Last Week's Minestrone

 Minestrone

Noun: A thick soup containing vegetables and pasta.

I make a big pot of "minestrone" almost every week.  There 

are a bunch of reasons I do this:

My kid will eat it and it is full of vegetables!

It is a huge pot of soup that we can have meal after meal!

It's full of protein and fiber!

It's delicious, yummy, good for you and it really fills you up!

It's really quite easy to make!

It freezes easily!

What do I put into my minestrone?

Olive oil

stock or water

Onions (yellow onion or fresh spring onions or leeks)

Celery

Carrots

Garlic

Potatoes

Green peas, corn, squash, green beans, etc

Kale, chard, collards - lots of chopped greens

parsley

tomatoes (fresh, frozen, or canned)

tomato paste or sauce

garbanzo beans, white beans, kidney beans

red lentils

orzo, pasta, barley or rice

Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Really, this could be called "what's in the pantry and refrigerator" soup. There are so many options and you should use my list only as a guide. Be creative and add vegetables you love and know you will eat.

The base of the soup beginning to cook - olive oil, onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.

1.  Chop an onion or two, chop a bunch of carrots and celery (at least a cup or two of each), and chop or press some garlic.

2.  Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large soup pot and heat gently. Add the onions and saute for a bit.  Then add the garlic, carrots, and celery.  I let this cook until it begins to soften up.

I added chopped squash and potatoes to the base of onion, celery and carrot.

3.  I added chopped fingerling potatoes and chopped squash to the base of onion, celery, carrots and garlic and cooked a bit longer to soften everything up.  This is the time to add things like green beans, green peas, corn, etc.

4.  Add about a quart of vegetable stock and about a quart of water to the pan.  Turn the heat up and begin to bring the soup to a boil.  If you are adding a grain like barley to the soup now is the time to throw it in.

Why do I have a photo of red lentils on a minestrone blog post?  Read on to number "5" and  see why.

5.  I almost always add 1/2 cup of red lentils to my minestrone soup as it comes to a boil.  Red lentils should be rinsed well until the water runs clear.  I add red lentils to the minestrone because they bring a richness and thickness to the soup.  They are full of protein.  They are full of fiber.  They cook down and blend into the goodness of the broth and when you eat the soup you don't even know they are there.

6.  Add about 4 tablespoons of tomato paste and 2 - 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning to the pot.  You can purchase Italian seasoning in the spice aisle of any good grocery store.

7. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, 2 - 3 cups of chopped fresh tomatoes, or a couple handfuls of whole frozen tomatoes.  Yes, whole frozen tomatoes!  Grow some tomatoes, pick them, wash and dry them and toss them in a gallon plastic zip lock and store in the freezer to use all year long.  You can have summer goodness the entire year.

Here's a photo of my gorgeous Roma tomatoes from summer 2012 straight out of the freezer.

The soup is beginning to boil and you can see the tomato paste and whole frozen tomatoes on the surface. Here's the deal with whole frozen tomatoes.... they still have their skin.  I don't like to feel the tomato skin in my mouth when I eat the soup.  Once the tomatoes have heated I pull them out with a slotted spoon and skin them (really, the inside pops right out of the skin if you pierce them with a knife), chop them and put them back in.

7.  After the soup has come to a boil and simmered for 20 minutes or so I add canned beans, the chopped greens, and fresh parsley.  Don't skimp on the greens.  You can add cups and cups of chopped greens to the soup ---- don't be stingy.  The soup and your body deserve all the green goodness you can give it!  I used two small bunches of collard greens for the green goodness in this particular soup.  These poor little collards had been sitting in my frig waiting for something I wasn't getting to. I am so glad they found their way into the soup!

8.  If you are adding pasta add it in when you think the vegetables are really done.  Pasta will cook quickly and if you put it in too soon it will cook down entirely.  Don't underestimate how BIG the pasta will get and how much of the liquid it will absorb.  I only use about 1/2 cup of pasta in an entire huge pot of soup.  I really like to use orzo.  If you are watching your weight or carbohydrates I would just leave the pasta out and use a good grain like barley instead.  

9.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Once I've ladled a big portion of soup into a bowl I usually shake some balsamic on top.  It adds flavor and richness.  So yum!

Here's a photo of my minestrone lunch.  It was delicious.  We froze a big bunch of this soup and took it in the cooler to the mountains on vacation for a post hike dinner.  It kept the cooler cold and then was thawed and ready to eat by the third evening!  Delicious.

There are so many options for making minestrone.  Go to your local Farmer's Market  and choose things that look good or different!  Load your soup with as many vegetables as you can.  Eat lots of this soup!

Potage St. Germaine

Potage St. Germaine

(A fancy name for green pea and lettuce soup!)

