Spiced Carrot Soup

  
I love love love soups, particularly in winter.  Paired with a big salad full of veggies, nuts, and tasty greens (spinach and arugula are my faves), it makes a warming, filling, and healthy meal.

If you've read this blog a few times you know that I always have a lot of pantry foods on hand, making soup-making a cinch whenever I have a few veggies kicking around.  This time I had carrots and celery on hand, and the rest was in my pantry and freezer (I keep sliced ginger in the freezer for soups and smoothies--so useful!).  I added a bit of this and a bit of that, and it became a darn good soup, if I do say so myself.  In addition to being a very healthy food, fresh ginger can actually be a bit spicy.  I used about 1½ tablespoons of roughly minced ginger, and there was some heat to this soup.  Use less if you prefer less kick, more for more.  While I didn't measure the stock, I think I used about 3 cups, which made a fairly thick soup, perfect when it's an entree.  More stock will make more (thinner) soup, better as a starter course.  

Warm to the Bone Lentil Soup

After a relatively warm early December, winter has finally hit Cambridge, and nothing says "winter" like a big pot of soup.  (Although, as I write this, a mild warm front is moving in, but I'm not complaining about that.)  

Multiple Christmas parties left me with three ham hocks, which got me thinking about lentil soup.  I bookmarked the Barefoot Contessa's recipe a while back, and as a fan of all things Ina, I was eager to try it (especially after an unsolicited ringing endorsement from a friend).  It becomes a vegetarian recipe if you swap out chicken broth for vegetable stock, has a classic vegetable backbone, and uses French green lentils, which I had in my pantry and wanted to use up.  But since I had so much ham and even more lentils in my pantry--red ones--I turned to Google for further inspiration.  This led me to a blogger's Red Lentil and Ham Soup with an Indian spice flavor profile.  Realizing I had all the necessary spices in my ridiculously stocked pantry I ambitiously, and perhaps foolishly, decided to do both.  (Honestly, how much soup can a single girl eat?)

Winter Warmth

 

One of my favorite winter meals is Turkey and White Bean Chili.  The recipe is one that I've adapted slightly from Emeril Lagasse of Food Network fame.  Its subtle spiciness is countered by the freshness of the cilantro, while the turkey and beans make it hearty and satisfying while warming you to the core.  Whether you make a big pot to share with friends, or just eat it yourself over the course of a week (which you can do, because it reheats beautifully), I guarantee that you'll love this chili. 

Bean Stew For A Healthy You

 

Well, the 12 days of Christmas are officially over, so I figured I had to move on from Christmas cookies.  Tear.  And on to semi-healthy things, since it's January, and that's how people roll in January, right?  Actually, the fact that this next recipe is on the semi-healthy side is purely coincidental.  I saw it on Smitten Kitchen and it looked absolutely amazing, AND I realized that I had nearly everything I needed in the pantry already, and so that's what I did.  

So, the recipe:  Chard and White Bean Stew.  Doesn't that excite you?  It excites me.  Seriously.  It's full all sorts of yummy things that I love, like beans and tomatoes and garlic and shallots and herbs.  The real bonus was, as I said, all of these things are pantry staples for me, other than the chard.  I made a special pilgrimage to Whole Foods just for that, and for 20 whole minutes felt way too uncool to be there.  Cambridge is just too hip for me...  Anyway, I got home, then whipped this up.  It probably takes about an hour to make, if you're actually paying attention, but I was distracted with several other things, so it probably took me a longer.  But it's great because after you've got all your aromatics chopped and sauteing, you don't really need to pay close attention.  Perfect for cleaning up as you go, or doing other projects that I'll tell you about shortly.

Smitten Kitchen says that the chard can be replaced with kale or spinach or another hearty green, if so desired.  As for serving (which I haven't actually done yet, due to too much snacking while cooking), it can be served as is, or with some fresh herbs or grated Parmesan or Romano on top.  To make it an even more filling and delicious meal, try toasting at thick piece of rustic bread, rubbing it with a clove of garlic, then ladling your stew on top of that, then topping it with a poached egg, then some fresh herbs, few drops of sherry vinegar and/or some grated cheese.  Gosh, I wish I could take credit for that, but I cannot.  But I am definitely doing that tomorrow, once I'm hungry again.  Ooh, golly I just can't wait.

