Creamy Celery Soup

Promise you won't hold this against me. I'm a person who tends to get just a tad carried away with her hobbies. Like, I like reading cookbooks so I own 134 of them.   

I like technology so I own two iPads, an iMac, a MacBook, and an iPhone. 

I am somewhat obsessed with redheads too (I am one) but I try not to collect them. Generally. Anyway, I like to think my obsessions make me charming. Lovable. Interesting. 

Others in my family like to say I'm eccentric. Obsessed. Weird. (That was my five-year-old's choice of words. Later she told me I'm the best Mommy in the world. Go figure.) 

One hobby that I'm not apologizing for is my knife and pot collection. I love cooking, and I love for it to be comfortable. Sure, I could make do with a rusty old knife and a battered pot. But it's so much more fun to use a pretty Japanese knife. Or even my simple but fantastic paring knife. And of course, my Le Creuset pot. (Or, pictured above, almost as fantastic, my Lodge cast iron Dutch oven.)

Creamy Celery Soup
This recipe makes about six servings. It's a light soup, so I find we enjoy large servings. This is one of those soups that I prefer with water, rather than stock. It allows the subtle flavors of the celery and dill to shine. 

2 tablespoons oil 
1 onion, chopped
8-10 medium cloves garlic, chopped
5-6 cups chopped celery (from about 3 heads)
1 medium potato, peeled and chopped 
¼ cup chopped dill, plus a bit more for garnish
about 4 cups of water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
pepper to taste

In a large stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion for about five minutes, till soft. Add the garlic and celery and sauté for another five minutes or so till your kitchen is fragrant. 

Add the potato and dill, and mix well. 

Add about 4 cups of water, more or less, enough to JUST cover the vegetables. Add the salt and pepper, and bring to a boil over high heat. 

Lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. If possible, let the soup cool for ½ hour before transferring to a food processor or blender. (You can also use a stick blender if you prefer.) Puree till smooth. 

Reheat gently, adding water if the soup is too thick, and seasonings as needed. 

Serve hot, garnished with dill if desired. 

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Cream of FRESH Tomato Soup

Guilt. It's a mother's curse. My day started with guilt over making my son wait out for the bus on a cold, cold fall morning. 

Guilt over not wanting to drive him when the bus never showed up. Guilt over giving in - and then changing my mind - to his pleas to take a lazy day off. 

I moved onto guilt over not giving into my 5-year-old's begging and pleading for an adorable and pricey set of dolls. And then a bit of guilt over making a dinner main dish that two of my four kids wouldn't touch. 

And now - to top it off - I'm experiencing blogger's guilt. Guilt that I didn't photograph this soup while it was in the making. Guilt over depriving you of photos of that big beautiful cutting board spilling over with ripe, juicy tomatoes. 

I was harried. And hassled. And still feeling bad about our bad start to the day. Sorry, folks. To make up for it, here's an amazing recipe from the amazing Bountiful cookbook. It made my kids happy (they ALL LOVED IT! It was a miracle!) and I hope it'll make you happy. 

This is a new favorite, direct from the authors of the White on Rice food blog. 

Cream of FRESH Tomato Soup adapted just a bit from Bountiful

Yes, this requires fresh tomatoes. Preferably summer ones that are fresh and inexpensive. I bought 8 pounds of local tomatoes for $3.50 in the 'reduced' bin. They were perfectly ripe and quite a steal. Please don't use canned tomatoes or dried herbs for this recipe; wait till next summer if you missed the season. Note that this makes a LARGE batch, enough for about 10 small bowls. It's a heavy soup, so small bowls will probably do just fine for you. They did for us. (Although we did lick the bowls clean.) 

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 stalks celery, diced

1 small onion, chopped fine

8 lb tomatoes (I used a combination of beefsteak and plum), cut in chunks

1 cup vegetable stock 

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

3-4 tablespoons brown sugar (depends how sweet your tomatoes are)

1 to 1.5 tablespoons kosher salt (to taste)

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup milk

In a very large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion for a minute or two, then add the celery and sauté for another couple of minutes. 

Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, parsley and basil. Mix well and turn up to high till it comes to a boil. Turn down the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes (longer if your tomatoes were firm-ish). 

Turn off the heat and let the soup cool for about ½ hour if you can, so you are not working with dangerously hot soup. Transfer the soup in batches to a food processor or blender and puree till totally smooth. 

Return the soup to the pot and warm it gently over a medium-low flame. 

