Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Snow Leads to Soup


In an effort to use all produce and not waste any tiny bit of it, I've taken to scouring websites, blogs, and magazines for soup recipes. Soup is the easiest to stay warm when snow and wind threaten Northwest Ohio, but mostly it's the easiest way, for me, to make something out of a bunch of random seemingly nothings.

This soup adventure began with a head of cauliflower that stared at me every time I opened our produce drawer. One friend gave me the idea to mash it, but I got more excited about mashing parsnips. So when those little white florets started looking really sad this past weekend, I knew I had to find something to make with it.

I figured I'd put my iPhone addiction and the Epicurious app to work. Solution: Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, and Chicken Soup. The caraway seeds awaken what could be a sleeper of a soup. And it was easy to find substitutes and use what I had in the freezer and cupboards: brown rice, frozen kale mix from my favorite local farmers, homemade chicken broth and shredded cooked chicken from a roast I made last week. I think this soup turned out the better because of all the wonderful ingredients. (Not to mention, get my kale fix.)

FD and I both loved it, even though next time I would add a bit more broth. It was a bit thick. Soup's always an easy dish that save us during a busy week of rough-draft-commenting and general late evenings full of work of some kind. Actually this week I should thank the cauliflower for forcing me to find this recipe, which will feed us through the end of the week.

God bless you, cauliflower and cook-aheads. You rock.

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