Pumpkin soup with maple syrup and five-spice powder

 

While this recipe would make a great fall soup, it did just fine on a day that's rainy and in the 40s. Still in comfort food mode, with a few loaves of real bread rising even now. Because it was that kind of week.

Very simple pumpkin soup

From Bon Appetit ‘s Best Entertaining Recipes compilation. Looks like it dates to August 2004 or so.

Ingredients

2 (15-ounce) cans pumpkin puree
4 cups water
1 cup heavy cream
1 large garlic clove, peeled and pressed
¼ cup maple syrup
4 tablespoons butter, divided
½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced

Method

In a large heavy pot, combine pumpkin, water, cream and garlic. Bring mixture to a simmer. Add syrup, 2 tablespoons of butter and the five-spice powder. Simmer another 10 minutes, whisking periodically.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small pan. Cook mushrooms until tender and starting to pick up color. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Serve topped with cooked mushrooms for garnish. Serves 6 as a first course.

Rating: This is a lot like pumpkin pie in soup form, so yum. But even if it weren't that tasty, I would make this again just because it's so stinking easy, and very pantry friendly. I used 1 can of pumpkin and one equivalent thereof of pumpkin I'd cooked, pureed and frozen last year. It comes together very quickly with minimal ingredients and dirtying of dishes. It may not be quite as rich tasting as this winter vegetable soup that also uses maple syrup, but if you're looking for a less thick soup for an appetizer, this one would be a decent choice.

If you want to make the soup ahead, just reheat and then finish off by cooking the mushrooms. The soup is fine without the mushrooms, but it does give it a bit of visual interest. If you're among those for whom mushrooms are too slimey, by all means skip them.

Butternut squash pasta with bacon, sage and brown butter

 

Three weeks ago the red-winged blackbirds were back by the lake's marshy areas singing their signature ascending three-note call. Last week we saw our first butterfly of the season, and today a dragonfly. The daylilies are pushing up and the trees are bravely budding out. Clearly it's spring-ish.

So I cooked a fall recipe. Because that actually really did make sense, since there was one butternut squash remaining on the orchard rack in the basement from last fall, and the sage plant will no doubt take at least a temporary a dive when we take it back outside. Still a few freezing overnight lows in the extended forecast, but time to be wrapping up last fall's bounty ahead of upcoming spring markets in three weeks. 

Basically, it's a perfect recipe for the time of year where I want even the mildest of winters to be over, but haven't sloughed off enough winter lethargy to truly developed spring ambitions. I want at least a week of just being able to walk around without coats before entering the prolonged months of all the physical labor that pretending to garden entails. If I had a hammock, I would crawl into it to rest up. Except I'm pretty sure that I couldn't get out of it again without help. But this recipe could make it worthwhile.

Butternut squash pasta with bacon and sage brown butter

From “Homemade Kitchen” by Alana Chernila

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash (1 to 1½ pounds), peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium onion, cut into ½-inch wedges
1½ tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces bacon, sliced
1 pound farfalle pasta
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 fresh sage leaves
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large pasta serving bowl, toss together squash, onion, olive oil and salt. Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet and bake for squash is tender and onions have picked up color, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place bacon on another baking sheet at bake at 450 for 18-25 minutes until crisp. Cut into pieces when cool enough to handle.

While squash and bacon cook, heat a large pot of water to boiling. Salt liberally and cook pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving at least a cup of cooking liquid. Place pasta in the large serving bowl in which you mixed the squash. Add cooked squash and bacon.

Heat butter in a small sauce pan until butter foams and takes on a light brown tint. Add sage leaves and cook briefly. Add mixture to pasta bowl, along with Parmesan, and enough reserved pasta cooking water to reach desired sauce consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Rating: You really can't go wrong with roasted squash and bacon over pasta, and this recipe definitely does not go astray. Totally cheating with those ingredients, and while it uses a certain number of pans, it still meets my kitchen ROI bar. It serves 6; Dave really enjoyed the leftovers for lunch, because bacon.

Pretty sure this one can enter the rotation along with pasta with balsamic-roasted squash, bacon and blue cheese and roasted butternut squash Alfredo pasta.

Lemony white bean soup two ways, plus lemon garbanzo bean orzo soup with spinach, and chickpea soup with feta and herbed oil

 

If you really like one aspect of a recipe but not another, don't be afraid to take another swing at it until you find something that suits your taste. And test out other recipes of the same vein until you find your favorite. In this case, I wound up in a mini dive into lemony bean soups after trying this recipe from a recent Bon Appetit. This post is all about the marriage of lemons and legumes in soup form.

