Minestrone Rosso
Vegetarianism can be awesome if you know how to cook delicious things. I have learned a lot from playing around with different veggies and ingredients and now I know how to enhance the flavor of my dish. Soup Minestrone is one of them.
I have cooked several batches throughout last year and found the best formula possible.
Minestrone is the kind of Italian soup that doesn’t really have a set recipe. It was usually cooked with seasonal ingredients with pasta or rice. I myself like neither pasta nor rice in my soup and believes that they have to be a separate dish. That’s why my method includes more hearty potatoes and even more veggies!
If you are not a vegetarian feel free to add pancetta or chicken stock.
If you like cheese like I do, I highly suggest making your own cheese broth!
Serving size:
6 servings
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons of olive oil
3 leeks
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
150 grams of cannellini beans
500 grams of crushed San Marzano tomatoes
6-7 potatoes
5 celery stalks
3 L of cheese or vegetable stock
1 Bay Leaf
Parmesan cheese for garnish
Parsley for garnish
Salt
Pepper
5-6 rinds from Parmesan cheese
Nutritional value per serving:
328 Calories
10.4g Fat
53.7g Carbs
8.5g Fiber
7.8g Protein
Method:
If you are making cheese broth, put Parmesan rind into the cheesecloth, bring 3 liters of water to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes. For richer broth add more rinds. Do not use soft cheese rind.
In a large pot combine olive and chopped onion. Cook the onion over medium heat until soft.
Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds and then add cut leeks.
Cook leeks for 5 minutes and add cat celery.
Cook for another 3-5 minutes and add crushed San Marzano. Cook for 5 minutes longer.
Cut potatoes, add to the pot, put the broth and bay leaf in and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are soft for 15-20 minutes.
Let the soup sit at room temperature for 10
Minutes before serving.
Serve with freshly grated Parmesan and chopped parsley.
Bon Appétit!
Asparagus, Cherry Tomato, Mushroom and Honeyed Goat Cheese Galette
During my long-term relationship with asparagus, I ‘ve’learned that many people either love it or hate it. Guess what? I am the one who is deeply in love with this ingredient and can think of a 100 recipes that I can make with asparagus.
Today we are making rather a simple recipe that is good for warm weather and is suitable for family events!
Ladies and gents: Asparagus galette!
After making a bunch of sweet galettes for get-togethers and friends parties I realized that galettes can and have to be different! I started developing recipes with asparagus but everything seemed too fancy or too complicated for a regular user. I went from asparagus with truffles and potatoes to this simple asparagus with cheese and veggies. Simple, healthy, delish!
Serving size:
Around 4
Ingredients:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of salted or unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 cup of ice cold water
300 g of asparagus
1/2 cup of white mushrooms
1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup of honeyed goat cheese (just add 1 tsp of honey to your goat cheese!)
1 lemon
Balsamic vinegar
1 egg or egg yolk
Sea salt
Everything seasoning
Nutritional value per serving:
432 Calories
38.9g Fat
41.8g Carbs
3g Fiber
21.6g Protein
How to make:
You can make the dough 2 days ahead and keep it in the fridge until needed.
In a bowl mix flour, salt, and sugar.
Add cold butter and start rubbing it into the flour using your hands.
Rub until only a pea-sized lumps remain.
Add ice cold water and form a ball.
Divide the dough into 4 parts and stack them on top of one another on a floured surface.
Roll out the dough into 0.3-inch thick oval, wrap in plastic and chill or at least 2 hours.
Curt asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms in half. Mix with salt and olive oil and set aside.
Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
Take the dough out and roll it on a floured surface.
You can use a large bowl to shape it into a nice circle.
Transfer the dough onto parchment paper and put the filling inside and crumble goat cheese over the veggies and grate zest of 1 lemon.
Wrap your galette on the sides, eggwash, sprinkle everything seasoning or sea salt over the crust and bake for 30-40 minutes.
Serve hot or cold with a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Great Depression Cooking: Tomato Bisque
In May 1933 FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) was created.
