Chickenless Noodle Soup

Winter is coming...and it's time for soup! I don't know why, but I keep thinking about Campbell's. Campbell's chicken noodle soup. I loved it when I was a young person, because it was one of those things I could "make" for myself. Sure, you opened up the can, dumped it into a pan and just heated it up. But, it felt so grown up. Sometimes, you would add milk instead of water to make a creamy soup. Other times, you loaded it so full of crackers that it soaked up all of the broth and you just ended up with this wet, starchy deliciousness. I want that soup.

As a vegetarian, I have eaten a lot of analog meatless products--both purchased and made--but I really like Beyond Meat Beyond Chicken. And they aren't paying me to say this with a year's supply of product or anything. It's simple and easy to use on pizza, in salad, with pasta and in tacos. So I was thinking, why not chicken noodle soup?

For my broth, I used a combination of chicken flavored vegetarian broth and a kombu dashi; added onion, carrots and celery; finally pasta rings, Beyond Meat and herbs. Simple, nourishing...and nostalgic. It was memory in a bowl.

Recipe: Chickenless Noodle Soup

• Three pieces kombu seaweed
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 4 medium-sized carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 4 stalks of celery, trimmed, halved a thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 32-ounce container No-chicken broth
• 3-4 twigs of fresh thyme
• 1/2 pound small pasta Os, noodles, broken spaghetti, ditalini or even orzo
• Salt to taste
• 1 9-oz package Beyond Chicken, thawed enough to slice and shred

To make the dashi:

Rinse the kombu and wipe gently with a cloth, but not too much--the powdery coating is what helps add flavor to the dashi. Place in a saucepan with four cups of cold water; let stand for 15 minutes. Turn the heat to medium and slowly warm the water to just below boiling, about 10 minuts. Do not boil! Turn off the heat, remove the kombu and strain the dashi into a measuring cup. 

To make the soup: 

In a heavy stockpot or Dutch, combine the onion, carrots and celery with the olive oil and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the thyme, broth and dashi, then simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Remove the thyme twigs, but keep the leaves. Add the pasta and cook until it is tender, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the Beyond Chicken lengthwise, then shred the pieces with your hand or a fork. Add to the soup and simmer until warm. Serve in large bowls with big spoons and saltine crackers.

Let There Be Lentils

One of my friends thinks that as vegetarians, all we eat are lentils. I have to say that I do love lentils and prepare them in a variety of ways, from traditional Middle Eastern preparations to crispy tacos with lentil filling. Lentils are easy to prepared, incredibly affordable and delicious--especially as the weather gets cooler, their earthy flavor is the perfect thing. Here are my top five lentil recipes:

1. My own recipe for mujadara, the satisfying Lebanese combination of lentils and rice.

2. These tacos which include smoked paprika in the lentils, which is a great partner to their earthiness. 

3. This amazing lentil gravy from the doyenne of vegan cooking Isa Chandra Moskovitz is fantastic on so many things: biscuits, chickenless patties, sausage...you name it!

4. This lentil curry from Martha uses prepared lentils to speed your cooking along on a busy weeknight. 

5. I haven't made this yet, but this soup uses red lentils and lemon which sounds delightful.

Pound

When my Mam-ma (Mildred) was alive, I would often call her to ask how to make this or that and for advice in the kitchen.  She had a lifetime of knowledge, growing up on a farm, cooking for her family as a young mother and preparing meals for many, many people over the years.  I remember once we were on the phone when I was in college talking about cakes and her yummy pound cake; she dictated the recipe and I scrawled it on the inside cover of one of my cookbooks.  It's call "Jewish Pound Cake," but I'm not sure why.  One of her friends she taught with was Jewish, so perhaps she got it from her?  I've retitled it 'Mildred's Long Distance Pound Cake' here and created a lemon glaze to top it off.  I have her bundt pan which I could have used, but instead I made individual cakes using baking papers.  Today would have been her 95th birthday.

Mildred's Long Distance Pound Cake
The original recipe called for vanilla and a mixture of cinnamon and nuts to be added with half of the batter; I combined two of Mildred's recipes to create this lemon flavored version.  This batter is very spongy and springy, so don't be surprised or scared of it.

2 cups sour cream
2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick butter (1/4 pound), softened
2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla or lemon extract
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
(scant) 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

In a bowl that holds more than two cups, combine the sour cream and baking soda (it will expand!) and place it in fridge. Combine the dry ingredients and whisk until aerated. With a stand mixer or hand mixer and bowl, cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until they are combined, then the lemon extract. Add half of the flour and mix until combined, then the sour cream and finally the rest of the flour.  Scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula and make sure everything is mixed in properly.  

Spray a bundt pan with nonstick baking spray and add the batter.  Alternatively, divide between 15-20 baking papers (depending on size).  For the bundt pan, bake for 40-50 minutes.  For smaller cakes, bake for about 30 minutes.

Lemon Glaze
This sweet and tart glaze has a real zip of lemon thanks to the lemon zest and extract, so it complement the not-so-sweet pound cake perfectly. 

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon extract

Combine all if the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.  With a skewer, poke hole in the top of the cakes and top with the glaze. 

Beans Glorious Beans!

I have to tell you that my mother knows how to stretch a dollar and feed a crowd.  She could do a million and one things with ground beef; enough to make your head spin with innumerable delicious variations.  And beans?  We had many meals that revolved around a big pot of beans that could be navy beans with ham or just pinto beans cooked to perfection.  Of course, there was usually cornbread to go along with it which we happily slathered in butter mixed up with molasses in true country fashion.  During the winter, beans fill the belly and warm the soul and a pot cooked beans on your stove is so much better that opening a can.  Not to mention more economical!