Lemony white bean soup

Adapted from Bon Appetit, March 2024

Ingredients

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
Zest and juice of 1 lemon, divided
6 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces white beans, soaked overnight and drained
1 quart broth, or more
2 tablespoons butter
Parsley for garnish

Method

Pulse onion, celery, lemon zest and garlic in a food processor until chopped fine. Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot. Cook onion mixture and kosher salt until vegetables soften. Add beans and broth and cook, partially covered, until beans are tender. The original recipe suggests this would take 1 to 1½ hours. Pretty sure it took me nearly 2½ hours and I had to keep adding broth to keep it from turning into just cooked beans, so allow some leeway for both the time and the amount of broth. Add butter and lemon juice and serve garnished with parsley.

Rating: This soup had a nice bright flavor with the lemon, garlic and butter really coming through. But while I liked that aspect, it wasn't going to make it into the keeper pile because of a few knocks against it: There was such a disconnect between the clear broth and the beans with seemingly nothing to tie the two together. Plus, it's not the lookiest of dishes. And it really took a hit on the kitchen time ROI meter, since from start to finish time it takes a lot of cook attention and yielded a very scant 4 servings. If I'm going to spend that much time on a soup, it's good to have the leftovers to make it seem worthwhile.

Still, I really liked that flavor, so I tried again:

Lemony bean soup, Take 2

Note: After soaking beans overnight and draining them, I placed them in a slow cooker with one small onion, quartered, some lemon pepper seasoning and 1 teaspoon salt. I covered the beans with enough water to cover by a couple of inches and cooked them on low for 4 to 6 hours until tender.

Ingredients

2 medium onions, chopped
3 celery sticks, chopped
Zest and juice of 2 lemons, divided
12 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
16 ounces white beans, soaked overnight and cooked until tender, divided
1¾ cup broth
2 tablespoons butter
Parsley for garnish

Method

Pulse onions, celery, lemon zest and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped. Heat olive oil in large heavy pot. Cook onion mixture with salt until vegetables are softened. While onions cook, puree 1 cup of the cooked beans in the same food processor bowl. Add beans, bean puree and broth to pot and cook for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Add butter and lemon juice and salt and lemon pepper to taste. Serve garnished with parsley.

Rating: This was fine out of the gate, but absolutely stellar the next day when flavors had time to blend and it brought out the amazing double zing of lemon and garlic. The slight added creaminess of pureed beans tied it together nicely, and making the beans ahead and then just adding them to the soup when I was ready to make it made my perceived invested time factor go way down. Yes, I know you have to cook the beans in advance, but in a slow cooker I barely have to pay attention so I can mentally discount that effort, so for me it counts as less time. Plus, it serves 8 quite reasonably.

Note: That method of prepping the veggies in the processor was pretty slick.

Lemon chickpea orzo soup

Adapted from the Simple Veganista

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ medium onion, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

3 large garlic cloves, minced

7 to 8 cups broth, water and/or liquid drained from chickpeas

1 cup orzo

⅓ cup tahini

Juice of 2 to 3 lemons

Large handful of spinach

Chopped fresh dill

Method

Heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion and carrots until onion has softened. Add garlic and cook a minute more. Add the broth and/or water. Bring to a boil. Stir in orzo and garbanzo beans. Reduce heat and boil gently until orzo is tender. (I found it took close to 15 minutes.)

Turn off heat. Stir in tahini and lemon juice to taste. Add spinach and stir to wilt. Add fresh dill to taste and season with salt and pepper. Serves 8 reasonably well.

Rating: Quite nice, and no significant tinkering needed. I had wound up accidentally upping the tahini amount because I got a bit carried away when measuring and was too lazy to try to feed it back into the jar. Definitely better looking than the other bean soup, with more cheerful color to help counteract winter on a day when we woke up to fresh snow, it started snowing at 10 a.m., and wasn't forecast to stop for a full day. There's a nice creaminess from the tahini, color from the carrots and spinach, and just a slight bit of heft from the orzo. Better ROI on kitchen time, since it relies on canned chickpeas, which in this case was just fine.

Note: Like most soups with pasta, this one tightens up a bit as leftovers, so you may want a tad more broth on hand for reheating. I used the tiniest of orzo varieties, and it didn't really need more liquid since it loosened up once heated through, but you might if you use the standard size orzo.

Chickpea soup with herb oil and feta

Adapted from “Eating the Greek Way,” by Dr. Fedon Alexander Lindberg

Ingredients

1¾ cup garbanzo beans
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup olive oil
1 large handful of mixed herbs (I used parsley, lemon balm, thyme, tarragon and oregano)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Feta chunks for garnish

Method

Soak beans in enough water to cover overnight. Drain and rinse.

Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium low heat. Cook until onions are softened. Add drained beans and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until chickpeas are tender. The recipe suggested about 1½ hours. I cooked them for 2¼ and in retrospect wished I’d cooked them even longer, so allow plenty of time.

Mix cornstarch and lemon juice in a small bowl. Stir into soup and add parsley. Remove a couple of large ladles of the soup to a glass bowl. Process with a stick blender until it’s sort of pulpy-chunky. Stir back into soup.

To make herb oil, in a small food processor or blender, combine olive oil, herbs and Parmesan to make a loose pesto.

Serve soup garnished with feta chunks and a swirl of the herb oil. Serves 6-ish as a side, 4 as a main course.

Rating: Nice flavor, although not as brightly lemony as the other two, despite using lemon balm in the herb mix. It's fairly mild, and I did wonder whether I might have liked garlic in the herb oil, but there's really nothing wrong with it as is. The feta and herb oil work well with it and make it a bit lookier than it would be otherwise. My only real nit was that the soup really could have benefited from softer chickpeas than I achieved in a rather lengthy cooking time. They certainly yielded to a fork test, but this soup really needs them to be on softer side. Tempted to try making this into a crockpot recipe so I can more readily outwait it.

To be clear, I would be happy to be presented with any of these bowls of soup, but in some cases I might be happier if I didn't have to make it. 

Crockpot chicken two ways: Marbella and cumin carrot stew

Kowalski's had a great (and rare) sale on chicken thighs recently so I stocked up. Great candidates for firing up the slow cooker for some warm late-winter meals.

Spiced chicken stew with carrots

Adapted from “One Pot” from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living. If you’re wondering why it counts as a one-pot meal when it dirties two, it’s because they were figuring on using a slow cooker that has a browning function, which I lack. I used a mix of regular orange carrots, some purple and yellow baby carrots and a parsnip, since I turned out to have fewer carrots than I thought I did. It made for nice color variation.

Ingredients

2 pounds carrots cut 1½-inch long
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cinnamon stick
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 bone-in chicken thighs (about 2½ pounds)
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted

Method

Place carrots, garlic, cinnamon and cumin in a crock pot.

Heat oil in large saute pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown chicken in oil. Place atop carrot mixture in slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or 4 on high). Add raisins for the last 15 minutes of cooking. Serve garnished with cilantro and almonds. They suggest serving it with cooked couscous.

Rating: Not sure I'd classify this as a stew, exactly. The cumin flavor helps infuse all those carrots. Maybe a useful dish if you're looking for a weeknight family meal and need to use up some carrots. Not company-rated, by any means.

Ack! I forgot the parsley garnish. It's prettier with that. And if I'd bothered to light it properly.

Slow cooker chicken Marbella

Adapted from something I saved from somewhere online dubbed Party-Picnic Chicken, but when I try to follow the link now I get a dead end so I’m not sure where to credit it. The internet is filled with slow cooker versions of the the classic from "Silver Palate Cookbook" by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. This one subs apricots for the prunes, which might be blasphemy, but it's a damn tasty bit of heresy. Plus, I had apricots on hand, and I'm unlikely to deliberately procure prunes on a regular basis because there are tastier dried fruits with a consistency I find preferable..

Ingredients

8 bone-in chicken thighs
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup red wine vinegar
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1⅓ cup sliced Spanish green olives
2 tablespoons capers
⅓ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup dried apricots, sliced
2 bay leaves
Chopped parsley for garnish

Method

Place chicken in slow cooker. Sprinkle with garlic, oregano, olives and capers. Combine orange juice, olive oil and vinegar. Pour over the top. Sprinkle brown sugar and apricots over chicken. Tuck in bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.

Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve chicken pieces with juices drizzled on top and sprinkled with that parsley garnish that I forgot at picture time. Couscous makes a good accompaniment to soak up the sauciness. Serves 4.

Rating: Now this is a slow cooker chicken recipe you could conceivably give to guests. Nice balance of sweet and savory. Dave called it nom-tastic. Certainly a worthy repeater that takes very little prep time. Good ROI of kitchen time. I wouldn't class the first recipe as a keeper, but this one definitely qualifies.

So why did I put the best recipe last? Pure vanity. Sometimes I just want to go ahead and eat so I can't be bothered to take the time to light the food properly, and in Minnesota, natural light does not come at dinner time most of the year. Clearly I'm cooking for us first.

Kielbasa sauerkraut soup with wild mushrooms

 

Fresh wild mushrooms are definitely not free, so I only tend to buy them for a specific recipe .... which I then do not make. Usually they're called for in some recipe that I don't have time or energy for at the point I would have intended to cook it. So if I'm half on the ball, the mushrooms get repurposed for something else before they go bad. If I'm not, it's some expensive compost fodder.

