9 Essentials of a cold weather puree soup

This is a base recipe that can be applied to any number of puree soups ranging from squash to potato. A puree soup is probably my go-to soup style simply because cut consistency doesn’t matter and you can use product that’s “going bad” or doesn’t look so good and still have a fantastic product.

Puree soups can also range in flavor from a deep savory to something that is light and delicate. 

Depending on what ingredients you use, you can go in a thousand different directions. This particular recipe I used carrots. I would use this recipe with four pounds of your selected product and start branching out from there.

Onions – once these babies start to caramelize, the aroma and flavor is soul-filling. It’s a little savory and sweet, yet mellow enough to not overpower your main ingredients. The onion also adds more body to the soup. Keep in mind that if you’re going for a specific color, the onion tends to lighten the color or change it to a light brown if you allow the onions to fully caramelize.

Apple – I just started using apples in my stock and soups within the last year and let me tell you - it’s a game changer! I use whole apples for this application because the seeds and core contain a lot of pectin and if you’re making this completely vegetarian/vegan it helps with adding more body to the soup. I wouldn’t use more than one per quart batch of soup, unless the apple is one of the main ingredients.

Ginger – I love putting ginger in everything… it’s so good! Just a little nob will do. I shave the skin off with a spoon and slice it thin. Cook this when you’re cooking your onions. The flavor mellows out as it sweats out in the pan, but still gives you a nice little zip. I use this mainly in this application to add some brightness in the dark coldness known as winter.

Fat – It’s all about the selection here! I think that butter is the best selection here, but you can keep in the cold spirit and render a few pieces of bacon; or use avocado or grape seed oil. I stopped cooking with olive oil because it has a prominent flavor and it loses its integrity very quickly when exposed to heat. Remember that when you sweat the vegetables that the flavor is absorbed into the oil.

Champagne vinegar – this is another great ingredient that I’ve just started using. I deglaze the pan with the vinegar so that the flavor is absorbed into the vegetables. Once cooked down, it’s more sweet than acidic, but still adds some great dimension into the dish. I just use a little splash, no more than shots worth. I chose to use this vinegar because it adds a bit of delicacy to the soup. Other varieties a such as balsamic, apple, rice wine, and sherry add depth and tend to be a bit stronger.

Salt and pepper – It is essential that you apply seasoning throughout the various stages of cooking to get the best results out of your soup. I add a liberal amount when I’m sweating out my onions. Salt draws moisture out and allows it to be absorbed into the fat which results in the flavor being dispersed through the mixture.

Stock – If you learn anything from this post it needs to be this. The secret to any sauce or soup starts with a great stock. I highly suggest making your own stock at home. However if you don’t make your own stock, I suggest getting an organic stock with low or no sodium. The ones that do have sodium in them tend to taste super salty to me and basically rules out your own tastes. With puree soups, I suggest using a vegetable or chicken stock. The flavors tend to be more neutral whereas beef or seafood stocks contain a more prominent flavor. Experiment with different brands until you find something that suits your fancy.

Blender – Essential of anything pureed. Get a good blender with a warranty, or something of the professional grade. When you’re processing your soup, do it in small batches to achieve maximum results. Otherwise you won’t be able to get a smooth puree, or you will burn the motor out of your blender… and nobody wants that.

Strainer - One thing I am a stickler for with purees is that the whole product is blended fully and pushed through a strainer. In the restaurant industry we use a chinois, otherwise known as a fine mesh strainer; but you can just use the finest mesh strainer you can find. This creates a smooth product free of any product that hasn’t been fully cooked out. In this recipe I found the skin of apples and some carrot fibers. No one wants that garbage in their soup!

Fall carrot puree soup

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 large onion

4 lbs carrots (medium dice)

¼ inch ginger fresh (sliced)

1 apple (quartered then cut in half)

2 Tablespoons butter

½ shot champagne vinegar

1 ½ quarts vegetable or chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

Medium sized pot

Chef knife

Cutting board

Blender

Fine mesh strainer

Rubber spatula

Ladle or cup

Directions:

1. Place the pot on medium low heat. Once hot, add the butter and allow it to melt then add the onions and ginger. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until onions become translucent but not brown.
2. Add carrots and apple. Season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook until apples and carrots start to become tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Pour in shot of champagne vinegar. Continue to cook until the vinegar fully evaporates.
4. Add stock. Turn heat up to medium and cover. Cook until carrots start falling apart with a fork.
5. In small batches, transfer the soup to the blender and blend. Once spoon pour into the mesh strainer and push through with the rubber spatula.
6. Garnish with parsley and tarragon mixed into ricotta cheese or yogurt, lemon olive oil, cracked black pepper and nutmeg. 