About a year ago one of my yoga student's told me about a soup she made for company.  When she told me what was in the soup I had a hard time imagining how amazing and delicious it was going to be.  When someone tells you they used two heads of "baby gem" lettuce in a soup it is fairly hard to imagine or believe!  Lettuce in a soup?

I have become a huge fan of green soups.  We usually have a large container of green soup in the refrigerator.  Most of my green soups have been inspired by a woman named Anna Thomas. 

See this article on Anna and her personal green soup odyssey : 
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/easy_recipes/anna_thomas_green_soup_how_green_soup_became_a_way_of_life


I decided to give the "Potage St. Germaine" a chance.  Here is the basic recipe I use. I've made batches and batches of this soup.

1.  1 - 2 onions , fresh spring onions or leeks chopped - at least a full cup or more

2.  2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil

3.  2 medium heads of chopped baby gem lettuce/ 8 cups or so  (you could use romaine or butter lettuce)

4.  2 cups of fresh or frozen green peas

5. 3 - 4 cups of broth or water

6.  salt and pepper to taste

Heat 2- 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan with some sea salt.  Add the onions or leeks and sauté.  I like to keep the heat very low and let the onions cook for a bit of time so they begin to carmelize.

Here are the onions before I added all the green stuff.  I know that some of you like to use less oil and that is certainly an option but I find that a solid 2 tablespoons of olive oil really makes the difference in helping this soup's rich flavor.

Add the chopped washed "baby gem" lettuce on top of the onions.

Add the 2 cups of peas and water or broth to just cover all the green.

Bring the pan to a low boil and then turn down the heat and cook for about 10 minutes.  

Use a slotted spoon to scoop the contents into a blender and as much of the liquid as you desire.  More liquid will make a thinner soup and less a thicker soup.  Blend carefully because the contents are hot - I always use a towel on top of the blender and use the "pulse" button when blending anything hot.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

This is a vibrant delicious smooth rich pea soup. Absolutely delicious!  I love it!

I added a small amount of mint infused olive oil to the top of the soup and the mint perked the flavors up even more!  I simply washed the fresh mint and added it to the vitamix blender with some olive oil and kept blending until I had the right consistency.

I served this batch of Potage St. Germaine as the first course in a vegan dinner party I threw for some special friends the other night.  We had a fresh spring roll with spicy peanut sauce and the delicious vibrant Potage St. Germaine.

Where does one buy Baby Gem lettuce?  I buy mine at the local Farmer's Market.  I have never seen it at a local grocery and I have amazing grocery stores where I live. 

Eat and Enjoy.  It's really easy to make! 

What's in that????

Green Power Morning Drinks

When I go to work in the mornings I take a quart of green smoothie with me.  That's 6 mornings a week, folks.  It never fails that someone asks in a very interested (and sometimes skeptical) voice, "What's in that?".  I patiently explain the virtuous list of wonderful ingredients but it is long and varied day to day so I never expect anyone to remember.  

In addition to the daily green smoothie I try to juice fresh vegetables and fruit as often as possible.  I am currently working my summer schedule which is a blissful and simply lean schedule of work hours.  This gives me plenty of time to read about food, play with food, cook food, and dream about food.  It also gives me time to pick the vegetables in my garden, wash them, juice them, and then clean up afterward.  

This morning we had fresh green juice made up of the following items:

Kale fresh from the garden

Celery fresh from the garden

Parsley fresh from the garden

Cucumber fresh from the garden (that was exciting since the mice ate all my cucs last summer!)

and carrots, apple, ginger and lemon from the grocery

There is just about nothing that beats walking into your garden and picking stuff you grew!  It is fresh and delicious, you know where it comes from, it is still warm from the day, you know that the compost in the ground came from the last year's worth of food scraps you put in the bin....  it is truly fulfilling.

Here is the juice we drank (and no, I don't usually drink it out of a tall wine glass... it just looked really good in that container so I photographed it that way)

Why juice?  Some would say, "but it's void of the fiber that eating your fruit and vegetables provides."  I totally agree.  However, some of my favorite food heroes agree with me on this point... we just can't get enough green into our systems.  I eat tons of vegetables every day - green smoothies, salad, stir fry, steamed veggies, veggies in my tacos, veggies in my tofu scramble, veggies in my hummus, veggies by the handful and plateful. Juice is an amazing concentrated way to get more green. When I juice, I just feel better.  Period.

On to the green smoothie.....

Now here is the real "hero" of green.  This is the whole package, folks.  This is the whole "enchilada" - all the fiber and everything.  This is where I get cups and cups of greens, more grams of fiber than most Americans eat in a week, lots of omega 3's, plenty of protein, and tons of phytonutrients!  My husband and I each drink a quart of green smoothie almost everyday.

