Category Archives: Soups

Homemade Shrimp Stock

Recently, my sister Marylou gifted me a box of Aneto fish broth that she had bought, but thought she would never use. I decided to use the broth to make a shrimp risotto, something I’ve made many times over the years, but always using chicken stock. (I love chicken stock…)

Well, let me tell you that shrimp risotto was a revelation. I had no idea it could taste so amazing. What had I been thinking all these years using chicken and not fish stock????

But there was a problem. As good as the Aneto’s fish broth is (and it is amazingly good), I inherently hate stock-in-a-box. Something about it just makes me nervous. I’m never 100% sure when I twist off the cap that it hasn’t been opened before. Give me stock in a can or give me homemade stock….

I looked online to see if I could find a canned fish stock as good as Aneto’s, and found this nice round up and taste test comparison of fish stocks. Aneto’s stock-in-a-box came out on top – no surprise given my experience with using it. But there was no canned version…

Okay, it was time to start making my own fish stock. I had seen my brother Joe’s shrimp stock in progress over the years (we text each other pics while we’re cooking), and had always been intrigued by the idea. But until now, I never had a need for shrimp stock.

Turns out making shrimp stock is easy-peazy, if you think ahead. That means, whenever you buy shrimp, either fresh or frozen, buy it with shells on. After peeling your shrimp, save the shells in the freezer in a zip lock bag or other more environmentally-friendly container. When you have enough, thaw them out and make shrimp stock!

There are almost as many recipes for shrimp stock out there as there are good cooks. Some are as simple a shrimp shells, water, and peppercorns. Others add white wine, and some use leeks and fennel. This is the one I came up with based on what I found on the web and what I had in my fridge and pantry. Feel free to come up with your own shrimp stock recipe – I’ll put some links at the end of this post to get you started.

And if you make shrimp risotto – trust me on this – always use a fish stock.

Print Recipe

Shrimp Stock

You can use your stock immediately, or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups shrimp shells
  • 2 quarts filtered water
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 coarsely chopped medium onion
  • 1 coarsely chopped medium carrot
  • 1 coarsely chopped stalk celery
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 peppercorns
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp sea salt

Instructions

  • Saute the shrimp shells in olive oil over medium high heat in a stockpot with the onion, carrot, and celery till slightly browned in spots. Add tomato paste and cook a minute or two to brown it slightly. Add water, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and sea salt. Bring it to a boil over high heat, skim the foam, then lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes, skimming as needed.
  • Cool a bit, then strain the broth though a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Let it cool completely, then freeze for up to 3 months. Better yet, use it right away and make shrimp risotto.

A Few Shrimp Stock Recipes to Get You Started

Enlightened Cream of Tomato Soup

Warning – The story behind this soup is a long one. A melodrama in three acts as it were.

Act I

It all started with a chicken that I purchased some weeks ago, in order to get a single chicken liver to use in a Bolognese ragu. After removing the liver from the little packet stuffed inside the chicken, I put the neck back in the cavity, put the chicken in the freezer and made the Bolognese.

Act II

Two weeks later, I took the chicken out of the freezer, put it in a pot with some veggies and water and cooked it, giving me a meat to make soft tacos for the a couple of dinners and lunches. And also a gorgeous chicken broth, which I froze to use later.

Print Recipe

Chicken Broth and Cooked Chicken

Instructions

  • Wash chicken. Place it in a big soup pot along with chicken neck; an onion studded with 2 cloves and cut in half; a large leek, a large carrot and stalk of celery each cut into thirds; a turnip and parsnip cut into halves; a few sprigs of fresh thyme, and a handful of fresh parsley. Cover it all with cold water and for good luck add a small box of chicken bone broth (optional). Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper, simmer over low heat for a couple of hours till chicken is falling off the bone. Strain the broth, saving the chicken for later use, and refrigerate the broth overnight. De-fat and freeze in 3 cup batches.

All week I wondered what I should make with that broth. Motza ball or chicken noodle soup? Not in the mood for that. Risotto? Too heavy. White bean soup? Nah, not cold enough yet.

Act III

This morning, I sat down to get my costume ready for my friend’s birthday/Halloween bash tonight (sit down dinner, music and dancing). Its a big birthday for him, and I was excited to go. I was also kind of excited about our costume. We were going as a couple of idioms. I planned to tie apples, oranges and bananas from the bottom of my dress (low hanging fruit). Mr TBTAM would be a Catch 22 (No 22 pasted into a baseball glove, go Phils! ). Cute, right?

But first, as requested by our host of his guests, I did a rapid Covid test. And then I did another.

The results? Lets call them equivocal. (Here, see what you think, but know that the line in the pic is fainter than it looked in real life…)

I sent a pic of the results to my daughter, who works as a Covid liaison for the Department of Health, and her friends. It was unanimous – I was “positive”. I then uploaded the pic to the enormous text stream I have with my brothers and sisters and their spouses. They were unanimous. I was “negative”.

I had woken up feeling fine, but now, I was sure that I was starting to feel a little feverish, so I took my temp – normal. I did a third test, a different brand. An unequivocal negative.

What to do?

