I’m going to make Vegetarian Matzo Ball soup today, so I decided to make homemade vegetable stock.

First time

This is the first time I’ve made homemade vegetable stock, but I’m confident that I can create something tasty. My homemade chicken stock (which I don’t make anymore) had an abundance of vegetables in it to help it taste fab.

Waste not, want not

Making homemade stock is a great way to use up veggies in your fridge. Here’s what I put in my stock today:

Ingredients

Carrots
Parsley
Mushrooms
Bell peppers
Anaheims
Yellow tomatoes
Red tomatoes
Tomatillos
Sweet onion
Parsnips

For seasoning, I added:

Capful garlic powder
Capful Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper
Capful Onion powder
Capful celery root powder (since I didn’t have fresh celery to throw in the pot)

Method

The secrets to great stock are patience, slow simmering, and doing as little prep to your veggies as possible. Wash all veggies and remove any loose skin from onions and tomatillos. Do NOT peel, cut or anything — put the veggies into your pot whole. Exceptions for me are if the vegetables have a thick, waxy coating on them from the produce department (such as parsnips). If that’s the case, I definitely peel them.

Cover all your veggies with water, bring to a boil, then reduce your heat, cover and simmer all day.

Strain and discard the vegetables from the stock, taste the stock and add salt or other seasoning to your taste. Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy!

PS – looking for a vegan matzo ball recipe? Check this out.

After reading a recipe for chana masala on VegWeb, I decided to adapt it slightly and create my own.  Here’s my quickie recipe, which turned out pretty deliciously:

• Two 15-oz cans of chick peas, drained and rinsed, but with 6 tablespoons of the can liquid reserved
• 7 oz Light Coconut Milk (I used Trader Joe’s brand)
• 5 oz Tomato paste
• One medium onion, finely chopped
• Two cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2/3 tablespoon curry powder
• 2/3 tablespoon Garam Masala

Optional: 1/4 cup chopped parsley for garnish, cubed tofu

Saute the onion and garlic in the margarine over medium high heat, until soft and transparent.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add the curry, coconut milk, garam masala, reserved liquid and tomato paste; stir to gently combine.  Add chick peas, gently stir to combine. Taste & adjust seasonings (Eric doesn’t like really spicy stuff, so you may want to add more curry or garam masala).  Very gently add the tofu, if you are including it. Heat through, then serve over steamed rice and garnish with chopped parsley.  I also served lightly steamed peas as a side dish.

Note — so many iterations of this recipe appear on VegWeb and all over the internet.  Some people talked about adding peas or cubed tofu to the sauce.  This seems like a fairly forgiving sauce that you can adjust to your liking.

Asparagus asparagus (can you do the fandango)

Originally uploaded by itsjustanalias

Spring is the perfect time to reach for delicious asparagus. I’ve become a fan of the new show, “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.” In surfing his web site this morning, I came across this lovely-sounding Asparagus Soup recipe. Although I’ll be skipping the ciabatta since it’s Passover, I’ll sub matzo for the ciabatta. And, if you’re vegan, you can skip the poached egg as well.

I’ve printed Jamie’s recipe just as published. Love his language and cooking terms!

Creamy Asparagus Soup

by Jamie Oliver

Read the recipe and article by clicking here.

Ingredients

• 800g asparagus, woody ends removed (slightly less than 2 pounds)
• olive oil
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 litres good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 small very fresh free-range or organic eggs
• 8 slices of ciabatta bread
• a knob of butter
• extra virgin olive oil

Method

Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup bit by bit (this is important) with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.

Just before I’m ready to serve the soup, I get a wide casserole-type pan on the heat with 8 to 10cm of boiling water. Using really fresh eggs, I very quickly crack all 10 into the water. Don’t worry about poaching so many at the same time. They don’t have to look perfect. A couple of minutes and they’ll be done, as you want them to be a bit runny. Toast your ciabatta slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a knob of butter to them. To serve, divide the soup between eight warmed bowls and place a piece of toast into each. Put a poached egg on top, cut into it to make it runny, season and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

How do I prep leeks?

I confess not cooking often with leeks. I understand they are quite sandy. Here’s a great how to from Real Simple magazine on prepping your leeks:

Just getting back into town after managing a conference for a client in New Orleans.  New Orleans cooking is interesting, and I enjoyed it, but between the high fat (lots of butter and cream) hotel food and the long hours, I’m very ready for some good veggie dishes that are easy to whip up at home.  This one is on my list for this weekend.  Hat tip to the Reduce Footprints blog, where I found this recipe.

Skillet white beans, spinach & tomatoes over Linguine

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano (do not drain)
1 can any white beans (I use Great Northern or Navy usually)
1 package fresh spinach
6 cups cooked linguine
6 Tablespoons Vegan Parmesan “cheese” (the original recipe calls for Romano or Parmesan cheese, grated)

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet.
2. In a separate pan start boiling water for linguine and get linguine cooked while you continue.
3. Add garlic, saute for a minute or so.
4. Add tomatoes and beans and bring to a boil.
5. Cover with spinach, top with lid, reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
6. Spoon tomato/beans/ spinach mixture over linguine and sprinkle with cheese.

This makes 6 servings of 1 cup of pasta, 1 cup of sauce and 1 tablespoon of cheese.

Green is beautiful

Originally uploaded by Just Nora

Delicious! This is the second morning I’ve concocted this breakfast drink for Eric and I and it’s just as delicious today as yesterday. Here are the ingredients:

1 banana, peeled
1 clementine, peeled
1 carrot, washed but unpeeled (I trimmed the end off)
a handful of green grapes
a large handful of washed baby spinach
1 green apple, washed and cored but with skin left on
a handful of ice cubes

Whirl all together in the Vita-Mix, drink and enjoy!