Button Mushrooms

Growing up, I hated mushrooms. They were kind of slimy, earthy, and smelled of gym socks. How could anyone possibly like these things on anything? As far as I was concerned, the entire fungi industry was a conspiracy created by a bunch of whack-jobs.

Fast forward a few hundred years and I love mushrooms! They can be delicate, yet savory and crispy at the same time. You can make something as simple as a mushroom risotto and utilize the entire mushroom to the fullest. Now, since going through various fine dining restaurants and culinary school, I’ve developed a few methods for cooking them.

There are a few things you need to understand first:

Mushrooms are a fungus. Therefore they grow off of a food source, as opposed to using chlorophyll to absorb the sunlight. The mushrooms you buy in the grocery store are grown in a decaying matter and you don’t want that flavor competing with your delicate beauties. Rinse them off! I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it makes a huge difference. Let them dry out on a towel on the counter or baking sheet before executing a cooking process.

High water content. Clocking it at over 90% water, the mushroom has a lot of flavor to concentrate into one little morsel. The point of this cooking process is to extract the moisture in the most efficient manner. The ingredients I chose to use really accentuate the mushroom and allow it to conform easily to another dish or standalone by itself.

Super absorbent of flavors. As moisture escapes, it leaves a void to be filled by flavor. By filling it with fat (which is less dense than water) you are able to allow more flavor to be absorbed into the mushroom. You can mess around with different ingredients until you find what best suits your taste buds, but I find this to be an all-around winner.

Remove the stems. I’ve found that some places will keep mushrooms on the shelves for a really long time and still sell them, and then they continue to sit in the fridge for another week or so. You can’t really tell when a stem is going to end up tasting woody, and that completely ruins a mushroom more than a mushy one. So just throw it into the compost pile or stock pot.

Today I’m sharing what I feel is a fool-proof way of making those basic button mushrooms and the most delicious addition to any dish. I use them in omelets, frittatas, pizza, Stromboli, and casseroles. These also make a great addition to any stir-fry or sauté dish.

BONUS: combine with caramelized cauliflower for a meat substitute in tacos or quesadillas. It tastes and feels just like steak!

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 packs button mushrooms (about 2 lbs) rinsed and stemmed

30 sprigs of fresh thyme (lemon thyme preferred) or sage

Salt (smoke sea salt preferred)

Pepper (fresh ground)

½ stick butter or ½ cup garlic infused oil

Directions:

1. Cut mushroom caps into 6ths. Start with a half, and then make two cuts in the center of one half (making a “V”). The idea here is to make all the cuts roughly the same size so they cook evenly.
2. Put a cast iron or heavy gauged pan over a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, place a 2 Tablespoons of butter in the pan and allow to melt.
3. Toss the mushrooms into the hot pan. Make sure that mushrooms have about ½” of space between all of them. You may need to do a few batches to complete the whole task.
4. Throw in about 10 sprigs of thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Feel free to go a little more liberal on the salt than you usually do, it aides in extracting moisture from the mushrooms.
   
5. Move mushrooms around occasionally until all sides are dark brown, but not burnt.
6. Add more butter if you notice that the browning process is slowing down after 5 minutes or so.
7. The result will look like this once it's cooled.
   
    

Pumpkin Puree

This is a great recipe to add to anything and make it “Thanksgiving” themed. I’ve been using this in a lot of my recipes, and will be used in my next 4 installments. It's a really great thing to have around in the house as well, think of it almost like canned tomatoes and you'll be surprised of where your creativity takes you. 

Pumpkins are a really awesome flavoring agent because it’s kind of sweet and savory, combined with the spices in the puree, it adds a great complexity to any dish.

You can also use this as a soup easily by adding a few quarts of stock and 1 cup rice and 1 cup black beans to the base recipe. Finish it with some cheese, drizzle of sour cream, herb, and toasted squash nuts. You will need to season this to taste. I’d suggest using some orange juice or apple cider as well.