I think I’m probably negative. But, if I went to the party tonight and I’m an early positive, I’ve exposed a lot of folks to Covid, many of whom are in high risk groups. If I stayed home and I’m truly negative, the only evening that gets ruined is mine. I’d never forgive myself if someone got sick because of me, so I emailed our hosts my deep regrets. And immediately started to feel sorry for myself.

By this time, it was getting close to lunchtime. Mr TBTAM suggested grilled cheese – true comfort food for the woe begotten.

And then I knew what I had to make with the chicken broth. Cream of tomato soup.

But not rich, over buttery, cream-laden tomato soup. Something lighter, but with just a touch of creaminess. I didn’t have time to roast the tomatoes the way Cooks Illustrated and Ina Garten do, and as I will try next time I make this soup, but figured the home made broth more than made up for that. And I was right. The soup was wonderfully light but immensely flavorful.

The cheese sandwiches Mr TBTAM made us were also enlightened, using just and ounce or so of cheese for each, layered with tomatoes, red onion and a little mustard. He did toast them a little too dark, but I’m not complaining.

As we ate our delicious lunch, the warmth of the soup bathed my innards and I began to feel a little less morose. I sent some soup downstairs with Mr TBTAM to give to my daughter, who stopped briefly by on her way to Brooklyn with friends. She had it for her lunch, declared it a success and requested the recipe. That was all I needed to turn it into a great afternoon.

And tonight? Well, after all, it’s game 2 of the World Series, and the Phils won last night.

I think I’ll be fine.

ADDENDUM

Here’s my test from the next day. Unambiguously negative.

Print Recipe

Enlightened Cream of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 stalk celery, diced
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 28 oz can San Marzano Tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 cups Chicken Broth Preferably homemade
  • 1 Tsp Sea salt Add more to taste
  • 1 generous pinch saffron threads
  • Ground pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup 2% milk
  • 1/4 cup Half and half

Instructions

  • In a large stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Saute onions, garlic and celery till soft. Add flour and cook a minute. Add tomatoes, both and spices. Simmer uncovered for 40 mins.
  • Remove from heat and puree with immersion blender till smooth. Stir in milk and half and half and return to heat. Heat and serve.

Caramelized Onion, Fennel and Mushroom Soup – Umami in a Bowl

What do you make when you want something hearty but light? Something that will warm the cockles of your heart but not make you feel stuffed? That will work for a light and early pre-theater dinner after a not so light afternoon lunch with your sister who was just in for the afternoon? (What a treat!)

You make this soup.

The Umami is strong with this one

I love onion soup, but never found it satisfying on its own without being topped with a ton of cheese and bread.

This soup is different. Between the mushrooms, fennel and beef broth, it’s packed with umami. Add some shaved parmesan and you’re in an umami paradise, and satiated beyond what you might have expected from something this light.

What is Umami?

Umami is the so-called fifth taste, imparting a savoriness that harmonizes with other flavors and enhances the deliciousness and satiating effect of foods.

I love this definition of umami – It describes what all good food should do, and exactly how I felt after eating this wonderful soup.

“It’s something that’s kind to the body.. “It’s mild, and, after eating, it’s not heavy on your stomach. It helps you wake up better in the morning. That’s what deliciousness is about. It’s about feeling good after eating.”

The chemical in food responsible for umami is free glutamate, which occurs naturally in certain foods, especially Japanese kelp and seaweed, but also tomatoes, aged cheeses, fish and soy sauces, shrimp and certain other fish. Mothers milk is also rich in glutamate. Food proteins are rich in glutamate, but this glutamate cannot be tasted. However, if you ferment protein, proteolysis frees up the glutamate – so fermented foods are also rich in umami.

5′-Inosinate and 5′-guanylate have also been found to have umami. They are synergistic with glutamate, such that their combination with glutamate is much stronger than any of the the three are individually in triggering umami. It’s why beef broth (an inosinate source) made with glutamate rich foods such as onion, tomato and carrot tastes so much better to us than just plain beef broth.

Dried mushrooms are rich in 5′-guanylate. But soaking them in boiling water, as many recipes dictate, decomposes the guanylate. So soak them in cold water if you want them for umami. (Some argue mushrooms are best soaked in cold water overnight in the fridge, but that’s more advance prep than I can do.) Pair them with beef broth or onions to get that umami synergy.

Probably the richest Umami you can get is in the Kombu Dashi – a Japanese broth made from dried seaweed. Typically, dried tuna (bonito), sardine flakes or dried mushrooms are added to the broth – these foods are rich in 5′-Inosinate acid and 5-guanlylate. So Kombu dashi is pure umami.

Salt enhances umami, but only to a point, so don’t over-salt your foods.

Umami rich foods may enhance satiety, as evidenced by the fact that women eating soup enhanced with glutamate eat less at a subsequent meal than those whose soup does not have glutamate. (I can attest to this – this soup filled me so much that I was not hungry for much that entire evening.)

Glutamate rich foods may have other effects beyond mouth taste, mediated via glutamate receptors in the GI tract. For this reason, researchers in Australia are proposing a new category called “alimentary tastes” for newly discovered tastes such as umami and fat.  Given that even the basic tastes of salt and sweet also have actions throughout the body as well as in the mouth, I’m not sure that makes sense. But its an interesting point of view.

