Why'd You Have to Go and Make Things So Complicated?

Things I'm happy to have done in the last couple days include
1) Spending hours upon hours outside in the gorgeous spring-like weather.
2) Purging my google reader of blogs I feel guilty for not reading.
3) Making classic dishes I often forget are in my arsenal.

The last of these means I have a recipe to share! (um, it's been forever since I've posted a recipe.) One today and another later, perhaps. Whenever I make these two dishes I forget to take pictures, so I put off blogging about them, and then I realized today it was silly to wait any longer. A) these foods do not photograph well, and B) I may never remember. So because it's still winter (despite what the DC forecast may say), here is a soup for you. A hearty, vegan soup you will adore. I mean this earnestly because everyone in our family goes wild for this soup, including Sam, which is a tall order when it comes to vegan recipes. And as most soups do, it only gets better over time, so you can look forward to the leftovers this ginormous batch will yield.

Curried Lentil Sweet Potato* Soup
Adapted from Kayla Jones

1 large onion, diced
7 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup ginger, freshly grated
2 T curry powder
1 c carrots, diced
1 c red bell pepper, diced
5 c sweet potato, diced
2 cans coconut milk
2 c brown lentils, rinsed
6 c vegetable stock
1 t salt
1 lime, juiced

Saute onion, garlic, and ginger until onion starts to become translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, except lime juice, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes, or up to a few hours, until the soup has become very thick and stew like. Add lime juice right before serving. Garnish with cilantro, if desired. 

(*also, you may note this recipe seems to go against what I said in my previous post about sweet potatoes. I guess they aren't really spotlight-hoggers in this soup, so I can get on board with it. What can I say? I'm a complicated woman.)

Try This Tuesday, Or: To Thine Own Self Be True

I habitually hit a kitchen rut every January, this year being no exception. Once Sam went back to work after the holidays, the only kitchen motivation I had was buttering toast, but I soldiered through! I tried five new recipes in the last two weeks, and there were a lot of busts, actually. Here is a weird truth, no matter how much I try (and try!), I just can't get on board with butternut squash. It's related to the whole not-liking-cooked-fruit thing. I suppose I don't like sweet things to be warm, and butternut squash is too sweet. This also goes for sweet potatoes. So the new recipes included a vegan mac 'n' cheese (butternut squash based), and a sweet potato chili. Entire dinners in the trash (wah wah). So the lesson learned is that if you don't like something, don't make it for dinner. Know yourself, know your tastes, and to thine own self be true. Amidst the gross stuff I also found some goodies! Here's a list of things to try.

Quinoa "meat"balls. My dear friend's sister-in-law runs this vegan and allergy-friendly blog, and I thought this dinner was amazing. I often crave spaghetti and meatballs, but just cannot stomach red meat anymore. Problem solved! I ate these meatballs for days on end. Perfect texture (crisp on the outside!) and a great depth of flavor. (Though Sam wasn't as wild about them as I was and kept telling me I shouldn't call them meatballs, because it was deceiving.) The kale featured in this post was pretty cool. I think I just don't like kale though (too bitter), but the coconut/maple/orange flavor was awesome.

Apparently I'm on a quinoa kick, but I fell head over heels for this Thai Fried Quinoa. I tried both of these recipes because it seems all the popular quinoa recipes are for mexican style dishes (tossed with onion, bell peppers, cilantro, and lime), which gets boring. But this Thai fried quinoa was so good, I could have eaten the entire pan in one sitting, no joke. All that coconut milk probably means it isn't the world's healthiest recipe, but it's so good you won't even care. Seriously, make this today.

Of course winter means I want to eat soup every day, and this carrot ginger miso soup really hit the spot. Unfortunately not even Bria liked this soup, which is suspicious, but I loved it. Miso makes my heart sing. (And, just so you don't have to make multiple trips to Whole Foods like I did, I'll tell you that miso is located in the refrigerated section, near all the other vegan stuff.)

And lastly, we met up with Hannah and Rob on Saturday night for sandwiches at Brabo's the butcher block. Not a great place to stay and eat (we brought the sandwiches back to our place), but the sandwiches were fantastic. Right near the king street metro, I definitely recommend it for a quality, gourmet sandwich (and I really want to go back for a cheese plate). (also note they stop making sandwiches at 7pm.)

