Day 247 - Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn Bisque

Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn Bisque

Here's another winner! There are interesting and varied ingredients in this soup, which combine in a beautiful balance of flavors: corn, onion, summer squash, chiles, coconut milk, maple syrup, lime and nutmeg, and yes, even peppers. Amazingly, the roasted yellow peppers in this recipe don't make me want to send the leftovers home with Marcy, who came to eat the soup! I actually kept and ate them!

It's a testament to the sweet, spicy, savory-ness of this dish that I was able to taste past the peppers. Alas, I did have to add salt, but what else is new?

SFO: 10

Day 230 - Midsummer Corn Chowder with Basil, Tomato, and Fennel and Fresh Corn Stock

Midsummer Corn Chowder with Basil, Tomato, and Fennel

I love the idea of this soup, lots of summer goodies working together to create a vegan chowder. But as promising as the ingredient list may be, I didn't find the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Fresh corn, carrots, celery, fennel, potatoes, garlic, onion... all lovingly sauteed and then simmered in a fresh corn stock (see below), with a last minute kick of chopped fresh tomatoes and basil - sounds like a summer dream, right? Well, there are some dreamy qualities, but first let's discuss the prep.

It's intense! Lots of chopping, and let's not forget the homemade stock! This is a labor-intensive soup, and I wish I could say it was worth all the fuss, but in the end, it was simply nice. Sweet. Literally. All that corn will sweeten a pot!

The flavors of summer are certainly present, the most predominant being the corn and the tomatoes. The fresh tomato add-in is an interesting touch. I think we're used to our soup tomatoes being either cream of tomato, i.e. cooked to death, or gazpacho, i.e. raw with a lot of kicky flavor. Here, the tomatoes are a fresh, sweet accent, i.e. a very distant cousin to either of those other soups.

But I think the sweetness is the issue here. It's a very sweet soup. And it's thin. I pureed the small amount I&T directed me to puree, but it didn't really bring too much creaminess to the pot, so I pureed some more. And even with the extra blending, the creaminess is barely noticeable. This really seems more like a brothy soup than a creamy one.

The flavor is pleasant, but I'm left feeling there's no there there. My favorite vegan recipes are the ones that feel complete, as if nothing is missing. Here, I find myself longing for clams, or some other complex flavor to interrupt the sweetness of this summer bowl and take center stage. Alas, the corn is running the show, but I wish it had stayed in the ensemble. (One acting gig, and all of a sudden, all my metaphors are theatre-related....)

SFO: 7
There's nothing wrong with this soup, it's just not the greatness I was hoping for.

Fresh Corn Stock

I love the concept of this recipe. Use the scraps from the main ingredients of your soup to create a flavorful base stock. This underlines and supports the flavors in your soup.

There's just a couple of issues.

The first is timing. You sort of have to work backwards. This stock needs to cook for 60-90m. So effectively, there are no scraps yet. You have to start prepping your ingredients for your soup long before you're going to use them. For example, I cut the corn off the cobs long before it was time to add them to the pan because I needed the cobs for this stock. Same with the fennel fronds. Alright, that's actually no big deal.

The other issue is that because of the relatively long simmer, my stock reduced a lot, by half! I started out with 2 quarts of water, and I ended up with one quart of stock. And the chowder recipe calls for two quarts. So I ended up using half stock and half water.

Granted, the stock was very sweet, so watering it down was maybe not a bad thing. It certainly did lend the soup a solid corn flavor.

SFO: 10

Day 153 - Black Bean-Vegetable Soup

Black Bean-Vegetable Soup

As I&T say, having a good black bean soup recipe is like having a good "little black dress." Of course, I don't have a little black dress, and I'm not sure what the analog is for a guy, maybe a blue blazer, but nevertheless, we all get the reference.

This is a really cute little black dress. There's a nice amount of vegetables in here. Of course, I avoid bell peppers where I can, so I substituted an additional jalapeño, which has been successful before. Usually, it doesn't amp up the spiciness because I remove the seeds and ribs, but in this case, my soup ended up quite spicy! But it was a pleasant heat. Salt hound that I am, I found the soup to be significantly undersalted, but to each his own.

The end result is simple and delicious, if a little watery. Since I do like my bean soups on the creamy side, I pulled out the immersion blender and did a little damage in the pot, and I ultimately liked the texture I ended up with. The garnishes really elevate this soup, so I highly recommend using all of them: lime wedges, avocado, and minced cilantro.

SFO: 10

Day 135 - Porcini-Wild Rice Soup, Mediterranean-Style Baked Lima Beans, and Whole Wheat Soda Bread with Millet and Currants

This was a banner day! I have to confess, I've been feeling a little ambivalent about this project. Yes, there have been major hits, but there have been misses too. Some I take full responsibility for, and some I blame on sloppy editing or merely tastes that don't line up with mine. But today... today was a game changer. I am reinspired!


