OMGSNAX!

so i guess it’s finally winter — after all, one freak ice storm & power outage in december does not a season make — & the weather’s got me craving soups all the time. i’d decided over the weekend that potato soup was in my future, but then i neglected to get any ingredients at the store when we went grocery shopping. i checked my recipe bookmarks this afternoon & found this, & once i re-read & it sunk in how easy the soup would be to make, i had a plan.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled & diced
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 cups chicken vegetable stock
plain yogurt, to serve

METHOD
preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. place the diced sweet potatoes & onions on a baking sheet. drizzle with the olive oil & then season with the cumin, salt, & pepper. toss the vegetables to coat evenly & then spread into one even layer.

place the pan in the oven & roast, stirring every so often, for 20 to 25 minutes, until the onions have caramelized a little & the sweet potatoes have gotten tender. the roasting time will depend on how small the sweet potatoes have been diced.

meanwhile, place the stock in a medium saucepan & bring to a simmer. when the onions & sweet potatoes have finished roasting, scrape them into a blender & then pour in the stock. purée until smooth & then pour back into the the saucepan.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
(still working out the photo kinks, honest. i’ve been meaning to start up again but have had battery issues recently.)

so i didn’t realize till after i made the soup (& consumed three bowls) that this is not only lowfat (perfect for my health-conscious mother), but also vegan (perfect for those of us who strive to be socially conscious in our eating habits)! i will admit to being a little apprehensive about the cumin, which i think drowns out the sweet potatoeyness of sweet potatoes, but it actually didn’t overwhelm at all in this instance.

notwithstanding almost losing a hand while cutting the obscenely huge sweet potato, to which i say THANK GOD FOR DANIEL’S DULL KNIVES, although my grandpa the butcher tells me that you’re more likely to cut yourself on a dull blade than a sharp one (as a sharp one will cut what you want it to cut & a dull one will, oh, i don’t know, slip around & make your job much more difficult) — NOTWITHSTANDING a near miss on a hospital visit! — i followed these directions slavishly & was rewarded with a sniffariffic & savory soup. (if a tiny bit thinner than i like. but really that’s just splitting hairs.)

the downside: it looks like baby food. & after spending more time than is normal smelling tiny pouches of baby food over the weekend (daniel’s step-brother’s girlfriend is having a baby, so there were naturally some odd games taking place at her shower), i have to say that looking like baby food isn’t a way to win over the hearts & minds of the people.

that being said, it tasted divine, & my only thought is that perhaps i’d leave a portion of the sweet potatoes in as chunks. i happened to be using an old worn-out blender so this happened naturally anyway — i suspect an immersion blender is really the best way to get a good creamy purée here — but next time, i’d leave more & do it intentionally.

& there WILL be a next time. although sadly neither daniel nor bart even stooped to tasting the soup, i will persevere.

sweet potato soup: a delicious (if unpopular) selection.

“Roasted Sweet Potato & Red Onion Soup” from cooking blog Well Fed.

chili was daniel’s idea for our weekly dinner at his house last night — fairly easy, good for winter, feeds a lot of people. it sounded pretty good to me, too, so we pulled a couple recipes off the internet & out of cookbooks & intended to wing it when caroline reminded me that her mom makes a delicious vegetarian chili. one phone call later, we were on our way to get the surprisingly few ingredients in this chili recipe!

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 can each kidney beans, pinto beans, & black beans, drained & rinsed
1-10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 teaspoon oregano

METHOD
in a large stockpot, sauté onion & bell pepper in oil. add remaining ingredients. bring to a boil & then reduce heat to medium-low. simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes.

DEVIATONS & OBSERVATIONS
added: a second bell pepper, some carrots, a jalapeno. eliminated: all black beans (which daniel decided was somehow blasphemy). substitued: diced tomatoes for crushed (a mistake).

this is an easy recipe to double, which i did in anticipation of a larger than usual dinner crowd — most of whom were sadly no-shows. it tasted just fine, although it wasn’t spicy enough by far — i should’ve considered a spicier version of the enchilada sauce. the consistency was a little soupier than i generally like, & it didn’t reduce down despite simmering for an hour or so. my mom’s chili was always more robust, although hers was basically like eating spicy meat sauce with oyster crackers since no one in my family liked beans when i was a kid. i probably shouldn’t have subsituted out the crushed tomatoes — maybe the chili would’ve been a little less chunky/brothy, a little thicker.

we ate it with cornbread (made from a mix) & saltines, & everyone who ate it gave it top marks, so maybe i’m just nitpicking. if i make it again, though, some changes will be made.

“3-Bean Enchilada Chili” from caroline’s mom.

i’d previously bought all the fixins for potato soup — something i’ve made regularly the past three winters — for a big family-style dinner at daniel’s house, but interpersonal drama* precluded the meal that evening. what happened instead was that, later in the week, i headed straight over to his house after work to listen to Ryne Watts & Team Zissou run through their set before their last-minute gig at off broadway, wash a sinkful of dishes, & make sure everyone who needed it was fed pre-show.

(* if by that fancy phrase i mean “an argument.”)

INGREDIENTS
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
4-6 mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 medium potatoes, cubed
3 cups vegetable stock
1 red pepper, sliced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 cup soy milk
2 green onions, sliced

METHOD
sautée onions, garlic, & mushrooms in soup pot. add potatoes, stock, pepper, spices, & soy sauce. bring to a boil. simmer until potatoes are tender. remove about half of the vegetables & put them in blender with soy milk. add mixture to soup. add green onions. simmer.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
(no photos this time around; i just wasn’t on the ball.)

i will tell you right now that this soup will require at LEAST one tablespoon of salt. i mean HONESTLY. let’s just be up front about these things. it also doesn’t hurt to double the seasonings, although this last time i made it, i doubled the spices AGAIN, not remembering that i’d already done that when transcribing the recipe, so it was on a little the peppery side …

the second thing is that this soup, as it stands, is vegan. i’ve made it a number of different ways — soy milk, milk, half & half, cream — & i’ve found that most people who try it seem to prefer the version made with half & half, which is how i’ve started to make it consistently.

i’ve also eliminated the mushrooms altogether, although i’ve been known to substitute mushroom stock for vegetable stock, resulting in one memorable moment involving benadryl & my former roommate katy, who has an allergy to mushrooms!

all in all, this soup makes for a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal that i tend to enjoy come winter, & i’ll make it again & again & again!

“Potato Soup” from a friend of a friend