What about MSG?

Glutamate is the main ingredient in MSG (monosodium glutamate), a popular food additive.

Unlike natural glutamate-rich food, MSG has gotten a bad rap as a cause of migraine headaches and the so-called “Chinese restaurant syndrome”, though this connection has still not been entirely proven or debunked. In general, I take the approach that more is not necessarily better, and extracting and concentrating any food ingredient is never as good as getting it in its natural form. Plus, I suffer from migraines. So no MSG for me.

One of the strongest arguments against MSG use in my opinion is a recent study showing that use of MSG may attenuate natural umami taste, making eaters less sensitive to detecting the lower levels of natural umami in food.

Go for the Umami

This list of umami-rich foods is a great reference. I for one am going to be referring to it again to find ways to enhance the deliciousness of my foods.

In the meantime, enjoy this soup!

Carmelized Onion, Fennel and Mushroom Soup

I tweaked a recipe from Farideh Sadighen in Saveur by adding dried mushrooms and their broth (hello, umami…), substituting butter for half the olive oil for caramelizing, and suggest substituting vermouth for white wine. Next time I plan to use a beef broth made with some nice short ribs that I will cut up when cooked and add back to the soup.

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 large bulb fennel, halved and thinly sliced lengthwise, fronds reserved
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 8 cups beef stock
  • 1 lb. mixed mushrooms (I used shitake and crimini, roughly chopped)
  • 1⁄4 cup dry white wine or vermouth
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Shave Parmesan cheese for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Soak the dried mushrooms in 1 cup hot water for 20-30 minutes till softened. (If using cold water, you may need to soak up to 2 hours.) Remove the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid, and roughly chop them. Strain the liquid through a paper-towel-lined sieve before using.

In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tbsp butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and fennel and cook, stirring, until soft and caramelized, about 45 mins to an hour. (I found this post and this video helpful in learning how to caramelize onions.) Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 2 minutes. Pour in the beef and mushroom stocks and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

While the onions and fennel are caramelizing, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat in a 12 inch skillet. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until golden and giving up liquid, about 5-10 minutes. Add the wine or vermouth and cook until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. If onions still caramelizing, turn off the heat and let rest till next step.

Scrape the mushrooms and wine into the soup and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Season the soup with salt and pepper, ladle into bowls, and garnish with some shaved Parmesan and the reserved fennel fronds.

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More on Umami

Split Pea and Celeriac Soup – Perfect.

If you want to know my perfect Saturday in NYC, here it is…

Wake up latish – 8 am. Shower and have a cup of coffee while you plan tonight’s dinner. Make a shopping list, set up a loaf of bread to rise, then hit the streets with Mr TBTAM on the bikes. Ride across town, through Central Park, chatting a bit on the phone with your little brother who often calls you on Saturday mornings  (love my wireless airpods),

across the West Side to Riverside Park

and the West Side Greenway.

If it’s a cold day in November, dress warmly – scarf, gloves – and don’t let the wind bother you, especially if the sun is out and the wind is keeping the crowds off the Greenway.

It’s just you and the joggers and bikers. And the folks debarking from their cruise ships.

No worries, you’ve mastered the bob and weave of biking the Greenway and the streets of NYC.

Turn off the Greenway at 16th St and head under the High Line

to the Grey Dog for breakfast.

(An alternative here, if it’s warm enough, would be to park the bikes, pick up coffee to go from Blue Bottle and head up to the High Line to see if you can snag a recliner facing the Hudson. But today you need warmth, so it’s the Grey Dog.)

But wait – Look! There’s a new and marvelous antique garage across the street! What a find!

So much to see!

Wonder where you’d put those bendy manikins (maybe the living room sofa?)

or if the cast iron painted cow is too heavy for the ride home (yes it is).

Text a few pics to your friend Amy, who makes jewelry from found objects, to see if she wants you to buy anything for her. No – unfortunately the bakelite button molds have no holes for stringing. But you promise to see one another soon.

Now you head into the Grey Dog. Your latish start and antiquing detour means there’s a bit of a line. But it moves fast, and the gay couple sitting nearby has a one month old baby, so there’s plenty to ooh and aah about, and before you know it, you’re ensconced at a table with your Cappuccino and avocado, poached egg and salmon salad and the Saturday crossword, which promises to be a bear.

By the time you leave, crossword only halfway done (it is indeed a bear), the line is wrapped all the way to the door. Yep, you gotta go early to the Grey Dog…

Back on the bike, fighting to keep your eyes on the road and not on the gorgeous autumn sky,

your next stop is the Union Square Farmer’s Market. At the market, you pass Linda Rodin, but decide not to stop and pay homage. You are, after all, both New Yorkers. Plus, there was that time you ran into Bill Cunningham at the Union Square Market, and he seemed none too pleased to talk…

In addition to celebrity icons, there are cranberries and apples, of course.

And the root vegetables are everywhere.

But mostly you are here to find celeriac, which is technically not a root vegetable though it sure looks like one, for tonight’s soup dinner.

