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Amee’s Broccoli Cheddar Beer Soup

By Amee Meghani on April 20, 2013 in Greenling DFW, Recipes, Soups, Spring

You weren’t going to throw these away, were you?

Grated Broccoli stalks are great for soup OR an Asian slaw salad

“Whatcha gonna do with all those stalks, all those stalks inside that box?”

You’re lucky you can’t hear me sing Black Eyed Peas. You’re welcome. Hi, I’m Amee (of rabbit food rocks), and I’m a new Greenling blogger! I’ll be helping you find ways to make delicious vegetarian dishes with all that Local Box fruit and veg.

So if you don’t know what to do with these lovely lady…stumps, I’ve got you covered with two beautiful words: beer and cheese.

You have to be in the right mood for any kind of broccoli-cheese soup, but what I don’t like is when I order a cup of soup and they bring me what resembles queso. Here’s a recipe for a lighter version, but you’ll see that I open the door to be indulgent too. Enjoy!

This is the only way to sneak beer into work.

Broccoli, Cheddar, and Beer Soup

Ingredients:

1-1/2 Tablespoons oil (canola)

1/2 an onion, diced

1-1/2 cups finely chopped broccoli stalks* (this is a rough estimate – do not go OCD on me)

3/4 cup beer, preferable a pale ale (I used a black lager, but follow Simon Says, ok?)

2 Tablespoons flour

2 Tablespoons butter (insert mmm here)

1-1/2 cups lowfat milk (1% or 2%)

1/2 cups whole milk (whole milk would be good; half-n-half would be cray cray.)

1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese, packed (I used rich and creamy local cheddar from Veldhuizen that I added to my Greenling order this week)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add onions and chopped broccoli stalks and saute until onions appear translucent. Add beer and allow it to cook down for about 5 minutes or until there is minimal liquid. It should look swampy, not soupy. Cook the beer WAY down, where you shouldn’t have much liquid, but it shouldn’t be dry either. Then empty contents into a small bowl.

2. Melt butter in the same pot and then whisk in flour until it looks homogeneous (yeah – big word for me too).

3. Lower heat to medium. Whisk in 1/2 cup whole milk plus 1 cup only of the lowfat milk. Cook for 5 minutes, until it has thickened into a sauce. It should remind you of a very naughty Alfredo sauce almost. Lower heat to low and whisk in grated cheese. Now it should look queso-y.

4. Allow cheese to melt completely, add broccoli-onion mixture, and season with ~ 1 teaspoon salt and some ground pepper.

5. Remove from heat. Cool slightly, and then using a blender or immersion blender, blend. Add the remaining 1/2 cup milk. Blend. Return mixture to pot. Heat on medium-low and add pepper. Taste. Spike it with a tiny dash of a peppery tabasco maybe?

6. Serve** or pack for lunch. Make obnoxious mmmm sounds in your cubicle.

*Don’t even think about taking 3 minutes out of your day to peel the outer layer of the broccoli stalks. It’s all going to be cooked and blended into a soup. You’ll live. Use that time for something more valuable – like updating your Facebook profile picture.

**When you are done, you won’t see nomadic bits of broccoli florets in your bowl because we only used stalks, but if that bothers you either (a) add the florets in step 1 or (b) close your eyes.

Comments { 1 }

Save Green- Make Your Own Stock!

By Margo on April 5, 2013 in Greenling DFW, Soups, Staff Picks

stock

Here at Greenling, we’re constantly on a mission to use as much of the vegetable as possible. Beet greens? Sauteed and delicious! Skins? We eat ‘em on almost everything! But sometimes there are parts of the vegetable you just don’t want to eat (the bottoms of onions, tough ends of celery), or maybe you simply have too much to use before the vegetable goes bad. Don’t worry, there’s a tasty solution for that- homemade chicken or vegetable stock! Homemade stock is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to add flavor and depth to your meals all while reducing kitchen waste.

Preparation
You probably won’t have to buy veggies to make your stock- simply scraps alone will suffice! A good plan of action is to simply keep an airtight container or gallon ziplock bag in your freezer that you can toss scraps/unused veggies in as you cook. You can do the same thing with herbs- if you’re not going to use them before they go bad, add them to the bag. It is important to make sure you scrub and wash your vegetables! Use common sense- cut and discard moldy or slimy parts. You’ll want to use each stock bag within a few weeks.

Similarly, if you’d like to make chicken (or beef) stock, buy a whole chicken and keep the neck, back, and wings, and any bones. Store in a separate bag or container in your freezer.

What to use
Onions, green onions, leeks, shallots (skins, peels, cores, trimmings)
carrots (vegetable and green)
celery (stalk and leaves)
mushrooms (and stems)
potatoes
squash
root veggies (and their leaves)
peppers
peas
corn (and cobs)
spinach, kale
apples
pears
herbs
(note: Brussels sprouts, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, fennel, and cabbage impart strong flavors, and beet skins have a tendency to make broth bitter. Avoid these, or add towards the end of cooking time.)