Add eggs, cream cheese/mascarpone cheese, and sugar; and turn it into a pie. Put it on a cookie crust and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of ginger powder and cinnamon. 

You’re possibilities are endless with this great flavor base. Use it for an equal substitute with canned pumpkin in any recipe to make it your own.

Pumpkin Puree

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Cook time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 quarts diced pumpkin

¼ stick butter

1 bay leaf

1 stick cinnamon (or 1 Tablespoon ground)

1 clove (or 1/4 tsp ground)

½ tsp nutmeg (ground or fresh grated)

¼ tsp coriander

1 Tablespoon fresh grated ginger (or 1 1/2 T ground)

Directions:

1. Put a medium pot over the fire on medium heat
2. Melt the butter down with the spices
3. Once the butter starts to brown and the spices infuse, add the pumpkin.
4. Switch the temperature to medium-low
5. Stir mixture occasionally until squash breaks down like this
   
   
   
   
   
6. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth
7. Pass through a fine mesh strainer to make sure product is smooth
8. Return to the pot and allow reducing until it starts caramelizing (turning brown)

Breakfast Quinoa - so much better than oatmeal!

I've been on a bit of a breakfast kicker lately! Between the weekend brunch shifts at work, and the 30 pounds of apples I’m trying to utilize from a few weeks ago, I’m really trying to explore different uses for these sweet fruits.

I’m not a huge oatmeal fan by any measure – but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a good bowl when it comes around. One thing I do realize is that I love the sweet and savory aspects of traditional oatmeal; but not the heavy and sticky parts. So how else could I possibly set myself up with something easy to grab in the morning?

I recently came to a compromise and discovered I had already stumbled upon the solution! In one of my previous posts (fall brunch menu) I had a breakfast quinoa on the menu. It occurred to me that I could easily make something super yummy and very quickly since it acts like rice (concerning the cooking process) and it’s a lot fluffier and lighter (with more texture) than oats are.

Quinoa is also a super food, and much better for you than say rolled oats or something like that. Most of your grains don’t possess the fat content, nor omega-3 fatty acid count that this fluffy grain provides. It also serves as a complete protein by itself. You can get more information on quinoa here 

Breakfast Quinoa:

Suggested modifications/substitutions:

1. Substitute the fruit content with your favorite seasonal fruit or fruit preserve.
2. Use vanilla/chocolate flavored lacto-free milk such as a nut or soy milk. 
3. Make a batch of plain (no fruit) so anyone can grab some and add fresh fruit of choice. 
4. Throw a handful of your favorite nuts in (in the beginning with the apples will result in a nuttier taste with a softer nut after it absorbs liquid, adding in at the end will keep them crunchy). 
5. Boost your protein by adding some vegan chili or a fried egg. 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1-2 apples (small dice, skin-on)

1 Tablespoon coconut oil or butter

½ tsp cinnamon (fresh ground)

Dash coriander

¼ tsp fennel seed

3 T maple syrup or honey

2 T Apple butter

1 cup quinoa

2 cups whole milk

Directions:

1. Put medium sized pot on the fire at a medium heat.
2. Once hot, put in your coconut oil or butter and allow to melt.
3. Place your apple, cinnamon, coriander, and fennel in the pot and sauté until apples begin to brown.
4. Pour in your quinoa and stir quickly to coat it in the fat.
5. Pour in your milk and stir, let cook on medium/low heat until quinoa is soft.
6. Stir occasionally to check when it’s done.
7. Serve hot or cold with fresh fruit and honey.

Curried Apple Jasmine Rice

Continuing on with my apple extravaganza, I decided to make a curry spice soup and add jasmine rice to it. 

However, I used too much rice, or too little liquid (depending on what side of the line you’re on) and it really turned out to be more of a rice dish than a soup. Anyway, my loss is your gain because I turned it into this savory dish with a sweet note guaranteed to accent any protein quite nicely.

This dish is not particularly spicy, however, it does have some spices in it to heighten the flavor and allow the sweetness to cut through it. Combined with the fragrance of jasmine rice, this dish is a total plunder of your senses.

I would say that if you want this to be more of a soup that you cut the portion of rice down to 2/3 cup or double the recipe and maintain the same amount of rice. You can even throw some chicken/beans in there as well if you want to make a complete meal out of it.

