’re delicious. All those flavors are combined together to make a smooth and velvety purée. Rutabaga had a bad reputation in Europe especially among people who went through the second world war, since it was the only vegetable they could find during that time. It’s basically an hybrid vegetable that was produced due to the “hybridisation” of a turnip and a cabbage.
My mom adores to puré her vegetable soup and anytime I go home, there is a huge pot filled with some kind of colorful soup for dinner, we rarely have heavy dinners… I am so spoiled that I turn into a brat, a real “bratty” brat…that would be me, la fille indigne (the unworthy daughter) instead of eating her soup, I make the “Maggi” soup called Sveltesse 0% that is an dehydrated soup with 50 calories per bag. You just pour boiling water on top et voilà! you have a quick soup with 50 calories that tastes good (for a dehydrated soup, it does). I have no idea why, or how…I never eat any kind of that stuff, ever, but for whatever unexplained reason, when I am home, I like the Sveltesse soups. Of course, I get the annoyed stare from my mom, who got somehow used to it, but cannot help to give me the look.
I think we all have our “devil food“, and I admit it with no shame, that Sveltesse 0% is my little devil soup, well at least it’s not some heavy chocolate cake filled with butter and corn syrup.
I never eat that kind of thing here, when I go home, I rarely cook, since two cooks in the kitchen are too many, then I break the habits, all habits. I even turn into a meat eater, not that much but I eat prosciutto, and salami. Something I rarely do here. When you change environment, I think you tend to change your habits also, and adapt to the local way of living..if you don’t, it can be a nightmare.
The little twist of the soup is the cream of tarragon, and turnip chip…the turnip chip looks like one but is not fried, it’s just cooked in the oven.
Ingredients for 6
For the soup
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
- 1 medium size potato, peeled and cut in chunks
- 1 onion, diced
- 1/2 sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
- 3 turnips (2 for the soup, 1 for the chips), peeled and cut in chunks, except the one for the chips
- 1 parsnip, peeled and cut in chunks
- 1 rutabaga, peeled and cut in chunks
- 1 cup celeri head, peeled and cut in chunks
- vegetable broth
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the tarragon cream
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbs plain yogurt
- 1 tbs chopped tarragon
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the soup
In a large pot, heat olive oil, then add onions and bown them. Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper and stir and cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add broth, enough to cover the vegetables by 1/3 inch. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add broth as needed, to always have the same quantity on top of the vegetables.
When vegetable are cooked, mix with a hand blender or mixer. Adjust salt and pepper and serve with a tsp of cream of tarragon and 2 turnip chips.
For the turnip chips
Slice the turnips about 2mm slice. Boil in water for a 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry, then place in the oven and let it dry, sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Let it dry some more until the chip is crunchy.
For the tarragon cream
Whip heavy cream. In a mixing container, mix yogurt, lemon juice, tarragon, salt and pepper. Carefully add whipped cream.
It's raining soup! – Red rice soup with spinach, watercress, carrots and mushrooms
Oct 13th
Il pleut de la soupe! – Potage aux épinards, cresson, champignons, carottes et riz rouge
After the fog, the rain…yes I heard more is coming our way. Today was so rainy and windy, that the wind broke my brand new umbrella!
In Europe, people have this particular image about California that it’s such a sunny place, lots of palm trees, white sandy and warm beaches, and lots of extremely fit people with six packs abs. I grew up watching American series with all those elements and when I first arrived to California with my business school, we were so excited, as excited as if we were going to land on the moon. “California here I come”…then you realize that what you’ve seen on TV, is just true on TV and not in real life. Maybe it is true in Los Angeles where the movie making machine has taken roots but not in San Francisco.
We just didn’t know that San Francisco and Los Angeles were that far apart, that the climate in those two cities was so different and that they could be two different countries speaking the same language.
I had no idea that the weather in San Francisco was most of the time foggy, cold and windy…and after a terribly foggy summer, we are entering a rainy season. When it rains outside, sometimes it rains in my kitchen and when it rains, soups are in the menu.
No I am not complaining, this is not a complaint in case you think it is, I am just explaining how California is perceived for Europeans…white beaches, sun sun and more sun and muscular men.
The great thing is that there are so many wonderful stores, exotic products, that you start to realize that fog and cold beaches do have a certain charm after all. The good thing is that you will not get a skin disease related to sun rays if we are looking at the bright side of things. I have never lived in a warm city so I cannot really miss the sun, since I never had it. My hometown was even colder, rainier and foggier. I always complained to my parents asking them why they moved from a sunny place in Italy to a overcast and rainy region in France, and the response was “we moved where there was work”. Fair enough.
In France, we have a traditional velouté made with watercress and potatoes, la soupe au cresson, but today I didn’t feel like a velouté but wanted some chunky soup texture. It is indeed a watercress soup but with more than watercress. I love the Bhutanese red rice in soups, the little thing that can be unappealing for some people, is its color, when cooked in broth, the broth turns into a brownish reddish color. If you don’t like that, you might want to cook the rice separately and add it at the end. The other option you have to avoid a reddish broth is to use a brown or round white rice instead.
Ingredients for 2
- 1/2 cup uncooked Bhutanese red rice or any other rice (or 1 cup pre-cooked rice if desired)
- 1 bunch watercress, stems removed
- 2 cups spinach, chopped
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 6 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 thyme sprig
- 3 tbs pecorino, grated
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a large pot, brown onions in 1 tbs olive oil, add thyme. Add rice, stir for a few minutes to coat if with olive oil, then add broth. 1o minutes before the rice is cooked, add carrots, watercress, spinach.
Saute mushrooms in a tsp olive oil, and let water evaporate. Add mushrooms and garlic to the soup. Let it cook for another 5 minutes. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with olive oil and percorino cheese.