Chard and White Bean Stew (Adapted only slightly from SmittenKitchen.com)

Serves 6 to 8

* 1 pound Swiss chard (or kale, spinach or another green), ribs and stems removed and cleaned
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 cup (5 1/4 ounces) chopped carrots
* 1 cup (5 ounces) chopped celery
* 1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) chopped shallots, about 4 medium
* 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
* 1 cup dry white wine
* 2 15-ounce cans (or about 3 3/4 cups) white beans (such as Navy Beans or Cannellini beans), drained and rinsed
* 2 cups (or more to taste) vegetable broth
* 1 cup pureed tomatoes (canned is fine; this is less than a 15 ounce can)

* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 3 fresh thyme sprigs
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar (Red wine vinegar also works in a pinch)

* Garnishes: Toasted bread slices, poached eggs, chopped herbs such as tarragon, parsley or chives or grated Parmesan or Romano, if desired

1. Bring medium pot of salted water to boil. Cook chard (or any heavier green; no need to precook baby spinach) for one minute, then drain and squeeze out as much extra water as possible. Coarsely chop chard.

2. Dry out the medium pot and heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add carrots, celery, shallots and saute for 15 minutes, adding the garlic in the last few minutes.  Light browning is okay, although don't go crazy--you mostly want soft veggies, not crispy ones, and definitely no burnt garlic--bitter city!

3. Add wine (scraping up any bits that may have stuck to the pot) and cook it until it reduced by three-fourths. 

 4. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, a few pinches of salt, freshly ground black pepper, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add chard and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove thyme and bay leaf. Add more broth if you’d like a thinner stew and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

5. Serve as is drizzled with sherry vinegar. Or try the aforementioned toast/stew/egg/cheese/sherry vinegar combo.

Enjoy!

Genius!

  

I wasn't planning on writing anything tonight, but then I made dinner, and it was just so darn good that I felt a little selfish keeping it to myself, even though the recipe is really rough, and I just kinda made it up, and I can't even tell you exactly what I did.  But bear with me, and I'll give it my best shot. 

So, I had some pre-cut butternut squash sitting around from before Thanksgiving, and it has been getting moldy and squishy all week, because I haven't had the time/energy to use it.  And I also had a few apples from the bottom of one of those supermarket bags of apples that were totally bruised and not much good for eating.  A promising start, no? 

A few weeks ago I made this fantastic Barefoot Contessa salad (again from Back to Basics, a.k.a., my new favorite book).  The recipe is here if you want to make it, and. quite honestly, you should.  But back to tonight.  I decided to roast the squash exactly like I did for that salad, which is to say, with EVOO, a touch of maple syrup, salt and pepper.  Once I picked through my squash and got rid of all the bad bits, I probably had about 2 cups of diced pieces.  I peeled and cut the apples into eights, and then tossed it all together, then roasted them until the squash was soft, and the apples were very soft but SO AMAZING.  (I'm going to have to look further into this roasted apple thing, because holy cow people, they were sooooooo good.  I probably would have had more soup if I hadn't eaten so many apple pieces right out of the roasting pan!)  I then pureed the roasted stuff with just enough vegetable stock to help them move around, and then I stirred in a little more, to make it the ideal consistency, and presto, dinner is served.  It was earthy, sweet, tart, and just a tiny bit spicy, and woweeee.  When this idea formulated in my mind I thought that it would need a dash of half and half to give it a little richness, but honestly the roasted vegetables came out like silk in the blender, and when I tried adding the half and half it ended up masking the tangy tartness of the apples, which I think really made the dish.  And without it the dish is Vegan, which I think is pretty cool.  Not that I'm a Vegan, or even a strict vegetarian, but I like to challenge myself to cook with restrictions sometimes, just to see if I can do it.  And in this case, I can, and I will be making it again, and soon--I won't even wait until my ingredients are so-close-to-rotten-that-I-have-no-other-option-than-to-roast-and-puree-them-to-hide-their-flaws.

P.S.  Fruits and veggies, people!  I nearly forgot to mention, I ate 4 apples and several cups of squash for dinner and it was so good I felt like singing!  Got all my servings today!  And, only 5 ingredients; Claire Robinson, eat your heart out!

Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque

Serves as many as you want

As mentioned above, I basically used what I had around, which was 4 small/medium apples and about 2 cups, diced, of squash (although I probably ate about 1 apple's worth of pieces before making the soup, so more like 3 apples.  This made one large dinner serving, so you can use this ratio to make your desired quantity. 

