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.
I’m kicking off 2012 with some new recipes, some old standbys, and lots of vegetables. Did you cook something fantastic recently? I’m looking for new recipes!
I posted 40 meal plans this year, which means I was on top of dinner more than 75% of the time. That’s a lot of planning for dinner! The number also surprised me, because — at least during this fall — I felt I’d let meal planning get away from me. It’s helpful for me to look back and realize I did do a good job, overall.
I spent more time on other Chick in the Kitchen outlets this year than ever before. You can follow me on Twitter, Like me on Facebook, and follow my boards on Pinterest as well. I hope you will. I often post items in those three places that won’t necessarily make it onto my blog, and I love interacting with my readers on Facebook, especially.
As in the past two years (2009 and 2010), I took a look at my site statistics to get a feel for what you were reading. This year, the majority of my traffic came from the U.S. and Canada, with the UK, Australia, and Germany rounding out the Top 5. A little more than half of my traffic comes from search results, and almost 30% comes from referrals (someone linking to the site).
In fact, I’m making the Gigantes to bring to our friends’ house on New Year’s Eve — it will help offset the enormous quantity of pigs in blankets we’ll eat.
With that, I wish you a happy and healthy 2012! Thank you for reading and sharing with me.
“Make your own pizza” nights have become a favorite of my boys, although G. chooses to make calzones from the same ingredients as the pizza. I used to buy pre-made whole wheat dough at my supermarket (they kept it in the refrigerated section near the shredded cheese), but although it was serviceable it bounced back a lot. It was hard to stretch it out to the thinness we wanted, so the crust was always relatively thick and turned out chewy at best, and underdone at worst.
Since getting a stand mixer, I’ve tried making my own pizza dough a few times, though I’ve been working on a white flour version from the book that came with my mixer. Last night I got it perfect. We were able to make very thin crust pizza that actually crackled when I cut into it with a chef’s knife. Both boys agreed that this was the best dough we’d ever made, and that it did not need any more tweaks. See how thin that pizza is? It had a great crunch when we bit into it, too.
Because I am new to working with yeast, I use an instant-read thermometer to double-check the temperature of the water I’m using before I add the yeast. Turns out, “warm” water is actually much hotter than I would expect.
Also, my kitchen is the coldest room in my house, even though it’s not drafty. In my parent’s home, we’d let dough rise in the small utility room that held the water heater — it was clean, draft-free, and toasty. I don’t have an area like that, so instead I preheat my oven to 180° F, then turn it off. This creates an insulted, warm space for my dough to rise, but without being hot enough to start cooking it.
Next up: figuring out a whole wheat crust we all love.
Pizza & Calzone Dough
Adapted from Crusty Pizza Dough, in the KitchenAid Stand Mixer manual
Note: This recipe includes 2 hours of rising time.
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105° to 115°)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. olive oil (+ a little extra)
3 c. bread flour, divided (+ a little extra)
Add yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer, and then pour warm water over it. And salt, oil, and 2 cups of the flour. Using your dough hook, mix on Speed 2 for about a minute.
While continuing to mix, add in the remaining cup of flour, a bit at a time, until the flour is incorporated and the dough starts to pull off the side of the bowl. Knead on the same speed for 2 more minutes. Your dough should feel smooth, and not sticky at all.
Lightly coat a bowl with olive oil, and place dough in the bowl, then flip it over so it has a thin layer of oil on top.
Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel. Let it rise in a warm spot for 1 hour until it doubles in size. If you press a finger into the dough, the indentation should stay there. Punch the dough down, and let it rise, covered for another hour. Punch it down a final time.
Dough can be rolled with a pin or stretched to make pizza or calzones. Bake at 400° F for about 20 minutes, or until done.
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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Cheesy Kale Crisps: We rarely eat kale now that our farm share is over, and I want to fix that. I've wanted to try using nutritional yeast, and this recipe looks like a tasty way to do it.
Since getting a stand mixer, I’ve tried making my own pizza dough a few times, though I’ve been working on a white flour version from the book that came with my mixer. Last night I got it perfect. We were able to make very thin crust pizza that actually crackled when I cut into it with a chef’s knife. Both boys agreed that this was the best dough we’d ever made, and that it did not need any more tweaks. See how thin that pizza is? It had a great crunch when we bit into it, too.
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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