Soupe á L'Oignon

French Onion Soup is one of my favorite things to order at a restaurant. It's because of the ooey gooey cheese melted over the bowl and the rich sweet and savory broth underneath. It always seemed so difficult to make for some reason. But, then I learned how (in Paris, of course), and it's like most French dishes: few ingredients, maximum amount of flavor, and not very complicated.

I had a ton of onions one week and I don't like them raw. Cooked only, please!

Onion soup sounded like a great solution to my overabundance-of-onions issue. I also had chicken stock in my fridge that needed to be used, and a bottle of white wine that I was opening to preserve my garlic cloves. So, I decided, even though it was not going to be a traditional onion soup, to do it anyway. Because, you see, onion soup is made with beef stock and red wine. I'm such a rebel.

So, here's how it's done (if you want the real deal, then please, please, please, use red wine and beef stock instead!):

First, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a stock pot or dutch oven. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic and sautee for a few minutes on medium heat.

Add 3 sliced yellow onions, and cook on low heat for 20-25 minutes, until they look brown and soft, as pictured above.



Then add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir to coat the onions. After than cooks a few minutes (to get rid of the raw flour taste), add about 1 cup of wine. To the pot, add about 8 cups (2 quarts) of stock. Let it simmer for 30 minutes to thicken a little bit.

In the meantime, prepare the cheesy toast. Use any type of bread - crusty French bread is the best - and toast it in a toaster or in an oven...or in a toaster oven! Traditionally, you can ladle the soup in an oven-safe bowl and top it with toast and grated cheese (ideally, gruyere, but if you can't find it - like me that day, you can use any melty white cheese. I used Asiago. Not perfect, but it worked). Stick it under a broiler until it melts...and voila! Soupe a l'oignon!!

I cheated and toasted the bread in the toaster, put it on a plate, topped it with cheese, and popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds. I plopped it on top of the hot soup and served it up. That works too. Top, pop, plop. Haha. I think I'm reaching my silly hour. I'll leave you here. Bon appetit!

p.s. The substitutions were ok. It tasted better after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, but it wasn't bad with chicken stock and white wine, just not authentic!

Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup. Is it traditionally served at weddings in Italy? No. It's just a funny translation for minestra maritata, vegetables "married" to meat in a soup. Celeb chefs always talk about "letting flavors marry." That's what this soup is talking about. Let the greens love on those meatballs. Oh yeah.

I looked at my stash of veggies and saw the makings of a good hearty soup. Carrots, Swiss chard, leeks (yes, more leeks), celery. More ground turkey and barley I've been wanting to use came out of the refrigerator. Homemade chicken stock defrosted overnight. Soup time was here.

All I needed was a little help with a recipe. I found Ina Garten's (a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa) {recipe} on foodnetwork.com. It sounded perfect to me. I was not disappointed.

You start by making the meatballs and baking them in the oven.

Then you start the soup base. Olive oil in the pot...

...then add your chopped veggies (everything but the leafy greens). Notice I used leeks in place of onion again. That's all I had...

Cook those down and add the stock, bringing it all to a boil. Add the barley or rice or little pasta (whatever you like).

Finish it off by adding the greens. I used chard, but you could use the traditional spinach or even collards. Then don't forget the meatballs. This is assuming you haven't eaten all of them before the soup was ready. They are really very delicious on their own. Trust me. I know.

Ladel out a bowl for you and yours. Top it with grated parmesan cheese. Eat. Repeat.

Happy cookin'!

Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup

It seems like kale is the latest "it" superfood. In the last year, it's as if someone in the culinary or nutrition world made it the most trendy thing to cook with. Or am I the only one who's noticed this?

I never knew what it was until a couple of years ago when someone made a kale salad for a church potluck. And it was really tasty and hearty! I thought, "Hey! This is what they used to use as filler in the dining commons salad bar to make it look pretty!" Yep, I worked in the dining commons back in college, and sure enough, they used kale as a garnish on the salad bar...in attempt to make the bowls of sunflower seeds and thousand island dressing look more appealing to 18 year old freshmen. Who knew you could eat it too?

After eating that yummy salad at church, I started playing with it - especially now as it comes in my CSA box. It can be used like any other dark green - like spinach or chard. It works great in stews and soups.

I made a sausage and kale soup a couple of weeks ago. This soup was adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe for sausage, potato, and kale soup. I swapped out the potatoes for Cannellini beans and used less dairy, but other than that it's pretty close. Mom was here last weekend and had some for lunch. She said she liked it. You might like it, too.

Here's the step-by-step:

Dice half an onion.

