more favorites from They Draw and Cook

I've been trying to post a recipe a week, but I've been struggling with a minor head cold for over a week now and while I've been cooking a bit, don't have anything beautiful or interesting to share with you this week. So I figured now would be a great time for my to share more of my favorites from They Draw and Cook! (I know my  links in that post are dead, I'll fix them soon.)

Above is Ekaterina Muratova's Summer Vegetable Soup. I love the character of the little people assembling the soup, and their beautiful shadows. A really wonderful and wonderfully executed idea.

Chickpea Dip by Sali Swindell. Fantastic composition and linework, really satisfying!

I love the simplicity and innocence of this Little Star Soup by Stefanie Hess. Great use of negative space.

Wonderfully laid-out and delicious-looking, I can't wait to try making this Yaprak Sarma by Serkan Toros.

Fennel Saute, another beautiful recipe by Sali Swindell. More gorgeous layout, typographic, shapes, and lines.

I love the old-fashioned specimen-style in this Butternut Squash Soup by Heidi Aldin Monteleone. Very classic style.

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I love this light, colorful roasted red pepper soup. This recipe is modified from a number of places on the web and a couple favorite recipe books. It makes a great starter or main dish for a light meal; I had plenty of leftovers that were a lovely addition or star of thrown-together meals for a couple days. 

It's harder than usual for me to estimate how many people this would feed, because it's so light and can be used so many different ways in a meal. But based on the amount of liquid, I'm going to say that, in a full-sized soup bowl (rather than a cup-sized one) it will feed between 4 and 6 people. Estimating the prep and cooking time is difficult too; I always plan a lot of extra time when making this so my soup can cool before I blend it (I have one of those blenders that hates blending boiling-hot liquids, and no immersion blender) and then reheat it. I'd say if you have an immersion blender, though, the whole process takes between 40 and 50 minutes. 

(above: a not-fully-roasted yet red pepper)

VEGAN ROASTED RED PEPPER SOUP

4 large red bell peppers

1 medium sweet onion, peeled and diced

1 large russet potato, peeled and diced 

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

3 - 5 cloves garlic 

4 cups vegetable stock (or water, if necessary, though the soup will be even lighter and slightly less flavorful) 

1/4 cup vegan white wine (optional) 

cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste

to garnish: vegan sour cream, soy creamer, etc. (optional) 

(above: roughly chopped peeled and roasted red peppers and peeled carrots) 

To roast the peppers: If you have a gas stove, you can use tongs to hold the peppers one at a time over the flame of your stove. Turn the peppers frequently. The skin will start to pop, blister, and turn black. Unlike my photos, the skins should be almost entirely black, and already beginning to peel from the pepper. (For more on roasting peppers and different methods of roasting peppers, check out this thorough eHow article on it.) 

A lot of recipes say to put your peppers in a sealed plastic bag after roasting them, but my peppers are always too big for even one to fit in a sandwich-sized bag, so I prefer to place them all in a large bowl and cover as tightly as possible with plastic wrap. Let the peppers steam in the bowl (or in the plastic bag) for 5 - 10 minutes, or until the skins slip off easily. Then, remove the skins, cut the peppers in half, core them, and remove the seeds. 

To prepare the soup: Heat 1 tsp or so of olive oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to soften. Add the potatoes and cook for another one or two minutes, then add the carrot, garlic, and roasted peppers. Stir well and cook for another two minutes. 

Add the stock (or water), stir well, and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium heat until the potatoes are soft. 

If you have an immersion blender (which I don't!) puree the soup in the pot until it's smooth. Otherwise, transfer it to a standing blender and puree in batches, using another pot to keep the pureed soup separate from the un-blended soup, if necessary. As I mentioned above, my blender -- and pretty much every standing blender I've ever worked with -- will kind of explode if near-boiling liquid is blended in it, even if I use teensy-tiny batches. So I try to plan at least an hour or two for the soup to cool a bit before I puree it, and then some more time to re-heat it. As a bonus, letting it sit allows the flavors to blend together more. 

Season with the white wine (if using), cayenne, salt, and pepper. Ladle into bowls and swirl with vegan sour cream or soy creamer, if using. 

(above: an un-roasted red pepper, and another partially-roasted one) 

golden broth & golden noodle soup; a vegan maybe un-chicken noodle soup

This is a recipe I've been meaning to make all winter. Except that we don't have much of a winter here, and lately the sun's been shining all day long! It's still a bit chilly, though, and it gets dark early, so it's still heavy soup season as far as I'm concerned. 

I've adapted this recipe from The New Laurel's Kitchen. I haven't changed too much; it was vegan to begin with. I only had one carrot when I made this, though, so it went into the broth puree rather than the soup itself. Also, I think it needs more celery than Laurel did. In my experience, a lot of these measurements are approximate – and that is the fun of soup, after all. So if you have one potato that doesn't come to quite one cup, or you want to add extra celery, it's fine.

The following instructions will produce about 10 cups of soup. If you make the broth ahead of time, this is a really no-fuss meal. If you're short on time and don't have the broth already, though, you can make the broth while you cook the noodles and vegetables separately, and combine them after the broth is strained and pureed. Then the cooking time is just about half an hour.

One final note about the whole wheat noodles. Whole wheat pasta (much like brown rice) is something I wish I really enjoyed, but usually don't. However! It's perfect in this soup. I wouldn't like this recipe with another kind of noodle.

