Market 'Trick-Or-Treat' Soup

Although this is not how market shopper Lorinda Moholt presented this recipe to me, I couldn't resist giving it a Halloween spin. Think of it like this: you are dressed up as an adult, bag in hand, walking from booth to booth gathering treats (hopefully no tricks) from market vendors that you take home, lay out on the table, and gaze at in awe. The next day you binge on your goodies, chopping them up and turning them into this delicious soup. Coincidentally, it is also the perfect antidote to a candy hangover.

This isn't a traditional recipe with exact amounts or required ingredients. Rather, it offers open-ended advice for turning a wide variety of seasonal produce into an easy soup - one that proves good food does not have to be complicated. All recipes invite you to add your own spin; this one demands it, and then rewards you with the satisfaction of having created something of your own. Thanks to Lorinda for sharing her technique!

Serves as many as you want

1. Make a lovely pot of braised vegetables: garlic, leeks, diced carrots, savoy cabbage, celery, chopped kale or even collards, and any other vegetables waiting to be included. (To braise: cook chopped pieces on low heat in just enough broth to cover them, until they start to soften). Add sugar pumpkin or squash that has been well-cooked in the microwave (or standard oven), scooped out, and whirled in the food processor with some chicken broth.  

2. Season with salt and pepper, some curry and/or cumin and add more broth. If you have left over beans or frekkah (or farro, barley, rice, or lentils), put those in too. Simmer until cooked to your liking.

3. Just before supper, add a chopped up apple. Smile and serve, with a dollop of sour cream if you wish.


Recipe from market shopper, Lorinda Moholt.

Radish Top Soup

Soup is the perfect vehicle for utilizing nutritious but coarsely textured radish tops that most of us toss in the compost. Adding them right before the soup is finished keeps their flavor subtle and soft. If you prefer them to have a mustardy bite, saute with garlic in olive oil before adding. Other spring greens, such as arugula, escarole, dandelion chicory, or turnip tops make fine substitutes.
Serves 6

Ingredients:
4 to 8 cups radish tops (to taste)
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 large russet potato (about 1 lb), scrubbed, quartered, and thinly sliced
Sea salt
4 cups water or chicken stock

For finishing:
Juice of 1 lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Yogurt
Few tablespoons thinly julienned radishes

1. Sort through the radish tops, tearing off and discarding thick stem ends or leaves that are less vibrant.

2. Melt the butter in a wide soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion slices, lay the potatoes over them, and cook for several minutes without disturbing them while the pan warms up. Then give them a stir, cover the pan, and cook over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. Add 2 tablespoons salt and the water or stock, and bring to a boil, scraping the pan bottom to dislodge any of the glaze. Lower the heat to simmer, and cook until the potatoes are tender and falling apart, about 15 minutes. Add the radish greens to the pot and cook long enough for them to wilt and go from bright to darker green, which will take just a few minutes.

3. Let the soup cool slightly, then puree it, leaving a bit of it rough if you like some texture, then return the soup to the pot. To finish, add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Ladle into shallow bowls and stir a spoonful of yogurt into each. Scatter the julienned radishes over the top and serve.


Recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy.

Potato-Black Radish soup

Ingredients
4-5 medium sized potatoes, chopped in cubes
half of a big black radish, thinly sliced
1 big yellow onion, chopped
some garlic, minced
olive oil
about a glass of white wine
enough vegetable or chicken broth to cover while simmering
sour cream (optional)

Steps
Heat the olive oil, sauté onions and garlic. Add the potatoes and stir on medium heat. Add white wine and after it evaporated cover the potatoes with a fair amount of broth. Cover with a lid and let cook on medium heat. When the potatoes are almost done, add the black radish and cook for a short time until tender. Purée and season with salt and pepper. Serve with some sour cream (optional).

recipe from shopper Myrtha Zierock Foradori

Irish Lamb Stew

Ingredients
2 pounds lamb cut into 1-inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1½ pounds red potatoes, cleaned and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 large carrots, cleaned and cut into half-moon pieces
1 turnip, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
~ Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups water
½ cup dry red wine

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Dry the lamb cubes and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a large thick bottomed Dutch oven on medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon oil. Once the oil begins to smoke, add ½ the lamb pieces and brown on all sides. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate. Add another tablespoon of oil, brown the remaining meat and transfer from plate.
3. Lower heat to medium and add the onions. Cook onions until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add wine, scraping up the browned bits of meat and onion on the bottom. Add meat and any juices on plate, thyme, bay leaf and water. Bring to a simmer, cover and place pot in the oven. Cook for 1 hour.
4. Stir in potatoes, carrots and turnips. Cover, return to oven and cook until lamb is done, about 45 minutes to an hour. Let sit for 5 minutes, taste and adjust salt and pepper as necessary. Serve.