In a separate saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Ladle a bit of the hot soup into the roux. Stir to combine and then pour the entire mixture back into the tomato soup. Add the sugar, salt, cream and milk. Stir well and taste. Correct seasonings as needed. 

Serve warm. 

NOTE: Leftovers last for a few days in the fridge and also freeze REALLY well. 

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All-Out-Minestrone Soup

I have this theory I've been working out for years. Thanks for visiting and hearing me out. (Or for stopping by and skipping right to the recipe at the bottom of this page. Whichever.) 

Here goes: I think you can learn everything about people's personalities by observing them in the kitchen. Do they wash dishes as they go or accumulate an awful mess of pots, pans, knives, fingertips, and cutting boards by the time they are through with a recipe? Might tell you something about their ability to cope with real life challenges, and about how well they manage when the 'going gets crazy.'

Do they focus on one step of the recipe at a time and move in a linear, organized fashion? Or do they bounce around from step to step to get things done more quickly (sometimes)? Might tell you something about their ability to juggle responsibilities and deal with overwhelming workloads.

People who subscribe to the mise-en-place method are usually organized but maybe a little boring.

People who follow recipes to a 't' are cautious and conservative.

People who wash dishes as they go are capable but maybe just a little obsessive.

So what about you? What's your personality in the kitchen? Do you think it relates to your personality in real life? What do you think of my theory?

All-Out Minestrone Soup
This is an all-out soup because it calls for fine ingredients, and takes just a little more effort than your ordinary vegetable soup. But it's so very worth it. Not that I know very much about Italy, but I promise your kitchen will smell like Italy if you follow this recipe.

½ lb. of your favorite dried beans (get fancy and use these, or another Rancho Gordo favorite)
2 tablespoons of your very best olive oil
3 large leeks, cleaned well and chopped
1 teaspoons dried oregano, or about a tablespoon fresh oregano minced
4 medium cloves garlic, peeled and chopped coarse
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalks celery, peeled and sliced
2 summer squash, peeled and cut in 1-inch chunks
2 teaspoons salt
dash black pepper
1 cup awesome red wine (something you would drink, and drink, and drink)
2 teaspoons tomato paste
2-3 cups vegetable stock
Cooked small pasta shapes like acini di pepe or ditalini (optional)
Fresh parsley and parmesan for garnish

First, soak your beans in a large pot. You can use a quick-soak or overnight soak method. Cook them up until done but still quite firm. (It's ok if they're just a tiny bit raw in the center.) DO NOT discard the cooking water. Just let the beans rest in their liquid. They call it bean liquor for a reason.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Sauté the leeks in olive oil for about 5 minutes, on medium heat, till they are soft and fragrant.

Add the oregano and garlic to the leeks. Sauté for another 5 minutes or so, till your kitchen is smelling just a bit like Italy.

Add the carrots, celery and squash. Mix well and sauté for about 10 minutes more, stirring a couple of times.

Add the salt, pepper, fantastic wine, and tomato paste. Mix well and then cover the pan with a lid. (Keep the heat on medium.) Let this cook for 15 minutes, resisting the urge to lift the lid and stir. At this point, your house will smell like a wonderful combination of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and herbs. Resist the urge to imbibe it like a strange person.

Now, pour the vegetables into the beans. Add enough vegetable stock to generously cover the vegetables with liquid. You'll need 2-4 cups, depending how liquid-y your beans are.

Simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes.

If desired, spoon some cooked noodles into your bowls. Then ladle in the soup, and garnish with parsley and parmesan.

Bon appétit!

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Lemony Summer Squash Bean Soup

I know there's never a good time to get sick. But it's especially un-just when it happens on the weekend. Timed just perfectly with my days off, my only days to chill and catch some time for myself. 

Don't get me wrong. My family came through for me 100%. The kids pitched in with babysitting and cleanup. My husband ordered dinner. But it pained me to sleep through the weekend. All of my plans for catching up on reading, cooking, and shopping went by the wayside. It was lousy. 

I'm feeling a little better now, and aside from my wonderful family, I also have this soup to thank. It was nourishing and filling. Warm and satisfying. Just the thing for my burning throat and cranky body. 

Lemony Summer Squash Bean Soup 
This soup serves 6-8. It reheats well, and will last in the fridge for a few days. The beans need to be cooked before you start. For best results, use dried beans, soaked overnight and cooked till tender. 

½ lb. dried small white beans (I used these.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon thyme
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium-large yellow summer squashes, scrubbed but not peeled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3-4 cups water or vegetable stock (make your own if you like)
1 lemon 

Put the beans in a large pot and cover with water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Turn off the heat and let the beans sit, covered, for an hour. 