There’s plenty of celeriac to be found, and you exchange soup recipes with the young man selling you yours. His co-worker tells you she eats raw celeriac like an apple, and that you can cook it like a potato if you want to. The most fun part of the farm market is talking with the growers and their staff, and today everyone’s in a talkative mood.

You also grab a honey nut squash to roast for tonight’s salad, along with some greens.

Then it’s back on the bike, to head east to the protected bike lane on First Avenue, then north towards home, with a quick detour to the Fairway on 32nd and 2nd for a slab of ham and some dried peas. It’s always a thrill to drive past the UN building (which looks great after its multiyear renovations),

and you’re pleased to realize that all those long bike rides this past summer have left you with the leg muscles to tackle the hills up to 42nd and 57th streets with nary a break.

Home at last, where the sun is streaming under the doorjamb and hits you square in the eye as you enter your apartment. The bread you put up to rise before you left is ready to be shaped, and it’s a perfect afternoon to spend in the kitchen, making the perfect pea soup. If you’re lucky and they’re home, you’ll even talk to your girls while the soup cooks.

This evening, your friends will be coming over for dinner. You’ll serve said soup with the bread and a salad and then you will all walk to the neighborhood cinema for a movie (Can You Ever Forgive Me? – fabulous!). You’re home well before midnight, early enough to clean up the kitchen together before heading to bed for a well-deserved night’s sleep. Tomorrow is another big day – Chorus sectional in the morning, then brunch and theater with your book club (Gloria: A Life – I highly recommend it, and I’d see Christine Lahti in anything.)

So there you have it. A perfect Saturday. It doesn’t happen often, but I’m gonna’ do my best to be sure it happens again. And for sure I’m making this soup again.

Hope your Saturday was as fun as mine. What’s your idea of a perfect day?

Split Pea & Celeriac Soup

This is not that thick, meconium like paste most of us think of as pea soup. It’s what pea soup should be –  light, flavorful and satisfying. You don’t puree all the soup, so you get to taste all the individual ingredients, and the peas remind you from whence this soup comes. The celeriac acts like lemon does in a dish – brightens and enhances it. I’ll never make that goopy, heavy stuff again.

The recipe is modified from the Greens Restaurant Cookbook. I adjusted the oil and spices, replaced their croutons with ham and skipped the parmesan topping since I was serving it in the salad. If you’d rather forgo the ham, make the optional croutons at the end of this recipe and pass the Parmesan.

We served this with a salad of arugula, roasted honey nut squash, shaved parmesan, salted red onions and a lemon vinaigrette. And homemade bread.

Serves four to six.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dried green split peas
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 large yellow onion, cut into small dice
  • 3 inner stalks celery, cut into small dice
  • 1 celeriac, trimmed and cut into small cubes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Fresh pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used a Savignon blanc)
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups water
  • 5 ounces cooked ham, cut into small cubes (I used smoked Italian ham)
  • (Optional croutons) – 2-3 slices white bread, cubed. 4 more tbsp olive oil and a rosemary branch.
  • (Optional garnish) Grated parmesan and chopped parsley or chervil

Directions

Sift through the peas and pick out any stones or debris. Rinse well, place in a bowl and cover generously with boiling water. Soak for an hour.  (If you have time to soak the peas overnight, no need to boil the water and more power to you. I’ve never had enough foresight to overnight soak anything).

Gradually warm 3 tbsp olive oil in a soup pot with bay leaf and rosemary for about 3 minutes to flavor the oil. Add the garlic and cook over low heat another minute without letting it brown. Add the vegetables, salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, over medium heat.

Add the wine, raise the heat and reduce.

Drain the peas and add them to the pot, tossing for a few seconds before adding the stock and the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until the peas are soft, about 1 1/2 hours.

Blend a few cups of the soup in a blender (or, as I did, transfer it to another smaller pot and puree using an immersion blender). Add the puree back to the soup pot, stir and season again if needed with salt and pepper.

Keep the soup warm while you saute the ham in its own fat in a small frying pan.Serve the soup, passing the sauteed ham around to be added to the bowls of the carnivores at the table.

Croutons and Parmesan for topping (optional for vegetarian version)

Warm 5 tbsp olive oil in a small skillet with a rosemary branch. When the oil is hot and fragrant, remove the rosemary and toss in crouton squares cut from 2-3 slices of white bread. Fry till crisp and golden. Remove to a paper towel to cool.

Save the oil to serve with the soup. Top with croutons and freshly grated parmesan. A little chopped parsely or chervil wouldn’t hurt either.

Celery Root Soup with Caramelized Pears

CERELRY ROOTSOUP WITH PEARS

A huge shout out to Adam Roberts, whose blog The Amateur Gourmet has been a constant source of great recipes, fun stories and sometimes silly songs, for pointing me to this wonderful soup recipe from chef Alfred Portale’s cookbook Simple Pleasures.

This was indeed a delicious soup,  and may very well be one of the best we’ve ever made.  If you want to make it too, here is the recipe.  The only thing I’d do differently is to add a little more stock to thin the soup a bit.

