Swiss Chard and Cauliflower Soup

So, my dad planted a lot of Swiss chard in the garden and I get really sick of Swiss chard, steamed, so I decided to make a soup out of it to make it more interesting. So, here is what I came up with:

Swiss Chard and Cauliflower Soup

1 head Cauliflower, chopped

2 bunches Swiss Chard, chopped (about 8 cups)

4 stalks Celery

Cook cauliflower, celery, and Swiss chard in about 3 quarts water. 

Add:

3 bay leaves

2 cubes chicken bullion

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sage

*At this point, it was tasting a little bitter, so I decided to add some basil and mustard to sweeten it up.

1 tsp. basil

2 tsp. dry mustard

*Then, just to give it a little more complex flavor,

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. pepper

This soup turned out absolutely delicious. It was even more delicious served with a little lemon juice squeezed on top. 

Serves 6-8.

Enjoy.

Basic Pinto Beans

Is there a food that you feel just nourishes your body? Maybe it's apples, or lettuce, or carrots. I have one: it is beans. When I eat them, I can just feel like every cell in my body soaking them up and saying, "thank you."

Why is my body so grateful when I feed it beans? It could be because of the high amount of fiber in a serving of beans.

Most of us don't get enough fiber in our food. According to Nutritionist Kathleen M. Zelman, "The average adult eats only 15 grams of fiber per day," and "Women need 25 grams per day and men should get 38 grams per day." (www.webmd.com, "Fiber: How Much Do You Need?" 28 Aug 2013)

One cup of pinto beans contains about 12 grams of fiber. That's almost half of the fiber needed for women and almost a third of what is needed for men. Good news, right?

So, let's get started and make some delicious beans that will not only taste good, but nourish our bodies as well.

Basic Pinto Beans
(Serves 8)

1 pound (or about 2 cups) Dry Pinto Beans
3 quarts Water (approximately)
2 Onions
4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
1 tsp. Chili Powder
1 tsp. Sage
1 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp Spanish Paprika
1/2 tsp. Thyme

The easiest way to cook beans is in a crock pot. You can either soak the beans overnight, rinse them, stick them in the crock pot and cover with water, or simply rinse them, stick them in the crock pot, and cover with water. Cooking times will vary depending on the heat of your crock pot, but plan on about 4 hours for soaked beans and about 6 hours for un-soaked beans. The good thing is, if you have plenty of water in the crock pot, you can leave them in a couple hours longer with no harm. If you don't have a crock pot, you can cook the beans in a covered pot on the stove. You just have to watch them closely to make sure they don't burn. Using this method, they will cook a lot faster. (2-3 hours.)

Now that you've got your beans cooked, it's time to spice them up. Place the cooked beans in a pot on the stove with remaining, unabsorbed water. Cook on medium heat as you add the other ingredients.

Dice the onions and add them to the beans.

Add the salt, crushed red pepper, chili powder, sage, cumin, paprika, and thyme, a little at a time, tasting as you go, following the guidelines in "The Art of Spicing" on this page. Measurements are approximate. How much spice you put in depends on how spicy you want your beans.

You can keep a lot of water in the beans and serve them as a bean soup. Or, you can let most of the water evaporate and serve them as a side dish. Or, you can mash or blend them and serve as refried beans.

Side note: I always like to make the beans a day in advance. After a day of letting the flavors blend, the beans always taste better.

The Art of Spicing

I still remember the day when I started to learn how to use spices. I was about ten years old and there was very little food in the house with no money to buy more until the next paycheck. My aunt came over and asked if I would like to help her make a soup. She found a dry soup mix in the cupboard (I think it consisted of lentils, rice, and alphabet noodles), then added whatever she could find in the fridge. A carrot, an onion, a little celery here, a little parsley there. Whatever there was, and added it to the soup. Then she began adding spices a little bit at a time, one at a time, tasting the soup every time she added a new spice. When we both agreed that the soup was deliciously spiced to perfection, we served the soup to the family for dinner and called it "clean the cupboard" soup. 

This experience taught me that I can be resourceful and come up with a meal from whatever's in the cupboard, and it can be something delicious if I know how to use spices. Over the years, I have made a lot of such "clean the cupboard" soups and fed them to my family. I always get compliments on how deliciously the soup is spiced. 

There is an old English folk song called "Scarborough Fair" which starts out,

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

You may have heard it, as there is a version by Simon and Garfunkel, recorded in 1966. 

If you want to think about basic spices, that song is a pretty good place to start. To spice up a soup, you can always start with a little parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. I don't know why, but those spices together make a delicious combination. To those four basic spices, I would add three things: basil, garlic, and salt. 

And there you have it. Everything you need to turn a pot of vegetables into a delicious soup. Of course, there are other things you can add, which I will write about further on, but those are the basics. 

Just remember the wise advice of my aunt when she was teaching me to spice soup that first time. "You can always put it, but you can never take out." So, add the spices a little bit at a time, tasting as you go, and you'll come up with a delicious soup.

Have fun, and enjoy. 

Zucchini and Sausage Pie

I remember, as a child, that my mom always made zucchini in the same way: fried in a pan with onions with parmesan cheese on the top. Although this is a good, simple vegetable dish, summer is always full of more zucchini than one knows what to do with, and I always tired of this dish long before the zucchini ran out. Little did I know, there are a lot of delicious ways to prepare zucchini to enjoy a variety of zucchini dishes all summer long. The key is mixing it with a lot of other ingredients so that your mouth is bursting with a variety of flavors. Yesterday I experimented with this and here is what I came up with:

Zucchini and Sausage Pie

1/4 pound Sausage

2 Onions, diced

1 Green Pepper, diced

3 Carrots, grated

8 Small Zucchinis, sliced

2 Tbsp. Oil

1 tsp. Salt

2 Tbsp. Basil

1/8 pound Cheese, sliced or grated

1) Dice the onions and the green pepper and fry with sausage. Set aside. 

2) Grate the carrots. Slice the zucchini into four parts longways and into two-inch chunks crossways. Fry the zucchini and carrots in the oil. (If it's really dry or sticking, you can add a little bit of water, but be careful not to add too much, as zucchini contains a lot of water which is released when it is almost tender.) Add the salt and Basil. 

3) Mix the onions, green pepper, sausage, carrots, and zucchini together and pour in baking dish. Top with sliced or grated cheese of your choice. 

4) Bake in oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until cheese melts. (About 15 minutes.)

Cool slightly and enjoy. Serves 6. 

Great when served with baked or mashed potatoes.