Look at that chard plant from my garden.  That's where most of the green came from in today's smoothie.  I suggest different greens everyday - chard, kale, dark green lettuce, parsley, dandelion greens, beet greens, fresh sprouts, and a myriad of other exotic and exciting green choices. If you live in Santa Cruz please visit the "Three Sisters" booth at the local Wednesday and Saturday Farmer's markets to be introduced to an amazing array of greens - it's the little stand with all the smaller baskets of beautiful greens. I buy my sorrel and amaranth greens there every week for green soup... but I digress.

Today's Green Superfood smoothie recipe is as follows:

 - 4 cups water

 - handful of cashews (you can use any kind of nut if you have a high powered blender      use nut butters if your blender doesn't have a vitmamix kind of engine)

 - 2 tablespoon chia

 - 2 tablespoon ground flax seed

 - 1 tablespoon maca root powder

 - 1 teaspoon acai powder

 - 1 teaspoon lucuma powder

 - 2 tablespoons Vitamineral Green

 - 5 huge chard leaves

 - 5 large kale leaves

 - handful of parsley

 - 1/2 cup watermelon

 - cup strawberries

 - 1 ripe banana

 - handful of organic red grapes 

 - slice of raw ginger

Blend until smooth and beautiful.  I drink this all morning long.  This can easily feed 3 or 4 people.  

Why maca, acai, lucuma, chia, flax, and vitamineral green?

I've become interested in what is now being called "super foods".  I know that my family eats super food everyday because most of the time I make it and I know what is in it.  We eat tons of vegetables, fruit, beans, grains,  fermented food like sauerkraut, and good fats like avocado and olives.   Those are super foods - nature made 'em and we consume them.  However, there are a whole class of foods that are now readily available in local health food stores which can add to our already rich and nutritious diets.

I recently bought and read a cookbook called "Superfood Kitchen" by Julie Morris.  I decided that it would be great to add some of these things to our smoothies.

Maca Powder

Maca is indigenous to the highlands of the Peruvian Andes where is has been used medicinally for thousands of years.  Maca is one of a rare class of plants called "adaptogens".  An "adaptogen", when consumed, can actually "adapt" and adjust to combat the different types of stresses that are put on the body.  Maca is supposed to strengthen and balance the body's systems.  It provides long lasting energy and combats fatigue without being a stimulant.  It contains 60 phytonutrients - that's reason enough to add it to a smoothie if you ask me.

Acai

Acai is a berry that grows in the Amazon.  It has been used for thousands of years both as a food source and medicinally. This small Amazonian berry is one of nature's most concentrated forms of antioxidants - twice that of blueberries (and those are pretty bomber in terms of antioxidants!).  Acai contains a broad range of vitamins and minerals as well as healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats.

Lucuma

Lucuma powder is a finely milled powder made from freeze-dried lucuma fruit, which is native to South America.  It has a full bodied maple taste but is very low in sugar.  It basically sweetens and is full of beta-carotene, niacin, and iron.

Chia Seed

Chia was once a staple food source among the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans.  It was used to increase strength and maintain stamina during long distance journeys.  Chia is an amazing plant based source of omega 3 fatty acids.  Chia is full of antioxidants , is an easily digestible source of protein, and a great source of fiber.  1 tablespoon of chia provides over 1/4 of our daily requirements for fiber (unless you believe, as I do, that we need much more fiber on a daily basis than governmental "requirements").

Chia contains a high content of mucilage which means the chia absorbs water really well and forms a kind of "gel" layer around each seed.  A chia seed can absorb about nine times its weight in water.  It expands in the stomach and creates a sense of fullness.

Flax Seed

Flax seed is a small seed that originated in Mesopotamia and has been used since the stone age.  Much like chia, it is known for its beneficial essential fatty acid profile.  Flax doesn't have quite the same antioxidant profile as chia but it is well known for its lignans.  Lignans are a class of phytonutrients known to help balance hormone levels.  Flax is full of protein and is very high in fiber.  Much like chia, flax has the same mucilage ability.

Vitamineral Green

This is a Health Force Super Foods product.  I use it because it is full of green from the earth and water - grasses from the ground and grasses from the sea.  It also has a probiotic element and an enzyme concentrate. 

Nettle, alfalfa, dandelion, barley green, oat grass, chickweed, spirulina, chlorella, kelp, dulse, nori, wheat grass, american basil, parsley leaf, and on and on.  These things help to alkalize the body (think anti- inflammatory)

This is a product that I think is well worth the money.  Staff of Life often has it on sale and that's the very best time to buy it!

Stay Green everyone!