Beef & Bulgur Soup

A perfect fall or winter soup (not quite stew) made with a blend of curry spices.

Beef & Bulgur Soup
Makes 3 quarts

2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger (or 1 tsp dry)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds, whole
2 pounds stew meat, cut into 1” cubes
3 medium onions, chopped (about 3 cups)
5-1/4 cups beef broth
1 can stewed tomatoes (14.5 ounces), undrained
1 can garbanzos (15 ounces), rinsed and drained
1 cup bulgur, cracked wheat, or quick-cooking barley
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced

1. Combine fi rst six ingredients (spices) in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in large (5–6 quart) pot.
   
3. Add cumin seeds to hot oil. Cook and stir for 5–10 seconds (DO NOT BURN). Add spice mix; cook and stir another 10–15 seconds.
4. Add half of the meat and half of the onion to spice mixture in pot; cook and stir until brown. Remove meat (onion and spices can remain). Add remaining meat and onion. Cook and stir until meat is brown. Return all meat and onions to pot.
5. Stir in broth and undrained tomatoes. Bring to boiling; reduce heat, cover, and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in garbanzos, bulgur, and carrots. Return to boiling; reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20–25 minutes more, or until meat, vegetables, and bulgur are tender, stirring occasionally.

This is the kind of soup that can simmer away (covered) on the stove all day. I haven't tried it in a crock pot, but it would be tough to get the spices toasted and the beef browned that way (steps I don't recommend skipping).

Because you're adding the amount of cayenne pepper yourself, this curry blend will only be as spicy as you like. There's no harm in adding half the recommended amount, trying the final product, and adding more.

Cauliflower-Garlic Soup

One of my go-to recipes.

I clipped it out of Sunset magazine (December 2004), pasted it into a spiral notebook I was keeping for "those recipes I wanted to make," forgot about it for a stint, and finally made it.

It was fantastic. Creamy, subtle, the tiniest bit sweet and salty, not too cauliflowery, not too garlicky (why is there a "k" in garlicky? I digress...), and oh so easy.

Cauliflower-Garlic Soup
Makes 3 quarts

1 head garlic, unpeeled
1 tablespoon butter
3 heads caulifl ower (4.5 pounds total)
2 quarts chicken broth
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons chives, snipped

1. Heat oven to 400°.
2. Cut top 1/2-inch off of garlic head. Set garlic on a sheet of foil and top with butter. Draw sides of foil up around garlic and pinch together to enclose in a loose, sealed pouch.
3. Bake 45–50 minutes, until garlic is soft when pressed. Unwrap and let stand until cool enough to handle.
4. Meanwhile, cut caulifl ower heads into 1-inch fl orets, discarding leaves and stems. In a 4-quart pot, combine caulifl ower and broth. Cover, bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until caulifl ower is very tender when pierced, 12–15 minutes.
5. Squeeze garlic cloves from papery skins into pan with caulifl ower and broth; pour in cream. Working in batches, transfer to a blender and whirl until smooth (or use an immersion blender). Return soup to pan and add nutmeg. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Heat through over medium-low heat while stirring occasionally.
7. Serve with chives.

I make it just as written, save for the following:

• Cauliflower: discard the leaves and the core, but just roughly chop the rest—it's all going to be blended later anyhow
• Blending: I always use an immersion blender
• Serving: I wait to add the nutmeg until serving, grating it directly onto the soup; thyme leaves are a fantastic substitution for the chives (equally as pretty, if not more)

It's quick (save for the roasting of the garlic). You can eat it out of a bowl with a spoon or serve it in mugs and sip away.

I store the leftovers (and, because you're making 3 quarts, there will be leftovers) in a lidded pitcher in the refrigerator. This makes pouring into a bowl or mug the next day easy and you don't have to dirty another ladle.

This is an excellent soup to make when you're not feeling well, too.

Link to online recipe from Sunset here.

Zuppa Toscana

I got my car back, so now I can make soup.

I pulled this recipe off of allrecipes.com because I was feeling like eating the soup from, forgive me, Olive Garden. I haven't been there in years. I haven't had the soup in forever. (Can we call it a PMS moment?)

Anyhow, after reviewing a few recipes, I settled on this one. The recipe below is an adaptation. Followed by notes and more adaptations. Because I'm like that.

Zuppa Toscana
Makes 2 quarts (about 6 servings)

1 pound hot bulk sausage
6 slices bacon
3/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chicken soup base
6 cups water
1 pound potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices
3-6 cups kale - washed, de-stemmed, and chopped
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup hard cheese

1. Heat oven to 400°. Place bacon in a single layer on a half-sheet pan and bake 10-20 minutes, turning pan around half way through baking.
   