Cooking
The key to a great tasting stock is to cook slowly, and use a variety of vegetables, herbs, and spices. Balance the strong (onions, celery) with the sweet (carrots, sweet potatoes.) Deb (from Smitten Kitchen, recipe below) simmers her stock uncovered for 3 hours. Similarly, a crockpot is a great solution for strong, delicious stock. You could set your crockpot on the lowest setting before you go to sleep and leave it for 10 hours or more. Taste as you go, the flavor will develop over time. After your stock is finished, you’ll want to strain it through a sieve or fine strainer. Discard or compost the solids. Store stock in the refrigerator for 3-5 days or frozen (in jars or ice cube trays!) for a few months.

Chicken Stock Recipe
Recipe and photo (above) from SmittenKitchen.com

Makes approximately 3.5 quarts

3 1/2 to 4 1/2 pounds chicken necks, backs and wings (omit if making vegetable stock)
Contents of your stock bag, cut into chunks (classic combination: onions, celery, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes)
1 head garlic, cut horizontally in half
1-2 California bay leaf
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Kosher salt (optional)
a few bunches of herbs, like parsley or thyme (whatever is in your stock bag)
4 quarts cold water

Bring all ingredients to a boil in an 8- to 10-quart heavy pot. Skim froth. Reduce heat and gently simmer, uncovered for 3 hours. (Or use crock pot method described above.) Pour stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl and discard solids. If using stock right away, skim off and discard any fat. If not, cool stock completely, uncovered, before skimming fat, then chill, covered.

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Broccoli Chicken Soup

By Christy on May 21, 2012 in Recipes, Soups, Spring, Winter

Although it is getting a little warm to think about soup, I used this as a base for three quick weeknight meals. Just a couple of cans, some leftover chicken, and fresh broccoli for a delicious homemade soup on the first night. I use evaporated milk in this recipe because it can take higher cooking temperatures than cream or milk. Since I will be using it over a few days, I can reheat it to boil without having to worry about it breaking or curdling. You can substitute milk or cream, just be careful when reheating not to bring it to a full boil.

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups water

2 cups broccoli, cut into bite size pieces

1 cup cooked chicken, deboned and cubed

1 can evaporated milk

salt to taste

Add broth, water, and broccoli to a large stockpot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until broccoli is tender when pierced with a fork. Transfer broccoli to a blender and add enough broth to fill half way. Be careful not to overfill blender. Process in batches if you need to. Return processed broccoli to stock pot. Add cubed chicken and evaporated milk. Taste for salt. Bring to a simmer to warm.

Comments { 2 }

Mushroom Soup

By Christy on April 23, 2012 in Fall, Gluten-free, Recipes, Soups, Winter

This recipe can be used with any kind of mushroom you have on hand. I had some fresh button mushrooms and an assortment of dried ones. Rehydrate the dried ones by bringing 2 cups of water to a boil, pour it over the dried mushrooms and let them steep for 20-30 minutes. Do not throw the steeping water away! Strain out any sand or dirt particles and use the broth in the soup. The fish sauce is optional in this but I really like the umami flavor it adds, not fishy at all.

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 ounces dried mushrooms, rehydrated with boiling water and roughly chopped

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, like button or crimini, roughly chopped

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 sprigs of thyme

6 cups broth, veggie or chicken

1/2 cup milk or cream

2 tablespoons fish sauce (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add mushrooms and saute until browned, about 6 minutes. Add shallots and garlic and saute until translucent. Add the thyme and broth to the pot and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove thyme stems and whisk in cream, fish sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer mixture into a blender, never filling more than half full and pulse till smooth. If you overfill a blender with hot liquid, it can blow the lid off the blender and send hot soup flying everywhere, so be very careful and work in batches or use an immersion blender right in the pot if you have one.

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Homemade Veggie Bouillon

By Christy on March 9, 2012 in Soups, Uncategorized, Vegan

As a rare cold winter day hits Austin, my craving for a warm bowl of comforting soup heats up. But who has time to spend all day chopping and simmering? Fortunately, I have a secret weapon in my freezer I can reach for in times like these. My homemade veggie bouillon has no msg or unpronounceable preservatives. Just farm fresh veggies and salt.

Before you ask, yes, you really do need all the salt to preserve the vegetables. You only use about 1 teaspoon of the bouillon per cup of water, so the overall salt content in the final soup is rather low.

Use the bouillon as the base for a homemade soup, to punch up a sauce, or mix with sour cream for a veggie dip.

Vegetable Bouillon

3 carrots, scrubbed and peeled, cut in 1 inch pieces

3 celery ribs, cut in 1 inch pieces

1 leek, white part only, sliced

1 medium onion, peeled and quartered

12 sun dried tomato halves

8 ounces mushrooms (crimini, white button, portabla, whatever you like)

2 cloves garlic

1 bunch parsley, leaves and stems

7 ounces of salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon pimenton or smoked paprika (optional)

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it forms a smooth paste. Will store in fridge for about a week, store in freezer after that. Use approximately 1 teaspoon per 1 cup of water.

Hints- I have a smaller food processor, so I have to do this in 2 batches. You can add as much as you can fit in the bowl and pulse it down to add more if you need to also. This recipe is very versatile and you can use almost any vegetable you want. Don’t like mushrooms? Substitute parsnips. Want a Mexican style soup? Use cilantro instead of parsley. The sun dried tomatoes are pretty important to rounding out the flavor for me and fresh tomatoes would add too much liquid so I would not sub those out but experiment with your local box to find what works for you.