Category: Vegetarian/Vegan

Moroccan Chickpea & Tomato Soup

11/27/2014

Day 27 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

I made just enough of this soup yesterday for myself. One big bowl, just for the photo below. I had no plans to share -- I mean, considering the fact that this is day 27 in a row that we've had soup in this house, it's not like there aren't SIX different soups in the fridge at this very moment.

But which soup did kid #3 really beg for? I mean, REALLY beg for? Was he happy with the other SIX kinds I offered him? No. He smelled my Moroccan Chickpea & Tomato Soup, and, with his huge, 16-year-old "Mom, how can you say no?" eyes, managed to get the entire bowl from me.

So here it is, apparently kid #3's favorite soup of the month, so far. If keeping this recipe vegan isn't important to you, it's also great with an added cup of cooked/shredded chicken or lamb, and chicken stock in place of the vegetable stock.

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Black Bean Soup

11/25/2014

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Day 25 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

Black bean soup recipes are a dime a dozen -- but the added fresh chilis in this one make it special.

Any fresh chili will do; we have poblano peppers exploding in the backyard (did you know that if you forget to pick them, even poblano's will eventually turn red? Me neither...) so that's what I used today.

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Turkey Corn Chowder with Herb Dumplings

11/24/2014

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Day 24 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...home stretch!

This title is a bit misleading -- when most people think of chowder, they think of creamy, fat-laden and sometimes goopy stuff, not suitable for everyday eating but maybe, just maybe, an occasional indulgence.

But not this one. With less than 300 calories per serving, and zero cream, this is an everyday staple, perfect for the last day of a camping trip when you have various small bits of this and that leftover. While the recipe calls for specific vegetables, feel free to substitute whatever you have on hand. I hate carrots and green beans, so they're absent from this soup -- but if you've got 'em, use 'em.

This soup can also be easily altered for vegetarian diners by replacing the turkey with tofu and the turkey stock with vegetable stock. Almond milk or soy milk may be used instead of the regular milk, and the butter may be tossed in favor of vegetable oil. The parmesan may also be omitted -- just add a bit more flour to compensate, or your dumplings will be especially sticky.

If you don't hike or camp with fresh herbs, substitute 1 T dried herbs for the 1/4 cup fresh ones in the dumplings.

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Pesto Antipasto Soup

11/23/2014

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Day 23 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

This one is a little odd, but it's a perfect way to serve antipasto on a camping trip if you don't want to mess with cheese, crackers, and meats. Only the stock requires refrigeration, so if you freeze it before leaving, you won't have to worry about it at all. You can also skip the immersion blender step, if you'd rather make this entire thing at your campsite.

Be sure to rinse the olives and peppers before adding them to the pot, though -- our first crack at this recipe was a total failure because it tasted like vinegar and nothing else! Rinsed, though, this soup takes on a rich, Italian flavor, perfect for a first course either at home or in the woods.

We have mutant basil plants growing in the yard, so every fall we make a year's worth of pesto concentrate (which is homemade pesto, with a fraction of the oil). We freeze it into logs, and then slice off as much as we need. When adding it to recipes, I don't add extra oil; but if using it as a stand-alone pesto sauce, I'll mix equal parts pesto base and olive oil. Feel free to use jarred pesto sauce in this recipe, but try to squeeze out as much excess olive oil as possible...you could even use that oil to saute the onions.

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Wild Mushroom Soup

11/21/2014

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Day 22 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

We don't do cream-of-anything soup here. I'm sure it's because when I was a kid, my mom used to make this dish she called "Chicken Spaghetti," which everyone else in the family loved, but even now just the memory of the smell of it cooking makes me throw up a little.

It consisted of cooked chicken, a few cans of cream-of-something-unidentifyable soup, curry powder, cooked spaghetti, and slices of velveeta cheese on top that, rather than melt, turned black under the broiler. Maybe some canned chilis, too -- I don't remember. I never ate it.

Anyway, I still remember the sound that an emptying can of cream-of-garbage soup makes, thanks to this dish. Scarred for life, I am.

So this soup is NOT cream of mushroom. It tastes like it might have cream in it, but it doesn't. The last thing I want to do on a camping trip is worry excessively about keeping my cream cold enough, so we don't even go there.

The creaminess is due to a little trick I discovered -- gently sauteed chopped onions and cauliflower, when blended thoroughly with an immersion blender and a little stock, creates a wonderfully creamy texture, nearly equal to any cream-based soup I've tasted. Of course this little substitution doesn't work when you're making something like pumpkin pie, but try it out the next time your savory recipe calls for cream.

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Roasted Red Pepper Soup

11/20/2014

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Day 21 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

This is another favorite around here, especially considering the ridiculous crop of red peppers that grew in the garden this summer (and frankly won't stop growing. Did we get tomatoes this year? Hardly. Are the red peppers so abundant that I have to wonder if the neighbor's satellite dish is creating some sort of concentrated radioactivity, aimed right at the pepper bed? Definitely.)

As with all my other camping soups, this one requires only one pot over one burner, though you may want to roast your peppers over that burner first. Otherwise, they may be roasted at home in the oven (500 degree broiler, spray with olive oil, turn them every couple of minutes until charred), or over a flame (using tongs, roast them until bubbly and charred, turning regularly). When you're finished, it's best to peel and seed them right away, as soon as you can safely touch them -- waiting too long makes peeling more difficult. HOWEVER, if you're going to make this entire soup at your campsite, skip the peeling and just pull out the seeds.