Meanwhile, warm the olive oil over medium heat, in a large frying pan. Add the onion and thyme, and sauté for about 10 minutes, until softened. 

Add the garlic and squash and cook for another 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, till the squash is warmed through but still firm. 

Cook the beans, in their soaking water, for about 60-90 minutes, depending on the age of the beans. (Taste the beans to make sure they are done and that the texture is just right.) Don't drain them! That liquid is TASTY (and good for you!). 

Pour the vegetables and salt into the beans. Add enough water or vegetable stock to cover the vegetables - you'll need 3-4 cups, more or less, depending how thick you like it and how much liquid is left with your beans.

Cook for about 20 minutes, just to heat the vegetables through. You want them to retain their color and firmness. 

Turn off the flame and squeeze the lemon into the soup. (Use a strainer if you want to avoid pits.) Stir well. 

Taste and correct seasoning, if needed. Serve right away.  

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Red Lentil Soup with Mint and Beet Greens

Today was One of Those Days. I worked in a frenzy all day, trying to meet deadlines and trying not to look out the window at the Beautiful Weather.

Then when work let out, I took my two-year-old for a walk around the lake. I completely misjudged both the temperature (it was Hot) and my daughter's ability to sit in the carriage for any length of time so I can get in some brisk walking (she can't).

By the time I reached the end of our just-barely-45 minute walk, toting my 30 pound baby in one arm and pushing a stroller with the other, I was hot and cranky. That was when we passed a female jogger. I'm all for staying cool in the summer, but there do have to be some boundaries. She was wearing Very Little. My daughter said it better than I could have (and certainly louder too): "Mommy. Naked lady!"

The point is, I needed some therapy this evening. For me, therapy arrived in the form of a CSA basket loaded with beets and greens.

As soon as I got my very tactful baby into bed, I set right to work scrubbing, soaking, roasting, chopping. Am I the only one who finds gritty beets (with their greens still attached!!) beautiful? Am I the only one who finds chopping and cleaning greens therapeutic?

This soup was a combination of lots of wonderful fresh ingredients that I've been wanting to put to use. The beet greens, of course, but also a lovely Vidalia onion and some super pretty red lentils I bought last week.

And a few sprigs of the abundant mint I have growing on my patio.

It was fresh and exquisitely flavored. Paired with a whole wheat pita bread, it made a satisfying dinner. I think I'm on the road to recovery.


Red Lentil Soup with Mint and Beet Greens
Serves 4


1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
a dozen or so mint leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coriander
beet greens, removed from one bunch of beets (use the beets for something else), cleaned and sliced
1 small tomato, chopped
1 cup red lentils
1/3 cup bulgur wheat
1 egg, lightly beaten
extra mint, for garnish, optional

Heat the oil in a medium soup pot. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes, till translucent. Add the garlic and celery and cook for a few minutes longer, stirring frequently.

Now, add the mint, salt, and coriander. Mix well and cook for another minute or two.

Add the beet greens and cook for a few minutes till they are softened and heated through.

Add the lentils, bulgur and about 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a very gentle simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes, adding water as needed if it seems too thick.

After the 1/2 hour of cooking, add the tomato and cook for about 10 minutes longer.

Immediately before serving, whisk in the egg. Serve, garnished with mint if desired.

Linking this up to Wander Food Wednesday, Let's do Brunch, Real Food Wednesday, Yummy Mummy, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Pennywise Platter Thursday and Fit and Fabulous Fridays.  

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Every-week Frugal Vegetable Stock

I have a not-so-glamorous secret. I save my vegetable scraps. Carrot peels. Onion skins. Apple cores. Soft tomatoes. Even peach and plum pits.

I keep a big scary looking ziploc bag in my freezer. Every time I have some vegetable (or fruit) scraps, I toss them in.

By the end of the week, the bag is usually bulging with scraps. That means it's time to make stock.

I dump all those nasty scraps in a colander. I turn on the hot water and rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse.

Then I dump it all in a pot, add some bay leaves, dried mushrooms, kombu seaweed or dry wine if I have some handy, and cook it up for a couple of hours.

When it's cooked through and through, I pull out the colander and drain it, discarding the veggie scraps and saving all that nutritious stock.

And I've got healthy, flavorful stock for whatever soup I want to make!

Do you make stock? What's your secret?


Linking this up to Weekend Bloggy Reading.

