Glue and Glitter » soup

Green Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard and Lemon

Becky Striepe — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:00:44 +0000

Dave added the roasted potatoes I made right to his bowl of lentil soup!

I almost feel like this lentil soup could be a good St. Patrick’s Day dish with all of the green action going on!

The other night I went out for Indian food with my pal Liz and got a pretty lackluster bowl of dahl. When I think of dahl, I imagine something hearty and thick that really showcases the awesomeness of the mighty lentil. This lentil soup was….not that. It was thin and brothy. The only redeeming quality was that it was heavy on the lemon, which was something I’d never seen in other dahl recipes.

Liz mentioned that she’d recently made a lemony lentil soup that had Swiss chard in it. Intriguing! Especially since I had lentils, lemon juice, and chard in the refrigerator right at that moment! She couldn’t remember where she got the recipe, but some quick googling turned up this one from Food & Wine which looked like a good jumping off point!

I veganized and then halved the recipe but didn’t cut back on the amount of Swiss chard, because I had a ton of it and I love greens in soup. If you’re not as mad about greens, you can cut back on the chard.

Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard and Lemon

1/2c green lentils, rinsed
2c water
2c vegetable broth
1t smoked salt

2T olive oil
1/2c red onion
4 cloves of garlic
1/2c arugula, chopped
1 bunch rainbow Swiss chard leaves, cut into ribbons (Don’t discard the ribs! You can use them for so many other things.)

3T fresh lemon juice

In a large soup pot, bring the water and broth to a boil, then add the lentils and simmer for around 25 minutes, or until they’re just tender.

Meanwhile. toss that garlic and onion into your food processor or Magic Bullet and blend until the garlic looks minced. The onion will turn pretty liquidy, and that’s perfect.

Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the garlic, onion, and arugula on medium high for just a few minutes, until the arugula starts to wilt. Add the chard and cook for about 5 minutes more, until it turns bright green and wilty.

When the lentils are ready, add the chard mixture to them and simmer for another 15 minutes. Add the lemon juice just before you serve.

We had this soup with tiny oven roasted potatoes. I found this bag of potatoes at Trader Joes, and each potato was about the size of a grape. They were so cute! If you don’t have tiny potatoes, you can always chop and roast whatever potatoes you have on hand.

To roast the potatoes, just toss them with some black pepper and olive oil, then bake at 425F for 40 minutes to an hour, until you can easily pierce them with a fork. Remember to stir every 15-20 minutes, or your potatoes won’t cook evenly.

I ate my potatoes on the side, but that smart husband of mine mixed his right into the lentil soup! Recommended.

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: green lentils, lentil soup, soup, soup recipe, St. Patrick's Day, Swiss chard, vegan soup

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Faux: Quickie Take on my Favorite Vietnamese Soup

Becky Striepe — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:30:56 +0000

You guys, it has been chilly around these parts! Since I refuse to turn on the heat until we hit serious cold temperatures, it’s been cold in the house, especially during the day when I’m trying to get work done. That means I’ve had soup on the brain!

This is sort of a take on the leftovers soup from the other day, but it’s much more….focused. I had a serious craving for pho and decided to whip up the closest thing I could using ingredients I had on hand. Pho/faux! Get it?

It took 5 minutes, including chopping, and was super delicious, comforting, and filling!

Vegan Faux
1 1/2c water
1t broth paste (I used Better Than Bouillon No Chicken, my fave!)
1/2c leftover rice or noodles
1c spinach, coarsely chopped
handful cilantro, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1-2t apple cider vinegar (Or juice from 1/2 lime, if you have one on hand. I didn’t!)
1/4 block of tofu, cubed
handful of cashews
hot sauce, to taste (I used home made habanero hot sauce, but whatever sort you dig is fine)

Combine the water and broth paste in a soup bowl and microwave on high for 2 minutes. (Time-saving hint: I bet you can chop all of those veggies and cube the tofu while that heats!)

Add the rest of the ingredients minus the cashews and heat for 2 more minutes on high.

Stir in the cashews, and serve piping hot!

This makes one bowl of soup, perfect for a quickie, solo lunch. To make more, I’d still do them one at a time. If any of the bowls get cold while you’re prepping the later ones, you can always toss them back in the microwave for a minute to heat them back up.

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: cooking, easy, pho, soup, vegan, Vegan Mofo, veganmofo, Vietnamese food

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Easy Cooking: Leftovers Soup

Becky Striepe — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:30:52 +0000

Sometimes, no matter how well I plan, life keeps me out of the kitchen and I give in to the call of that Chinese delivery menu. This weekend Dave and I were both under the weather, and I had a craft market, so I decided to treat myself to delivery from my favorite vegan Chinese place in town: Green Sprout!

A couple of entrees, some hot and sour soup, and vegan chicken drumsticks was plenty of food for a couple of meals, and on Sunday evening there was just a bit of each entree left. That’s when Dave had a brilliant idea: why not stretch those leftovers by making them into soup?

Seriously, guys, my husband is a genius!

This meal took about 5 minutes per bowl in the microwave and was perfect after a long day at Candler Park Fest!

Ingredients:
1c water per person
1t miso paste or your favorite broth paste per person
Chinese leftovers (I had Empire Chicken and Dave had steamed veggies with tofu)
leftover brown rice
rice vinegar, optional

To make one bowl of soup:
Grab a large soup bowl and heat the water and broth paste for 2 minutes on high in the microwave. Whisk with a fork until the broth is smooth, then add the leftover entree (sauce and all) and the rice. Heat for 2 more minutes on high, and you’re ready to serve! Add a splash of rice vinegar, if things are a bit bland.

