Winter Vegetable Soup

*Please note this post was written prior my gluten sensitivity discovery. The soup is gluten free, however the bread is not. If you can eat the ingredients in Heidi's recipe, great! If not, you can head over to my rendition of a gluten free seeded flatbread.

The week after Christmas is always a challenging food week for me. For the days surrounding Christmas I inevitably let myself eat-are you ready for this- whatever I want. Seriously! If it’s a quinoa salad, fantastic!, but it typically means I am indulging in things such as- shrimp, plenty of fromage and baguette, any chocolate that appears within a 5 ft. circumference of my person, pastas, sweet potato soufflés, crusty rolls and then there’s the cookies! And the desserts! My, oh my, oh my. 

Coming off that food high, meals can certainly present themselves to be a challenge.  Regaining that self control and remembering that you need to eat things like quinoa and fresh vegetables and fruits in order to not feel like a sloth can be a challenge after eating things like flourless chocolate cake, cheesecake, fruit tarts and the like. Enter a fabulous soup and a fabulous bread. Oh, yes, I said bread (for all you “atkins” fanatics here’s a good life tip for you-bread is NOT evil and can be incorporated into a healthy diet. Period. End of story). And this soup is like none other….it’s chunky and creamy, it’s nutty and sweet and it will fill you up my dearies. I guarantee you will NOT be hungry after eating this meal! And the added benefit of preparing soup is that it makes a large amount so you can portion it out and have delicious meals the remainder of the week. That is, until New Year’s Eve arrives and you are bound to gorge-yet again-on some fabulous libations and scrumptious cuisine.

The other benefit of making winter soups is that root vegetables are very inexpensive this time of year (wink, wink- a benefit of eating seasonally).  So do your wallet and your waistline a favor and prepare this comfy soup and bread. Enjoy the healthy and oh so enjoyable aspect of eating this way…..that is until New Year’s Eve! 

Winter Vegetable Soup
gluten free, egg free, nut free

Serves 6-8

• 2 carrots, peeled and ½” dice
• 2 stalks celery, ½” dice
• 1 yellow onion, ½” dice (see a pattern with this whole dice sized thing?)
• 2 parsnips, peeled and ½” dice
• 6 cloves garlic, rough chop
• 3 T. brown rice flour
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 16oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and ½” dice
• 2-3 pieces of parmigiano rind (I find these at whole foods but you could just as easily purchase parmigiano and cut off the rind yourself)
• 2 bay leaves
• handful fresh parsley
• 2 sprigs thyme
• water (probably about 2-3 cups…enough to cover the vegetables by 2-3”)
• salt and pepper
• 1 zucchini, ½” dice
• 2 cups kale, cut into bite size strips (a chiffonade would be fantastic!)
• 1-2 cups cooked kidney beans, white beans, really any beans you like
• fresh grated parmigiano, to serve

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat a medium-large soup pot over medium heat.  Add a healthy glug of olive oil and add the first four ingredients. Saute until just softened, about 7-8 minutes. You don’t want a lot of browning here.
2. Add the garlic and another little glug of oil, sauté 30 seconds until just fragrant. Sprinkle the flour over all vegetables and stir to coat.  Cook 1-2 minutes until the “flourey” flavor cooks off.
3. Add the wine all at once and stir until a thick sauce forms (this will happen very quickly) then add the tomatoes and stir to combine.
4. Pop in the sweet potatoes, parmigiano rind, bay leaves, parsley, thyme and enough water to cover the vegetables by about 2-3”. Cover and cook 30-40 minutes until tender. Season with salt and pepper.
5. After the 40 minutes scoop out 1 cup of the soup into a tall heat safe container and puree to a smooth mixture using an immersion blender (alternatively you may use a stand blender but be careful with the steam as it can cause the lid to pop off). Add the puree back into the soup and stir to combine.
6. Finally, add the zucchini, kale, beans and cook another 10-15 minutes covered.  When ready to serve add a nice sprinkling of parmigiano to finish.

Seeded Spelt Flatbread

This fabulous bread recipe is from Heidi Swanson's website, I used the recipe as a base but added whatever I had in my pantry rather than following the recipe to a T.  I used a mixture of half spelt flour-half all purpose flour and use sesame seeds with wakame, millet, amaranth, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds as my mixture. I also eliminated the mustard seeds. Of course, topped with chunky sea salt and butter fresh from the oven is the best way to finish!

Heidi Swanson's Seeded Flatbread Recipe

Happy Healthy Eating!

My favorite DIY holiday gift!

Every year I try to be more and more creative with the gifts I give to my clients.  I like to give something in relation to a charity in addition to making something-I mean, how can you get a gift from a chef that doesn’t have to do with food….a revolution may occur.

So, last year it was an ornament designed by St.Jude patients and peppermint bark.  And this year I wanted to give something they could feel good about, something their bellies would feel good about and, finally, something their kitchen would feel good about.  So, what did I decide? I know the suspense is just killing you….. This year’s gift pack will include a donation to St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital from Drizzle Kitchen, an assortment of holiday cookies and a jar of homemade bourbon vanilla extract. So fun!

Making your own homemade vanilla is so incredibly easy, it lacks even the need for a recipe. It simply requires 2 ingredients. Yep, that’s what I said, two-dos-deux. That’s it! And it is such a lovely gift that I know your friends and family will love.  The biggest challenge I had was finding food-safe containers to store the vanilla in. This is very important as you certainly don’t want to poison your recipients (well, maybe for some recipients that is the intent….so use whatever cheap plastic container you can find in that instance). Otherwise, I found luck with glass spice containers at any craft or container store.  I found my cute little jars at World Market (I know!) and they were relatively inexpensive.  Next, I purchased Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans from my absolutely FAVORITE spice shop- The Spice House-in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago or in Evanston (or online @ www.thespicehouse.com). Finally, I used a locally produced vodka as my base from Traverse City, Michigan (www.grandtraversedistillery.com).

Day One- Bottling of the Vanilla Extract

And here is the grand recipe for homemade bourbon vanilla extract. You need one vanilla bean for each 1/3 cup vodka you use (each of my jars held exactly 1/3 cup vodka which was perfect!). Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise to expose the inner bean flecks and then again in half through the middle if you need it to fit into a shorter jar. Place inside your container.  Add the vodka. Seal up the container and place in a cool, damp place to steep for 4-6 weeks.  Give it a slight shake every so often and you’ll see the color go from clear to a beautiful deep amber color. And voila! You have made your own spectacular vanilla extract. Merry merry, happy happy! Enjoy giving these little nuggets of vanilla love to anyone you deem worthy and I know it will put a smile on their face.

Day Three- Bottled, Tagged and Ready for Gift Delivery!

**If you would like to learn more about St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital or if you would like to make a donation please visit their webpage @ www.stjude.org and help bring a smile to a beautiful child’s face who is bravely battling cancer.