Red Lentil Soup

Red lentil soup

Lately I’m obsessed with lentils.  Our pantry shelves are lined with them—bags and boxes filled with miniature rounds of black, green and brown.  To those who rifle around looking for more readily edible snacks, my compulsion is slightly puzzling.  A collection of shoes in the closet or books on the shelf is easier to understand.  But mothers have other odd obsessions as well, best ignored, as teens well know; simply shove the legumes aside and move on to the chips.

Loving lentils makes sense to me, if to no one else.  I cook dinner every day for a vegetarian family, and legumes and beans offer us a rich source of vegetable protein that’s essential to our diet.  And beyond the nutrition, they’re a treasure trove of inspiration as well.  I’ve no doubt I could add lentils to the pot day after day, week after week, and never repeat the same concoction twice (unless I wanted to).  One day it’s soup, another a main-dish salad.  Then on to a stew or dal.

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Christine’s Crossing

Creamy Vegetable Soup with Kale

Starting today we’ll be featuring Freshness Farms enthusiast and health coach, Christine de la Cruz in a monthly column called “Christine’s Crossing”.  With Christine’s wellness-oriented coaching you’ll learn how to incorporate Freshness Farms produce into everything from soup to main courses to juice and smoothies—like her sneaky zucchini noodles and vibrant beet and carrot juice.  This week Christine shares how to turn a refrigerator bursting with veggies into a warming potful of vitamins and flavor….

I have a confession to make:  as a health coach, I love to eat and prepare healthy food, but I am a lazy cook.  I don’t really like to follow recipes or spend a lot of time slicing and dicing.  Confession two:  I don’t mind eating soup in the middle of summer.  In summer we have a tendency to mostly eat raw or cold foods, which can be tough on our digestion and cause bloating.  Warm soup is easy on our systems, plus it’s really nice to have a potful of something quick and healthy at the ready when we are hungry!  Making soup is a great way to use up any produce we have overflowing—which we can all relate to in the best possible way.  Right now my fridge is loaded with the last great delivery from Freshness Farms, and I want to use up every last bit, while it’s at the peak of freshness.

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Ribollita

Ribollita

This classic Italian vegetable stew is hearty and heathy—loaded with beans, leafy greens and a comforting layer of artisan bread at the bottom of the bowl.  You can vary the ingredients depending on what you find in the market, or tucked into the crisper drawer at home.  Try a bit of zucchini or cauliflower.  Turnips or parsnips would be perfect, too.  A Parmesan cheese rind (an inch or two) tossed into the broth, as the soup simmers, is an old Italian trick that adds wonderful flavor.  But no worries if you don’t have one, just add a bit more salt and a healthy sprinkling of Parmesan on each serving.

Ribollita is more of a stew than a soup, if you prefer something more brothy, simply add a bit more stock (or water combined with a tablespoon or two of tomato paste) to the mix—up to two cups.

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Apple and Celery Salad with Toasted Seeds

This salad covers all the bases—sweet and salty, crisp and crunchy. Herbal. It’s a perfect throw-together dish when you don’t have much in the fridge beyond the usual—like apples and celery.  Substitute raisins or currants if you don’t have grapes.  Leave out the greens altogether if you like. Or chop up the bright-tasting celery leaves and toss them in (yes, they’re useful beyond being just compost additives or guinea pig fodder). Cubed fennel bulb and their feathery fronds would be a nice addition as well.

Pepita is the Spanish term for hulled pumpkin seeds.  You’ll find them packaged at Trader Joe’s.  Be sure to toast extra—they make a nutritious and addictive snack.

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Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Soup

This is a vegetarian version of a Mexican classic—spiced with chilis and cumin and finished with a squeeze of lime.  Here’s an opportunity to clear out the fridge—toss in potato cubes, grated turnip, rutabaga or chopped greens with the broth.  Just about anything will work.  If you can find corn on the cob, all the better.  But don’t pitch the cobs out—add ’em to the pot to steep a deep, flavorful broth.

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