Beans and Greens Soup

Ingredients
1 cup Dutch Bullet beans
1 bunch curly endive, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
3 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
~ water
~ salt
~ pepper
~ Pecorino Romano (optional)

Steps

1. In a medium pot, add beans and enough cold water to cover beans with one inch of water. Soak beans overnight.
2. Drain beans, rinse and put back in pot. Add enough water to cover beans by one inch. Add bay leaf and place pot on medium high heat. When the water begins to boil, lower heat and simmer beans until tender. Drain, reserving 1 cup of liquid.
3. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Sauté briefly until garlic is fragrant. Add endive, sauté until greens wilt.
4. Add beans, cooking liquid and stock. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated Pecorino (optional).

Rustic Peperonata

This colorful pepper stew is sweet and delicious in the summertime, when the peppers are ripe. You can eat it over toasted country bread as a snack, or as a vegetable with dinner. There are lots of things kids can do to help cook this dish – like mashing up the tomatoes, taking the ribs and seeds out of the peppers, and even adding the seasonings!

Rustic Peperonata

Ingredients
fresh bell peppers in a variety of colors (red, yellow, orange!)
one small ripe tomato for each pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1 small to medium yellow onion for every 2 peppers, sliced or chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Steps

1. Cut the peppers in half and take out the ribs and seeds. Cut them into strips or triangles or any shape you like.
2. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. With a knife, cut out the core of the tomato and cut a shallow X in the opposite end. Add the tomatoes to the boiling water for a minute or less, then remove them to a bowl of very cold or iced water. Peel the skin from the tomato (the hot water should have loosened it – if not, return it to the boiling water for another 30 seconds and try again). Cut the tomato in half and squeeze out the seeds, or remove them with a spoon. Mash the tomatoes a little with your hands.
3. Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a skillet large enough to accommodate all the peppers. Heat over a medium flame. Add the onions and cook until they soften and begin to turn golden.
4. Add the cut up peppers to the onions, season with salt and pepper, and cover the skillet. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, just until the peppers begin to soften and wilt. Remove the cover and continue to cook, stirring gently, until the liquid evaporates. Add the crushed tomatoes and cook for a couple more minutes, until the vegetables are all warmed through. Adjust seasonings if needed with salt and pepper.

from Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans, The Farmers' Feast

Bean, Kale, and Polenta Soup

from Ayers Creek Farm newsletter (link):

There are various versions of this classic northern Italian soup, Infarinata, that bring dry beans, cornmeal, and kale together with a bit of pork. In a conversation over lunch, Linda Colwell reminded us that La Jota of Trieste is also a variation on this rustic soup, using sauerkraut instead of kale, and fragrant with cumin. Our friend and former neighbor, China Tresemer, helped us put together this recipe.

The recipe calls for unsmoked but cured pork: guanciale or pancetta, but in a pinch, a piece of salt pork will do. You can make this dish without the meat as well. Likewise, savoy cabbage, rocket or escarole can be used for the greens. For beans, we use Borlotto Lamon which has a deep nutty flavor and pleasant sweetness. The water the bean cooks in yields a delicious broth. There are several reasons why this variety is not more available commercially: Pole beans cost more to grow. The Lamon must be handpicked and has just three or four beans per pod compared to the usual five to seven. It also ripens late, splits in the rain, and is prone to viruses. Mere details, other than that it is perfect, the most glorious of the cranberry beans.

