Tuesday Open Thread ~ I'll Take Potpourri for $100
“Soup is cuisine's kindest course. It breathes reassurance; it steams consolation; after a weary day it promotes sociability, as the five o'clock cup of tea or the cocktail hour.”
~ Louis P. De Gouy
It's that time of year when I make a lot of soups. This one here is a favorite of mine. Rich, earthy root vegetables and spices blend perfectly with the tartness of the apples. Low carb, low fat, and full of flavor, this autumn soup makes for a heartwarming meal.
Autumn Harvest Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
3 medium carrots, halved and thinly sliced
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
7 cups homemade chicken broth (or reduced-sodium store bought chicken broth)
3 cups cubed peeled potatoes
2 cups cubed peeled butternut squash
2 large tart apples, peeled and chopped
2 medium turnips, peeled and chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook and stir the carrots, celery and onions in butter and oil until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.
- Add the broth, potatoes, squash, apples, turnips, parsnips and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the basil, thyme and pepper; simmer 15 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaf before serving. Garnish with additional green onions if desired.
Comments
Anja, just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about your
furbabie. Hopefully, there are so many memories that it will give you snapshots of joy. When my former husband and I had Shelties, they were always at our side. I still after twenty years look around because sometimes when I'm at the stove or doing something by longterm muscle memory, it feels like they are right here. It does never go away, but the pain does. And many new four footeds have come and gone in the meanwhile.
My clumsy way of saying, I've been thinking about you, and hoping you are ok.
Many here are here for you. Just say the word.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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Thank you Dawn’s Meta
That’s very sweet of you. I am very fortunate in that I have a lot of people in my life who’ve made the grieving time a little easier. Both in real life and here. I do have a lot of memories and a lot of pictures. Hopefully I’ll be up to writing about her soon. She was quite a little character and I miss her terribly.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
All things autumn
Great looking stew Anja. Now getting the root veggies and squash from the farmers markets. The stews climb up the ladder of dishes to make for sure. Beginning to get the aromas of fermenting leaves fallen to ground as the days grow shorter. Orchards are dripping apples and pears. Stacking the seasoned wood on the deck to dry for the wood stove. Fall is a special time of year.
Enjoy!
question everything
Autumn is a special time of year
I’m almost a little envious of you east coasters who get to experience it the way I remember. Took a lot of hikes at Bear Mountain in upstate New York in years past. Quite picturesque. On the way home, we’d always stop by this old apple orchard where you can go apple picking. But we’d usually prefer a stop in their general store and cafe, the smell of cinnamon and apples in the air, and have a slice of warm apple pie and cinnamon tea.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Ahh the apple cider donuts are a treat
with a dusting of cinnamon. Oh, and the pumpkins. Like apples in my braised red cabbage too!
Bon appetite!
question everything
You’re making me hungry!
Braised red cabbage is a dish I grew up on and my Mother always threw in apples. For Thanksgiving, she also threw in a few spoonfuls of the cranberry sauce 30 minutes before she served the cabbage. Oh, wow. Was that ever good.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good morning...
We keep a soup going almost all the time. It changes and morphs with new harvests and leftovers. Your soup sounds good.
This joke works either way with the man asking and woman replying, but this is way I heard it.
Old woman ask an old man, "How about some super sex?"
Old man replies, "Think I'll take the soup."
Everyone take care and be well. Looks like you left coasters are going to get rain if you're not all ready. Hopefully that will squelch the fires and clean the air of smoke. We've got Hurricane Delta heading our way this weekend.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning lookout.
Lulz on the joke there.
Haven’t gotten any rain down here yet but it sure is welcome. Will have to remember to take the cushion in from my new rockers. Whaddya think? Comfy looking spot to relax and ponder my next writing project?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Agree this is soup time!
In New Mexico it is chile roasting time and you smell them all over town. Got myself some fresh ones at the Farmer's market and made a batch of Green chile chicken soup. Made enough to freeze some.
Am getting ready to try out a recipe for vegan African Peanut stew in Instant pot.
Your soup sounds good. Never thought of apples in a soup. Must give it a try.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Good Morning Jakkalbessie
Both your soups sound delicious. Would love to try the green Chile chicken soup if you’re up to posting the recipe
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good morning Anja. Heh. Apples coming out of our ears.
Peeled, cored, sliced and froze as many bags as we could. Made and canned applesauce. Made applesauce for current eating. Apple pies, apple crisps, apple clafoutis and soon, I'm sure, apple cake. So, what the hell, why not apple soup, except that I'm not so big on parsnips and turnips. Maybe beans, rice, carrots, onion, spuds kielbasa and apples, but it's not my week to cook, so a small pot just for my lunches.
