This morning I was catching up on reading other blogs and came across a recipe for Kale & Roasted Vegetable Soup. I thought it was interesting but have family members who don’t like kale, and it was also a vegan recipe, and I think we all know how I feel about Vegans, (they should be roasted and served with a cream sauce) so there were some obvious adjustments that needed to be made to that recipe, and since I like to fiddle I changed quite a bit of it to come up with the recipe for Roasted Vegetable Soup that follows.
Later in the morning I was tweeting over at twitter.com and saw the obnoxious but funny bot script @Br3ndaBot insulting someone I hadn’t seen before so I checked out @teobromina and came across her blog where she had posted Chancho en amapola I don’t read Spanish but the awesome @LyleDAL thought to run it through Google’s translator and it turned out to be sausage wrapped in puff pastry and coated with poppy seeds, and now I had the perfect accompaniment for my soup. I ended up using chicken sausage for mine and it was amazing.
And there you have how Web 2.0 and social media created a delicious and healthy meal that is still lingering on my palette hours later.
Note: Photos from this cooking experiment are in a flickr set in the order you’d need to see them for assistance.
Roasted Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:
1/2 butternut squash peeled seeded cut length wise into 1/2 by 1/2 in strips
4 carrots peeled cut in half lengthwise
5 plum tomatoes halved lengthwise
1 large yellow onion quartered
1 head of garlic
1 roasted red pepper (jarred roasted red pepper)
A few threads of saffron
1/4 cup white wine
3 cups veggie stock
3 cups chicken stock
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 of a 9 ounce bag of spinach
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 15 oz can of cannelini beans drained but not rinsed.
Sea Salt
Black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Equipment:
Food processor (or blender)
Roasting pan(s)
6-8 quart stock pot
Knives, tongs, mixing spoons, basting brush, measuring cup, cutting boards.
Start:
Preheat oven to 400F
Arrange the butternut squash and carrots onto a pan and drizzle with olive oil S&P.
Peel and quarter the onion, set aside 1/4 of the onion, cut 3 remaining quarters in half lengthwise into 6 wedges arrange on pan and drizzle with olive oil S&P
Cut plum tomatoes in half arrange on pan and drizzle with olive oil S&P
Cut top off the head of garlic brush with oil, surround with foil pour a little oil over top and close foil wrapping tightly.
Roast vegetables and garlic for 40 minutes, then set aside to cool for 10 minutes
While the vegetables are roasting:
Roughly chop remaining quarter of onion add to a pan with 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter (I use French butter). Chop the pepper roughly add to pan and sautee until onions are translucent (10-15 minutes). Add saffron threads, cook two more minutes, add the wine and cook until the wine is gone. Transfer mixture to the food processor.
After the vegetables have cooled for 10 minutes add the onion, and tomatoes to the food processor with the sauteed onions and peppers, squeeze the roasted garlic from its skin and put in food processor, add one half cup of the vegetable stock and puree until almost smooth.
Transfer the puree to the stock pot add the thyme and remaining vegetable stock and chicken stock, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile cut the carrots and butternut squash in to roughly 1/2 inch cubes, chop the spinach roughly.
After 20 minutes remove the thyme sprigs, peeling the leaves off if they haven’t fallen off while cooking. Add the carrots, squash, spinach and the beans, simmer 20 minutes longer adjusting salt and pepper as needed. Lastly add the remaining tablespoon of butter. Stir until blended and serve.