Keep in mind that this recipe will be blended, so uniform cuts won’t really matter here. You are just looking to make it as easy as possible to break down the vegetables.

I highly suggest enjoying this rice with my veganchili  on top. Take it a step further and a piece of grilled meat, or two fried eggs with a healthy sprinkle of a mild cheese on top. Maybe even shaved fennel salad?

Anyway, enough jibber-jabber, TO THE INGREDIENT LIST!

Curried Apple Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:

1 green chili (chopped)

1 carrot (chopped)

2 medium onions (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (sliced)

½ pickled Anaheim pepper

1 dried chili (chopped)

2 apples (grated)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

3 ½ tsp curry

1 cup milk (whole)

4 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)

1 ½ cup jasmine rice

Zest and juice 1 lime

¼ cup cilantro or parsley (chiffonade)

Season to taste

Directions:

1. Put a medium pot on the fire on medium-low
2. Once pot is hot, pour in your oil 
3. Add chili, carrot, onion, garlic, pickled pepper, and dried chili. Continue cooking until onions are translucent. 
4. Add curry spice and allow to dissolve in remaining liquid for a few minutes, then add your apples.  
5. Allow to cook more until apples become tender and start to fall apart. 
6. Pour in your milk and stock and allow to come to a simmer. 
7. Using a blender or immersion blender, puree contents until smooth. 
8. Add Jasmine rice and continue to cook until rice is tender. 
9. Finish with lime juice and herb and incorporate into the rice. 

Potato Salad with no Mayo

Potato Salad

By looking at this picture, I’m sure you realize this is not your typical drowned in mayo potato salad that notoriously shows up at a summer barbecue or someone brings to a party. I hate mayo – absolutely hate it. 

So that being said, you will never see any of that on here!

This particular salad is usually served cold, but that doesn't mean that you can’t heat it up in the pan and serve it as breakfast potatoes. It’s super versatile! I've even been caught throwing it on naan bread with some roasted veggies and smothering it with cheese (of which I highly suggest you do).

Anyway, as you compile this recipe and mix it together, you will notice that the natural starches from the potato will break off from the main cube and act as a binder for the salad. I also chose to leave the skin on for this application. The skin of the potato is full of additional nutrients and if you wash it properly, it’s tasty – not dirty.

Ingredients:

8 Yukon gold potatoes

6 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 medium onion (diced small)

1 stalk celery (diced small)

1/2 green pepper (diced small)

½ pickled Anaheim pepper

Juice and zest 1 lemon

¼ cup of chopped (chiffonade) parsley

1 tsp sweet smoked paprika

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

1. Put potatoes in a pot big enough that water will cover all the potatoes by at least an inch.
2. Salt the water to the point where it tastes close to the ocean.
3. Put the flame on high and bring to a boil.
4. Continue to boil until a fork can break apart the potatoes.
5. Remove potatoes and let them cool (you can do this the day/night before).
6. Dice potatoes and transfer into a mixing bowl.
7. Add remaining ingredients to a mixing bowl with potatoes.
8. Once incorporated, allow to sit for one hour, mixing occasionally.

Toasted CousCous and Wilted Kale

Happy National Kale Day!

I only thought it fit that given the name day that I do another kale recipe for you. I’ve been really into wilting fibrous greens into pastas or hot salads lately and I think it’s a great way to still enjoy the texture while not losing the green. This particular recipe is great served both cold and hot.

I know a lot of times if you braise kale or sauté it too long that it starts to turn dark on you. This also (in my opinion) allows for the bitterness to seep out and you really need to pay attention to the balance or it won’t taste light and fresh. The next few paragraphs explore how to use different varieties.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are quite a variety of kales out there and they all have a little something special about them. Familiarize yourself with what is available and start to explore!

I chose to use curly kale so I will explain why first. Your standard curly kale is going to be the toughest of your varieties and needs to be cooked or cut very thin to be able to eat it. It’s got very curly looking leaves (like curly parsley) and really has a fun texture when you wilt it down in this recipe. If you do wilt it down like we are here, I highly suggest ripping or cutting it into small pieces (half the size of a credit card) before wilting it. Keep in mind that the process of wilting will reduce the structure and size of the leaf so when you put it in doesn’t be alarmed if you suddenly think “I put way too much kale in this”. It will reduce down.

