Creamy Butternut Squash Soup 2 - Marcella

Super easy!

It's amazing how little effort goes into this simple soup...it has such a rich flavor. Almost like dessert in soup form.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

• 6 cups cubed butternut squash (peeled first)
• 5 cups water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 Tbsp mirin ("Asian" section, sweet rice cooking wine)

Add squash, water, and salt to a large pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low for 20 minutes

Lift out squash pieces with a slotted spoon and add to a blender along with the soymilk and a couple of cups of the squash cooking liquid. Blend til smooth. Add more cooking liquid if you'd like a thinner consistency.

Add the mirin (rice wine). Return soup to pot to reheat if necessary. If you want to get all fancy, garnish with a bright green sprig of something like parsley.

Minestrone - Marcella

Very quick and easy; eliminates any need to buy the canned variety. I usually make it without any pasta, but in this case I had a mini-box of kamut ditalini, so I used that.

Minestrone Soup

• cooking spray or 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used 1 Rapunzel cube dissolved in 4 cups water)
• 1 can low-sodium diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 can cannellini beans,WITH liquid
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• pepper

 In a medium pot, heat oil or cooking spray. Add onions and garlic and saute about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

I use the canning liquid from the cannellini beans in this case because it imparts some nice viscosity to the soup broth. This is also why there's no salt added.

Recipes - Marcella

Broccoli Cream Soup

• 4 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs broccoli
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Separate broccoli tops from stems and peel stems. Cut into chunks. Boil the water and salt, add stems and simmer 10 minutes. Add tops and cook an extra 10 minutes. Save the water.

With a slotted spoon, scoop broccoli into a blender and add all remaining ingredients but the lemon juice, plus a half a cup or so of the broccoli water. Blend, adding more water if necessary.

Return to pot (after dumping out the remaining broccoli water, of course) and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Done!

Tartar Sauce for Okara Crab Cakes

• 3 oz soft silken tofu, such as Mori-Nu brand
•  1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 Tbsp brown rice syrup or agave nectar
• 1 tsp umeboshi vinegar (in "Asian" section of grocery stores)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp minced dill pickles
• 1 Tbsp minced onions

 Add the first 5 ingredients to a blender and blend til smooth. Then, with the blender running, slowly add the olive oil and blend again til thick and creamy. Move to a bowl, add pickles and onions, and enjoy with your crab cakes or faux fish. Not something to eat in abundance, it's still a lot better than buying a jar of vegan mayonnaise, in my opinion.

A note on the crab cakes, I realized after posting that I neglected to mention why I have okara - something many have probably never heard of - lying around: I've been making my own soymilk. Okara is the byproduct. That's really the only reason anyone would happen to have it. I plan on posting on the process but I realize that it's not for everyone, being kind of labor intensive if you don't have an actual soymilk machine (I don't, I have a VitaMix). Investing in either of the two is definitely worth looking into, as the cost of whole soybeans is much less than soymilk, the additives are up to you, there's no packaging to throw away, and you get to use the leftover okara (which has a fair amount of protein and lots of minerals) for other things. So, overall it's less wasteful and expensive and I like maximum efficiency.

Indian Food, Part 1 - Marcella

I've been cooking a lot of Indian food lately, having been inspired by some Indian feasts at the home of our friends' Deepak and Matt.

We don't go out for Indian anymore, since it's generally very oily and hard for us to stomach these days. Fortunately I have a great cookbook: Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India that has a lot of pretty healthy recipes, aside from the deep-fried things, desserts, and so on.

Some recipes to come after this one are: Gobi (cauliflower), Channa Masala (chickpeas) and Bhurta (eggplant) - all stuff you can get when going out for Indian, but easy to make at home. I made all of the above for a Christmas feast, with brown Basmati rice (Trader Joe's), and lots of lentil-stuffed samosas (delicious fried savory pastries) and other appetizers you can get in abundance in the frozen section of an Indian market. All very light and healthy EXCEPT the samosas - great finger food for parties but a dangerous habit to get into at home alone.

Anyway, an Indian grocery - like Laxmi Palace on Parham Rd - is a great source of spices, beans, vegetables, and fruit. You can pick up all kinds of chutneys and pappadum (lentil crackers) there cheaply too for a true Indian feast. Mangoes are way cheaper there than elsewhere, too.

Moong Dal (split mung bean soup)
I didn't measure things exactly - adjust to suit your tastes. Tastes like "exotic" split pea soup.

• 1 cup moong dal (mung beans) - get at Ellwood Thompson's bulk section if you can't make it to an Indian grocer, or use split peas
  
• about 4 cups water
• 1 tsp oil
  
• 1/2 an onion chopped
• garlic and ginger, minced, or garlic and ginger paste - about 1 tsp each
  
• cumin seeds, about 1/2 tsp
• mustard seeds, about 1/2 tsp - optional
• ~6 curry leaves (in the fridge at the Indian grocer, optional)
• asfoetida spice (Indian grocer)
  

1. In a medium pot, on medium-low to medium, heat up the oil. Add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, then add remaining ingredients. Cook until mustard seeds start spluttering, taking care not to burn.
2. Turn heat up to high and add water and moong dal (mung beans) or split peas. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium-low, cover, and simmer until beans are soft - about 45 minutes to an hour.

Simple White Bean and Chard Soup - Marcella

Soup always sounds good when it's cold out. I've decided to do a lot of soup and salad nights, since it's a lot easier to make that particular combo nutritious and filling and bread-less. I have no patience for bread these days.