For each serving:

* 3 smallish/2 larger apples, peeled/cored and cut into eight wedges (As it so happened, I had Cortlands, which are excellent cooking apples, because they hold their shape and have a bit of tartness, which really came through in this soup, so I would highly recommend Cortlands if you can get your hands on them) 

* 2 cups of butternut squash, diced into 3/4-inch pieces

* A few swirls of extra virgin olive oil, enough to coat ingredients lightly

* A few tablespoons of pure maple syrup

* Salt and pepper

* Vegetable stock, about a 1/4 to 1/2 a cup per serving

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a cookie sheet (or 2, if you have a lot of apple/squash), with aluminum foil (for easy cleanup).  In large bowl, toss the squash, apples, olive oil, and maple syrup, until the veg/fruit is evenly coated.  Pour out in a single layer on your cookie sheet(s).  Sprinkle with kosher or sea salt and freshly ground pepper

2.  Roast veg/fruit until the squash is quite soft and apples begin to get nice brown bits, about 20-25 minutes. 

3.  Allow to cool for a few minutes, then put veg/fruit in a blender (in batches, if necessary), with just a few splashes of vegetable stock.  Puree until smooth; use a spoon to move things around if necessary.  Add additional vegetable stock until soup reaches the desired consistency.  Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if you need to.  Transfer into a saucepan to reheat if necessary, or just pour into bowls and serve.

 

As you can see, I like my soup thick.  I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Enjoy!!!

French Onion Soup, According to Cook's Illustrated

   
French onion soup has been on Erik's "to cook" list for a while now, and last night we finally got around to it.  There are so many recipes out there to choose from, but essentially they all start with caramelizing onions, adding  some sort of booze, a variety of broths, some herbs, and letting it simmer all together.  Then of course the thing that makes it French onion soup, not just any old onion soup, is the melting of copious amounts of cheese all over the top.  But which recipe to choose?  One of my fave blogs, Brown Eyed Baker, had recently featured a French Onion Soup, following a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, which might as well be the Bible, so I figured, might as well start with the best.  


What made the Cook's Illustrated version so appealing was that they took about four times longer to caramelize the onions, so I figured those would end up being some damn delicious onions.  And oh boy, were they ever.  Instead of doing everything stove-top, CO has you cook the onions down for 2 1/2 hours in the oven before even starting the stovetop caramelizing, which made those onions so sweet it was hard to believe I wasn't eating candy.  Not even hyperbole, I swear.  Then a mixture of beef and chicken broths, and water, thyme and a bay leaf, and we were simmering.   

Now, it might be sacrilege to admit this, but actually the only thing I don't like about French onion soup is that excessively cheesy crust.  Maybe it's my inner moderately-health-conscious person talking here, but just seeing all that oozy cheese all over the place just doesn't do it for me, plus it always makes a mess and inevitably you burn your tongue on it.  And in fact, Cook's Illustrated agrees with me!  So as a variation, we toasted slices of french bread on both sides under the broiler, then topped one side with grated Gruyere, and melted that for a minute, and floated those big cheese croutons atop the soup.  The soup quickly saturated the crouton and helped melt the cheese, making it, for me, the perfect topping for an exceptional soup.  But no matter how you like to finish it, either drenched with cheese or delicately topped with a modest amount this soup is a winner.  It takes a bit of time, but it's a fun project for a Sunday afternoon (or whenever you have time).  From start to finish the soup took about 4 hours, but the first 2 1/2 is just oven time, and your patience will certainly be rewarded.


French Onion Soup (from Cook's Illustrated)
Serves 6


* 3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
* 4 pounds of yellow onions, peeled, halved, and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

* Salt
* 3 cups water, divided
* 1/2 cup dry sherry (we used a dry white wine)
* 4 cups of chicken broth
* 2 cups of beef broth
* 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, tied in a bundle with kitchen twine
* 1 bay leaf
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Baguette, cut into 1/2 inch slices
* About 2 cups of shredded Gruyere cheese


1.  Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Generously spray the inside of a heavy bottomed large (7 quarts, at least) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray.  In the Dutch oven combine sliced onions, butter, and 1 teaspoon salt.  Cover and cook in oven for 1 hour.  After an hour, remove from oven and stir, being sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pot.  At this point the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume.  Return the Dutch oven to the oven with the lid ajar and continue to cook for an additional 1 1/2 hours until the onions are very soft and turning golden brown, stirring onions and scraping down Dutch oven again after 1 hour.

2.  After a total of 2 1/2 hours in the oven, transfer pot to stove top over medium-high heat.  Cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of the pot, until accumulated liquid has evaporated and onions start to brown more, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly.  Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the bottom of the pot is coated with a dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes.  Scrape any crust that sticks to the spoon back into the onions.

