Tomato Cheddar Soup

It's hard to replicate the happiness I feel on a cold fall day with a warm bowl of delicious soup. It's just confirms my love for this season and the fact that I could never move somewhere too far south where you don't get true autumn months.

My idea for this soup actually came from a co-worker. We were ordering from Hale & Hearty during one of our meetings, and she said I really should try the tomato cheddar soup. I'm not the biggest fan of tomato soup myself, or at least I never used to be. This Hale & Hearty soup was seriously incredible and is definitely enough to convert tomato disbelievers.

Ingredients (serves 6-8)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium sized yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 cans whole peeled tomatoes
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
Fresh thyme
1 cup whole milk, cream or half-and-half (I went for milk, the least fatty option of the 3)
2 cups sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
1. In a large pot, heat 3 cups chicken stock. I prefer homemade of course but whatever is easiest.

2. In a medium sized saute pan, add 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter. Add celery, onion, garlic and cook for 4-5 minutes, until lightly browned. You can also add flour here, which will ultimately make the soup a bit more thick.

3. Add the sauteed vegetables to the broth. Next add 2 cans of tomatoes including the juice and the thyme, stirring well.

4. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for approximately 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. After approximately 25 minutes, remove the thyme stem and puree the soup mixture with a blender. Make sure to do this in several batches to guarantee the soup is well blended.

6. Return to the pot and add milk and cheese, and heat until the cheese is melted well. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with cheese before serving.

Aren't the fall months just the greatest?

~Alyssa

Bulgur Soup with Lentils

Between the chilly, fall weather that has finally reached New York and running around to classes and working, I feel like I am constantly fighting off the first signs of a cold... you know, that hint of a sore throat and fatigue that you feel when you start to get a cold.  Now it may not help that I prefer to under-dress in this type of weather than over-dress.  Personally, I hate stepping into a hot subway station and needing to peel off layer after layer.  Instead, I have been feeding myself with a lot of warm tea and different types of soup!

I have started going through my new bulgur cookbook recently and I have been getting some recipe inspirations from there.  There are many bulgur soup ideas in that book but this one stuck out at me.  I like the combination of bulgur, lentil, and beef, it makes for a quick meal without needing to prepare much else.  I tend to use additional spices than the original recipe calls for and I added some more flavor to the soup with paprika and extra red pepper flakes.

1/2 cup brown lentils
1/2 cup of coarse bulgur
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large pot boil the lentil in 2 cups of water for about 15 minutes, until tender.

2.  In the mean time, in a frying pan cook onion in olive oil until soft, then add the beef and cook until it browns.

3.  Pour the onions and meat into the pot.  Add tomato paste, pepper flakes, paprika, salt and pepper, bulgur, and 6 cups of water.  Cook until the bulgur is soft, about 20-25 minutes, and serve.

Enjoy!

~Rona

Bulgur Tomato Soup

As the weather has gotten colder over the past week, I have managed to catch a small cold. It isn't bothering me too much but I have been craving soup to keep me warm.

To satisfy my craving I made a quick tomato and bulgur soup the other day. It took only 10 minutes of prep time and 15 minutes to cook. Perfect to eat with a sandwich for a light dinner.

I had never cooked with bulgur before this summer but it is commonly used in Turkish cuisine and also is readily available in American stores so I have been slowly working it into my cooking repertoire. I even have an entire cookbook devoted to bulgur recipes but I have yet to try out recipes from it. Another thing on my to-do list!

Adapted from Whole Foods
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup bulgur
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of freshly chopper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons feta cheese crumbles
Olive oil

1. In a medium sized saucepan  heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat.  Cook the onion and the garlic until tender.

2. Add the vegetable broth, the bulgur, tomato juice, coriander, and cinnamon.  Cook over low heat for 12-15 minutes, until the bulgur is tender.

3.  Add the lemon juice, feta cheese, and the parsley and serve.

Enjoy!

~Rona

Borscht

I am not a soup in the summer type of girl.  Honestly, I am not a hot coffee or hot tea or hot anything in the summer type of girl.  My body temperature seems to rise very quickly in the summer and then doesn't come back down.  So I usually coordinate my food with the temperature outside.  Warm foods in the winter and cold foods in the summer.  It helps keep me balanced.

So the idea of eating soup in the summer never really occurred to me, even when indoors and in air conditioning.  However, in recent trips to restaurants, my boyfriend has consistently ordered soup and then offered to share with me.  It turns out that soup in the summer is not that bad.  Let me interject: it should be eaten in a cool place!  Hmmm, so maybe this is a lesson that I need to be more open minded?

In this spirit, I decided to make borscht.  This is a traditional Ukrainian beet and vegetable soup.  There are many different versions of borscht, all delicious in their own way.  Unfortunately, I cannot claim that this is a secret family recipe.  Yes, my mom makes good borscht but it was not a staple food when I was growing up.  I had to reinvent the dish by referring to different recipes and picking what I liked.

Because this version includes tomatoes, it is more red in color.  Other recipes for borscht contain more beets so the soup is more purple in color.  And I promise for those of you who are not sure about eating beets (as I used to be, not that long ago), you can't even taste them!

(Note: the recipe is vegetarian but I threw in some cooked, shredded chicken to make the soup more filling.  The soup can be made without meat or by adding any type of meat that you may prefer).

Borscht
makes 8 portions

Ingredients
1 potato, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups of beets, peeled and thinly sliced (I used beets that were already steamed and cleaned)
8 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 teaspoons salt
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 large carrot, sliced
3 cups chopped cabbage
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
sour cream or plain yogurt, for topping

1. In a large pot, add the potatoes and the vegetable stock.  Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature to a simmer.  Cook the potatoes for 10 minutes.  (If you are using fresh beet, also add the beets in at this stage).

2.  In the mean time, heat the butter over medium heat in a large frying pan.  Add the onions, celery, carrot, cabbage and cook for 5-10 minutes until the onions are soft.

3.  Now return to the large pot with the potatoes and stock.  Add the beets, and the other vegetables.  Add the cider vinegar, honey, tomato sauce, salt, and pepper.  Cook on low heat for about 45 minutes.

4.  Serve with fresh dill and a spoon of sour cream or yogurt.

Enjoy!

~R