Thanks for the recipe, the reminder to think soup, and, the suggestion to throw apples in it.
Off to get my flu shot.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good Morning EL
You always sound so busy! Apples coming out of your ears, eh? Well here’s another suggestion for your apples. Trying throwing them into your chicken salad along with some green onions. Delish!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Whoa! Surprise ruling in UK
rule of law isn't dead yet
Great news gj, amszing that it could actually happen, but
great news all the same. Wonder if Trump will impose sanctions on the UK.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I am always impressed
With the recipes various cooks on this site come up with. I admire both your creativity and your willingness to spend so much time on food preparation. I am a much lazier cook. I do love fresh fruits and veggies, but I tend to fix and eat them very plainly.
Hi Granma
I can be lazy too. But the thing I love most about making soups is that whatever time you spend on the front end, you gain on the back with at least two weeks of a great ready to eat meal. Soup freezes beautifully and you usually make a big batch so you've got a lot of it.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Put that freezer on a generator!
You are so right about freezing soup!
When we make soup, it's now always in our largest Dutch oven which, if I remember correctly, is a nine quart model (hard to know with a Staub, as their sizes are marked in centimeters of diameter rather than capacity). Anyway, it's damn big and damn heavy. So, when you make soup in this thing you're swinging for the fences.
Considering that my wife and I are now cooking only for ourselves, storage is mandatory. We keep about five sizes of restaurant-industry standard plastic storage containers, the largest of which is the half-gallon size. We use those and also the one quart versions for soup. By the way, we purchase these from restaurant supply joints - online usually - and they are cheap and good.
Most of our soups are cooked in autumn and winter. By this time of the year the freezer is starting to run low on soups. In fact, right now we've got only one half gallon container of last winter's split pea soup left. It's going to be brought out before too long and then we'll be out.
This year's soup cooking is going to be a little different than in the past as my wife is doing a ketosis weight loss program. She needs to lose weight to facilitate a much needed hip replacement – no soup for her for awhile. The hip is so bad that she's unable to stand at the stove and monitor the cooking of soups (or anything else), so I'm the guy. While I'm a pretty decent cook, she won't even consider letting me make our favorite: a much-modified beef barley soup. That recipe was pilfered from Ina Garten, who uses oxtails and not enough carrots in hers. We don't do the oxtails and fix the dearth-of-carrots problem. (Not that Ina doesn't use carrots, she does.) By the way, the leeks are critical.
In any event, I'll be relegated to lesser soup duties – those not requiring minute-by-minute taste testing and/or adjustment. That's where my dear wife doesn't quite trust me at the stove. She's probably right. But, whatever I make, it will be good and it will be too much. So, after we've had our initial fill, into the freezer it goes. Probably the first thing that comes to mind during a power failure is the potential loss of our frozen foods ...especially the soups!
May I recommend for storage
consider zip lock storage bags. Our freezer is limited in space. So we bag it and roll it up. Several quarts nest together. Just remember to label the bags. Subject and date helps. Magic marker.
Stew season!
question everything
It's good.
Yes, we have done this. We kinda stopped with very liquid-y things due to having had to clean up a mess due to leakage. Of course, anything can leak as we've also seen the plastic containers crack. For us, we don't always go through the thawed stuff in one setting, so having them in the plastic resealable containers works for us. We can meter it out better. Others may find your baggie solution to be best. It's a good method.
Hola anja
Working hard in the yard. Putting things back in order after worker madness.
Soup is my favorite thing to cook. Love it. Start with bone broth and slow cook veggies for A day or so and keep broth for the starter. Anything goes in.
Thanks for the ot. Gotta go back out and work. Take good care.
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Anja, that is a scrumptious-looking bowl
of soup--very appealing to the palates of the two vegetarians in this household.
Thank you for posting the recipe. Will see if I can persuade Mr M to try it, since he's by far the superior cook. I'm not sure that I've seen a vegetable soup recipe that called for tart apples, but, it sounds like something we could dig!
BTW, luv the autumn scene photo--also, our favorite time of the year.
Hope the wildfires in your neck-of-the-woods are staying controlled. Great that you've managed to find care for little Ziggy, in case you should have to abruptly evacuate.
Take care, and stay safe out there.
Mollie
"The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation."
~~Matt Taibbi, The American Press Is Destroying Itself, June 12, 2020
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator (1856-1950)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.