This is what I love about food blogs – they point us to great cookbooks that may have passed beneath our radar when they were first published, in this case Portale’s Simple Pleasures (C 2004). A quick perusal of the web finds several recipes from the book, which I’ve linked to below.  I hope to try a few more of them (The Filet with Madiera and the Spinach Custards for staters), and have added Portale’s book to my must get list and his restaurant Gotham Bar and Grille to my must go list.

I know, I know. You’re wondering how I’ve never heard of Portale or Gotham Grill before, especially since I claim to have lived here in New York for so many years. But you see, as much as I love food, I’m more a home cook in the Big City that a Big City restaurant scene player.

This soup may very well change that.

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More recipes from Simple Pleasures 

Sunday in the Tropics (and Roast Cauliflower Soup)

BBG2Leave it to my friend Paula to get me out of my hunker on a cold January morning, as only she can do, with an email entitled “This Sunday in the Tropics”, in which she proposed a walk at the New York Botanical Garden. “The weather is supposed to be clear and warm (25 degrees!). This the cheapest trip to the tropics ever! Can you feel the winter funk lifting?”

Well, Paula, lift it did. On snow covered trails,

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that took us along the flowing Bronx River

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through the Ornamental Conifer Grove

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past a stand of redwoods

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flowering crabapples,

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and budding pussy willows carrying the promise of spring. 

Pussy WIllow

The bright snow provided a sharp contrast to the winter foliage

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and while the ornamental gardens and conservatory beckoned

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by 1 pm the sun had retreated,

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as did I, home to a warm bowl of roast cauliflower soup.

Cauliflower soup

ROAST CAULIFLOWER SOUP

This recipe, enlightened from one on Epicurious, is a great way to use leftover roast cauliflower. You can adjust the amount of chicken broth to the amount of cauliflower you have left.  This recipe serves four. 

  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 shallot
  • 1 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cups chicken broth (plus a little water if the soups seems too thick)
  • 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • Small bay leaf (or 1/2 large)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Croutons or sheep’s milk yogurt to garnish

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Cut cauliflower into 1-inch flowerets (about 5 cups). In a large baking pan toss cauliflower, garlic, and shallots with oil to coat and roast in middle of oven about 30 minutes, or until golden.

In a soup pot, simmer broth, water, roasted cauliflower mixture, and herbs 30 minutes, or until cauliflower is very tender. Remove the bay leaf. Puree in the pan using an immersion blender. Serve with croutons or a dollop of sheep’s milk yogurt.

Feed Your Brain – Chilled Avocado Vichyssoise

avocado vichyssoise

This is wonderful chilled soup combines my favorite comfort food – potatoes – with one of the best all around brain foods out there – avocado.

That’s right – avocado is good for your brain. And your mood.  And your heart. And your weight.

According to Drew Ramsey, MD , a NYC psychiatrist who has started an amazing conversation about the role of diet in mood and brain function,  avocados are rich in oleic acid –

Oleic acid …. is strongly linked to a decreased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and depression. It improves insulin sensitivity. Oleic acid is used by the body to create oleoylethanolamide, which enhances memory, induces fat burning, promotes weight loss, and reduces appetite.

Dr Ramsey has begun asking the question – Can you eat for a healthier brain? He has written a book called the Happiness Diet – a way of eating that eliminates processed foods and reintroduces us to the nutrients and foodstuffs that support a healthy mind. It’s a dietary message similar to that we’ve been hearing from food gurus like Michael Pollen and Mark Bittman, but focused on how the modern American diet has impacted our brain and our mood, and how getting back to foods like whole grains, grass fed meat, and  fruits and vegetables can support and even enhance interventions to improve mood.


“Your brain is made of fat”, he says, and he is right, because fats form the precursors for neurotransmitters.  Read Ramsey’s book, and you begin to understand why fat – the right kind of fat – is good for you.  

Of course, the amount of research on this approach is limited, but suggests that Ramsey is on the right track. As a physician, I see dietary interventions as supportive of, but not necessarily replacing, psychiatric intervention, whether it be psychotherapy, or if needed, medication.  I also see no harm in making the kind of dietary changes Ramsey recommends as a first step, along with exercise and talk therapy, when addressing milder forms of mood disorders that don’t require medication.

I’ve written before about the good fats found in whole sheep’s milk yogurt.  Now I’ve added avocado to the list of good-fat foods in my diet.

Avocados are an incredibly satisfying food, not to mention delicious. Add some to your salad. Have a few slices as a side with your lunch or dinner. Grab a spoon and scoop some out for a quick satiating snack.

Or make this marvelous soup.

avocado

Avocado Vichyssoise

Modified from a Recipe from Mark Bittman in the New York Times, one of twelve recipes for cold soups in an article entitled “Soup, Hold the Heat”.   Bittman calls for 1-2 avocados – I used 1 1/2, but that made for a pretty thick soup that required about 1/4 cup water to thin it. Next time I will just use one avocado and see how that tastes. (This was delicious). Don’t skip the cilantro – it is more than just a garnish, it’s essential for the flavor.   

