Fresh Minestrone

This week I actually have two posts in one. Call it free soup, Call it a soup double dip.  Call it whatever you want.  Both recipes also directly relate to my epic cheapness and desire to cook with locally grown ingredients.

First up in our soup double header is chicken broth.  Brian and I got back from San Fran pretty late on Sunday night last week and had no time/energy to bother with thinking about dinner for the entire week. Enter a nice rotisserie chicken complements of my local Kroger and I had the beginnings of home made chicken broth.  For this you will need: one chicken carcass, one onion, three stalks of celery, two carrots, five cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, salt and pepper to taste, water and a lot of free time.

First, coarsely chop the onion, carrots and celery, and peel the garlic cloves. Throw these the whole rosemary sprig and chicken pieces into a big soup pot. If you have one with a pasta strainer insert, it's a good idea to use it.

Add water to cover everything and put it over a medium-high heat.  Bring it to a boil then reduce heat to low to simmer.  Now's a good time to also throw in some salt and pepper.  Simmer for 2-4 hours. Yes, hours.

After a few hours your house will officially smell like Lipton Landing and I can't guarantee that you won't also smell like soup.  Give the broth a taste. It should be pretty bland, and that's just fine.  Remove the strainer insert with its fully water logged veggies and chicken bones from the stock pot. Let the broth cool for about 45 minutes and throw everything else away.

I got about 18 cups of broth out of this. I know that my soups usually take 6 cups of broth, so I ladled 6 cups each into three gallon freezer bags, gently placed two in the freezer for later and kept one out for the next match-up in our double header, some fresh minestrone.

Minestrone is not my best soup. I often make it because it's easy and a good pantry/veggie drawer cleaner, but I must miss something when making it.  It's usually a winter soup for me, so I thought I'd give it a try with some fresh from the farm veggies and see if that was the missing link in making the soup delicious.  Brian and I also finally had time to check out the Sandy Springs Farmer's Market where I found all the tomatoes, beans and potatoes that I used in this soup.  All are organic and were purchased from a very nice young man who likes to give people deals on their purchases. Everything I bought should have been about $18 and he gave it to me for $12 (the epic cheapness was so happy).  I'll likely juxtapose this receipe with a frozen or canned minestrone sometime in winter for a little battle of the minestrones if you will. Until then, here's some Fresh Minestrone.

For this gem you'll need: 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 sprig of rosemary, 2 serrano peppers (if you're into spicy), 3-4 small potatoes, 8-10 medium tomatoes, 1 zucchini, a bunch of beans (I went with these delightful purple ones), 1 can of kidney beans, 6 cups of broth, and 1 cup of small pasta. You'll also need some not pictured items to taste, additionally I threw in: one sprig of fresh oregano, 2 dried bay leaves, some dried oregano, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.  Yes, there are many ingredients. Yes, you will be spending some serious time chopping them up.  Lucky for you, it's probaby over 90 degrees outside and it's not like you were going to go outside and do something so just hunker down in the kitchen with your favorite knife and get going.

Start by mincing the garlic, serrano peppers and rosemary.  These serrano peppers came from a very fertile plant in my garden so I felt the need to use them to keep with the farm/garden fresh aspect of this soup. Feel free to leave them out.  Also, dice the onion, celery and carrot.

Next, dice the potatoes.

Then, coarsely chop the tomatoes, keeping the seeds.  I had a few pretty heirloom tomatoes to work with so seeds weren't really a problem.  Please don't judge my horrible knife skills. It's a wonder I have finger tips.

Now, the beans. I got very excited when I saw these beans, mostly because I ♥ purple things and had never seen purple beans before (so I grew up sheltered, my Grandpee had a huge garden in RI, but the only beans it in were green). These beans were a little tough and a little bitter, but they are oh so pretty.  Trim the ends of the beans and cut into 1/4 inch or so lengths.

Lastly, the zucchini. Simple dice this baby up like the rest of the diced veggies.

Now that you've devoted probably at least 30 minutes of your day to chopping veggies, get to cooking. Heat a large pot over medium heat and add some olive oil or other fat. Once it's hot, throw in the garlic, serrano peppers, onions, celery, carrots and rosemary. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Then, add the potatoes. Cooking for another 3 minutes.

Next in is the zucchini.  Cook for another 3 minutes.

Now add the tomatoes. Also throw in the chicken broth and kidney beans. Stir it all up, bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes and give it a taste.  That's when I added some fresh oregano, dried oregno, dried bay leaves, salt (lots of it because the homemade broth hardly had any salt in it), pepper and crushed red pepper.