I made this one up a couple of nights ago, in the midst of dealing with some virus that was making me terribly queasy. I wanted a nice simple and comforting soup, and here it is:

Simple White Bean and Chard Soup

• 1 can canellini (white kidney) or Great Northern beans - don't drain
  
• 1 can no salt added diced tomatoes - don't drain
  
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
  
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon, or 1 tsp veg broth powder
• approx. 3 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• basil, dried or fresh and pepper to taste
• 1/2 lb swiss chard
  

1. In a medium soup pot, saute up the onion and garlic in the olive oil.
2. Add cans of tomatoes and beans. Ordinarily I'd say to drain them, but the salt isn't too bad for a whole pot of soup and makes additional table salt unnecessary
3. Add bouillion, water, bay leaf, basil, and pepper and cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.
4. Add chard, cover and simmer on low for another 10-15 minutes. Done.
   

Chickpea and Tomato Soup

Impromptu soup for lunch:

Chickpea and Tomato Soup

• 2 carrots, cut lengthwise and chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
  
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 can low sodium diced tomatoes
• around 4 cups water
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• black pepper
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  

1. Saute carrots, celery, and onion in about 2 Tbsp water for 5 minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Spices can be changed up for different effects, from (cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne, dash lemon juice) for a Moroccan stew to (oregano, parsley, bay leaf-remove before blending) for an Italian stew.
   
3. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour
4. Blend a portion of the soup, return to pot and coarsely mash the rest.

I also decided to steam a bag of frozen spinach to have with it...thinking that we really had nothing to eat...then added a mashed up block of tofu...then realized we had some of the whole wheat low-carb wraps and diced tomato around for an unusual but filling accompaniment to the soup.

Sometimes things that sound weird and unappetizing turn out to be unexpectedly good.

Split Pea Soup, Seitan Stir-Fry, and How to Use Warcraft to Jump-Start Your Career

Lunch

Thanks to Derek's client who so thoughtfully brought him fresh greens, tomatoes, and peaches from a local farmer's market as a birthday present! Because of that we got to enjoy salads despite our fridge being on the fritz and spoiling most of our fresh food really fast.



TVP & Tofu Soft Tacos

• 1/2 cup TVP
• 1 pckg firm tofu
• 1/2 lb frozen spinach
• 1 cup frozen roasted corn (optional)
  
• low carb whole wheat tortillas (Trader Joe's reduced carb has only 50 calories each)
  
• avocado sliced
• salsa of choice

Yet another variation on the taco theme. I used to make breakfast burritos a lot with tofu packaged soy sausage which is admittedly delicious but high in sodium - this is my healthier version.

1. Rehydrate the TVP in a little more than 1/2 cup hot water. Add sausage seasonings: breakfast sausage is usually seasoned with sage, thyme, red pepper flakes or cayenne. Or for a more taco meat-ish seasoning add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne.
2. Heat up a pan sprayed with cooking spray and add frozen spinach and corn. Cover and cook til not frozen - usually just a few minutes.
   
3. Mash up the tofu - I usually just do it in the pan. Add everything else to pan and cook for a while longer.
4. Serve in some warmed up wraps with avocado and salsa. Or omit the wraps for more of a huevos rancheros type thing.
   

Eat with 2 big bowls of salad; pictured below are the greens gifted to Derek - they even included some edible flowers!


I think one thing I would love to do is get a nutrition program that I could enter my recipes into and get a breakdown of their stats and also an overall daily nutrition analysis of our diet...


Dinner

Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup

• 1 peeled and diced sweet potato
• 1 1/2 cups split peas (green or yellow)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 cube low sodium vegetable bouillon or
• 1 Tbsp yellow curry powder
• thyme and pepper to taste
• 4 cups water

1. In a medium pot, saute onions in 1 Tbsp water.
   
2. Add everything else. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for about 1 hour.
3. Mash everything up with a potato masher or blend in batches in a blender/food processor.

I'm not sure what to call the main course...

How about:
Seitan and Bell Pepper Stir Fry

• 1 recipe for seitan
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 red and 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
• 1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added
• pepper, crushed RED pepper, salt-free seasoning

When I decided to be nice and make something with seitan so I could post the recipe for one of Derek's co-trainers I had no clue what I was going to do with it. This random assemblage turned out to be really good. It didn't need much seasoning since the seitan is pretty flavorful.

1. Saute onion and bell peppers in 2 Tbsp water til translucent.
2. Add seitan, tomatoes, and seasonings and simmer for a bit, stirring occasionally.
3. Add brown rice and mix.

Although seitan is pretty easy to make using the recipe I posted, you may just want to buy it packaged. I believe the Morningstar brand "chicken" and "beef" strips varieties are widely available in the frozen natural foods section of local supermarkets, and the White Wave brand is available in the refrigerated natural foods section - looks like a tofu package. Those varieties have a ton of sodium, though.

Mmmm!

Because I usually include some rambling, and I am pretty tired now that I'm in my test prep phase, I'd like to share one of my corporate networking secrets with any other rung-grabbers out there: start playing a MMORPG like oh, say... World of Warcraft, and then tastefully decorate your cube/office with game paraphenalia.

I can almost guarantee that more people will stop by to chat with you about the game, or similar games they've played, than you'd have dreamed possible, and it's surprising that so many senior management and even C-level people play. Maybe it's because it's so difficult to have a real social life in the corporate world, or maybe it's just that the finance and actuarial fields attract an inordinate amount of dorks - whatever it is, it's been an unexpectedly great networking tool!

Who would have thought that a mere entry-level could impress a C-level with the fact that she is a Warlord in the realm of Kul Tiras...but, there it is.