Tag Archives: soup

Butternut Squash Risotto - Olives’n'Wine Style

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So I don’t know about you, but I’m obsessed with Panera’s Autumn Squash soup. Like, I don’t even know how I made it through fall without it in the past. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to your nearest Panera ASAP. It’s basically a butternut squash soup, but upon looking at the ingredient list (dietitian alert) I found it also has pumpkin and a wee bit of parm cheese. Hello, could those two things could ever make anything bad? Never.

squashsoup

Anyway, my new-found love of this soup peaked my interest in butternut squash. Oh, I’m not the only one? Yeah? You’ve noticed the squash-obsession around the blog world too? Well I know it’s a fad-food but it’s for a good reason: it’s delicious.

Butternut squash not only tastes good, but it’s good for you. Ever heard of vitamin A? Yeah this baby is chocked-full of it. You can tell by the color - orange! - which is the pigment of beta carotenes. Good for your eyes, your skin, and just your everything - beta carotenes are antioxidants. Carrots, pumpkins and sweet potatoes are also good sources of vitamin A (no way, how could you tell?).

So back to that Panera soup. After spending far too much money on bowls of soup and baguettes at Panera I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. Naturally, I went out and bought a giant butternut squash from the store thinking I could somehow recreate that magical golden liquid in my kitchen. But I could not, for the life of me, find a recipe that even sounded like it would be a good copy of their soup.

As I was about to throw in the towel and just eat the whole squash plain and roasted, a little birdy told me that Becky over at Olives’n'Wine was coming up on her one year blog anniversary. Of course I had to check her recipes to see if she had anything with the beloved squash - and she did! And wouldn’t you know it, it was a risotto recipe. Being that risotto was still not checked off of my food bucket list for the year, it was a match made in heaven.

arborio

Her recipe can be found here - and here’s what I did differently…

  • Cut the recipe in half
  • Nixed the carrots and just doubled the amount of squash
  • Subbed goat cheese in place of the parm
  • Used pumpkin pie spice instead of the individual cinnamon/nutmeg

Before I talk about the outcome… Can we just talk for a minute about how therapeutic this whole experience was? Propped in front of the stove-top with a wooden spoon in one hand and a glass of wine in the other for almost an hour, just stirring and stirring and stirring? Call me crazy but that’s just what I needed to relax.

risotto

Creamy, steamy and subtly-cheesy.. this risotto will make you want to cry tears of joy. I really am not exaggerating by saying that either. As if you needed another reason to love butternut squash.. It is worth every second in front of that stove-top. I actually meant to wilt in a big handful of spinach at the end for a little bit of green but I lost all self-control and dug right in. It resembles the flavor of that Panera soup, but it’s even better.

Becky, you won my heart with this one! Happy one year on the blog :)

Monday Munchies: Turkey Lentil Soup with Kale

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You guys! Thanks for all your sympathy on yesterday’s post about my allergies, hah. But I have to say, my tolerance for pain is pretty solid so no need to worry. And sneezing is just a fact of life for me, I’m used to it.

So moving onto more important things, I have an amazing recipe to share! In an effort to knock off some items from my Food Bucket List for my January Goals, I decided to combine two things into one fabulous dish: kale and lentils.

Just to clarify, my Food Bucket List items are things that I have eaten before, just never actually cooked with myself. I know, kale is as common as almond butter in the food blogging world but I’m a chronic-spinach-user, and old habits die hard.

I think I need one of those ‘Eat More Kale’ shirts.

Source

Source

 

Turkey Lentil Soup with Kale

1 large onion

1 ½ cup baby carrots or 2 large carrots

4 cloves garlic

2/3 lb ground turkey breast

2 cans NSA diced tomatoes

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped

1 ½ cup dry lentils

1 heaping tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp coriander

1 tbsp paprika

Dash of cumin

Salt&pepper

8 cups vegetable broth

lentil soup

  1. Using a food processor, pulse carrots, onion and garlic until finely chopped… or if you don’t have a food proessor, get to choppin’!
  2. In a large soup pot or dutch oven, brown turkey breast with 1 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat
  3. Add in coriander, paprika and cumin
  4. Stir in carrots, onion and garlic to sweat
  5. Don’t forget to season with S&P as you go
  6. Add tomato paste and diced tomatoes, heat through
  7. Wilt kale into the pot
  8. Did you add more S&P? Good
  9. Pour in broth, bring to boil on high heat
  10. Add lentils, bring heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour

Serves 8

lentilkale

 

What’s a ‘common’ food that you never use?

 

Monday Munchies - soup style

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Well…

That’s all I have to say about that.

Moving on! So to start off this lovely October, I thought I’d share a recipe that just SCREAMS fall. And in lieu of all the pumpkin recipes out there right now, I figured I would highlight the squash that you have all so insensitively forgotten about by now… Zucchinis!

Sure, they’re summertime crop, but they grow late into the season, meaning right now is the time to buy them cheap cheap cheap because everyone is trying to get rid of them.

Here is my absolute favorite and “go-to” soup recipe. It is so easy and so quick, especially if you have a food processor.

Tuscan Vegetable Soup from Ellie Krieger, MS, RD

(small adaptations by me)

  • 15 ounce can cannellini beans, or about 2 cups prepared from dry
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 large sweet or Spanish onion, diced
  • 2 large carrots, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • 2 medium zucchini, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp dried Italian seasoning (or a mixture of oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil)
  • 32 ounces low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 14.5 ounce can “no salt added” diced tomatoes
  • 3 cups chopped baby spinach
  • salt and pepper

  1. Drain and rinse cannellini beans, then mash until chunky
  2. In a large pot on the stove, heat EVOO over medium-high heat
  3. Sweat onions, carrots and celery with salt and pepper (to taste), about 2 minutes
  4. Add zucchini, garlic and Italian seasoning, cook until tender
  5. Pour in tomatoes (do not drain), heat for 2 minutes
  6. Reduce to medium heat and add broth, bring to a boil
  7. Stir in mashed beans until they melt into the broth, simmering for 5 minutes
  8. Turn heat off and stir in the chopped spinach
  9. Cover until spinach is wilted, then add more salt and pepper if desired
  10. Serve immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese

Things to note:

- If you can’t find cannellini beans, any white bean will do.

- Want it a bit heartier? Add another can of beans but leave them whole. Definitely don’t skip out on the mashed beans though, it makes the soup rich and velvety.

- Try adding small pieces of cauliflower for an even bigger veggie punch.

There is nothing better than curling up with a big bowl of this soup, decked out in your fuzzy slippers and robe, and dunking thick pieces of crusty, multi-grain baguette to soak up all the yummy broth left at the bottom of the bowl. Not even the 90 degree Florida sun can stop me from enjoying that.

What’s your favorite cozy “cold weather” food?