Steps for Great Pot of Beans

1. Sort and rinse your beans.  In a world of perfectly processed foods, we're used to every little detail being taken care of, but with dried beans, you might find a tiny pebble or some dirt.  You want to go over them carefully and make sure they're all good.  After, rinse your beans in a large colander and get them all ready to go into the pot.
2. I prefer the quick soak method, so now put your beans in a pot and cover them with about one inch of fresh, cold water.  Turn the heat up to medium and bring the pot to a boil.  Once it comes up to a boil, turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it set for two hours.
3. Now, some people will cook their beans in this water, but I say no to that.  You want to rinse the beans, rinse the pot and then return them to the pot again covered with about one inch of fresh, cold water.
4. Now, add some flavor.  Most cooks believe that salting the water while the beans cook can make them tough or take longer to cook, so I don't add salt until after the beans are done.  However, I do add some other flavorings.  Use whatever you like, but I usually throw in a couple of bay leaves, several cloves of garlic and then I'll put some black peppercorns and crushed red pepper in a tea ball and toss that in as well.  Your kitchen will smell so good and the beans will be infused with all of the flavor.
5. Cook those beans!  Bring the heat back up to medium and your beans up to a simmer; now cook them for about two hours or until they are done.  Depending on how old the beans are, it can take a shorter or longer amount of time for them to get tender.

How to make them delicious?
In a skillet, cook one onion that is very finely diced in oil until it is soft and translucent.  Add a couple of cloves of garlic that have been minced and two jalapeno peppers that have the seeds and ribs removed and are finely diced.  Cook all of this until the peppers are soft, then add to the beans with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Depending on how much water your beans absorbed and how much pot liquor you want to include, you may want to drain off some of he liquid.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Serve the beans with cornbread!  Or try strips of freshly fried tortilla, fresh tomato and diced avocado.  A squeeze of lime adds a bright counterpoint to the earthiness of the beans.  Rich and delicous, this bowl of beans is a satisfying meal for a cold January day.  Peasant food at its simplest and best.

And after?  Always make more beans than you think you will eat because you can use them after in burritos or mash them up and serve them with rice.  Once you have the beans cooked, the things you can cook with them are limitless.

Greens

For New Years, my grandparents usually cooked up black eyed peas, some winter greens and a little fat back.  I won't go into the details of fat back, but suffice it to say it smelled to high heaven and isn't eaten at herr haus.  Greens, however, that is another story.  And what goes great with greens? Andouille sausage.  

And guess what? Tofurky has come out with a vegan andouille as part of their new artisan line!  And I have to say, it's a little spicy and pretty delicious with a mess of Swiss chard and some brown rice to soak up all of the pot liquor.

Recipe: Garlicky Swiss Chard

• Olive oil
• 1 onion, in a very small dice
• 2 bunches of rainbow Swiss chard, butchered according to the directions below
• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
• Liquid smoke
• Salt and pepper to taste

To prepare the chard, cut the leafy part of the greens away from the thick stem.  Also, cut out any of the thick veins that may be at the lower end of the leaves if they are the really large ones.  Now, I usually take the stems and make sure all of the greens are trimmed off, then I trim the top and the bottom and make long slices (two or three, depending on the size of the stems) in the thicker part of the stem.  Now, I gather them all up and slice them as fine as I possibly can.  The stems take longer to cook than the greens, but it doesn't mean they aren't edible and delicious...

You can do all of this while the onion is cooking (about 10 minutes) on medium heat in the olive oil in a nice, large lidded pot.  Now add the Swiss chard stems and continue to cook for about five more minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.  Your kitchen should be smelling fantastic right about now.

At this point, add the crushed red pepper, rice wine vinegar, a dash of liquid smoke then salt and pepper to taste, stirring and cooking everything for another two to three minutes.  Add the greens and stir to combine everything, then cover the pot and let them cook for three to five minutes.  The greens should be good and wilted, so just taste and adjust the seasoning, then your ready to eat.

Stir in some delicious sausages you cooked in another skillet and serve with a little bit of rice.  It's all so nice!

Winter Salads

During the winter, we all tend to eat slightly richer dishes: pastas, casseroles and other baked things. Especially during the holidays! These are comforting dishes that help us make it through the dark days, but they also need something light and refreshing to accompany them during a time when fresh produce can be expensive or unappealing.  A crisp winter salad is just the thing to perk up those tired taste buds and provide a vibrant counterpoint to all of that yummy winter fare.  Creating a satisfying winter salad is easy, think: crunchy, cruciferous vegetables; rich, earthy nuts; and the bright notes of all the winter citrus.  Keep it simple, choosing the best from each category that you can find and perhaps even cooking or roasting some of your ingredients for a little variety.  A salad doesn't have to be just lettuce and some soupy dressing, it can be any combination of things that are fresh, delicious and inspiring. 

Here are three of my favorites: 

Salad Greens with Citrus Vinaigrette
A citrus vinaigrette like this can be used in a variety of ways besides just salad greens: try sliced Persian cucumbers, steamed cauliflower and slivers of olives with almonds, or little pastas, cherry tomatoes and little broccoli florets.  Kale!

 Dama Bianca (The White Lady)
This classic Italian salad combines three ingredients whose sum is greater than their parts: fennel, sliced very thin; celery hearts and leaves; and the freshest mozzarella you can buy.  Instead of slicing the cheese, just shred it with your hands to add a rustic touch and great textural variation. 

Green Apple and Celery Salad with Walnuts (or Pecans!) and Mustard Vinaigrette
Celery...again?  Yes, but this time combined with crunch, sweet Granny Smith apples and nuts.  The recipe calls for walnuts, but I have delicious pecans in the freezer and used those instead.  To perfection!

Don't let your salad bowl go empty just because it's winter!