Quick and Easy Broccoli "Cheese" Soup

First of all, these are my Mother's Day Flowers...

still BEAUTIFUL two weeks later, can you believe it?

The roses haven't even opened all the way.

SO amazing. I just had to post a picture!!

And next? A very simple supper of Broccoli "Cheese" soup and whole-grain toast. One of my standard go-to suppers when we're VERY short on time and rushing between baseball, soccer and ballet, theater, music and PTA. You know you have days like that too. As an added plus, everyone loves it. A person eats what is served around these parts anyway, but I DO like making "favorites" when I can.

This uses *gasp* a package of frozen, chopped broccoli from the grocery store for super-quick convenience, frozen veggies actually have just as much nutrition as their produce-section counterparts but if you'd rather, you can chop and cook a head of fresh broccoli instead, be my guest. The directions seem long for a "quick" meal but they're so easy!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

4 cups frozen, chopped broccoli (2 8-oz bags or whatever)
3 cups vegetable soup stock
3 tbs chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 small onion chopped fine

3 tablespoons margarine
3 Tablespoons flour
2 cups plain rice or soy milk

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp yellow mustard

2 - 3 drops Tabasco
Fresh ground pepper

Bring stock to a boil, add frozen broccoli and onion, and simmer until barely tender, about two minutes.
With a slotted spoon, remove one cup of broccoli florets. Set aside.
Place remaining broccoli, liquid, parsley and salt in blender or whiz with an immersion blender. Puree until smooth. Set aside.

Melt margarine in soup pan. Stir in flour and let bubble a bit. Stir in rice milk with a whisk, bring to a boil then turn heat down and simmer till thickened, stirring constantly with the whisk. Add nutritional yeast, lemon juice, mustard and tabasco and heat another 30 seconds.
Stir in broccoli puree. Adjust salt if needed, add pepper to taste.

Heat gently (don't boil). Serve immediately with some of the reserved broccoli florets scooped into each bowl.

Curried Cashew-Vegetable Soup from "Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons" by Nava Atlas

Well, today's post is a bit different and very exciting for me, because I've been asked to participate in a "Blog Tour" for cookbook author Nava Atlas, in celebration of today's release of Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons . Now in its 4th edition; many of you may remember the cookbook as "Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons".
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First, a technical note for fellow cook-book geeks like myself: While fairly similar to the third edition (the one with the green cover) this edition is significantly different from the original first edition; first, all the recipes are now vegan, and second, there are mouthwatering photos... and check out the beautiful new cover!

Fellow bloggers are participating as well, simply Google "Nava Atlas Blog Tour" and you'll find their posts too! (I may come back and add links when everyone's posted).

This cookbook has been a family favorite of ours for quite some time. Come on people, it's full of soup recipes - who doesn't like soup? You really can't go wrong with Nava's recipes, they're always tasty, easy to prepare and have ingredients I can find at a "regular" grocery store. I also admit, quite selfishly that this particular cookbook is near and dear to my heart because the author includes one of MY recipes. (African-Inspired Quinoa Peanut Soup which I'll spare you from blogging about yet AGAIN!).

For this momentous occasion, I narrowed the many delicious options down to one of my family's favorites; Curried Cashew-Vegetable Soup. I think you'll LOVE this one!

Here is the recipe, (with the author's permission of course) straight from the book, **the only change I made was to use carrots and potatoes instead of the green vegetables, making it a more hearty, winter stew. Enjoy!! (Oh, and we added grilled vegetable sandwiches to ALSO celebrate our new panini press. Double yum!!)

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Curried Cashew-Vegetable Soup

With notes of ginger, curry, and citrus
6 to 8 servings
Cashew butter make an offbeat, rich-tasting soup base.
This luscious soup is good hot or at room temperature.

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large celery stalk, diced
4 cups water
1 cup cashew butter
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger, to taste
2 teaspoons good-quality curry powder, more or less to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or more to taste
1/2 cup orange juice, preferably fresh
3 cups steamed fresh green vegetables (such as finely chopped broccoli, green peas, diced zucchini, cut green beans,or any combination) **I used potatoes and carrots
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Thinly sliced scallions for garnish
Chopped cashews for garnish, optional

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onions, garlic, and celery and sauté over medium-low heat until all are lightly browned.
Transfer to a food processor with 1 cup of the water and process until smoothly pureed, then transfer back to the soup pot.