Add the onion to a big stock pot with 2 cloves of crushed garlic. I use Dorot frozen garlic. It comes in these perfect portioned cubes and are great if you tend to let fresh garlic go to waste (like me).

Saute the onions and garlic in 2 T of oil with a dash of salt until tender and translucent.

Cut up 3 links of fully cooked chicken sausage in half moons.

Add the sausage into the pot, with 1/4 tsp red chili flakes, and a bay leaf.

Add about 4-5 cups of chicken stock.

Drain and rinse a can of cannellini beans and add to the pot.

When the soup is boiling, add one bunch of kale leaves (washed, de-stemmed, and torn into bite-size pieces).

When the greens are wilted, add 1/4 cup half and half. This adds a little more love to the pot!

Let simmer for 15-20 minutes to let the flavors get acquainted in the pot.

And that's pretty much it! You can add salt and pepper to taste as well. And remove the bay leaf. Serve it warm with a side of crusty French bread or toasted pita triangles. It's hearty, healthy, and has a little kick from the pepper flakes. This meal makes the rainy days in L.A. a little more bearable. Oh, I'm so spoiled here. :)

What have you been making with kale?

Making Your Own Stock

I always cringe at how many food scraps I end up with after I trim my veggies. Soon, very soon, I hope to start composting. But until then, I've been trying to make the most out of the scraps.

My favorite way to use all the "unedible" parts of vegetables (stringy stalks, peels, etc) is to make homemade soup stock. It saves me money on buying canned stock or broth, and it uses meat bones and veggie scraps to their fullest.

If I have veggie scraps and no meat bones, I'll stick them in the freezer until I get some bones. And vice versa - if I have bones and no veggies, I'll put the bones in the freezer until all the goodies are there.
When I'm ready, and have a few hours at home, I'll make my pot of stock. First, I put in the veggies...

This time, I had carrot peels, broccoli stems, the core of a bunch of lettuce, and kale stems. Onion peels are great, as well as celery stalks and leaves. Then, I add a couple of bay leaves and peppercorns for extra flavor. I don't add salt because it's easier to cook with if you can salt it to taste later on, according to what you are making.

On top of that, add the meat carcass, if you are making a meat stock. I had frozen innards from 2 organic chickens that hubby smoked on the grill, as well as some of the bones and skin.

Cover it with water, and let it come to a boil on the stove. When it boils, turn the heat to simmer, and let it simmer with a lid on for at least one hour.

Strain the cooled stock to get rid of all the grit, bones, and veggie matter...and you'll have plenty of stock (a few quarts at least) for soups, stews, and other recipes that call for a little broth or stock! This time I also skimmed the fat off the top before storing it, using a ladel. You can freeze it in plastic containers for a long time, or store it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. I've seen some people freeze it in ice trays and then store them in ziplock bags after they are frozen in cubes. I hope you try this out if you've never done it before!

Cauliflower & Chard Soup With Chorizo & Crispy Potatoes

Last week I had a head of cauliflower, green onions, and a small bunch of Swiss chard leftover from my CSA box. The days got away from me before I'd be able to use them - so I cut everything up, threw it all in a freezer bag, and put it away for the weekend since I was heading out of town.

Yesterday, I took everything out to thaw, and then I got to cookin'.

I was watching Food Network early last week and saw an episode of "Giada at Home." It was quite timely because she made a cauliflower soup!

I modified her recipe a bit, but here is hers (click on this link for the whole recipe), and I'll tell you how I changed it using what I had instead:

Cauliflower Soup (with Bacon and Croutons) from Giada DeLaurentiis            

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 
• 2 ribs celery, chopped to yield 3/4 cup
• 1 large or 2 small shallots, thinly sliced (I used 3 green onions, chopped)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (I used dried, ground thyme)
• 1 head cauliflower (1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch pieces
• *I added about a cup and a half of chopped Swiss chard
• 
  
• In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the celery, shallots, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Stir in the chicken broth, thyme and cauliflower. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
  In batches, puree the soup in a food processor or with a blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Cool the soup to room temperature, then refrigerate until ready to serve, at least 2 hours.
  Ladle the chilled soup into bowls and garnish with the croutons and bacon. 
  I served mine hot, and in place of the bacon and croutons, I added chorizo and sliced fingerling potatoes sauteed in olive oil, salt and pepper. I had the chorizo in the freezer and the potatoes came in my farm box. Gotta use whatcha got!
  It was a delicious, satisfying fall meal. It actually tasted a lot like broccoli soup...so you could use broccoli instead of cauliflower too! Enjoy!