2 tbsp butter
3 Idaho potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 leeks, cleaned and chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 avocados, peeled and coarsely chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro for garnish

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a soup pot. Add potatoes and leeks. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring, until softened. Add 4 cups stock. Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the avocado and puree (I use an immersion blender). Refrigerate till cold, then serve garnished generously with chopped cilantro.

Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

When I was a very little girl, I was sitting at the kitchen table eating mashed potatoes, and my mother turned to our neighbor, who was visiting at the time, and said, “She’d eat mashed potatoes till the cows came home”.

I’d say that still holds true.

Except sometimes I eat my mashed potatoes in a soup.

This is an exceedingly simple soup that is  lighter in calories than mashed potatoes, but just as satisfying for this half Irish girl who is still wondering where she’ll put those cows if they ever show up on her doorstep.

Postato Leek Soup

This recipe is from Richard Olney’s cookbook Simple French Food,  via one of my new favorite blogs, A Serious Bunburyist. There is no cream in this – it does not need it. But that butter at the end? C-est manifique!

Ingredients

  • 2 quarts salted boiling water
  • 1 pound potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, sliced (we used Yukon golds)
  • 1 pound leeks, tough green parts removed, cleaned, finely sliced
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Olney has you add the vegetables to the salted boiling water and cook till the potatoes are soft and mashable. I was dying to saute those leeks up first in the butter and then add the water (or maybe chicken stock) and the potatoes, and then maybe a bouquet garni, but I really had no say in the matter as I was still at work when Mr TBTAM started cooking. By the time I arrived home, the leeks and potatoes were done,  so I just got out the old immersion blender and went to town.  Maybe someday I’ll try a fancier version, but this was pretty close to perfect as far as I’m concerned.

Serve hot or cold with a generous sprinkling of sea salt and pepper to finish.

Creamy Cannellini & Chick Pea Soup

Creamy Cannellini & Chickpea soup

This is a variation on a wonderful Tuscan bean soup that has become a household staple. The original recipe calls for 4 cans of white beans and 6 cups of stock. But I only had one can of white beans and a can of garbanzo beans, so I used them and cut back on the chicken stock, using a particularly rich stock called Kitchen Basics Natural Chicken Stock that Serious Eats in taste tests found among the best for soups.

The end result was a soup that is lighter yet even more flavorful than the original, once again proving that necessity (and a half empty larder) is the mother of invention. And often involves canned beans.

CREAMY CANNELLINI & CHICKPEA SOUP

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1-15 ounce cans cannellini (white) beans, drained and rinsed well
  • 1-15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed well
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp dry sherry
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook till translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper and cook for another minute to allow the spices to start to toast and become aromatic. Add the beans, stock, sherry and 1 tsp salt. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot till smooth. Allow to cook another 10 minutes for the flavors to develop. Add more salt to taste if needed.

Yield: 6 cups soup.

Nutritional info (per 8 ounce serving) : 177 cals, 5.4 g fat (0.7 g saturated fat, 0 trans fats), total carb 25.6g, fiber 8.6 g, sugars 1.1 g, Protein 11.1 g

Lemon Grass and Rice Noodle Fish Soup

This soup from David Tanis City Kitchen column in the  NY Times is a revelation.  The noodles, mussels and squid are perfectly cooked and tender, providing contrasting textures with the raw vegetable and herb garnishes. The broth will warm the cockles of your heart, and the flavors will lighten your soul.

Mr TBTAM made this soup for dinner last Thursday, despite my objections that it was too much work for a weeknight on which I had a lot of work to do.  I was so glad he didn’t listen and went ahead and made it without me, even cleaning up the kitchen afterwards himself.

My friend Allen was glad too – he downed a bowl of the soup at 10 pm when he and Jane arrived from Minneapolis for a visit.

And I was even gladder two days later, when Mr TBTAM and I shared what was left of the soup for a quick lunch before heading to a Sunday matinee (The Anarchist – Patti Lupone was  fabulous, unfortunately the script was not.).

So go ahead – Make this soup.

You’ll be glad you did.

(Recipe here. We used chicken rather than fish broth. I left the chiles out of my garnish – it was spicy enough without it.)

Roasted Carrot & Ginger Soup with Cheddar Dill Scones

I don’t know about your husband, but mine is out of control when it comes to food shopping.

It’s not his fault, really. He is a victim of his own evolutionary programming, which, in a bizarre maladaptation to modern society, is triggered whenever he enters Costco. At that point it begins to fire off uncontrollable urges that he cannot possibly resist, as co-activation of the male hunter-gatherer gene and the bargain hunting gene drives him to purchases extremely large boxes and bags of foods in quantities that we can’t possibly store in our NYC apartment or eat before they go bad.

Like the 5-pound bag of baby cut carrots be brought home last week. (What on earth was he thinking?… )

Short of setting up a take out salad bar in the dining room or throwing a cocktail party for 100 complete with the world’s largest crudite platter, I was going to have to figure out some way to use those little suckers.

But I love a challenge. And, thankfully, my family loves carrots.