This recipe is so simple it really shouldn't have triggered that reaction. But it did. Three times. My ability to muster the energy and attention to cook a new recipe, and thus blog about it, is a pretty reliable indicator of how my life is going. For several months, mine was kind of off the rails working 12-hour days during the work week and several hours on weekends and faux vacations/holidays.

I'm not completely out of the woods yet workwise, but I finally had time for this recipe that comes together in less than an hour. Handy, since winter finally decided to reassert itself, and this helps take the edge off after a commute where people don't seem to remember where the lanes were the day before.

Polish hunter's stew

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, December 2023. I'd link to it online, but I can't find it on their site. Serves 4 passably well.

Ingredients

14-ounce kielbasa, sliced into ½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces mixed wild mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tomato puree
3 cups water
2 cups sauerkraut
½ teaspoon dried dill
Fresh dill for optional garnish

Method

Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet. Brown kielbasa. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add mushrooms, onion and salt to the pan. Cook, stirring often, until tender and the onion has started to pick up a bit of color. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add water, sauerkraut and dill. Return kielbasa to the pan. Cover and simmer 15 minutes to allow mixture to heat through and flavors to blend. Serve topped with fresh dill leaves if desired.

Rating: Very hearty. Decent flavor, providing you like kielbasa, which is mainly what it tastes of. Not too time consuming to fix. Aside from the mushrooms, it's relatively pantry friendly, since the rest of the ingredients have staying power and you don't even have to have a decent broth on standby. I opted to add dried dill to the soup, since I had no fresh on hand, it not being summer when I'm overrun with it. I could see making it again the next time I want to play fresh mushroom roulette.

Pickle rollups in cheese ball form

 

These are basically Minnesota sushi inverted, so they seemed like a plausible thing to try for Super Bowl fare, when fancy seems a tad out of place.

Dill pickle cheese ball bites

Adapted from "Homestead Recipes" by Amanda Rettke of the I Am Baker blog. Makes about 20 cheese balls. I used these hamburger pickles.

Ingredients

1 8-ounce container cream cheese, softened
½ cup finely diced dill pickles plus ½ cup finely minced dill pickles, divided
½ cup diced ham
3 tablespoons ranch dressing seasoning mix
⅓ cup minced fresh chives
⅓ cup finely chopped pecans

Method

Line a large food storage box with waxed paper.

Mix cream cheese, ½ cup finely diced dill pickles, ham and seasoning mix in a medium bowl. Shape into small rounds, slightly more than ½-inch round. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Combine remaining minced pickles, chives and pecans in a small bowl. Roll cheese balls into mixture, pressing to coat well. Return to storage container and chill well until ready to serve.

Rating: A little too soft and messy for good finger food served couch-side. Definitely want to serve them as chilled as possible for structural integrity sake. Plus the flavor had intensified a bit more the second day. I kind of feel about these the same way I felt about the "undeviled eggs" that I decided really worked better in the more traditional form: Both were tasty enough versions, but no tastier, and decidedly harder to eat as finger food. 

If you want a good mini cheese ball that holds up as finger food, these mini rosemary roquefort cheese balls are the hot ticket.

 

 

Triple orange scones

 

Every year I have to try at least one new recipe from the Taste holiday cookie contest. This year I tried the Aperol sparklers, which called for sweetened dehydrated oranges. I had a lot left over after baking the cookies and was looking for a way to use them up. This was my second attempt at making a scone recipe with them; the first turned out a tad dry and not worth sharing, but these have merit.

Triple orange scones

Adapted from a recipe for lemon poppy seed scones found on Epicurious that's been in my recipe collection long enough that it predates this blog. But I remember they were tasty. No sign that the Ledbetter's restaurant referenced as the source still exists in Monroe, Conn. But the recipe lives on, and it made a good base to riff on.

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
10 tablespoons cold butter
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons orange juice
A scant ⅓ cup milk
⅓ cup chopped dried, sweetened oranges (I used Trader Joe's)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Cut butter into small chunks and add to bowl. Pulse to combine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix egg and orange juice and add to bowl. Pulse briefly. Add milk in thirds, adding enough so mixture just comes together. 

Remove to a floured board. Press into an 8-inch circle. Sprinkle with chopped oranges and press into the dough. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to prepared baking sheet, placing well apart, because they will spread. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and firm to the touch. 

Rating: Definitely tasty, and reasonably moist. I'm considering buying more of the dried oranges just to make them again because that flavor really comes through. Maybe near next Christmas.

In the meantime, I clearly need to make the lemon poppy seed scone recipe again to refresh my memory.