It's best to make this at home, so you can use an immersion blender to create the smooth texture we love. If you'd rather do this at your campsite, the texture will be chunky, but the taste is still quite wonderful. Take along a few extra roasted peppers, as they're excellent dipped in the soup and eaten on their own.

This is a vegan dish to boot -- but feel free to substitute chicken or turkey stock for the vegetable stock, if keeping the recipe vegan is not important to you.

(And pardon the lousy photo...it's finally raining here so we have no natural lighting inside, too much water outside!)

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Curried Golden Lentil Soup

11/17/2014

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Day 17 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

Whew. Barely made it in time with this one...

Of all the soups I've posted so far this month, this one is definitely kid #3's favorite. In fact, to be honest, no one else in the family even got to eat this soup today -- he scarfed it all. ALL. THE WHOLE THING.

This is a terrific take on your standard (but by no means boring) Indian dal recipe, in soup form. I overcook the lentils on purpose, giving the soup a very luscious, smooth texture. If you prefer your lentil soup a bit chunkier, just hold on another week 'til I post my French Lentil Soup, which is hearty, chewy, and full of texture.

And the greens in the photo? Those are baby cilantro sprigs from our greenhouse, NOT fennel! Aren't they adorable?! We've never been able to grow cilantro well here, but this year it's absolutely going bonkers in the greenhouse and the taste is amazing (ok, disclosure time: although I love to say, "We have a greenhouse," [hear it in a highbrow British accent] in reality it's a tiny little metal and plastic thing that one person can barely stand in...but it does the job, and this fall I'm loving all the herbs coming out of it. And the best part? So far I haven't killed anything, so that's a step in the right direction).

If making this for a camping trip, the entire recipe may be done on-site; however, I find it easier to cook the lentils and vegetables at home to save on stove fuel. Seal cooked and pureed vegetables, freeze, and finish the rest of the soup at your campsite.

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Camping French Onion Soup

11/14/2014

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Day 14 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

We love good French onion soup here. We also love camping. Unfortunately, the very best part about this particular soup is the crouton and melted cheese on top, something that has been pretty impossible to make work while camping.

Until now. I thought of this a couple summers ago when cooking for a closing work party crew at the end of camp; the goal is to create as gourmet a dinner as possible using up leftover food without having to purchase anything additional, and that particular summer included about 15 pounds of extra grated cheese. We made about 200 herbed frico (basically, just a piece of fried cheese) and topped them with all sorts of things as part of a rather large wine and hors d'oeuvres hour spread (yes, we may be dirty mountain women, but we eat and drink very, very well). Seeing about 50 frico cooking at once on the huge, vintage camp griddle was quite a sight, and I realized that this little food gem is way underutilized yet so easy to make in the backcountry.

If you make this while camping, feel free to cook the onions at home first to save on stove fuel. At your campsite, reheat the onions with a little sherry before adding the garlic, and the rest of the recipe may be done easily over a camp stove.

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Curry Scented Butternut Squash Soup

11/12/2014

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Day 12 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

Everywhere you look these days there are recipes for butternut squash soup. I wasn't going to jump into this pool, but with several butternuts currently sitting on my kitchen counter, I figured I really don't have much of a choice at this point.

This soup differs from the usual Pinterest plethora, though -- the curry, ginger, and chili powder give it a nice warmth that helps to cut through the gooey sweetness I usually associate with butternut squash soup (which is why I never order it at a restaurant). Plus this is a vegan recipe, void of all cream, making it healthier and definitely cheaper than its cream-laden alternatives.

This soup holds up well in the freezer, and can be made at home, vacuum sealed, frozen, and taken camping -- just reheat the bag in simmering water, cut open, and you're finished.

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Hot & Sour Soup for Backpackers (aka Top Ramen Hack #1)

11/10/2014

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Day 10 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, Top Ramen sort of folks here. Even my college boys don't like it and instead prefer miso and soba noodles, which requires basically the same amount of brain power and energy output as Top Ramen but with significantly better and undeniably healthier results.

Then the other night I heard my husband laughing in the office. Like, really laughing. Turns out he'd stumbled upon this YouTube sensation, Auntie Fee, cooking Top Ramen for ten people.

I hesitate to include this link, because it certainly divides people into two categories: those with a sense of humor who can see the absurdity in this, and those who will never read this blog again. If it makes you feel any better, this woman is nowhere near as poor as she seems in this older video (as you can see in the appliances and background home in later cooking tutorials she's posted), and has now appeared on practically every network station, late night talk show, and cable channel.

If you're too uptight for a few f-bombs, don't watch this. I suggest all my camp friends watch this with the express intent of imagining what the kitchen would be like at camp with Auntie Fee as head cook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnIMCpevwTs

Back to my post, for anyone who's still willing to keep reading after watching that video.

So while we've never packed with Top Ramen, I do know many backpackers who swear by it and who don't mind the (bland, boring, nasty, etc.) taste because it's so light and so cheap. Fine, I understand.

But with just a few tiny additions, all ridiculously light and easy, you can have what just might be the very best hot and sour soup ever -- it certainly trumps our favorite standby Ken Hom hot and sour soup recipe that we've been using at home since the early 80's.