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Creamy Zucchini Soup

What is up with this weather? We should be grilling chicken for dinner, blending up cool smoothies for dessert, and serving refreshing chilled fruit soups. Hot soup when it's almost June? It's unseemly.

But there you have it. Yes, Memorial Day is around the corner. Yes, the winter clothes have been packed up and boxed off to the attic. But the weather here today in New Jersey was cool and dreary.

A completely inappropriate un-spring-like kind of day. The kind of day that calls for soup. Creamy satisfying soup.

This one hit the spot.

Creamy Zucchini Soup
Please use chicken stock if you can. I make chicken soup every weekend and try to set some aside for a creamy soup like this one. If you're a vegetarian, vegetable stock is a good substitute, but water just won't do for this soup. 


1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, chopped coarsely
3 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped coarsely
4 green zucchini, peeled (unless you don't mind green-flecked soup) and chopped coarsely
1 potato, peeled and chopped coarsely
4 cups chicken stock
Basil, optional, for garnish

Heat the oil in a medium soup pot. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes till golden. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or two longer before adding the remaining vegetables.  Cook for another few minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes till all the vegetables are cooked through.

Use an immersion blender (if you don't have one, get one or two) to puree the soup till totally smooth.

Serve hot, garnished with basil if desired.

Linking this up to Real Food Wednesday and Pennywise Platter Thursday. 

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Curried Cauliflower Soup (and Eat. Live. Be. WEEK 10)

One of the reasons I prefer cooking to baking, aside from the fact that I can usually eat my creations without any guilt, is that there's room for creativity and innovation. Improvise when you're baking, and the results could be catastrophic. But cooking is easy to ad lib as long as you have some common sense and a decent set of taste buds. 

I'm proud of this soup because I thought it up myself, and the flavors really work well together. Cauliflower and curry are a classic combination, but the addition of cheddar really put this over the top. I'm also proud of this soup because it reflects my healthy eating goals. It's light, made of 100% natural ingredients, and showcases fresh vegetables and spices. Natural eating at its finest. 

This week on "Eat. Live. Be," we're talking about recommended reading - books and resources we rely on for inspiration. Ironically because I am the one who suggested this topic, as I thought about the resources I rely on, I realized that for me, healthy eating is not so much about a particular style of cooking or set of cookbooks. I go through phases where I'll eat nothing but a particular cookbook author's style food. A few weeks ago it was Mollie Katzen, now I'm on to Dorie Greenspan, and soon when the weather gets nice it'll be Bobbie Flay.  

For me, the key to healthy eating is getting in the kitchen and cooking! I rely on almost nothing ready-made. I buy fresh produce and whole grains, and I prepare my own salads, soups and breads. They taste good, have nothing added, and are good for me and my family. 

Now that I've rambled for too long, I will share my current list of favorites. Please share yours too! What cookbooks or resources do you look for healthy eating inspiration? Here are my favorites: 

• Food Rules: An Eater's Manual: If you don't own it, buy it (for under $10). Read a page a day. It'll change the way you think about food. 
• The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: a great compendium of the most important foods to include in your diet. (I also recommend the companion cookbook, The Healthiest Meals on Earth.)  
• Healthy eating cookbooks: I have a ba-zillion of them, but here are my current top picks: Moosewood Cookbook, Enchanted Brocolli Forest, Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and The Art of Simple Food. 
• Vegetarian Times: This magazine is great, even though I'm not a vegetarian. It has healthy eating tips and recipes for any healthy eating lifestyle. 

And finally, the recipe. 

Curried Cauliflower Soup

I make almost all of my soups with vegetable stock, but this one works really well with water. The spices are so intense that you don't need the richness of stock. 

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon ground coriander

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 16-oz. bag frozen cauliflower, defrosted

1 potato (I used Idaho), peeled and cubed

Shredded cheddar cheese, for garnish (use orange cheddar for color, if possible)

In a medium pot, heat the oil and then saute the onion for a few minutes, till softening. Add the garlic, celery, carrot, salt and spices. Saute for about 5 minutes, mixing frequently, until the vegetables are soft and letting off wonderful aromas. 

Add the cauliflower and potato to the pot. Add enough water to cover the vegetables.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes and then puree with an immersion blender. 

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with cheddar.  

Here's a list of other bloggers participating in the Eat. Live. Be. Challenge: Sarah, Cate, Maris, Chris, Faith, Kristen, Emily, Jenna, Joanne, Casey, Patsy, Tri-Fit Mom, Claire, Allison, Jen and Leslie.

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