First, I had Ryan over for some bread tasting (and home improvements). And then Marcy came for dinner. Double whammy!


Whole Wheat Soda Bread with Millet and Currants 

I do love a good soda bread, although I was skeptical that one could achieve a decent result with no buttermilk or cream. I also enjoy millet in baked goods. And currants. So this recipe held promise.

You'll want to start the millet cooking process well in advance of baking because it does take a while for the millet to cool down to room temperature, partially covered.

Once the millet is ready, the assembling of the ingredients is pretty simple and straightforward. I got my pastry cutter out again, and this time, I resisted mincing it to death. I went ahead and used a cake pan, although the instructions for using a cast iron pot intrigued me.

Confession: I had a lot going on while I was making this, and I missed a big step: the brushing of the top with soy milk, before and during baking. While I'm sure the top of the bread would have had a nice gloss, vs. the matte version you see pictured here, I'd like to believe there was no sacrifice in flavor or texture of the bread itself.

As for the end result, it was excellent! Possibly even an improvement on previous traditional (read "non vegan") soda breads. While a dry, crumbly soda bread might be the norm, I welcomed the moistness of this one. It was full of flavor and had a great texture, and dairy was not missed at all! Great recipe!

SFO: 10

Porcini-Wild Rice Soup

First of all, I would like it to be known that I did go on a mission for fresh chervil for the garnish for this soup, and I came up short. I have come across chervil in local markets on occasion, but the couple of times I've gone looking for it, no such luck. Ah well, parsley it is.

This is a terrific soup recipe, enhanced by my newfound favorite commercial vegetable broth, namely Whole Foods 365 Organic. This doesn't really make sense, but the end result of this recipe is a soup that can only be described as beefy. Crazy, right? I guess it's all that umami-ness in the porcini mushrooms. This soup tasted so complex and fabulous that we couldn't believe our taste buds! That last flash of grated carrots is a really nice touch. I've never seen that before. I like!

SFO: 10+
This gets a plus because it's a vegan soup that is completely convincing as beef-based.


Mediterranean-Style Baked Lima Beans

Lima beans are the main cause of my childhood bean-o-phobia (first runner up being baked beans), so I haven't been excited about the lima bean recipes. But I know Marcy has a special fondness for Gigantes, which are gigantic lima beans cooked in this traditionally Greek way, so I figured now is just as good a time as any to get this first lima bean recipe out of the way.

Cut to... 

Oh! My! God! This is possibly my favorite recipe in the book so far! 

First of all, the beans. I purchased a plain old bag of Goya-brand Large Lima Beans, and I wondered if they'd be the right ones because they just don't look that big in the bag. But after a night of soaking, they are appropriately gigante. And once cooked, they hold their shape beautifully. I didn't taste one before adding them to the sauce and baking them, but in the end, they taste AMAZING! Almost sweet! I'm hooked!!

And then, the sauce. Quite a few components to manage, but the extra work is so worth it. The sauce is perfection. Salty, tangy, unctuous, herby, slightly sweet. Heaven!

I really can't say enough about this recipe - it is magical!

SFO: 10
This is a perfect way to erase any "lima bean baggage" (as I+T have named it). Irresistible.

Day 91 - Homemade Vegetable Broth, Broccoli-Potato Soup with Fresh Herbs, Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade, and Fresh Rosemary Focaccia

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Well, it's about time I made this recipe, after all my griping about the taste of commercial vegetable broth. And what is there to say? Of course, it's a million times better than that other stuff, which is so, I don't know, tomato-y? Heavy. Fake-tasting. This stuff tastes fo real.

And yet, it's awfully sweet. I wonder if some of the suggested optional add ins, like bay leaves and peppercorns, might have mitigated some of that sweetness.

I ended up with about 6 cups of broth, which means there was quite a bit of evaporation, considering I started out with 9 cups of water. Those 6 cups were chock full of flavor, with a rich medium brown color, not the orange of store-bought veg stock. (see photo) 

Someday, when I'm a real cook, I'll make homemade vegetable broth all the time. But for now, I might just lean on those handy little bouillon cubes. They may not have all the delicious depth of this broth, but they also don't have the tomato-y-ness of the packaged broth, and they get the job done....

SFO: 10


Broccoli-Potato Soup with Fresh Herbs

I know Marcy's a sucker for potatoes, so this soup seems right up her alley.

Here's another easy soup that's big on flavor. Yes, Broccoli and Potato get top billing, but the Herbs are the real stars here.

When I start the soup, I'm smelling smells and thinking, "That tarragon is going to be very dominant!" But then I add my flavorful and sweet veggie broth (yup, all 6 cups), then the potatoes and then the broccoli, and once that's cooked, the tarragon had found its place.