Hopefully, you love carrots too, because that’s about all you’ll be getting on the blog this week. Today, it’ll be carrot soup. Wednesday, Carrot Cake. Then on Saturday, a Moroccan Carrot Salad.

Feel free to post your own favorite carrot recipes in the comments section. I’m starting to run out of ideas, but unfortunately, not carrots – there’s still about a pound left.

ROASTED CARROT & GINGER SOUP

I modified a recipe from the Silver Palate Goodtimes Cookbook, leaving out the wine and using olive oil instead of butter and roasting the carrots first. Serve with Cheddar Dill Scones (recipe below) and garden greens tossed with Lavender Honey Vinaigrette.

  • 4 tbsp olive oil (divided)
  • 1 1/2 pounds baby-cut carrots (or thickly sliced regular carrots)
  • 8 cups chicken stock
  • 1 large onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 3 large pieces of crystallized ginger, finely chopped
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Fresh dill to garnish

Toss the carrots with 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl, then spread out on a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes till they start to soften and are browned.

In a soup pot saute the onions, ginger and garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat till onions are soft. Add stock, carrots and bay leaf. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, about 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf. Puree in the pot using an immersion blender. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice if desired. Garnish with fresh dill and serve. Also delicious cold.

CHEDDAR DILL SCONES

Modified from Ina Garten. I cut back the butter from 3 sticks to two and used whole milk instead of cream – it just seemed like an insane amount of fat, especially since I was also adding cheese and eggs.  Ina adds the dill and cheddar at the end – I just added them right in with the wet and dry ingredients so I would not have to work the dough so much. I also added a tad of pepper for a slight kick.  

  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper (or a pinch cayenne pepper)
  • 2 sticks cold butter, diced
  • 4  cold large eggs, beaten lightly
  • 1 cup cold whole milk
  • 1/2 pound mild Cheddar, small dice
  • 1 cup minced fresh dill
  • 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. In another bowl, beat milk, eggs and dill.With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dough until it is the texture of coarse meal. With a wooden spoon, stir in the cheese.Make a well in the center, pour in the egg-milk-dill mixture, and working quickly with the spoon and eventually your hands, make a shaggy loose dough.

Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead lightly for just a minute or less till workable. Pat or roll to 3/4 inch thickness and using a biscuit cutter, cut out your scones. Lay out on baking sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper.

Brush with egg wash and bake till golden, about 20-25 mins.  Serve warm.

TO SERVE THIS MEAL TO COMPANY

This is a very easy meal to serve to company as a lunch or light dinner.

The soup can be made up to a day ahead and reheated. You can also roll, cut out and flash freeze the scones ahead.  You can wash and dry your greens ahead and refrigerate, and make your dressing ahead.

Just before your guests arrive, take out the salad greens and dressing and put the greens in a salad bowl.  Preheat your oven.  Twenty minutes or so before you plan to serve dinner, pop the scones in the oven.  While the scones are baking, reheat the soup and hold it warm. Once the scones are done, call everyone to the table, dress the salad  and enjoy!

If this meal seems too light, add some grilled sausages or Irene’s baked chicken. 

Creamy Tuscan White Bean Soup – or How I Became an Immersion Blender Convert

Speaking of infectious recipes, I caught this one from my friend Noel, who served this delicious soup to us last weekend for a light and quick pre-theater dinner. I consider it more than payback for giving him my husband’s recipe for sauteed kale.

When he gave me the recipe, Noel insisted that I had to make the soup using an immersion blender, a kitchen gadget I’d been resisting buying for a long time. When I asked why it was so critical, he used those four words that can make anyone buy anything – “It changed my life”. Now before you think I’m a sucker for hyperbole, you need to know that Noel is one of the most understated people I know. So to hear him use these words – well, I knew the time had come to give in to the immersion blender trend.

So now I can say it too – My immersion blender has changed my life.

I wonder how I ever made pureed soups without it. Actually, now that I’ve used this, it’s clear that what I was calling pureed was pure grit compared to the silky texture I am getting with this little baby. And it’s not even one of the better immersion blenders, just the cheapest I could find a the last-minute, since I decided rather late in the day what to make for dinner. If this is the low-end of immersion blenders, I can’t imagine what the high-end blenders can do…

I’m already making a list of soups I want to make  with this thing – cauliflower soup being at the top of that list.  If you have a soup recipe that I absolutely must try, do let me know.  I just can’t wait to immerse myself in immersion blending again…

Creamy Tuscan White Bean Soup

This recipe is adapted from Short on Time: Fabulous Food Faster, a book in the Kosher by Design series by Susie Fishbein. If you’re long on time, and want a lower sodium content, you can use dried instead of canned beans – just increase the cooking time to 1 – 1 1/2 hours, and hold the puree till the end when the beans are cooked. Canned beans are higher in sodium than dried beans, although you can reduce the sodium content of canned beans by rinsing them well or using low- or no-sodium brands. (Eden and Whole Foods brands are no salt added beans; Goya also has a low sodium brand)

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 4 – 15 ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well
  • 6  cups chicken stock, veggie stock or water (I also added a little water at the end to thin the soup a bit.)
  • 1 tbsp dry sherry
  • Sea salt
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • Fresh parsley or thyme for garnish
  • French bread toasts (recipe follows)

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook till translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper and cook for another minute to allow the spices to start to toast and become aromatic. Add the beans, stock, sherry and 1 tsp salt. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot till smooth. Allow to cook another 10 minutes for the flavors to develop. Add more salt to taste if needed.  Stir in the butter. Serve garnished with parsley and with French Baguette Toasts on the side. Reheats well the second day, but you’ll need to add a little water or stock to thin it out.

