Taking the Trash In

Clean the bin soup

With the overwhelming wealth of vegetables at farmers' markets, I keep finding my fridge bins full of halves, bits, stalks and chunks that never made it into the original recipe. So about once a week of late I've been combining the leftovers into a very yummy and healthy minestrone. It's never the same but there are some key ingredients I don't vary and that's the trick to making the mess delicious. First is to throw in at the beginning a small piece of parmesan rind or if you don't have one, grate in about 1 tbsp parmesan cheese to get the same depth of flavor. Second the spices: sage, thyme, rosemary and Aleppo pepper (the mildly hot Syrian ground chili) for which you could substitute chipotle chili powder or a pinch of smoked paprika. Third, you have to toss in something starchy that will thicken the broth: leftover potatoes, small macaroni (tubettini, ditalini), fregola, or short grain rice. You can also add substance with canned beans like cannellini beans or chickpeas or red kidney beans--especially if you have some leftover from something else.  And finally, parsley or cilantro. All this sets up fabulous flavor and texture no matter what veggies you've got to work with.

What to do:

There is no fixed recipe here but you do need these basics:
 1 sm/med onion
1 med/lg carrot, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk or small piece of celeriac diced or 1 tsp celery seed
1" sq of Parmesan rind or cheese
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
 1 qt veg broth
2-3 c chopped vegetables (parsnips, cabbage, leeks, peas, mushrooms, corn, summer squashes including zucchini, sweet potato, white potato, green beans, green/red bell pepper, tomatoes etc)
1/4 c small lentils or 1/2 c cooked beans (cannellini or kidney or chickpeas)
1/4 c small pasta (fregola, tubettini, ditalini, orzo) or short grain rice or barley--whatever you have
handful freshly chopped parsley or cilantro or arugula or spinach or all or a mix
Optional: 2 tsp tomato paste

You coat the bottom of a medium sized pot with olive oil and warm it on medium heat. Add onion, carrots,

herbs and stir to coat in the oil. Add the remaining vegetables, salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste. For a bit of zip add a tsp mildly hot chili powder. Stir to blend and sauté 5 minutes. If you are using barley which needs time, add it now. Add the broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover the pot and cook 20-25 minutes. This is very forgiving so if you cook it longer, no worries. Stir in the pasta/rice and the parsley or whatever green you have. Cover and cook another 10-15 minutes until the pasta is soft.






Mixed Vegetable Slaw

This is not my photo. I can't find mine.

Again there is no recipe to follow here. You just need to grate whatever of these veggies you find in the fridge:
red cabbage
green cabbage
salad/Japanese turnip
kohlrabi
daikon
red radish or watermelon radish
carrot
golden beet
celeriac

Put whatever you grated into a serving bowl. Season this with
1 tsp dried tarragon leaves
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and freshly grated black pepper

Dress the melange with:
2 parts cider vinegar to 1 part olive oil (I can't give exact measurements because everybody will have a different amount of grated veggies.)

Garnish with chopped cilantro or celery leaves to serve.

Parsnip Lentil Soup

This is a perfectly normal, flavorful and nourishing recipe I include here because when i went to make it, I didn't have enough of one kind of lentil. So i cleaned out my lentil jar by combining all the odds and ends that were never going to stand alone: French puy lentils, baby green lentils and red lentils. Turns out, the soup is forgiving. It works as long as you have 2 cups of lentils, mixed or one kind. It's super easy to make and very soul warming.

2 1/2 lbs parsnips, peeled and chopped in chunks
1 med yellow onion, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 c olive oil (doesn't have to be top quality)
2 tsp ground cumin plus pinch of cumin seed
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp Aleppo or other mildly hot ground chili
2 c lentils (the original recipe called for red or baby green)
1 lemon, zest and juice from all of it
3 qts water or vegetable broth
1 tbsp salt
garnish: chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Put parsnips, onion and garlic in a food processor/chopped and whiz into a grated cheese consistency. (see photo) Warm olive oil in a medium soup pot over med/low heat. Stir in the spices. Add the parsnip mixture and stir to blend well with the spices.  Add lentils, lemon zest and juice. Add the water/broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover the pot and simmer until lentils are soft and the soup is thick, 45-60 minutes. Season with salt and garnish with chopped fresh cilantro leaves.





THIS IS A SHORT POST. I WILL HAVE MORE NEXT WEEK.