It was so simple and tasty! The bowl with Dave’s steamed veggies and tofu let the taste of the broth really shine. The sauce from my Empire Chicken gave my soup an awesome sweet/spicy taste that was delicious with a little vinegar to add some sourness.

I love Green Sprout and would have been perfectly happy eating Empire Chicken for yet another night, but it was nice to have a little meal variety and stretch our food budget, too!

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Sickie Soup

Becky Striepe — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:30:46 +0000

I went straight from a post-Phish road trip hangover to some kind of head cold. That’s not ideal, since this weekend is Candler Park Fall Fest. Obviously, intense soup therapy was in order!

Since we’d just gotten back from a road trip, the cupboard was pretty bare, which meant we didn’t have the makings for Get Well Soup. This was sort of a cobbled together situation, so you can definitely use whatever veggies you have on hand.

In a large crock pot combine:

4c water
4T miso paste (whatever sort you like! Broth paste would be fine, too, just check the package to see how much you need for 4c of broth)
2T ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 or 6 turnips, greens included, chopped
1/2 lb green beans, ends snapped off and cut into bite sized pieces
5 scallions, chopped
your favorite hot sauce, to taste

Turn the crock pot to high, and cook the veggies for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the turnips are nice and soft.

Serve piping hot, and feel better soon!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by alyssssyla

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Making Soup with Dad: Part Two!

Becky Striepe — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:00:54 +0000

Pops and I had such a great time making soup on the first day of his visit, we decided to put together another pot on Sunday!

This is based on an old Russian peasant recipe. My great grandmother Rose taught him how to make this soup, and he used to make it a lot when I was a little kid.

I got really into Amelia Bedelia books at some point and decided that instead of cabbage soup, we should call this Raisin Soup.

Raisin Soup
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

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Making Soup With Dad

Becky Striepe — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:00:08 +0000

My pops came to town over the weekend, and while he was here he whipped up a giganto batch of an old Levine family recipe: split pea and vegetable soup!

This recipe makes a lot of soup. I mean…it makes a LOT of soup! We had some for dinner, gave some away, and stuck some in the freezer for later!
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

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Get Well Soup

Becky Striepe — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:00:52 +0000

I’m feeling a little under the weather this week. Combine that with the cold, rainy weather yesterday, and it was time for some soup.

2c water
2T miso paste
1 can coconut milk
2 sticks of lemon grass
1 eggplant, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 green onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
handful cilantro, chopped
1c cooked brown rice (optional)
Siracha, or your favorite hot sauce, to taste
juice of 1 lime

In a soup pot or dutch oven, combine the first five ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the eggplant softens.

Add the remaining ingredients except for the lime juice, and simmer for just a few minutes more. Stir in the lime juice and serve!

It’s a little unusual to add the garlic so late in the game, but I wanted it barely cooked in this situation for the maximum benefit. You can check out a bit about its immune-boosting properties over here. The lime juice gives a healthy dose of vitamin C for even more immune system power! I had two giganto bowls and packed a third helping for lunch today. Soup, do your thing!

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Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup with Lazy Croutons

Becky Striepe — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:30:35 +0000

Holy cold snap, you guys! What happened to Fall? It went from 70 and sunny to 40 and raining pretty much overnight. Total soup weather.

We were sort of low on food Friday night, and part of me realllly wanted to order some Green Sprout, but I fought the urge and I’m so glad I did! This soup was hearty and it warmed us right up!
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

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Summer Pineapple and Cucumber Gazpacho

Becky Striepe — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:00:12 +0000

Dave’s been in a grilling mood lately, and I’ve been spoiled by not having to turn on the oven. I wanted something fresh but not salad-like to go alongside my grilled potatoes and okra the other night and remembered that I’d been wanting to try making a cold summer soup. It was perfect!

Summer Pineapple and Cucumber Gazpacho

1 pineapple, in chunks
2 cucumbers
1/2 vidalia onion
1 handful fresh cilantro
1 banana pepper (Use more or less depending on how much heat you like!)
salt and pepper, to taste

Dump everything into your food processor and blend until you get your desired consistency. Mine is blended pretty smoothly, but I know some folks like their gazpacho chunkier. You could even blend just a portion of the ingredients and dice everything else up finely. It’s really a matter of taste!

Chill the soup until you’re ready to serve. It’s fine to serve right away but even more delicious if you let it chill for a few hours or even over night!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2009. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: cold soup, cucumber, easy, gazpacho, pineapple, raw, soup, summer, vegan

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Black and White Soup

Becky Striepe — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:00:40 +0000

OK, so the name of this soup is sort of a lie. It’s more like black and white soup with some red and yellow. Also green. Right. So it’s a rainbow of a soup!

1/2 an onion (any sort is fine), diced
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 hot pepper, minced
1 yellow squash, diced finely
1/4c olive oil

3c water or veggie broth
4 bay leaves
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can white beans, rinsed
1 handful grape tomatoes, halved
2 ears of corn, kernels removed (or 1c canned corn is fine)
sea salt to taste

Turn the crock pot to high, and add the oil, onion, pepper, garlic, and squash. Stir it up well and let that cook while you prep the remaining ingredients.

Once everything is prepped, stir it all into the crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours. You could also do this on low overnight.

Serve with crusty bread! Delicious!

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Glue and Glitter » soup

Green Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard and Lemon

I almost feel like this lentil soup could be a good St. Patrick’s Day dish with all of the green action going on!

Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard and Lemon

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Faux: Quickie Take on my Favorite Vietnamese Soup

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Easy Cooking: Leftovers Soup

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Sickie Soup

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Making Soup with Dad: Part Two!

Making Soup With Dad

Get Well Soup

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Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup with Lazy Croutons

Summer Pineapple and Cucumber Gazpacho

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Black and White Soup

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