Recipes & Nutrition Bits

There are a two different camps in my household: the soup lover and soup loather. Lucky for me, the people we invite to dinner belong to my camp: the soup lovers. With a “ha ha, my soup loather, you are out-numbered!” I can experiment with hearty liquid goodness without much coercion.

Last week I bought a butternut Kürbis from our local organic farmer and a winter soup was the first thing that came to mind. After I told my friends about the squash, most conveyed surprise that butternut Kürbis are available now. I had to scratch my head. For the most part the organic farmer only sells produce that falls within the season. So I guess my friends mistook the butternut for the jack o’ lantern kind because Kürbis means both pumpkin and squash in German. Although a pumpkin is a squash.. so?

My wish initially was to find a truly vegetarian soup that really didn’t need added cream to the mix to make it edible. You can’t imagine how throughly surprised I was to find a method that surpassed my expectations: so easy and only required about 10 minutes more effort than the normal recipes out there to produce a quality soup that blows the Mensa soups out of the pot.

The second surprise was that the recipe called for a corn cob. Cob? I’d never heard of that. But the aroma is heavenly. And now I want to try it in other soups.

So here is what I used to make my first attempt. It is amazingly beautiful in color and in texture. The flavor is highly addictive.

Sliky butternut “Kürbis” soup

Inspired by the Dackleprincess. This long-winded recipe is based on concise version suggested on Butter Pig. The recipe below makes enough for 6-8 soup lovers.

You can find these ingredients here in Munich rather easily.

You’ll need:
1 (approx: 1 kg) Butternut Kürbis (squash)
2 Tbs olive oil
2 (approx. 200g) Poree (Leeks)
2 (approx. 200g) carrots
2 (approx. 150g) celery stalks
1 cob of corn
150 ml of dry white wine
a few sprigs of thyme

Before Serving:
(approx. 2tsp) salt
fresh ground pepper
(approx. 2 tsp) white wine vinegar (infused with estragon)
(approx. 100ml) heavy cream (optional)

Deco:
Kürbis kernöl (pumpkin seed oil)

In a pre-heated oven at 180°C place the halved Kürbis in a pan and roast until tender. My oven needs an exorcist but for most normal ovens, Mr. Butterpig has it right and it will take about 90 minutes before it is easily scoopable.

In the meantime, clean and slice poree, cut carrots and celery into medium pieces. In a 4-Liter pot with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, cook the veggies over gentle heat, until they release their moisture. Then pour in the wine and allow the alcohol to evaporate a bit before adding the thyme and covering the veggies with water.

At this point add the corn cob and maintain the soup temperature just below boiling while the Kürbis finishes cooking.

Once the Kürbis is done, remove it from the oven, and throw away the seeds and dried stringy parts. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh and added it into the soup pot leaving behind the skin. You may need to add more water to cover the veggies. Continue simmering until all veggies are soft.

Get out a blender. You can use a hand mixer but I’d recommend a blender because you really want to puree this soup good before you pass the soup through a metal sieve (or strainer). Before blending, remove the corn cob.

In batches, blend the mixture until completely smooth, then pour that batch into a coarse mesh strainer over another pot. You may need to use the rounded back of a soup ladle to press the mixture through the sieve. This gives the soup its velvety texture. There maybe some strings or bits of pulp that can’t be pressed through the strainer. But there should only be a little bit remaining in the sieve. (don’t give up) This rest can be throwing away if you don’t want a chunky stringy soup.

Keep simmering the soup. Once the liquid is reduced to a desired consistency, add salt and pepper. That means taste the soup first, then add about 1/2 tsp of salt, then taste again. It won’t be the right amount of salt yet, so add another 1/2 salt then taste again. Repeat this until you’ve gotten the right amount of salt (about 2 tsps for my soup and I used sea salt). Do the same with the some fresh ground pepper (I didn’t add too much pepper, maybe about 3 turns)

Now taste your soup again and you’ll notice it needs a kick of something acidic. If you are new to seasoning a soup with an acid, I’d recommend dipping your finger into the wine vinegar and tasting it alone for reference. This is what you don’t want to taste from your soup.

Stir in 1/2 teaspoon-wise wine vinegar and taste in between until you noticed that the soup flavor is brighter (opposite to dull, watery, bland) (about 2 tsps for my soup). Don’t add so much that you notice that there is wine vinegar in your soup.