French Baguette Toasts

  • 1 demi-baguette
  • olive oil
  • Salt and pepper.
  • Grated parmesan (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Slice the baguette into 1 inch slices. Arrange on a cookie sheet. Brush lightly on one side with olive oil. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese (optional). Toast for 6-8 minutes in the middle rack of the oven.

Sausage, Kale & Potato Soup with Fig Compote

If this is what you see out your bedroom window when you wake up –

This is what you have for lunch.


Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup with Fig Compote

I don’t know if I’m gilding the lily with the compote or not, but whenever I see sausages I think of figs, and I liked the richness a dollop of it added to the soup. Mr TBTAM thought the soup was perfect without it, but then he spread the compote on warm bread and ate it along with the soup. You can make and eat it either way. Or not at all. Because the soup really is delicious all on its own.

There are lots of recipes for this soup out there out there – this one is modified from Epicurious, found via Smitten Kitchen. We used Italian sausage, but I’d love to try it with Kielbasa or the more traditional Portuguese Linguica sausage. Smoked sausage will slice up easier than Italian, and would add a wonderful flavor. If you use linguica, you may not need the herbs since the sausage is spiced nicely. You can use white potatoes, sweet potatoes or both – I used what I happened to have around. Not sure why I added the carrot, it was probably not necessary.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ( 2 medium) sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1 inch slices
1 lb (2 medium) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1 inch slices
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots – peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves,  peeled and diced
1 coil sweet italian sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp dried
1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried
1 large bunch kale, washed, middle spine cut out and leaves torn or chopped into bite-sized pieces
6 cups chicken stock
Salt, pepper and a pinch of hot red pepper flakes for seasoning.

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add sausage and saute till browned on all sides.

Remove sausage and set aside. Try not to eat any. (You can drain them on paper towels and remove some of the fat from the pot if you want at this point.)

Add onions and carrots to the pot and saute till onions are transluscent, about 8 minutes.

Add potatoes and saute, stirring often, about 10 minutes or until they start to soften.

Add garlic and cook for one minute. Add broth, thyme, oregano and bring to a boil, deglazing pan as it heats. Turn down heat and simmer covered, till potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

Mash the potatoes in the pot with a potato masher, just enough to thicken the sauce a bit, but leaving plenty of potato chunks (this step is optional, and I may not do it in the future.)

Add the kale and the sausage

and heat till kale is wilted.

Season and serve hot, with fig compote on the side. You can stir a spoonful of the compote into your soup, or spread it on warm bread and eat alongside the soup. Or not.

Fig Compote

10 dried mission figs, stems removed and diced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper

Combine ingredients and simmer in a small pot over low heat, mashing the figs with a fork as they soften, until thick and rich. Serve either as a dollop in your soup or spead onto warm baguette slices.

Herbed White Bean & Sausage Stew

Melissa Clark published a wonderful recipe for white bean stew in last week’s NY Times, marveling that she was able to make it without having to pre-soak her beans. Inspired by her recipe, Mr TBTAM and I decided to shorten the making of this stew even further by using canned beans. The result – a fabulously rich and flavorful autumn dinner in just over an hour.

Herbed White Bean and Sausage Stew

This recipe is a great use for those herbs that remain green in the garden through fall and early winter – rosemary and thyme. In addition to using canned beans, we replaced water with chicken broth, added some diced tomatoes, spiced things up with additional onion and garlic and a few red pepper flakes, and served it with freshly made jumbo croutons. You can lighten this recipe up by using chicken or turkey meatballs instead of sausage.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for serving
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, sliced 3/4-inch thick
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 medium carrots, finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely diced
1 large or two medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
2 thyme sprigs
1 large rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
2 14 oz cans chicken broth plus 1 can water
2 – 15.5 oz can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 – 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, more for serving
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, more to taste
Jumbo Croutons for garnish (recipe below)

1. Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and brown until cooked through. Remove sausage from pan and hold.

2. Add the tomato paste and cumin to the pot. Cook, stirring, about 2 minutes. Add the carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes, adding in the rest of the spices about halfway through. Stir in the beans, chicken broth and tomatoes. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer gently about 1 hour, till the broth thickens. Add the sausage back in during the last 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the vinegar and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Ladle into bowls and serve drizzled with additional vinegar and olive oil. Pass around the croutons.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Jumbo Croutons

Half a Baguette (we had half of one in the freezer)
2-3 tbsp Olive oil
Salt and papper to taste

Thaw the bread if need be, then using a bread knife, cut into 2 inch cubes.Toss with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. spread onto baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit fo about 5-10 minutes, turning a few times during cooking and watching closely so they don’t burn. Serve.