Its main goal was to alleviate household unemployment by creating new unskilled jobs in local and state government. Those jobs were psychologically more beneficial to the unemployed, who wanted any sort of job, for self-esteem, to play the role of male breadwinner. It was completely necessary during the hard times of the Great Depression.
Poor people lacked enough food in the Depression, and farmers had too much. The mismatch was solved by the FERA and WPA programs which aimed to reduce farm surpluses by government purchase and then redistribution of food to the needy.
This way some people got access to fresh produce like fresh tomatoes, turnips, rhubarb and some sorts of seasonal fruit.
Despite the fancy name tomato bisque is just a delicious soup which can be easily made and ingredients don’t cost a ton.
Pro tip: back in the 30s people didn’t have powerful blenders. Instead, housekeepers boiled tomatoes and onions and then used a sieve to pass the ingredients through making a purée. For this recipe, I used my blender to speed up a process but you can do it the old way if you want to
Serving size:
About 6
Ingredients:
6 large fresh tomatoes
1 small white onion
1,5 pints of water
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
2 tbsp of butter
0.5 tsp of baking soda
1 pint of whole milk
2 tbsp of flour
Chives, salt, and pepper for plaiting
Nutrition:
132 Calories
6.9g Fat
13.8 Carbs
2.4g Fiber
4.6g Protein
Method:
First, we need to take the skin off of tomatoes. Put them into boiling water for 1 minute, take out and take the skin off. It should come off easily.
Slice the tomatoes and the onion.
For the sieve (the old way).
Slice tomatoes and put them into a kettle with chopped onion, bay leaf, cloves, and water.
Cook until very tender and pass through the sieve.
Blend flour and butter in a pan until smooth, add tomato liquid and stir until boiling.
Cook for 5 minutes, add soda to neutralize the acidity of the tomatoes.
Add warm milk before serving.
For the blender (new way).
Melt the butter at the bottom of a deep pan, fry onion until tender on medium and add tomatoes and flour.
Cook for 2-3 minutes longer, add cloves, bay leaves, and water.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, add baking soda and cook for 5-7 minutes longer.
Purée with a blender, add milk, bring to a boil and season to taste.
Plaiting:
Pour the soup into the plates and sprinkle with freshly chopped chives and freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!
Great Depression Cooking: Cream Of Celery Soup With Spinach Pesto
During the 1930’s Americans sought to escape the horrors of the Great Depression by listening to the radio or spending a dime to go to the movies. Around 60-80 million people went to the movies every week.
The most popular films during the era were ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939), ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937), ‘King Kong’ (1933), the ‘Wizard of Oz’ (1939) and ‘Mr. Smith goes to Washington’ (1939) or simply the classic movies is how we remember them by.
Mickey Mouse was an extremely popular character since he first appeared on television right before the great depression in 1928.
Housewives made a lot of “comfort” soups, usually creamed or with canned proteins. Today we are going to make an easy cream of celery soup.
Pro Tip: just like tomato bisque, it needs to be processed through the sieve (the old way) or you can puree it in a blender (modern way).
Serving size:
4 servings
Ingredients:
3 cups of cut celery
1 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of flour
2,5 cups of milk
1 cup of spinach
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 clove of garlic
30g of any nuts
Salt
Pepper
Nutrition:
308 Calories
26.3g Fat
13g Carbs
2.4g Fiber
7.6g Protein
Method:
Boil celery stalks until very tender and drain.
Melt butter in a saucepan with flour, slowly adding milk.
Cook until slightly thick.
Rub celery through the sieve or puree in a blender.
Add celery to the milk mixture and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste
Cook spinach in boiling water for 1-2 minutes and put into ice cold water.
Mix spinach with vegetable oil, nuts and garlic, and puree in a blender.
Plaiting:
Pour soup into a bowl and add a few ball drops of spinach pesto over the top. Decorate with freshly ground black pepper.
Great Depression Cooking: Potato Salad With Homemade Cooked Dressing
After reading a book about great depression “A square Meal”, I started wondering: “What caused the country to break into pieces? What happened before the great depression? What did the people eat?”.
I stumbled upon a book called “Poison squad” by Pulitzer Prize Winner – Deborah Blum.