Now you can serve this as it is or add about 100 ml of heavy cream or more to taste and heat the soup up again until it is steamy warm. Check the taste again in case you need to re-seasoning. And of course, you can drizzle (probably better than I can) some roasted pumpkin seed oil on top to a add another flavor dimension.

creamy broccoli cheese soup brought up a hearty notchI love the taste of Chili's or Panera's Broccoli Cheddar soups, but they are engineered for the masses. They tend to be waterier and lack the heartiness (and nutrition) of homemade soups. Here's a recipe I adapted from others I have seen on the web. I hit it right on the money on the first try -excellent, thick and tasty. The vegetable measurements are estimates. You may have to add more vegetable broth if you have more veggies in your soup. Romanesco is also called Broccoflower.

+ 3 Tbs butter
+ 1 carrot, finely chopped
+ 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
+ 1/2 cup bell pepper, finely chopped
+ 2 cloves garlic, minced
+ 2 Tbs flour
+ 2 cup vegetable stock
(I use Alnatura Klare Gemüsebrühe)
+ 1 1/2 cup brocco stem pieces and some florets, chopped
+ 1 cup peeled potato, small cubes
+ 2 cups milk
+ 2 cups grated Gouda Cheese
+ 1 1/2 cups broccoli, broccoflower, cauliflower florets, bite size
+ 1/4 tsp finely grated hazelnut
+ salt and pepper to taste
+ chili sauce for garnish and spice

1. Melt 3 Tbs butter over medium heat in a large soup pot
2. Add carrot, onion, red bell pepper and garlic to pot and cook until veggies are tender.
3. Remove the pot from the burner and add 2 Tbs flour. Stir until well mixed with the vegetables.
4. Then pour in vegetable stock and return pot to burner. Whisk until stock and flour are well blended.
5. Add brocco pieces, potatoes to the stock
6. You may have to add more stock to cover the vegetables. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and cover. Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender.
7. Use a hand mixer to puree the vegetables until the mixture is thick and smooth.
8. Add 2 cups of milk and heat until the soup gets warm again
9. Sprinkle 2 cups of gouda cheese and stir until melted
10. Add brocco florets and allow to cook a bit in the simmering soup for a few minutes. Then serve

So if you've got a very dear friend who detests meat or protests against eating meat, animal sensitive, you name it. I mean very dear friend, then making Vegetarian Lumpia is a labor of love showing one's sensitivity to dear friend's lifestyle.

In the U.S. there is pre-packaged Tofu that is already doctored to look like ground beef. If you can find it, use it and save a lot of time.

+ 1 package firm Tofu
+ 1 clove garlic, puree or minced
+ 1 small spring onion, chopped
+ 1-2 Tbs soy sauce
+ 1/2 tsp black pepper
+ 1/4 cup chopped string beans
+ 1/4 cup chopped carrots
+ 1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
+ 1/4 (16 oz.) package spring roll wrappers
+ bowl of water
+ 1 1/2 quarts oil for frying

1. Rinse the tofu, pat dry and crumble the mass.
2. Fry the tofu until browned. Add the garlic and onion. Add peper and soy sauce and saute. Then let cool.
3. Add all the other vegetables and mix well. Drain any liquid that remains in mixture.
4. Remove spring roll wrappers from package and separate each sheet from one another, placing them on a plate with a moist cloth over them to keep them from drying out.
5. Then take about 1-2 tablespoons of filling and place it on a wrapper about 1.5 inches away from one of the edges. Shape the filling into a log/pencil shape, leaving about 2 inches of wrapper on either side.
6. Roll the 1.5 inch flap of wrapper over the filling, tucking the edge a bit under the filling, help to give the lumpia more shape and remove air between wrapper and filling. Be careful not to rip the wrapper.
7. Now fold the sides in. Make sure the sides aren't angled wide, rather a little angled inward.
8. Roll the wrapper until you reach the other edge and dab your finger in the water and pat around the wrapper open edge and seal the lumpia.
9. When all the lumpia are rolled. Heat the oil to medium high heat, peanut oil is the best. Fry one side until golden brown, flip over and do the same
10. Line a colander with paper towels, place fried lumpia ends facing up to drain oil. Then serve.

There are special Lumpia wrappers out there that work the best for lumpia standard. I can't find them in Germany so I use the fancier Chinese spring roll wrappers, which maybe easier to use for vegetarian lumpia because of its thickness. Experiment. And Happy Eating.