The next toughest would probably be the green or red Russian kale. I like using these in slaws or to make chips because they are pretty easy to cut compared to the curly. Furthermore, they still have a hearty texture so you can really let it marinade it a dressing for a few days and still have that great texture – but so much more flavor.

Lacinato kale is a lot more tender than the two previous varieties and can be cut large and thrown into salads. It’s a little sweeter and sometimes darker in color, which means higher nutrient content. It also strays away from the other varieties in its texture and shape. It’s got a very textured leaf, but it’s thinner and you can easily eat half of the stem raw. For this reason I like to use it in salads with fruits or some kind of sweet reduction dressing. I’d also suggest extra virgin olive oil or avocado seed oil because of their lightness.

Lastly we have Tuscan kale. Like Lacinato, it’s a lot thinner in its leaf spread and not as fibrous. I find that the local Tuscan kale to be very sweet for what I would usually classify as a “bitter-green.” This variety does not really hold up too well in a marinade, but great to toss into any quick sauté or sauce for a healthy addition. I’ve even put this on sandwiches/wraps and been quite pleased with the results.

Ok. Recipe time!

Toasted couscous and kale

Ingredients:

2 cups couscous

4 cups water or stock (unsalted preferred)

2 cups kale (ripped or cut)

1 medium onion (small dice) 

1 Poblano pepper (small dice)

1 garlic clove (sliced thin)

2 tsp smoked sweet paprika

½ tsp cinnamon

Juice and zest one lime

1/8 cup chopped parsley

1/8 cup chopped basil

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Sautee pan

Medium or large pot

Directions

1. Put both the pot and pan on the stove on medium heat
2. Once they start to heat up, put the couscous in the pan and allow to slowly toast (toss at least once a minute)
3. Then put some olive oil in the pan (enough to almost cover the bottom with a very thin coating) about 2 Tablespoons
4. Add your pepper, onion, and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. Stir occasionally.
5. Once onions are clear, add your spices and stir until incorporated.
6. By this time you should have been stirring/tossing the couscous and it should have some browning on the edges and some may even look slightly burnt. It’s ready now!
7. Put your couscous in the pot with the veggies and stir until incorporated and the couscous is coated in the oil. 
8. Once coated, add water and allow cooking until tender and all the water is gone (approx. 20-30 min). You may want to reduce to a med/low heat at this point if it is cooking too fast for you.  You can stir it here and there, but generally speaking: you should try and avoid it since it will disrupt the starch and you’ll wind up with a risotto style couscous.
9. Once cooked; add your lime zest and juice, ripped kale, and herbs.
10. Stir until kale wilts down to about half its size. You’ll tell it’s done because it will have a darker green color than before and be a lot smaller. Once it stops shrinking, that’s when it’s ready to be served!

Corn and Peach Salsa with Pickled Jalapenos and Onions

Doing a lot of grilling this summer? Totally, me too! So I’ve found that after making a meal, I usually have some grilled corn left over. I’ve been throwing it omelets or just eating it cold. Needless to say, I’ve gotten bored with it quite quickly.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been hitting the pickling scene pretty hard lately. So, for this post I decided to take two previous pickled items and combine them into an easily assembled salsa. You can also use (lemon vin) to make it a salad, or heat ingredients in sauce pot with some butter to make it a hot dish. Either way, the spicy-sweet-salty combo is a killer side dish, substitute for sauce, dip for chips… or serve it shooter-style like the picture below.

Make it Mexican: Add 2 tsp cumin, substitute lemon with lime, substitute chive with cilantro, add more jalapenos or other hot peppers (I would suggest Anaheim).

Corn and Peach Salsa with Pickled Jalapenos and Onions

Ingredients:

6 ears of grilled corn (cut off the cob)

3 ripe peaches (diced around the same size as the kernels of corn for a salsa, larger for a salad)

½ cup Pickled Red Onion

¼ cup Sweet-Pickled Jalapenos (chopped)

2 Tablespoons Chives (chopped)

Juice and zest 1 lemon

1 Tablespoon olive (or corn) oil

“Makes Everything Awesome” seasoning to taste

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients into mixing bowl. Mix until incorporated.
2. Season to taste with salt and pepper, or “makes everything awesome” seasoning.
3. Serve hot, chilled, or room temp.