2. Crumble bulk sausage into a large pot and cook until done. Drain and set aside.
3. In the same pot, cook onions until translucent (3-4 minutes); add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add chicken soup base, water, and potatoes, simmer, covered, 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, crumble bacon and blot excess oil from sausage.
   
5. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer 5-10 minutes (until greens are wilted) and serve with grated hard cheese on top.

Sausage note:
Using the "hot" sausage didn't make the soup overwhelmingly hot, but I think I would have missed the heat had I gone with "regular" sausage. You can effectively use "regular" sausage with 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper if "hot" sausage is not available.

Bacon note:
I originally thought that bacon would be mandatory in this recipe. I wasn't sure I'd miss it if it weren't there. Well, I missed it. Use the bacon.

Salt note:
The first time I made this, the recipe called for 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons chicken soup base. That's a salt lick there, especially with the sausage AND the bacon contributing more than their share. I'll give you that neither my potatoes nor kale were seasoned, but it still came out too salty. And because it came out thicker than I thought it should have, I recommend 6 cups water. If your soup base is salty (Knorr is very salty, Better than Bullion less so), reduce the amount of soup base to 1 tablespoon; you can always add it in at the end.

Potato note:
I used russets and left the skin on. Do what you like.

Kale note:
I used 3 cups of washed and chopped fresh kale (the original recipe called for 2 cups), but wish I would have thrown in the rest of the bunch (about 6 cups total). Greens are good for you dammit. Eat them. And, boy howdy, is this a fine way to eat them.

Cream note:
Whipping cream is nice, but I thought I could have gotten away with half & half. Well, after making it the second time, use the whipping cream.

Cheese note:
I used some hard cheese that I had in my refrigerator (Shannon cow aged 3 years something). Use romano, parmesan, or whatever you like. I'm not picky, and I don't think you should be either.

Cost:
$1.66 Bulk Sausage (on sale)
$2.00 Bacon (for 1/2 pound)
$1.00 Onion
$0.30 Garlic
$0.75 Chicken soup base (how do you divide this cost, really?)
$0.38 Potatoes (on sale)
$2.99 Kale (I must say, I was surprised to see this was so expensive)
$0.50 Whipping cream
$1.00 Hard cheese (2 ounces)

Total: $10.58 (or 6 servings at $1.76 each)

Kielbasa & Bean Stew

This week I decided to get right to the making of the new recipe. The original recipe (online here) was for Slow Cooker Lentils and Sausage.

I tweaked the original recipe based on the comments/reviews on the website and what made sense to me.

Draining the can of tomatoes does not make sense to me. I happen to think that tomato juice in a stew is just great thankyouverymuch. So we kept that. And I thought that two cans of beef broth would be too salty (and I didn't have broth on hand) so I used only half as much bullion, but kept the water around 7 cups (the original recipe uses 6.5 cups).

I also doubled the carrots and celery (12 servings and only one carrot and one celery stick in the original recipe? That's chintzy). I added an onion, potato, and a little garlic. Because stews like that sort of thing. Oh, and did I mention I had no lentils on hand, but I happen to have six pounds of mixed beans? Well, it turned into a mixed bean soup/stew. There were lentils in there... somewhere.

Seeing as though I wasn't paying attention to the number of servings, nor did I effectively tally the amount of stuff going into my slow cooker, I didn't realize until I was dumping away that this was not all going to fit. I cooked it on high for a few hours (without the last pound of kielbasa because with everything else we were already up to the rim), then transfered it over to a 6-quart soup pot when the slow cooker started to boil over. (I thought that would be a good time.)

I'm really glad I left out the second bit of beef broth, the stew was plenty salty. The kielbasa was only a little spicy, so folks might want to grind some pepper in there at some point. Leaving in the tomato juice (from the can of diced tomatoes) and adding the potato gave the stew's liquid a hearty body. I might add more carrots and celery next time because I like that sort of thing, but I didn't feel like there was a gaping hole where veggies should be.

And now the recipe, as I made it.

Kielbasa & Bean Stew

2 pounds kielbasa, cut into 1/2" slices
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice (14 ounces)
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, cut into 1/2" slices
2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2" slices
1 potato, cut into 1" cubes
1 pound beans, lentils, or any combination thereof
7 cups water
1 teaspoon beef bullion
1 teaspoon minced garlic

Dump everything into a 6-quart slow cooker or soup pot. Cook on low 8-12 hours.

Makes 1 gallon (12 servings).

Enjoy!