Or add 1 cup of the water to the soup pot and process with an immersion blender until pureed. Add the remaining 3 cups water and bring to a rapid simmer. Whisk in the cashew butter, about 1/3 cup at a time. Stir in the ginger, curry powder, cumin, nutmeg, lemon juice, and orange juice. Return to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat.

Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Stir in the steamed vegetables. If the soup is too thick, add enough water to give the soup a slightly thick consistency. Season with salt and pepper, then serve. Garnish each serving with scallions and chopped cashews if desired.

Snow Day and My Story About "Clam" Chowder

Winter weather's finally hit us, here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. And it IS beautiful if you don't have to be out driving. Schools, roads and lots of businesses have been closed.
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Not to be alarmed, we're not snowbound with ten-foot drifts (yet). I work for the School District; any sprinkling of flakes, mixed with a little ice, makes for treacherous driving of those big ol' yellow buses so they tend to err on the side of safety - and make small children happy, canceling school with a "Snow Day".
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What it's turned into is Christmas break starting three days early all over the state. Which won't be as much fun when June rolls around... I'm reminding my kids.











We are scheduled for a "really big" storm to hit tonight though, stay tuned.
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Actually snow driving hasn't phased me much, so far, (though I'm not hauling 40 screaming students!) my daughter and I found it a great excuse to finish Christmas shopping. It was quiet and relaxing, for a change - there was no one in the stores!

Back home, I realized I should have done a little grocery shopping as well 'cause my pantry is pretty depleted. I'm trying to put off getting many groceries until after Christmas though, so I can manage to get some gifts instead. That budget only goes so far!

Well, we have plenty of potatoes and it was DEFINITELY a soup sort of day so I pulled out one of my kids' favorite recipes to warm them up after the snowman building and snowball fights.

CLAM CHOWDER. Totally vegan and clam free.

Now, as a side note, it's time for true confessions:

See, there was once a short-lived stretch in college when I naively thought that vegetarians did indeed eat fish. It seemed logical, all the "vegetarian" friends I knew ate fish, so I assumed it must have been me who had the definition of vegetarianism wrong (this being the dark-ages of no Internet to set me straight on such things). And during that time, poor college student that I was, I was introduced to the cheap and filling wonders of the "All-You-Can-Eat Soup-And-Salad-Bar" at a local restaurant. Thus I discovered clam chowder. (*Gasp!!*)

And odd as it seems for someone born and raised vegetarian, I loved the stuff. I tend to think their particular recipe was mainly potatoes, as I never remember it tasting strongly seafood-like, but every so often, after reforming from my slightly pescetarian ways, I still fondly remember the Red Apple Restaurant and their never-ending chowder bowl...

Obviously after some thought and a little research - and my own Mother setting me straight (listen to your Mom, she's usually right!!) I reformed from my fishy ways. It was not me misinterpreting the definition and "slandering the name of good vegetarians" (my Mom's words). Poor little clammies and fishies, what was I thinking?

OK then, confessions aside, this is my vegan version of chowder. It's been 25 years since I've had the stuff, so it may not be accurate at all, but anyone I've served it to has enjoyed it and asked for more. Or the recipe. And it's just fun to see the looks on people's faces when I say we're having clam chowder tonight.














Tofu-Mom's Chowdah

(I call it that to irritate my offspring, they tell me my accent is terrible - and it is. The soup's good though!!)

• 1 Tbsp. margarine
• 1 chopped oyster mushrooms (or regular white mushrooms are fine, the oyster mushrooms just have a lighter color and better texture for this, and they're CHEAP at Asian markets
• 1/2 cup chopped leeks (or onions)
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 tsp powdered dulse or kelp (a kind of seaweed - or use crumbled Nori)
• 1 tsp. smoked salt

Saute the above in a stock-pot until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently. Cover to steam a bit as they cook if you want, they'll cook faster. It'll smell pretty smoky and fishy for a bit - not to fear, the finished soup is much milder!