GOLDEN BROTH

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup yellow split peas

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

8 cups hot water

1 chopped, unpeeled potato (optional)

1 stalk celery, roughly chopped, with leaves (optional)

1 carrot, roughly chopped (optional)

Sauté onion, whole garlic clove, and split peas in oil until delicately brown. Stir in turmeric and add water and any of the optional vegetables. Simmer at least half an hour. Strain for a thin stock, puree for a thick one. I like pureeing, then if I run out of noodles I have a light vegetable soup!

If you can’t find yellow split peas, or just want to try something different, green broth is as good as golden broth! Just substitute green peas for yellow, add a bay leaf and omit the turmeric.

GOLDEN NOODLE SOUP

about 8 cups golden broth (1 recipe of the above)

big handful whole wheat ribbon noodles

1 cup or so peeled and chopped potato

1 cup or so each diced carrot and/or celery

1 teaspoon salt (or more – I find I usually need more)

½ cup parsley for garnish

Bring the broth to boil in a heavy pan. Add potatoes and salt. Reduce heat and simmer gently until the potatoes are starting to get tender, about twenty minutes. Then add the celery, carrots, and noodles, and cook until noodles are al dente and carrots and celery are cooked, but still crispy. (If you don’t like crispy veggies in your soup, you can add the carrots and celery with the potato – but I think 30 minutes total is a bit of a stretch for vegetables like celery and carrots, which have such a great crunch to them.) Stir in the parsley, adjust seasoning, and serve.

vegan cream of mushroom soup

My roommate and I keep getting entranced by the mushrooms at Berkeley Bowl. Seriously, every week, we go there to get our produce, checking things off our list, and we pass these dozens of different types of beautiful fresh mushrooms. And we can't get them every week, and they're not on our list. But they're there, and they're so beautiful, and they're mushrooms. So finally, I gave in to their siren call, and got some chanterelles. Then I compromised and also picked out some regular, but adorable, brown mushrooms. And I made soup. It's inspired by a non-vegan cream of wild mushroom soup recipe in Barefoot Contessa at Home, which my roommate got for Christmas. Except with lots of adjustments for vegan-ness, what I had on hand (lots of celery, no carrots) and the fact that the 3 cups of pre-sliced, pre-packaged white mushrooms I'd bought to fill out the soup a bit had actually gone bad, even though they were all safe and sound in their vacuum-packed abode. Which was really sad. (And one of the sadder aspects of buying from the Bowl, I guess.) 

Also, I was really lucky when I made the broth for this soup, because my roommate had cooked with dried mushrooms the previous night. And there was a cup or two of the yummy mushroom water she'd hydrated the dried mushrooms in leftover. (As you can tell, we went a little mushroom-crazy in my apartment!) If you have this on hand, or mushroom stock, I recommend it, because I didn't have enough mushrooms stems to make this broth as mushroom-y as it would've been without my leftover mushroom water. Or just get extra mushrooms to use just for the broth. I probably wouldn't have had this problem if my pre-packaged mushrooms hadn't gone slimy before I could use them. 

VEGAN CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP

10 or so ounces of fresh chanterelle mushrooms

10 or so ounces of fresh brown mushrooms

optional: extra mushrooms for the broth

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 - 6 tablespoons vegan margarine

1 chopped onion, white or yellow

1 celery stalk, chopped (and/or 1 carrot, chopped)

2 tsp dried thyme

2 cups chopped leeks

1/4 cup flour

1 cup white wine

1 cup soy creamer, other non-dairy creamer, or non-dairy milk

parsley to garnish

Separate the stems off the brown mushrooms and cut them off the chanterelles. Coarsely chop the stems. Slice the mushroom caps 1/4-inch thick and, for big pieces, cut them into bite-sized chunks. Set aside. 

Heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the margarine in a large saucepan. Add the mushrooms stems, half of the thyme, the onion, carrot, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Cook for 10 or 15 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft. Add 6 cups water, vegetable stock, or mushroom stock, and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. When the broth is done, strain the veggies and mushroom stems out, reserving the liquid. You should have a little over 4 cups of liquid. 

Meanwhile, in another large saucepan, heat the remaining butter and add the leeks. Cook over low heat until the leeks soften and begin to get golden-brown, about 15 minutes or so. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for a minute or so. Add the white wine and stir for another minute, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add the mushroom broth, the remaining thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and a 1 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the non-dairy dairy product, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. 

lentil sorrel soup

Soup! Great even when it's over 110 F outside (which it is). This simple recipe is a treat if sorrel is available. I picked every leaf off my sorrel plant that inchworms hadn't reached first! Sorrel is a wonderful, lemony herb. I used to get it from my farmshare, and I've been growing it this summer. 

This is another adaptation from Deborah Madison's The Savory Way. 

LENTIL SORREL SOUP

1/2 cup lentils 

1/2 cup small red onion, finely diced 

1 bay leaf 

salt 

1 1/2 quarts water

3 handfuls sorrel leaves, shredded 

1 to 2 tablespoons soy milk or soy creamer

1/4 cup lemon juice, or to taste 

freshly ground pepper

Rinse the lentils and combine them in a soup pot with the onions, bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and water. Bring to a boil; then simmer, partially covered, for 20-30 minutes or until the lentils are completely soft. Puree half the cooked lentils in a blender until smooth; then return them to the pot. Add the sorrel and cook for another 10 minutes; the sorrel will turn olive green. Stir in the soy milk/creamer, taste for salt and lemon juice, and serve with freshly ground pepper.