I let my soup simmer for an unnecessarily long amount of time (over an hour) because I went to the gym and wanted to eat it for lunch upon returning. I do not suggest leaving a hot pot of soup on your stove while going to the gym, unless you have someone at home to watch the soup just in case (which I did).  Regardless of my ridiculous simmer time, the soup should simmer for at least 30 minutes.  Again, give it a taste to see if it needs anything. If all systems are a go, throw in the beans.

Next, toss in the pasta. I used cute little shells. Give the whole thing a stir, increase the heat a bit and cook for about 10 minutes or until the pasta are done. Before serving, be sure to fish out the oregano sprig and bay leaves.

This is super tasty topped with a bit of shredded parmesan cheese, which is exactly how I choose to enjoy mine.

Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup

Given that February is heart health month I wanted to make a tomato-heavy soup as recent research has shown tomatoes and heart health go hand in hand because they're rich in lycopene. Also, Lent started this week and as every good (or bad) Catholic knows, we're not supposed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent (for reasons that I've never been able to understand), so I wanted to stick to a meat-less soup (though I used chicken broth since it was all I had in the house, so I guess this makes me a bad Catholic, what else is new).  February is also Black history month, but I'm not sure how to make a soup for that. Maybe the gumbo from a few weeks ago can count as my black history inspired soup since okra is an West African vegetable. Regardless, here's a tasty roasted tomato & eggplant soup.

For this gem you'll need, 5 ripe tomatoes, 1 large eggplant, 1 head of garlic, 1 medium onion, some basil, 6 cups of broth of your choosing, 1 small can of tomato paste, 1 can of cannellini/Great Northern beans, 1 small parmesan or other hard cheese rind, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and oregano to taste.

First, peel the eggplant. I normally don't peal anything, but eggplant peel is really tough and doesn't taste that great.

Then, cut into large cubes and set aside in a large bowl.

Next, slice the onion into big chunks. Put these in the bowl with the eggplant.

Now, cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds.

Chop into large pieces and place in the bowl with eggplant and onions.

Pour a healthy amount, probably about half a cup of extra virgin olive oil onto the veggies. Season with salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flake and oregano to your liking. Stir it all up to coat.

Place in a large baking dish and set aside. Now is probably a good time to preheat your oven to 350.

Now, get the garlic ready for roasting. I stole this from Carla's blog, so if you want better instructions, you can find them here: http://ilpiattoblu.blogspot.com/2010/02/whole-roasted-garlic.html. Chop the top  from a head of garlic, coat in olive oil, place in a cute little ramekin, and season with salt and pepper.

Place the veggies and garlic in your hot oven and roast for 45-55 miutes. My garlic took 45 minutes, whereas the veggies took 55. While we're at it, let's discuss how clean this oven is. I'm sure this won't last since we've only had this oven for less than a month, but its oh so pretty.

About 30 minutes into cooking, all these veggies started to smell lovely and the adorable puppy got interested.  Also, its finally warm and sunny in Atlanta and he loves to sunbathe.

Anywho, once roasted, your garlic should look something like this:

And the veggies should look like this:

Put these aside to cool a bit and get working with the soup. In a big soup pot over medium heat, pour 6 cups of broth. Add the can of tomato paste and stir to mix.

Next, rinse and drain your beans and add them to the soup. I added beans to the soup to add a bit of protein and make this a tad more hearty. If you don't like beans, just leave them out but be prepared for the soup to not be the least bit filling.

Now, add your roasted garlic. Its pretty easy to get the cloves out with a fork, or you can try squeezing the garlic bulb to make the cloves pop out, but I find that technique to be inefficient and unsuccessful. I really like garlic so I added all the cloves, but if you don't like garlic quite so much, just add a few and eat the rest on some toasted bread, its delicious.

Next, add the roasted eggplant, tomato and onion.

Season with some shredded basil. I used about 6 big basil leaves and shredded them by hand.

Blend all the veggies with a stick blender until the soup is nice and smooth.

Throw in the parmesan rind, reduce heat to low, and simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer you simmer the more lovely cheese flavor you'll get. So if you have free time, let this baby hang out on the stove for a while. I also had to add a bit more salt.

I wasn't ready to eat the soup when it was done since it was so beautiful outside that I just had to go running. Hence the packaging in some fantastic glass bowls for storage and eating later. When I actually sit down to eat this soup, I'm certain I'll top it with some shredded or shaved parmesan and maybe some fresh basil. Enjoy!