• 3 finely chopped sage leaves (or 3 teaspoons dried)
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 3+ cups vegetable broth (I usually do 1/2 broth and 1/2 water)
• 6 med red or white or Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into smallish chunks
  

Add the above ingredients and cook at a low boil just until potatoes are soft - about 15 min.

• 1 cup soymilk
• 1 cup coconut milk (A tip I stole from Vegan Dad: Use the 'Thai Kitchen' brand here-it is less "coconuty" when you're just wanting just the creaminess anyway)
• 1/2 cup Tofutti Cream Cheese

Remove Bay Leaf. Stir in the above ingredients and heat on low, stirring frequently, until heated thru. About 7 - 10 minutes.
Season to taste - I add a splash of Tabasco and a grind of black pepper or some fresh chopped parsley or dill.
(My kids get picky about too many green flecks floating around which is why you'll see the bowl pictured is pretty free of green...).

Serve with lots of saltine crackers. We tend to LOVE those little round "oyster crackers".

Enjoy, and have a GREAT weekend!!

Happy Almost-Halloween!

OK, I think I'm ready to start blogging after the Great Computer Disaster of 2008.
First; Gratuitous cute-kid pictures,
then my Pumpkin-Lentil Stew:

OK, not they're not "kids" but teens ("Come on Mom, get it right!").

In Halloween costumes.

And they don't like being called "cute" I've been informed.
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But I'm their Mom,
so I get to say what I want.
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. They attended a Halloween Costume party the other night, and before I get to my recipe, I just had to show off their great costumes.
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. Snow White and Pippi Longstockings (sorry, I don't know who Zorro is).
And if you knew my kids, you'd know how perfect those costume choices were for them. They got a lot of compliments and had a great time with friends!
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When they came home from the party all chilly and frozen-nosed, I had this soup in the crock-pot because it seemed very fall-ish and warming and the Good Mom thing to do.
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Seemed pretty popular with my resident story-book characters too. Enjoy!
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Pumpkin-Lentil Soup (or Stew)

3 cups sugar pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and diced in 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup brown lentils
2 cups coined carrots
1 can stewed diced tomatoes
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup diced onion or leeks
3 cups vegetable or vegetarian "chicken-flavored"broth
1/2 tsp ground mace
1 tsp salt
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Fry the onion and carrots in oil in a pot over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Rinse the lentils. Add the lentils, veggie broth, salt and mace to the pot. Stir and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for about 30 - 40 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and pumpkin, stir well, recover and simmer for another 20 minutes until the stew becomes thick and the pumpkin is tender, adding more broth or water if needed.

For a crock pot, fry veggies as directed above, then add everything to crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours or until veggies and lentils are soft.

Veggie-Roasted Pepper Quinoa Soup

This was my lunch at work today. Leftover soup from last night: Roasted Pepper and Quinoa Soup that I sort of "invented" with a bunch of odds and ends a while back... It's so simple and colorful (not so much in the picture). Every time I make it, it's a little different, but basically this is what I do:

Veggie, Quinoa and Roasted-Pepper Soup
1 large red bell pepper
1 large orange bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
8 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon
3 cups vegetable (or vegetarian "chicken") broth
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fennel seed
2 cups misc. frozen veggies (I used corn, edamame and peas)
1 cup already cooked quinoa

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Halve all peppers (remove seeds) and peel garlic.
Place halved peppers, cut side up in shallow baking dish. Place one garlic clove in each half and squeeze lemon juice generously over peppers. Roast for 1 hour.
Meanwhile pour vegetable (or veggie-chicken broth) broth into a 2 quart sauce pan and add fennel seeds. Bring to boil, cover and simmer.
When peppers are done, remove from oven and set aside to cool. When cool enough to touch peel skin from peppers.
Strain fennel seeds from broth and return to a boil. Add cooked quinoa and frozen mixed veggies. Simmer 15 minutes, reducing amount of broth and cooking veggies.
In a blender, place peppers, garlic and a 1/2 cup broth. Blend just long enough to shred the peppers, but not puree them. You want to see the different colors. Pour the blended peppers into the broth and stir well. Add garlic salt and black pepper to taste. The bright colors will fade if not served right away.