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 cups (525g) Borlotto Lamon dry beans
Water
4 ounces (100g) unsmoked but cured pork, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 carrot, minced
1 onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 sage leaves, fresh or dried, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes, preferably your own
~ Salt and pepper
8 stalks of kale, collards, or lacinato kale, rib removed, minced
1 1/2 cups (210 g) medium-coarse flint cornmeal
~ good olive oil

Steps

1. Soak the dry beans in plenty of water overnight. Drain the beans, add fresh water to cover the beans by about 2 inches (5 cm), bring to a boil, then turn down the heat, and simmer until tender, 40 to 90 minutes.
2. In a soup pot, sauté the pork in the olive oil until it begins to turn golden. Add the minced carrot, onion, and celery, and sauté gently until the vegetables are soft. Add the garlic and the minced sage leaves. Add the tomatoes. Cook until the mixture thickens a bit, about 12 minutes. Add salt to taste. Chop the kale leaves and add to the pot. Add the beans and their liquor, topping the soup off with more water to create a good broth. Season with salt to taste.
3. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer. While the soup is simmering, trickle in the cornmeal, and stir occasionally until the polenta is tender, about 40 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
4. Serve the thick soup in shallow bowls with a good ribbon of the olive oil on top.

Vegetable Minestrone

Ingredients
For the beans:
1⁄2 cup dried beans
3 sage leaves
2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

For the soup:
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1⁄2 cup chopped bacon (optional)
4 cloves garlic, chopped, or 3 green garlic shoots (in the spring)
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (such as a mixture of thyme, sage, rosemary, and oregano)
1 leek, chopped (about 2 cups) or spring onion (with green top)
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped turnip, plus 1 cup of chopped turnip tops
1 cup chopped fennel bulb, plus 2 Tbsp. chopped fennel fronds
1⁄2 tsp. tomato paste
Kosher salt
1⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
pinch of chile flake
2 1⁄2 cups Kamut pasta, such as vegetable spirals
2 cups spinach cut into ribbons, or substitute another leafy green (such as Swiss chard, kale, or escarole)

Steps

1. Pick over the beans, sorting away any stones or bits of earth. Cover the beans with cold water and allow them to soak several hours or overnight. Drain the beans, then cover them by 2 inches with fresh cold water. Add the sage leaves and the crushed garlic cloves and simmer the beans until tender. Remove the cooked beans from the heat and season with 1⁄4 tsp. kosher salt.


2. To make the soup, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add the bacon. When the bacon is rendered and starting to crisp, stir in the chopped garlic or garlic shoots. Let the garlic sizzle for a few seconds, then add the chopped herbs. The herbs will sizzle and give off their fragrance. Add the leek and continue to cook, stirring frequently, for several minutes, until the leek has softened. Add the chopped carrot and celery. Cook for a couple of minutes, then stir in the chopped turnip and fennel bulb and fronds. Stir to combine and cook for another minute.


3. Add the tomato paste to the vegetables, mixing to coat the vegetables, and allowing it to fry a bit. Season the vegetables with 1 tsp. kosher salt, 1⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of chile flake. Add 4 cups cold water. Keeping the heat at medium, slowly bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer 5 minutes (or until the vegetables are tender).


4. Add the cooked beans, plus one cup of the bean cooking liquid, and the chopped turnip tops (if your turnips don’t have tops, you can substitute another green such as Swiss chard or kale). Stir in 4 cups additional water and 1 tsp. salt. Taste and adjust seasonings. If you would like, you may make the soup ahead to this point. If you want to freeze the soup, allow it to cool, then ladle the soup into containers and refrigerate until cold. Once the containers of soup have chilled, cover them, & place them in the freezer. When you are ready to serve, bring the soup to a boil and add the Kamut pasta. Return the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the pasta in the soup for about 7-10 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the spinach ribbons, adjust seasonings, and serve hot. If you are adding a heartier green, allow as much time as needed for it to soften in the soup.


5. If you’d like, top the soup with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.


6. Leftover soup makes a fabulous base for a Tuscan bread soup called Ribolita. Literally “re-boiled”, the re-heated soup is ladled over day-old, or stale, crustless ciabatta bread (or another airy Italian-style loaf) and the whole dish is baked in the oven until bubbly hot and pudding-like in consistency. It is eaten as a savory porridge, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. It is ideal to omit the pasta from the recipe if you intend to make ribolita, but it will work with the pasta added as well.

makes about 3 quarts

Chef Kathryn Yeomans The Farmer’s Feast http://thefarmersfeast.me