16 Temmuz 2009 Perşembe

A Week of Vegetarian Times Soups

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A few weeks ago I got the January issue of in my mail box. There was a whole section about quick and easy soups, so I thought it would be fun to try one recipe a night. Well, I made it through four nights. Too much soup can be a bad thing when had over and over, but I wanted to give it a go, you know, for you guys.

Below, you will find the four soups with notes as to why I liked or didn’t like them. I will say that one soup completely surprised me with it’s simplicity and flavor. Over all, this was a fun experiment and I enjoyed the recipes.

Monday Night: Quinoa & Spinach Soup

This soup was very simple to make, only taking about 30 minutes. If it was my own recipe I would have added something more zesty to the mix, like a sprinkling of Parmesan as a finishing touch. White beans would have been good as well. It just needed a bit more depth. I served it with a crusty loaf of bread from Durham’s, some and a bottle of Altosur Cab I bought from our friends at

Quinoa & Spinach Soup

The actors in this recipe…diced red onion, diced tomatoes, veggie broth, spinach, quinoa…and a few extra spices.

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Saute onion in a bit of olive oil on medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes.

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Add broth and 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.

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When almost boiling reduce heat and add the quinoa. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

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Next, add the tomatoes and spinach, simmering about 5 minutes.

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Season with salt and pepper, or add a few herbs as I did.

Tuesday Night: Curried Cauliflower Soup

Tuesday night’s soup was a creamed soup that didn’t require any cream. This one took about an hour from start to finish. I liked it but on a scale from 1 to 10 I would rate it at a 5. I thought it could have used less water or maybe to double the cauliflower required because it was too thin for me. I will say at 156 calories a serving (I made 4 servings) this would make a good lunch soup. I even added some roasted tofu strips. We had this with an Amstel Light and some more good Guglhupfbread.

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The Players…cauliflower, red onion, apple, curry powder, garlic, veggie broth, agave nectar and rice wine vinegar.

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In some oil saute onion, then add apple, curry and garlic.

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Add cauliflower and broth and simmer 20 minutes.

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With a stick mixer (or in a blender) puree until smooth.

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Stir in agave and vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper.

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Pretty easy…

Wednesday Night: Cream of Turnip Soup

This soup completely surprised me. Number one, I didn’t think I was a fan of the lowly turnip, but turns out I am. Number two, with only four ingredients I didn’t think this would taste like much, but it did! The flavors were rich and nutty. It was super easy to make and at 126 calories a serving (I made 4 servings) I decided to make some faux sausage biscuits to have with the soup. This was by far my favorite!

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Turnips, onion, bay leaf and creamer…a little oil to saute and that was it….oh, and water or broth.

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Cook the turnip and onion for about 15 minutes in a bit of oil.

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Add bay leaves and 3 cups of water or broth. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to med-low and simmer for about 30 minutes.

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Remove from the heat, take out the bay leaves and add some of the creamer.

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Puree until smooth.

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Add salt and pepper to taste.

Thursday Night: Carrot-Miso Soup

This soup would have been so much better had I not added the seaweed I had in my pantry. The recipe called for a piece of kombu seaweed but all I had was some dried, unidentified seaweed stuff. It gave a strong fishy taste and smell that I couldn’t get past. I will try this again, but will not be using that sea stuff. As for making this soup, although not hard, there were more steps. I served it with some sesame crackers.

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In this act we had carrots, leeks, rice, garlic, rice wine vinegar, broth, miso, agave and seaweed.

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Saute the leeks in a little oil.

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Add vinegar to deglaze the pan.

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Add carrots…

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Rice…

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Seaweed (but don’t use this kind!)

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and 5 cups of water and/or broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

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The recipe called for the removal of the kombu seaweed piece, but as you can see the seaweed I used completely unfurled into the soup and there was no getting it out. Puree the soup until smooth.

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In a small bowl place about a cup of the pureed soup and mix into the miso…

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then add the agave sweetener.

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Add back into the soup pot and stir well. The recipe called for wasabi peas as a garnish, but I didn’t have any.

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