Vegivore Eats | Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cheddar Chowder

Does anyone remember the last time we really saw the sun?  I mean, I'm fine with this rain, don't get me wrong (reminds me of living in the wondrous Pacific Northwest), but the darkness and gloom make me want to burrow; to stay warm.  Put on my slippers and call it a day...as soon as I wake up.  Under covers and pajamas forever!
But that's not how normal, functioning members of society operate, so up and dressed we get, ready to face the (albeit cloudy) day ahead.
It's days like today I feel especially lucky that I get to cook for a living (and generally, from home).  I might have three burners going for business, but there's still that one open for the possibility of whatever it is I'm in the mood for.  And today I'm in the mood for soup.
This is not a particularly difficult dish to make, but it does have a secret ingredient that makes it different than most recipes, higher in vitamin C and fiber than most recipes, creamier than most recipes while still lower in fat and even lower in sodium than most recipes (by as much as 35%!).

Using broccoli from Kimball Fruit Farm, homemade vegetable stock, heady sharp cheese, fresh herbs, organic cauliflower and canned Great Northern beans (secret ingredient alert!), this chowder is a mainline to silken vegetarian nutrition.  Fills you up to the top and keeps you there longer than the takeout dinner you'd planned on. For something with only a handful of major ingredients, the flavor is unexpectedly big.

Served in an Au Bon Pain bread bowl because why not.  The staff totally thought I was weird buying a bowl without soup.  ..."Dudes, I need the bowl for reasons, okay"

BROCCOLI, CAULIFLOWAH AND CHEDDAH CHOWDAH

serves 6-8

1 Tbs olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, sliced*

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets (about 1/2lb, 3-4 cups)

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets (about 1/2lb, 3-4 cups)

1 tsp each fresh tarragon, oregano, rosemary and thyme

3 cups vegetable stock, divided

1 cup water

14oz can of Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup fresh-grated extra sharp cheddar, plus extra for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat.  When shimmering, add the onion and garlic and stir occasionally for a few minutes, infusing the oil and softening the onion.

Add your broccoli and cauliflower florets, as well as the herbs, and cook them in the essentially dry pot for a few minutes, stirring occasionally before adding 2 cups of stock (add it when you get nervous that the pot is *too* dry).  Let the stock come to a boil, then cover and cook for approximately 7 minutes -- florets should be tender.

Stir in the rinsed beans, the cheese and some salt and pepper.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup entirely.  Thin with additional stock as needed. Salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer to bowl, garnish with extra cheese (or some sour cream, yum) and serve warm.

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*PRO TIP: slice your garlic vs. mince it to maximize the surface area and promote browning vs. burning.

Vegivore Eats | Creamy, Spicy Mushroom Soup

Sometimes with recipes (and everything else) it is just plain nice to simplify.  It is easy, when cooking without a recipe or riffing on someone else's, to end up with an ingredient list 25 items long...the result of adding a pinch of this, a pinch of that, adjusting with something else, adding one more thing, etc. Truly, though, the best recipes are high-quality ingredients, only a few of them, prepared well and beautifully.  That's all.  When I cook like this, I like to imagine I'm back in France, slowing down and savoring; preparing something so dressed-down and yet still so elegant.

What I envisioned with this simple-enough soup recipe was to create a bridge.  Labor Day has passed, wardrobes are starting to switch over (see also: long sleeves with shorts), and it's time to bridge the gap between summer and fall.  Mushrooms lend themselves beautifully to this idea, earthy and plump, reminding us that the bounty of the summer is nearly past but that the harvest isn't over.  This upcoming season is still about digging in the dirt: harvesting root vegetables, tilling old soil, keeping cold weather crops frost-proof until they're ready to pull around New Year's.  It's also a time when plants are beginning to die, returning to the earth from whence they came...and the opportunistic mushroom is there to partake and flourish in this decay. The fungi is also known to have medicinal properties; modulate immune responses, preparing our bodies for the onslaught of Indian summer cold season.  B vitamins, selenium, potassium.  Eat them cooked, eat them fresh: the perfect bridge, the mushroom.  Keep us healthy, keep us mindful.

I chose to use Cremini and Shiitake mushrooms (from Pennsylvania) in this 10-ingredient soup. The meatiness combined with the lack of huge gills made these a great candidate (as did the fact that they are only a few bucks a pound); I had these in mind long before hitting the market.  Especially with this recipe involving a long simmer -- they'll hold up and won't just brown and ick apart during the cooking process.
Vegetable stock and heat all together deepen the mushrooms' taste, and onions and Poblano peppers add flavor as well as bulk (and heat) to the broth.
Lemon thyme and oregano balance the darkness of the flavors I already had going on.  The brighter herb taste not only lightens the whole thing but also keeps us in the season we are in. ...Don't rush towards fall; let's linger a little right where we are, shall we?
A dollop of sour cream towards the end coooooools down this party, and a splash of the heavy cultivated wine, Amontillado sherry*, is excellent punctuation at the end.

Succulent, rich, creamy and lip-smacking good, your eyes might just roll back in your head at first taste.  And again with the notion of France, the food so welcoming and abundantly prepared.  Daydreams of Paris.  Serve with crusty bread for the full effect.**

Iggy's (Cambridge, MA) Francese bread.  OH MY GOD, SO GOOD.  Goodbye, loaf, I hardly knew ye. 

CREAMY, SPICY MUSHROOM SOUP

Serves 4

3 Tbs butter

3 Tbs olive oiil

large yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 Poblano peppers, seeded and diced

1 lb Cremini and Shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed and quartered (halve the little guys)

32 oz carton of vegetable stock

3 tsp lemon thyme***

1 tsp oregano

1/3c sour cream

2 Tbs sherry

salt and black pepper to taste

In a medium-sized pot, over medium heat, melt a tablespoon each of the butter and olive oil.  Add in your onions and stir occasionally for several minutes, softening them without browning them.  Add your diced Poblanos towards the end of this stage.  Don't worry, they'll cook.  Don't let your onions turn to mush, just move on after a minute.

Add your mushrooms and the rest of the butter and olive oil.  Turn your heat to medium-low. Let 'em sizzle in there, stirring, let that amazing Maillard reaction do what it does best: caramelize the mushrooms.  There's a lot of moisture in the mushrooms, so you're looking for the water to be released, you'll see that at the bottom of your pot.  Stir through this until the pot is dry and the mushrooms have taken on a gorgeous reddish-brown color.

At this point add 3 1/2 cups of the vegetable stock and the herbs.  Turn your heat to medium (or even medium-high) and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Then, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes.

Stir in your sour cream and then your sherry.  Take the soup off the heat and allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then use a blender/food processor/immersion blender/implement of destruction to puree the soup entirely.  You may have to do this in batches.  That's better than making a giant mess and/or burning yourself, so take your time.  Add broth to thin as necessary, blend thoroughly.

Season to taste.

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*PRO TIP:  Don't confuse cooking sherry (or way worse, sherry vinegar) with actual sherry.  You're gonna want to go real-deal with this recipe, since this ends up a predominant flavor.  Yes, it sucks to buy a big bottle of booze you may not just drink straight-up.  Therefore, I give you this, the Sherry Cobbler cocktail.  ...Indeed, that bottle will be used.  Try with lemonade instead of the sugar and fruit.  You're welcome.

**PRO TIP: Make this a complete meal by schmearing your bread with peanut butter.  The umami of the peanut butter and the mushrooms will actually go pretty well together, and you'll get protein to boot.

***PRO TIP: no lemon thyme?  Substitute with regular thyme, and squeeze some lemon into the near-finished soup -- after the long simmer but before the sour cream.