But wait, it's not over! A fistful of fresh mint and then another one of dill get thrown in at the last minute! It's pretty startling the difference this makes. Well, I should qualify that: the mint sort of settles into the background. In fact, I couldn't really distinguish it. But the dill becomes the MVP in those last five seconds!


Unfortunately for me, I'm not a dill fan, so this was a turn for the worse for me, but I think for all you dill lovers out there, this will be very happy-making. 

My aversion to dill aside, this recipe is solid. It's a yummy, creamy, chunky bowl of herby goodness.

SFO: 10


Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade

Wow. I don't know what to say. This is probably the first recipe in the book that left me scratching my head. And scraping my tongue. 

There must be a misprint in the ingredients for this recipe because it tastes so crazy to me, I'm thinking it can't be the authors' true intent. 

The recipe starts out very straightforward: basil, walnuts and garlic, chopped in the food processor. Then olive and walnut oils, grated lemon zest, salt and pepper... and maple syrup?? OK, maybe a tiny splash, for that "lightly sweetened" taste. But there's 1/3C of maple syrup in here! That amount tips this over into dessert. It's super sweet... and super salty at the same time. And I usually love the salty-sweet combo, but here, it just tastes crazy. KA-RA-ZY!

Marcy and I stared at each other upon tasting it, speechless.

If you dare to try this, I recommend starting out with 2T of maple syrup and then see if you want any more. I'm guessing 2T would be plenty.

SFO: 0
(not safe for anyone, as written)


Fresh Rosemary Focaccia

In my culinary adventures, I've done my share of bread baking. Yeasted breads, I mean. And I've learned some good tips along the way. So when I read this recipe, I found it very confronting. There were so many things I knew would lead to certain unwanted results.... Do I make the adjustments to get the results I know I'd prefer? Or do I follow it to the letter?

Since this exercise is to cook every recipe as designed, I did just that. (With one exception: I used my mixer to knead the dough.)

FYI, I went with my typical 50/50 white and whole wheat flour split.

The first fork in the road that I struggled with: I wanted to combine all of the ingredients minus the salt, which I know prohibits autolysis, and then let the dough sit for the 20m autolyse process. But no, I added everything and kneaded. (Incidentally, the salt is left out of the recipe directions, but I'm assuming they must expect us to add it with everything else.)

Next, cover with a dish towel. Hmm. I wanted so badly to cover with plastic wrap, as every other bread recipe I've ever made has instructed, but I did as told. Result? A not very well risen dough ball with a dried out exterior. :-(

I let the dough rise for an extra 10 or 15 minutes, to see if it would rise a little more, but there wasn't much change, so I proceeded. I've never punched down or rolled out focaccia dough, but that's what I&T told me to do, so punch and roll I did.

The final fork, sprinkle with salt and rosemary leaves first, THEN brush with oil? I just couldn't follow that one, because I'd be brushing all the salt and rosemary right off! So I brushed with oil, then I sprinkled the salt and leaves, then I sprayed more oil, just in case there's a reason to want oil on top. (Never too much oil in focaccia!) And I couldn't bear to lay a dishtowel over that oily dough! It'd absorb it all! So I put my foot down and used my trusty plastic wrap.

OK, I guess I did veer away from the recipe a teensy bit at the end, but so much less than I longed to!

In the oven, the bread's rise was rather impressive. Perhaps the short rise time leading up to being baked accounts for the big oven growth.

And the bread turns out fine. I just think focaccia here is a misnomer. This bread tastes strangely like a quick bread, with a very soft crumb and crust. Well, in fact, it IS a quick bread! A yeasted quick bread. The more authentic focaccias (focacce?) I've made not only have risen for twice as long, but also they've included a sponge/starter, developed overnight at a minimum, so these two processes are incomparable. As are the results.

Is this loaf edible? Tasty, even? 
Absolutely. 

Is it cute? 
See for yourself. 
  
Is it focaccia? 
I don't think so....

SFO: 10
(just call it something else... Fauxcaccia?)

Day 30 - Ancho-Lentil Soup with Grilled Pineapple and The Mocha

30 Day Check In!!
I think it's going very well. There have been very few disasters (only one, actually) and a lot of great food and exciting discoveries. I'm really excited to be on this journey, and I'm happy to report that as of today, I've completed 42.5 of the 313 total recipes. (FYI, the half is the Roasted Portobello Mushrooms that I need to redo.)

Ancho-Lentil Soup with Grilled Pineapple 

The title of this dish is perfectly descriptive, but it can't communicate how amazing it tastes. This recipe includes the preparation of homemade ancho chile powder, which is fun! I've ground up toasted chiles before, but I love the way I&T turn it into an event. And it really adds so much flavor to the soup!

