Leeks and purple hull peas taste like Spring time in a bowl!
2 slices of bacon (optional) fried
8 ounces purple hull peas
1 leek
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Water
Salt and pepper to taste
Chop leek and clean in large bowl of water, then drain. Heat olive oil in saute pan and saute leek until translucent. Add bacon and cook until leek begins to caramelize. Add peas and cover with enough water to come 1 inch above peas. Simmer on medium heat until peas are cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.
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.
Sorrel is one of those odd greens that you won’t find in (most) grocery stores, but it pops up around here at farmer’s markets and CSA boxes this time of year. People usually don’t know what to do with it, but it really is delightful so I wanted to share an easy way to use up a bunch. Sorrel has a very sour, lemony flavor when raw, which mellows considerably when cooked. Some people like to put raw sorrel in salads, but that’s not my cup of tea. I prefer a good sorrel soup.
Sorrel soup recipes often include cream, but it’s not an ingredient I usually have around the house and it’s not the healthiest thing, so I thicken my soup with some 1% milk, flour, eggs, and potato. You puree everything together and don’t taste the egg and potato – you’ll just notice the nice body they give the soup. And because you puree everything at the end, don’t worry about finely chopping the ingredients. Just roughly chop, cook briefly, puree, and voila: you have a flavorful soup to brighten up any summertime lunch.
Sorrel Soup (adapted from Recipezaar)
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 leeks, chopped
1 boiling potato, peeled and chopped
1 bunch sorrel, ribs removed, chopped
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp flour
5 cups chicken stock
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup 1% milk
black pepper
In a large Dutch oven, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and potato, reduce heat to low and cook slowly until the leeks become translucent, 7-10 minutes.
Add sorrel to the pot, sprinkle with flour and salt and stir to combine. Increase the heat to medium and cook for a few minutes until the sorrel wilts. Gradually whisk in the stock and let simmer for another 10 minutes or so, till the potatoes are tender.
Using a traditional or immersion blender, puree the mixture until it’s smooth. Return to the saucepan over low heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and milk. Stir about a cup of hot soup into the milk mixture and gradually whisk it all back into the pot. Stir in the mixture over medium heat for a few minutes until the soup thickens slightly. Do not let it come to a boil or the yolks will curdle. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and drizzle with a bit more olive oil.
I know lots of people around here complain about the sweltering summer heat, but for the most part, I kind of like it. I’m a native Texan, so I’m sure that has something to do with it, but beyond the heat summer means iced sweet tea, swimming pools, and Local Boxes filled with stuff like peaches, green beans, and tomatoes. It’s just hard to beat all of that.
Peaches – Caskey Orchards
Leeks – Bar W
Zephyr & Gold Zucchini Squash – Texas Natural
New Potatoes – Naegelin Farm
White Onion – Gundermann Acres
Carrots – Acadian Family Farm
Pickling Cucumbers – Acadian Family Farm
Green Beans – Acadian Family Farm OR Tecolote Farm
Green Tomatoes – Fruitful Hill Farm
Leaf or Romaine Lettuce – Acadian Family Farm
Spicy dill refrigerator pickles – This recipe has a handy calculator that’ll help you figure out how to adjust the recipe for the number of cucumbers you get.
Green bean, potato, and leek salad – We probably won’t get four leeks, so use white onions instead.
Summer squash casserole – I like the idea of this casserole, but will use butter instead of margarine and lower the amount by at least half. You rarely need an entire cup of butter in a non-bakery recipe.
Open-face bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato sandwiches – Oh yes. Just….yes. Use whatever lettuce you get instead of the Bibb.
Skillet pork chop saute with peaches – I like the sweet and savory combo of flavors here. Plus, this recipe is pretty fast – last time I made it, it took about half an hour.
I served this for Easter brunch today. There’s a lot I like about this quiche, like the smoky gouda complimenting the strong-flavored greens and how easy it was to make. And, like many things I cook, it’s very adaptable. You could use pretty much any combo of greens you happen to have on hand. At the last minute, I remembered that I had some mushrooms in the fridge and threw in some of those, with no ill effects. There are no fancy spices here, just salt and pepper, but the quiche has a lot of flavor thanks to the flavorful ingredients.
Kale-Arugula Quiche with Smoked Gouda
1 refrigerated pie crust, for a 9-inch pie
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 leek, thinly sliced (white parts only)
6 oz kale and arugula mix, coarsely chopped (ribs removed from the kale)
Handful of white mushrooms, sliced (about 7 mushrooms)
1 cup skim milk
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated smoked Gouda cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350°. Place pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate. Freeze 15 minutes. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add greens and mushrooms, sauté 7-8 minutes or until greens have wilted quite a bit and the mushrooms have started to shrink and brown.
Combine milk and remaining ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk. Stir in greens mixture. Pour filling into crust. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes.
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