Summer Corn and Potato Chowder
This is the perfect way to use fresh summer corn. It is creamy, sweet and delicious. This chowder is full of corn, veggies and fresh herbs.
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Tag: soup
Vegan Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
Vegan Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
The last few weeks have been so crazy for my family. After looking for full time work for over a year, my husband was finally blessed with a great job in Asheville (where I have really wanted to live). The same week I found a part time job and we moved. It has all happened so fast that it hard to believe. We are so blessed and grateful! I haven’t really had much time for cooking lately and unfortunately we have had to eat out a lot, but now I am getting back in the kitchen.
Split Pea Soup
Split pea is one of my families favorite soup. It also happens to be really easy to make and really inexpensive. Split peas are only about $1.00 per bag. I usually double the recipe so I have lots of leftovers for lunch the next day. You can leave the soup chunky or blend it to make it creamy. This soup can also be made in the crock pot. Just throw in all the ingredients and let it cook on low all day.
Split Pea Soup
1 lb bag of split peas washed
2 TBSP olive oil or canola oil
1 medium diced diced
2 large carrots diced
2 stalks of celery diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
6 cups of vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
For a smokey flavor: 1/2 tsp liquid smoke or chipolte tabasco to taste (optional)
Stove top method: Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic to the pot and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in all the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup for 45 minutes -1 hour. Remove from the heat and blend for a smooth and creamy soup or leave chunky.
Crock pot method: Add all the ingredients to the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup
The kids the call this monster soup because of the green color the broccoli gives it. The cauliflower makes this soup very creamy and potatoes give it some richness. It is a great way to get lots of veggies in kids without them realizing it. This recipe makes a really big pot of soup, but you can always freeze the leftovers or have it for a quick lunch during the week.
Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup
2 TBSP olive oil
1 large onion diced
1 head of cauliflower cut into florets
1 head of broccoli cut into florets (you could also use frozen)
2 large potatoes peeled and diced
8 cups of vegetable broth
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup plain soy milk
Heat the oil in a large pot and add in the onion. Sauté the onion for about 5 minutes. Add in the broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes. Cook for a few more minutes and then add in the broth, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 30 minutes until all the veggies are very tender. Stir in the yeast and cook another couple of minutes then remove it from the heat. Blend the soup using an immersion blender or in small batches in a standing blender. Once the soup is blended stir in the soy milk (do not let the soup boil once the milk is in).
Potato Leek Soup
My daughter is in the process of getting braces, so we have been making a lot of soup lately and I am trying to come up with some new recipes. This potato leek soup is smooth, creamy and decadent. No one will ever believe that it is made with cashew cream instead of heavy cream. Just make sure that you wash your leeks really well or your soup will be gritty because leeks hold a lot of dirt in their layers. To clean my leeks, I cut them in half longways and slice them (you just want the tender white part of the leeks, so cut off the tough green ends). Then I put them in a large bowl of water and swish them around to get all the dirt out of the rings. The dirt should sink to the bottom of the bowl so you can scoop the clean leeks off the top of the water. To make this soup even more rich you can top it with tempeh fakin bacon.
Potato Leek Soup
1 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups water
2 TBSP olive oil
2 large leeks cleaned and sliced
3 large baking potatoes peeled and diced
6 cups vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Soak the cashews in the water for at least and hour then blend until creamy and thick.
In a large pot heat the oil. Add in the leeks and cook for about 5 minutes. Add in the potatoes and cook 5 more minutes. Add in the broth, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes until the potatoes and very tender. Turn off the heat and remove the bay leaves from the soup. Blend the soup until it is creamy and then stir in the cashew cream.
White Bean and Kale Soup
My son’s 6th birthday was on Saturday, so we kind of overindulged this weekend. We had a lot of fun and a lot of good food, most of which was not really healthy. Today I am paying for it, so I wanted something to help get me back into balance. This soup is perfect for that. It is nice and light, but full of vitamins from the kale and protein from the beans. I used dried beans, but if you use canned beans this soup comes together in no time at all.
White Bean and Kale Soup
2 cans of white beans rinsed and drained or 1/2 pound of dried beans cooked
1 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion diced
2 carrots chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 clove of garlic finely diced
1/2 of a large bunch of kale, stems removed and cut into small pieces
5 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp herbs de provence
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for 10 minutes until the veggies are softened. Add in the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add in the stock, beans, kale, herbs, salt and pepper. Bring it up a gentle boil and then turn down the heat. Simmer the soup for 10 minutes.
Asheville, North Carolina
For our 9th Anniversary my husband and I spent a few days in Asheville. It is such a beautiful, cool city and super veggie friendly. There are so many restaurants in Asheville that are all vegetarian and even a few that are totally vegan. It is so great to be able to order almost anything on the menu instead of having limited choices. One of our Favorite restaurants is The Laughing Seed, which is where we had dinner. We also went to Rosetta’s Kitchen and had some not so healthy snacks, which included chili cheese fries. Breakfast was at the Green Sage where we had some really yummy fresh juice. Asheville is definitely a city worth visiting and is where I would love to live. I was so happy to have some time with my husband. The few years have been so stressful for our family and he has been my rock. I thank God for him everyday and for the way he leads our family. We have had some tough times lately, but we have made our marriage and our faith a priority and both have been strengthened.
Here are the pictures of what we ate:
Bloody Mary at The Laughing Seed
This was Mike’s dinner. It is brown rice risotto with mushrooms, sweet potatoes and tempeh.
This was my dinner. It is the Indian plate with vegetable curry, lentils and naan. It was so spicy and good!
Coconut Cream pie for dessert!
This is the Red Planet juice at the Green Sage where we had breakfast. It is beet, carrot, apple and ginger. After all the decadent food the night before this was just what I needed.
Minestrone Soup
I made this soup because my daughter loves it so much. She asks for it all of the time, which is great. It is super healthy and really cheap to make. It cost me less than $5 for the entire pot and there is usually enough for more than one meal. We ate it with homemade bread that had just come out of the oven. It was delicious!
Minestrone Soup
2 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion diced
2 stalks of celery sliced
2 carrots sliced
2 zucchini sliced
2 cups of green beans cut into 1 inch pieces
6 cups vegetable broth
2 TBSP tomato paste
1 14oz canned of diced tomatoes
2 TBSP Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 14 oz can of cannellini beans
1 cup small shaped whole wheat pasta
1/2 cup fresh basil chopped
Heat the oil in a large pot. Add all of the veggies and cook about 10 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, tomato paste and seasoning. Simmer for about 20 minutes then add the beans and pasta and simmer for 10 minutes more. Stir in the basil and serve.
Legends Dinner
Last night we had dinner at the Legend’s Country Club in Ft Myers, Fl. We had called ahead to see if the chef could make a vegan dinner for our family and they were very happy to work with us. The Chef made us the most delicious dinner. We had a acorn squash soup for a starter and vegetable purses for our main course, which were absolutly wonderful. For the purses he filled phyllo dough with squash, tomatoes and a great sauce. I think that should be on the menu all the time. For dessert we had raspberry sorbet. The whole dinner was so good and we were very grateful to the chef and the staff for the wonderful experience.
Florida
Yesterday we came down to Ft Myers, FL to visit family and help my Mom move. I am not sure how much cooking I will get to do in the next few weeks, but I hopefully be able to do a few posts. I also get to see my very best friend who has recently become vegetarian. I am so proud of her. She is a mother of 4 and a full time engineering student. Despite her super busy schedule she is trying to totally change her diet to improve her health and that of her family. She is such an inspiration to me.