I used half vegetable broth and half water, and I also added about a half cup of the optional extra cup of water before blending. Incidentally, my lentils took another ten or so minutes beyond the book's suggested time.

This is one of those soups that you can't appreciate until it's all come together. Once the lime juice goes in and you've blended it and you're tasting for salt, you can tell it's a special soup, but wait: the thing that really sends it over the moon is the grilled pineapple. A spoonful of this soup together with a bite of that fruit is heaven. Marcy agrees.

SFO: 10

(It's not the lentil soup your grandmother made, but it's amazing, so just eat it, will you?)

The Mocha 

Here's my second ice cream sandwich, The Mocha, incorporating the Chocolate-Chocolate Chip-Walnut Cookies and Coffee Ice Cream which is then rolled in chocolate sprinkles.

Great idea, great combo. The only place where it disappoints is in the lackluster coffee flavor and icy texture of the ice cream. But as it melts, the texture improves, and the flavor, while not spectacular, is fine. 

Marcy, in a rare moment of dessert indulgence, actually eats one! (Note: check out the engagement bling on her hand!)

SFO: 9

(A 10 in concept, but I'm still cranky about the ice cream.)

Day 16 - French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme

French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme

Bold assertions are made in the introduction to this recipe. "This is the last lentil soup recipe you will ever need" is the first. And it goes on from there.

To me, lentil soup is one of those things that's hard to mess up. If you assemble the standard ingredients with even the minimum cooking know-how, you will end up with a decent soup. Obviously, this soup is better than decent. But is it definitive? Is this the lentil soup that marks the death knell of that new hit Food Network series, America's Next Top Lentil Soup? Who can say, other than the judges from America's Next Top Lentil Soup.

I&T, I appreciate your quirky sense of humor in the prose portions of this book, so I'm not going to belabor the point. It's a very good soup. The tarragon is an unexpected and welcome touch. And French lentils have always been my favorite form of that legume. So I'm a fan. The King of Pants liked it too.


SFO: 10

PS I made that loaf of Whole Wheat Rustic Italian Bread from this amazing Cooks Illustrated recipe. Time-consuming, but worth it!

Day 8 - Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup

Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup

Nice. Not my cup of tea, but nice. I'm not really clear about this flavor profile, but if I had to guess, I'd say African. There's peanut butter, but it's not your classic Asian peanut butter treatment, i.e. sesame or hoisin flavors. Instead, it's heavy on the tomatoes, with ginger and eggplant and cilantro, and as I mentioned when I made the Spinach with Tomatoes, the tomato-ginger combo is not my fave. Still, this is a solid recipe that turns out a solid soup. More like a stew, actually.

I do have a gripe though. It has to do with I&T's alleged cooking time: 1 hour, 20 minutes. Not even close! I mean, if you do the math, the shortest possible time from start to serve is 2 hours. What's more likely is 2:20-2:30. Granted, the last half hour is spent waiting for the soup to cool (flavors to meld?) before you're "allowed" to salt it. (And you know I salted it. Liberally.) So it's not like you're spending 2.5 hours solid over the stove. But still, that's a significant time difference. I think I'm going to classify this as another typo alert.

About that salt, again there's none added in the body of the recipe. There may be some in the tomatoes or the peanut butter you use, but there's no extra addition. And this really needs it. I made the mistake of tasting this dish before the first big simmer. Ugh. It tasted like nothing! Then I tasted it again after the last ingredient went in, and after all that simmering, it had a much broader, more interesting flavor, but still, no salt! Is this just salt-crazed me? Unfortunately, I ate this solo, so I couldn't ask someone else for a reality check, but there are leftovers, and I will be quizzing some lucky person.
 
I ate it, as suggested, with jasmine rice, which was perfect. And I definitely recommend using all the optional garnishes: the chopped cilantro (not really a garnish, it goes in with the lemon juice), the cilantro leaves and the chopped peanuts. They really boosted the flavor!

Incidentally, I&T describe this soup as being "naughty," i.e. not low fat, and "outrageously rich and savory." I didn't find it to be that heavy. The overwhelming flavor here is tomato, and therefore it skews to the acid side of things. The flavors that I associate with rich and savory and heavy (salt, fat, cream) stayed in the background, so this dish didn't feel like it weighed me down. Of course, I didn't check the calorie count....

SFO: 7

(There's nothing that screams scary-vegan about this... no weird grains, beans, or soy products... but I find the flavor profile to be quite unusual, so that's why there are points off. Funny, I give vegans credit for generally embracing unusual flavors, and I assume that meat-eaters will be turned off by them. I acknowledge that there are both adventurous meat-eaters and fussy vegans out there, but I'm sticking with this rating anyway.)