Vegetable Bouillon

Mar 042011
 

So it’s been my plan for the last few months to make roasted vegetable stock this spring to fill up our pantries for Lent and meatless Friday meals. One of my favorite books for simple, Lenten meals, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, uses vegetable stock often for added flavor and now that I know how to can stock, I thought, why not?

Until I opened my pantry and saw row after row and jar after jar of turkey and poultry stock, produced over the last few months, just looking at me. Pregnancy fatigue was getting me down and it just seemed like too much to have to consider making and storing more stock, sanitizing jars, buying another box of lids, and hauling out the canner from the basement. Don’t get me wrong, for meat-based stocks, the canning process is fantastic, my new favorite thing, and I use it all the time. But for vegetables? Sigh, I was getting tired just thinking about it.

And then I remembered those lovely little jars of bouillon I used to buy and keep stocked in my fridge before I realized they were all full of MSG. It was so simple to just heat up some water in our electric kettle, add a spoonful or two of bouillon and voila! Instant soup, or flavor to any dish, from jambalaya to minestrone to risotto.

So I decided to make some. Bouillon that is. One extra ingredient on the list, five minutes of chopping and two minutes of processing and I was done. With a full quart of bouillon in my fridge, just waiting for our next meatless meal. . .

Avocado Grapefruit Salad with Toasted Walnuts

Nov 022010
 

Is there anything more lovely and wintry than a juicy, sweet, Ruby Red Grapefruit?

I just love them. The scent, the flavor, the feeling of wellness that you get when you’ve eaten one.

As you can get avocados almost anytime year round these days, I wanted to wait to make my Avocado and Grapefruit Salad with Toasted Walnuts until the best grapefruits are in the market (and the walnuts are falling from the trees) . . . which is right about . . . NOW! Toss them with a lovely vinaigrette, some toasted walnuts and served up in some gorgeous, soft butter lettuce leaves (ours is blossoming right now in our winter garden) and you have a special salad suitable for a date-night-in or an intimate dinner party.

I honestly can’t decide if I’d want to eat it before, during or after the main entree as a palate cleanser.

Add some finely diced sushi-grade Ahi tuna, or some grilled shrimp and you have a light winter supper that will beat the doldrums of heavy winter foods.

Three Cheese Fondue with Caramelized Onions

Jan 142010
 

Imagine that there is this amazing picture over there to the left.  Creamy, smoky cheese fondue.  A perfect meal for a wintry night, lightly melty over a forkful of sourdough french bread.  Got that image?  Good, because we ate it too fast to take one! This is not your typical, “traditional” fondue.  First, I add the smokiness of my caramelized onion marmalade which I make in a big batch in advance in the crockpot and store in the fridge.  Second, it includes cream cheese, which isn’t in a standard traditional fondue, but is a fixture in my fridge, plus I often use cheddar if I don’t have gruyere.  And you know what?  This cheese fondue is amazing.  Creamy, smoky, delicious.  I’m thinking I’m going to start using it in place [... To read more, click here ...]

Eggs en Cocotte

Mar 082009
 

I discovered this recipe originally when studying Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking a few years ago. Titled “Oeufs en Cocotte,” don’t let the fancy name fool you, it is simply a baked egg. I love this recipe/method because it is so versatile; it can be made for a quick and easy breakfast or a decadent, light supper. Once you learn and understand the method, you can augment the recipe to suit your taste and whatever you happen to have in your fridge. Plus, it’s meatless, so it is perfect for an easy Lenten supper! Serving options? I love this with a simple green salad with a fresh vinaigrette on the side and I’m a sucker for a “dipping” option to dip into the lightly cooked yolk. Sourdough [... To read more, click here ...]

Pizza Margherita

Mar 062009
 

Trying to think of some good Lenten dinners, our old stand-by is Pizza Margherita. That traditional flavor of tomatoes, basil and cheese always does it for me, but lately, I’ve augmented my recipe just the teensiest bit and have a new love. Previously, I always used a marinara sauce on the bottom, followed by cheese and baked in the oven. When removed, I’d add whole or chiffonaded fresh basil leaves to the top. Good. Very tasty, but not AMAZING. What made it amazing? Switching the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top. Now, I spread the pizza crust with pesto, cover with cheese and bake, adding halved fresh grape tomatoes to the pizza when it has about two minutes to go. The result? AMAZING. I promise, you [... To read more, click here ...]

Minestrone Soup

Mar 052009
 

I confess, I love minestrone soup. It is one of my favorites, by far. And it makes a great Lenten meal, full of nutrients and vegetables (not to mention a great way to clean out the vegetable bin) and filling while being completely meatless (as long as you use vegetable stock. I normally use chicken stock, but make it with vegetable stock on days that we abstain from meat.) But every time I tried to make it from scratch, it didn’t quite “get there” for me. The soup was too watery, it had too many of one or more kind of vegetables, some of the vegetables were cut too big while others disappeared, the pasta overwhelmed it . . . something was always not quite right. It didn’t satisfy like [... To read more, click here ...]

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Oct 192007
 

This past week we were visiting my in-laws and celebrated my father in-law’s birthday. Along with grilled steaks, we enjoyed some roasted butternut squash . . . . or, I should say, he and I enjoyed it. No one else seemed to be a fan and, unfortunately, we ended up with about 3/4ths of a squash left over in the fridge. Convinced that I could make my mother-in-law like squash (leftover squash at that!), I ransacked her kitchen and found the ingredients to make a quick and easy soup. Just enough for lunch for her and I with grilled cheese sandwiches and an extra large bowl for dinner for my father-in-law. Enjoy! Roasted Butternut Squash Soup With a blender or food processor, scrape out the roasted squash with a spoon [... To read more, click here ...]

French Onion Soup

Oct 082007
 

Excuse me as I shed a tear, or several . . . I just finished cutting up some mighty strong onions. So I was watching a bit of Rachael Ray this morning and she made a quick French Onion Soup/au jus roast beef sandwich thing and boy did it look good! We have some leftover steak in the fridge, T. is on a low-carb diet now and I’m trying to reduce mine somewhat (while breastfeeding, I’m not dieting, just watching what I eat so it is balanced) and this seems like the perfect fall meal. Granted, it’s about 75 degrees outside, but it is, technically fall according to the calendar and I feel like making soup. My recipe is sort of a conglomeration of Julia Child’s Soupe a L’Oignon from [... To read more, click here ...]

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Log in here!