End-of-the-Month Soup

My camera battery is dead and the charger has disappeared, so the picture for this post is currently trapped on the camera. I'll upload it as soon as I can.

ETA: Woohoo! Charger recovered, battery charged, picture posted!



You may have noticed that I skipped the Salad Days post yesterday. It wasn't an oversight, and I'm not canceling the Salad Days series. In fact, I didn't do a salad entree this week for a very simple reason: we had run out of fresh greens, but we still had plenty of other ingredients on hand, and since it's the end of the month and I wanted to stick to our January budget, I decided not to buy more salad greens this week. So, no salad entree. Instead, I made a simple vegetable-bean soup. The carrots that we got at the beginning of the month from our winter CSA had gone a bit soft, so they weren't great for crunching raw, but they would work just fine in a soup. Ditto for the celery we bought a couple of weeks ago. These withering vegetables made the basis for a tasty, satisfying, and very cheap meal. I served it with some homemade focaccia - a first for me, and since I'm not fully satisfied with that recipe yet, I'm not posting it here.

End-of-the-Month Soup

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium-size onion or 3-4 shallots
3-4 cloves garlic
3-4 carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 small potatoes, diced
2 cups cooked chickpeas (frozen or canned okay)
28oz can tomatoes (whole or diced)
broth, any flavor (optional)
2 teaspoons Italian herb blend
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil over medium-low heat in a large soup pot. Add the onions and garlic and cook until onions are translucent. Add the carrots and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 3-5 minutes. Add potatoes, chickpeas, tomatoes, and spices. Fill the now-empty tomato can with water and add the water to the pot. You can substitute stock for some or all of the water. I used some water, plus a small wedge of frozen concentrated turkey stock that I made with Thanksgiving leftovers. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender.

This is just a very basic bean and veggie soup and you can easily substitute whatever you have on hand. This would be great with fresh or frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and corn, too. I used chickpeas straight from the freezer, but you could also us canned chickpeas or any other kind of bean (black, kidney, etc.).

A note on carrots: if your carrots are organic, or if you're not concerned about pesticides, don't peel them first - just scrub them well. The carrot skin has a lot of great fiber in it that gets lost when you peel. The same goes for the potatoes.

Also, a note on canned tomatoes: yesterday I said that canned vegetables aren't the best and today I'm writing up a recipe with canned tomatoes in it. What gives? Well, tomatoes are rare in that their nutritional content actually improves in the canning process. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant which is less available to us in raw tomatoes. Heat helps break down the cell walls and release more lycopene, so canned or cooked tomatoes actually offer more benefits than raw ones.

Dinner, Part 1: Roasted Chickpeas

Yes, today's post is late, late, late! I had some technical difficulties, but if you're reading this, then I finally got everything worked out. Anyway, here's the first part of the menu from Sunday's dinner with Amanda and Gordie: roasted chickpeas. I wouldn't exactly call them an appetizer - more a light pre-dinner snack, something to nibble on during the last few minutes of cooking.


Chickpeas are great because they are packed with both fiber and protein; roasting them makes a tasty, crunchy snack that is akin to popcorn but more nutritious. You can use canned chickpeas for convenience, but they are more expensive than the dried ones and often have lots of added salt and preservatives. I buy Goya dried chickpeas in one-pound bags from my local Price Chopper, where they usually cost between $1.00 and $1.50 per pound, but you might be able to find them even cheaper in the bulk section of your co-op or supermarket. Cooking them takes some time, but it's basically hands-off, so it's great for a day when you are doing things around the house: I'll usually soak them overnight on Friday, cook them Saturday, and freeze whatever I don't use that day. They keep well frozen and if placed in the fridge in the morning, they'll be thawed and ready to use by dinner.

Roasted Chickpeas

2-3 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or 1/2 pound dried chickpeas, cooked
2 tablespoons olive oil
garam masala* or spice of your choice, to taste
salt, to taste

Set oven to 375. Toss chickpeas with olive oil and spread in one layer on a cookie sheet. Season liberally with spice of your choice; sprinkle lightly with salt. Roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. Chickpeas are ready when they are golden, crispy on the outside, and tender inside.

*A note about garam masala: garam masala is an Indian spice blend that is readily available in most supermarkets. If you can't find it in the spice section, check the natural foods section, which is where I found mine. The specific combination of spices can vary widely but often included are cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, and coriander. The version I have also includes cloves and black pepper. It's a wonderful way to add sweet and savory flavors to a dish. Roasted chickpeas can be made with any seasoning you think you'd like - for instance, chili powder or garlic salt - but garam masala is by far my favorite.

tasty (but fleeting) hummus

Isn't that a lovely bowl of hummus? Or rather, wasn't it a lovely bowl of hummus? You see, I made this big load of hummus Saturday and intended for it to last several days. We took some Saturday for our hike to Boston Lot Lake, where we had a nice little picnic by the water. Then I had some for lunch yesterday. There should have been plenty left for lunches this week. But the bowl slipped out of my hand and shattered into a dozen pieces, held together somewhat by the glue of the hummus, which was spread over the floor and studded with glazed pottery chips. What a waste!

My whole life, my mother and grandmother have told me that I'm like a bull in a china shop, and I'm afraid it's true. In the past month, I've burned myself five times, hit my head more times than I can count, and stubbed my big toe so bad that the nail split horizontally and vertically and will probably fall off soon. I've got half a dozen bruises of unknown origin, since I'm so used to bumping into things I barely even notice when it happens.

The shards are now drying, having been rinsed of their hummus, and I should be able to glue them back together, though the reassembled bowl won't be any good for liquids. The hummus, however, was unsalvageable. At least I can share this recipe with you; hopefully you can avoid my clumsy fate.

SARAH'S HUMMUS
1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned okay, but it's so much cheaper to cook your own!)
1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 TSP cumin
1 TSP salt
a small bunch of fresh parsley
water

Put the first six ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. You will probably need to stop and scrape down the sides a few times. Add water as necessary to facilitate blending, but don't go overboard! Depending on how soft your chickpeas are and how you like your hummus, the amount of water can range from a couple of teaspoons to a quarter of a cup. Adjust seasonings to taste. When the hummus is as smooth as you want it, add the parsley and pulse a few times. Keeps well for several days in a covered dish in the refrigerator. Serve with crackers, crispbread, or crudites.

Feel free to experiment with the seasonings. This is my preferred mix, but you can also add chili powder, finely chopped red peppers, scallions, or other herbs or spices. You can also use lemon juice in place of water.

For extra-smooth hummus, you need to remove the chickpea skins. Traditional hummus is very smooth and thin; personally, I like a more substantial, hearty dip, so I leave the skins on and make it pretty thick.