Try This Tuesday

Quick! Before it's too hot to use your stove for dinner, make this soup. Even though we're more than half way through May, I promise it won't taste too heavy. Plus, it's beautiful (red lentils!):
It should be noted that I had no Aleppo pepper, so I just skipped it. And I only had plain old paprika, so I used that. And the whole thing was very reminiscent of this soup, but infinitely more simple, which, if you're going to make soup in late May, is kind of a requisite.

Link Love

My own creativity remains in hibernation. So, try these two borrowed lovelies, which constituted our dinner tonight (it is Meatless Monday, after all):

Bran muffins. I promise they are divine.

Soup. Hearty, tasty, filling soup.

Darth Deer

This weekend was mainly spent celebrating the first days off work Sam has had since Bria and I came home from Utah. And it was also spent scheming and planning for the almost two weeks Sam will have off for Christmas (the latter should explain the former). Also included were things like this:
And this pumpkin bread pudding, which I only remembered to take a picture of after the fact (it was soooo good).

Speaking of pictures, there's a chance I took that picture on my brand-spankin'-new, early-Christmas iphone-- which was FREE. I didn't know I cared about technology, but I do.

We also ate soup with Hannah and Rob, who graced the suburbs with their presence for the day. The story of this soup is that it is a replica of the Zuppa Toscana from Oliva Garden. I used to hate that soup-- like seriously loathe it and gag at the very thought of it. Then, when I was pregnant with Bria, I started craving it. And now I love it.

1 lb ground sausage (regular or spicy-- just make sure it's not maple)
3 large red potatoes, sliced in half and then sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 large onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 bunch kale, chopped
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Brown sausage in large soup pot. Remove sausage and set aside. To the pot add chicken broth, potatoes, onion, and garlic and bring to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add cream and sausage to the pot and warm through. (Do not boil.) Add kale several minutes before serving. Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Tortilla Soup for the Soul

Today marks the commencement of No Dish Left Behind, a program in which I attempt to conquer my kitchen sink. Due to the ill timing of three simultaneous colds, Bria, Sam, and I trashed the place this weekend, with no energy to clean it up. N0 matter! I have faith sanity will soon be restored at chez Mangum.

To nurse our suffering immune systems, I made tortilla soup. (I haven't posted this recipe yet, have I?) Adapted from my friend Jenna, this is our all-time favorite soup. Last night during dinner, Bria kept saying over and over, "I love this soup! I love dinner!" It's healthy and filling and so easy, you'll cry (in a good way).

1 large bottle Spicy V8
2 cans chicken broth
2 cans black beans
1 bag frozen corn
1 chicken breast, raw, cut into tiny pieces
1 T chili powder
1 T garlic powder
1 T cumin
1 T Worcestershire
salt and pepper to taste

Dump it all in a pot, bring to a boil and then let it simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Garnish with cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. Green onion and cilantro are optional.

Gazpacho!

My mom called me a couple weeks ago and asked if I had a recipe for gazpacho, and I did not! Truth be told, I didn't even know what gazpacho was (but I didn't tell my mom that). I promised to find and send her a recipe. First, I turned to my homegirl Ina, and her recipe looked fantastic. And to give my mom some more options, I also sent along PW's recipe.

And then, all I could think of was gazpacho, which, it turns out, is a cold, tomato-based soup. (But I'm sure everyone else in the world already knew that.) I decided to make it the night Matt and Elisa arrived.
This is the perfect summer meal because it's light but totally satisfying, and (here's the kicker) you don't have to cook anything. It's been like a billion degrees here lately, so when you turn on the stove or the oven, a little part of your soul dies.
So, the thing about gazpacho is that it's made up of tons of finely diced veggies, and if you're not really into chopping veggies, maybe you should use a food processor. I was seriously thinking about this until I realized three things: 1) I was going to make it during Bria's nap. 2) I like chopping vegetables. 3) I don't have a big enough food processor.
So I hand-chopped everything, and it was so delightful to just stand up to my counter and chop, chop, chop while Bria napped the afternoon away. Then, you just combine everything in a big beautiful bowl, and you're done. Seriously. Chop, chop, chop, combine, done.
I served it up with some Trader Joe's cornbread, which resulted in a small part of my soul dying while it baked, but it was soooo worth it. That stuff is good. As was the gazpacho. It tasted exactly how the last days of spring should taste-- vibrant, alive, and fresh. We all gobbled it down, including Bria. She ate two bowls of her own, then she climbed up onto Elisa's lap and demanded Elisa's bowl. And also? I'm going to stop pretending I have any idea whatsoever of how to take pictures of my food. But here's what it all looked like:

And now for the recipe:

Gazpacho
(adapted from Ina Garten and Pioneer Woman)

1 hothouse cucumber, not peeled, seeds removed
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
4-5 roma tomatoes, seeds removed
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 zucchini
1 stalk celery
32 ounces tomato juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
dash kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finely dice all vegetables and toss them into a bowl with remaining ingredients. Stir thoroughly and refrigerate until cold. Serve chilled with avocado, sour cream, cilantro, and a splash of lime.

Soup Weather

The humidity in Virginia makes the 20- and 30- degree temperatures seep all the way to my bones. It is cold. Our windows seem to do nothing, so our heat runs constantly, and I find myself reaching for sweatshirts and blankets far more often than in winters past. Such weather calls for soup, I say! I made my mom's chili over the weekend, and tonight I made a new recipe for enchilada soup.
But first, speaking of my mom, I am going to have my very first Virginian visitor next week! My mom is making the trek out to see her only blue-eyed child, and I couldn't be more excited. And in honor of my dear mother, let me tell you how she thinks the mark of a true chef is one who can keep the kitchen clean as she cooks.
Now let me show you a picture of my kitchen after I made dinner tonight:

Clearly, my mom considers me an amateur. And, you know, I could say, "but I'm cleaning with an almost-two-year-old underfoot!" and to that, my mom would reply, "and I had five kids. Boom. Roasted." Oh well. We can't all inherit our mothers' neat-freakiness.

So, on to the soup. Now, please, set your calorie counters aside. These long winter months require us to stock up on our fat stores, see. That way you can stop reaching for the snuggie and just relish in your plumpness keeping you warm.
My sister emailed me this recipe a couple years ago, and I just now got around to trying it. It's rather simple, and incredibly delicious and filling. There is just enough spice to keep your mouth and body warm, but not so much of a kick to keep you reaching for the water after every bite. And it's rather thick, so I don't know that soup is the best word for it. Call it what it you will, it's scrumptious, and just the sort of thing to get me looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow.



Enchilada Soup

8 chicken tenderloins, raw and cut into cubes

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans chicken broth

1 generous cup enchilada sauce

3 scant cups water

1 cup masa (Mexican corn flour)

1 t salt

1 t chili powder

1/2 cumin

16 oz. velveeta cheese

In a large soup pot, brown the chicken in some butter, with the heat on high. Once it is fully browned, remove the chicken to a plate.
In the same pot, saute the onion and garlic until tender. Add the chicken back to the pot
Dump in the broth, water, and enchilada sauce. Stir and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat to low, then mix the masa, salt, chili powder, and cumin together in a separate bowl. Slowly pour the mixture into the soup while whisking briskly. Continue to whisk as fast as your little arm will allow to ensure that the masa doesn't clump. If it does, just keep whisking away until the clumps break up. Bring the soup to a low boil and stir constantly while the soup thickens.
Remove from the heat, and, once it stops boiling, add the cheese. Stir thoroughly to melt. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some tortilla chips.

Some notes:
When I said whisk as fast as you can when adding the masa, I meant it. And it will probably still clump. Just keep whisking; it will smooth out. I promise.
I stirred in some frozen corn to our individual bowls upon serving, as a way to cool it down. This was genius, because the sweetness from the corn worked so well with the heat from the enchilada sauce. I definitely recommend it. Also, I think the amount of cheese could be reduced slightly-- or at least cut it into cubes so it melts quicker. I ended up getting impatient and served the soup with large chunks of cheese sitting at the bottom of the pan. The soup still tasted great, which is what makes me think the overall amount could be reduced, but if you're intent on consuming the maximum amount of processed American cheese, just cut the cheese into small cubes to facilitate the melting process.

Enjoy!