This book shocked me to the ends of my hair. I thought the Great Depression was bad but in fact, before, the food in the US was even worse…Generally speaking, people ate embalmed meat filled with poisonous formaldehyde (for preserving), coal tar dye (for color), and borax (also for preservation) without even knowing how many chemicals they consume. Many of the chemicals caused unfortunate lethal circumstances.
The protagonist of this story is Dr. Harvey Whiley who was fighting for the transparency, food purity and general requirements that we see on the packages today. Thanks to Dr.Whiley, every product we consume has a thorough ingredient list and the government has requirements for food processing.
We all know that the best and the purest foods are homemade, so let’s look at an easy potato salad that contain homemade cooked dressing which also goes well with other salads.
Pro tip: cooked dressing recipe from the Great Depression era contain sugar. I think it is unnecessary, so I did not use it at all. If you still want to make it the “right” way, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of white sugar.
Ingredients for dressing:
3 tbsp of flour
1/2 tsp of mustard
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of paprika
1/8 tsp of pepper
2 eggs well beaten
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of melted butter
Ingredients for salad:
2 cups of new potatoes diced
2 eggs
1 small onion chopped
4 celery stalks
1/2 cup of cooked salad dressing ^^
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Method:
Let’s make the dressing first. In the top of the double boiler (if you don’t have it, use a saucepan with boiling water and a large metal bowl) put the butter, eggs, mustard, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring with a whisk until the mixture starts to thicken.
Add all flour, paprika and whisk for a minute. Mix vinegar with water and start adding slowly.
Cook until the mixture is nice and smooth and do not stop whisking, otherwise, you will get an omelet.
Cool and store in the fridge.
Boil and dice the potatoes. Cool them down.
Boil and dice the eggs and cool them down.
Dice celery and onion and put it into a big bowl. Mix in cold potatoes and eggs.
Season with salt, pepper, paprika and cooked dressing to taste.
Serve!
Roasted Brussel Sprouts With Honey And Goat Cheese
Thanksgiving is always associated with indulging into massive piles of food and lack of healthy options on the table. I found that one ingredient that is both seasonal and comes out right before the celebration and healthy. Bring some Brussel sprouts to the table this year and your stomach will say “thank you!”
Pro tip: There is no easier way than roasting this beautiful vegetable. Simply throw it on a tray and play the waiting game while preparing other dishes. So easy, you won’t believe it.
Serving size:
4 servings
Ingredients:
1 kg Brussels sprouts
2 sprigs of rosemary
3 tbsp of honey
4 tbsp of crumbled goat cheese
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp of olive oil
Nutrition:
322 Calories
15.4g Fat
44.6g Carbs
11.8g Fiber
11.4g Protein
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F/180C
Mix Brussels sprouts with honey, rosemary, a little salt, pepper, and olive oil.
Roast for about 25 minutes, add goat cheese and serve.
Easy, right?:)
Strawberry Salad With Goat Cheese
This salad starts my story in Los Angeles. It is hot, a little humid and I noticed that for the past 4 days I don’t want to eat heavy meals. Maybe meat comes later but now let’s check out this fresh and crunchy strawberry salad with goat cheese, spinach, red onion and a bunch of other healthy stuff.
This recipe contains video instructions at the end.
Pro tip: Fat-free balsamic dressing from Trader Joe’s is no different for any other balsamic dressing and actually tastes great. Plus it contains fewer calories!
Serving size:
4 servings
Ingredients:
12 strawberries ripe (medium-sized)
8 cups of spinach
8 tbsp of sunflower seeds
Half of red onion
80 grams of crumbled goat cheese
4 cucumbers
Salt
Pepper
4 tbsp of balsamic dressing (fat-free from Trader Joe’s)
Nutrition:
251 Calories
14.6g Fat
23.8g Carbs
5.4g Fiber
11.3g Protein
Method:
Cut strawberries in quarters, dice onion and cucumber, crumble the goat cheese. Combine all that with spinach, sunflower seeds, salt, pepper, and balsamic dressing. Mix well and serve immediately.
