The bright green of this soup caught my eye as I was leafing through a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living. The color comes from dark green curly kale, lightened by the white of the cauliflower. It is a surprisingly hearty and flavorful soup considering it is vegan, low fat, and uses water as a base. It’s a perfect soup to get your eating back on track after the excess of the December holidays and New Year celebrations.
Both J. and I enjoyed it, and I’ll make it again. It’s an easy way to eat your veggies. This soup can be served hot or cold.
Creamy Cauliflower & Dill Soup (Vegan)
Adapted from Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens, Martha Stewart Living
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium cauliflower, trimmed and cut into bite-sized slices
4 c. water
small bunch of curly kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
1/4 c. fresh dill, chopped fine
1 tsp. kosher salt (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
In a stock pot, heat the olive oil and add your diced onion. Stir the onions and cover the pot, allowing the onions to soften for 5 minutes over a low heat. Add the garlic, cauliflower, and water; stir and then bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat and then simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the chopped kale, cover, and simmer for another few minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool for 5 minutes.
Using an immersion (stick) blender, puree the soup in the pot until the soup is completely smooth. (You can carefully transfer the soup to a regular blender if you don’t have an immersion blender.) Season the soup with the dill, salt, and pepper. Serve warm, garnishing each bowl with a drizzle of a half teaspoon of olive oil and a grind of black pepper, if desired.
Recently, every time I cook some sort of legume, J. thinks I’ve said I’ve cooked barley. Then he is sorely disappointed when a bowl of Slow Cooker Vegetarian Lentil Soup or Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup with Flanken appears, instead of the mushroom barley soup he thought I’d made. He is no legume lover. I finally got the hint and put the kind of soup he wanted on my menu.
I based my soup on the recipe for Zingerman’s Ann Arbor Mushroom and Barley Soup, though I omitted the flour (with the barley, I don’t think the soup needs additional thickening) and used vegetable stock rather than beef stock. This makes the meal vegetarian, and it is indeed a full meal — the barley bulks up the soup significantly, and if you have leftovers you’ll find the barley continues to expand, giving the dish the consistency of stew.
I had pearl barley in my pantry, so I used that for the soup. Pearl barley is more processed than whole barley — both its hull and bran are removed as opposed to just the hull in whole barley — so it is less nutritious. I’m going to look for whole barley next time I’m at the store; I never knew there was a whole grain alternative to pearl.
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery with leaves, cut in halve lengthwise and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 qt. vegetable stock
1 lb. Baby Bella mushrooms (or another kind), sliced
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water
1 c. pearl barley
salt & pepper to taste
¼ c. parsley, chopped (a small bunch, plus some for garnish)
Heat oil in a stock pot, and add onions. Cook over medium-high heat, until they start to soften. Add celery, carrots, and garlic and saute, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Add stock, mushrooms, and barley to the pot, give it a stir, and adjust heat so the soup simmers while covered. Keep the soup covered, and cook for about 45 minutes, or until the barley is done. (If the soup is too thick for your taste, try adding more vegetable stock or water about a half cup at a time.)
Season with salt & pepper and stir in the parsley just before serving.
8 c. water
16 oz. bag dried lentils, rinsed + picked through
4 carrots, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
1 large onion, diced
6 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Combine first 6 ingredients in the crock of a large slow cooker (mine is 6 quarts). Cook on HIGH for 6 hours.
Remove garlic cloves if you like (or eat them, or leave them in the soup). If you like a smoother soup, use an immersion blender in the crock for about 20 seconds until about a third of the soup is pureed, leaving some chunks. Season with remaining four ingredients, adjusting salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Sorry, you’re getting our leftovers. Pictures of them, anyway!
Roasted Beets with Feta hardly needed a recipe. I boil my beets rather than roasting them: I find this preparation to be neater, and I don’t notice a decrease in flavor at all. In fact, this batch of beets (from my farm share) was particularly flavorful, earthy and sweet. I followed the proportions given for the dressing in this recipe but made significantly more, since I poured it over three times as many beets plus a large bowl of salad. I sliced a brick of feta and served it on the side. This is a salad that can stand up to brisk weather, especially when paired with soup.
I tried a Crock-Pot Butternut Squash Soup from A Year of Slow Cooking (love that blog). I made several adjustments: 2 smallish squash (from my farm share), only 1 onion, only 1 apple, and turmeric instead of coriander because I didn’t have any. I used vegetable stock. Since I had my oven on to bake Brownie Roll-Out Cookies, I decided to roast the squash and onion rather than putting them into the crock raw or microwaved. They were fully cooked before they even joined the other ingredients in the slow cooker. I did use my immersion blender at the end to make it smooth and creamy, and needed to add an additional cup of water to thin it out a bit. This is a keep recipe for us — though none of the kids would try it (including my niece), I think they might be persuaded to in the future. Even J. had it later that night and thought it was very good.
Along with dinner rolls, this soup and salad combo was a well-received dinner (by the adults eating it — my various in-laws and me and J.) and a welcome lighter alternative to some of the meals I’ve been cooking for them lately.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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Moroccan Chicken Tajine: I recently had a chicken tajine dish at Fig & Olive in Scarsdale, and wanted to recreate something similar at home. This is an Ina Garten recipe, and she never fails me.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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