3.  Deglaze pan by stirring in 1/4 cup of water, and scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen crust.  Cook until water evaporates and the pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes.  Repeat process of deglazing an additional 2 or 3 times (3-4 times total), until onions are very dark brown.  (Taste them now, they are like candy!).  Perform a final deglazing with the sherry, stirring frequently until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

  
4.  Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, and bay leaf, scraping up any final bits of browned crust.  Increase heat until broth begins to simmer (a few bubbles breaking the surface every few seconds), then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.  Remove and discard herbs, then season to taste with additional salt and pepper, if desired.
  

5.  While soup is simmering, prepare the croutons.  Arrange baguette slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes until the bread is dry and lightly browned.


6.  Time to put it all together: If you have individually sized broiler-safe crocks to serve the soup in, proceed thusly:  Adjust oven rack 6 inches below broiler element then preheat broiler.  Set crocks on a cookie sheet and fill each with soup, but not all the way to the top.  Top each crock with a single layer of baguette, 1 or 2 slices of baguette, and sprinkle evenly with cheese.  Carefully transfer the cookie sheet to the oven and broil for 3-5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.  Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.


If you do not have broiler safe crocks (we didn't), just arrange the baguette slices on the cookie sheet, sprinkle evenly with cheese, and broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.  Remove from the oven and place 1 or 2 croutons atop each bowl and serve.  Enjoy!!! 

Indian Spiced Cauliflower Soup

  

Last night I tried my hand at Indian cooking for the second time; the first time was about three years ago, when I attempted an Indian take on tomato soup and grilled cheese after a trip to the emergency room. The meal turned out terribly: the soup was like water and I forgot the toasts under the broiler and they came out charred.  Erik and I still laugh about it, as it was one of about three meals that I've ever made that neither of us liked. However, last night I had my game face, and was armed with the right ingredients, arguably a better cook book (Best-Ever Indian Cookbook--how could I go wrong?), and I was ready to focus and get it right.

While I am a great appreciator of Indian food (it's basically my only must-have any time I'm off-island), I hardly know enough about the actual cooking of Indian food and planning of a menu to formulate a proper meal, so I just chose the first 2 easy recipes I came across in the first chapter (Soups and Appetizers), and went from there. The Spiced Cauliflower Soup was easy and delicious, and packed with healthy ingredients like vegetables, calcium- and protein-rich yogurt, superspice turmeric, and low-fat to boot. The Samosas, though healthier than some restaurant ones because they were baked, not fried, presented problems for me because of the old phyllo dough that I had on hand, which in retrospect would have been better off tossed in the garbage... So I will tell you about the soup, since I was made it with ease, but I will hold off of the samosas until I have a chance to try them again, and won't have to preface the recipe by saying "make sure you phyllo dough isn't total crap, flaking apart on one side and a soggy gelatinous blob on the other...."

My only warning about this soup is that turmeric STAINS. Everything.  I splashed some on the counter, which is now covered with yellow spots, the (formerly) white ladle is now bright yellow, and the lid of the blender looks like someone took a neon yellow highlighter to it. Did I mention that none of this stuff is mine, rather, it belongs to the couple for whom I'm currently pet sitting? At least I still have 2 weeks to work with the bleach... When you are blending this soup, be careful, and don't put down anything that has the soup on it on a porus surface, unless you want the exploding highlighter look in your kitchen as well...

Indian Spiced Cauliflower Soup (From Best-Ever Indian Cookbook)

4-6 Servings

* 1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florettes

* 1 large potato, such as a russet or yukon gold, peeled and diced

* 1 large onion, diced

* 1 tablespoon oil

* 1 clove of garlic, smashed

* 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely diced or grated

* 2 teaspoons of turmeric

* 2 teaspoons of ground coriander

* 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds (or ground cumin, if that's what you have)

* 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds

* 4 cups of vegetable stock

* 1 1/2 cups low fat plain yogurt (I'm a fan of Greek yogurt, such as Fage or Chobani brands)

* Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste.

* Chopped fresh cilantro, to garnish

 1. In a large, heavy bottomed pot, combine cauliflower, potato, onion, oil, and about 3 tablespoons of water. Put over medium heat, and when the liquids become hot and bubbly, reduce heat, cover, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add garlic, ginger, and spices, stir around, and cook for another 2 minutes. Add vegetable stock, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.

 3. Working in batches, puree soup in a blender. (Careful here--you don't want any yellow soup explosions! If the soup is still hot, remove the middle part of the blender lid, and cover with a dishcloth or paper towel while you're blending to allow steam to escape.) 

 4. Return pureed soup to the pot, and stir in yogurt. Do this either off the heat or over very low heat to prevent the yogurt from curdling or separating. If you think of it, bring the yogurt to room temperature while you are preparing the soup; this will make incorporating the soup easy.  Seaon with salt and black pepper to taste, and serve up and top with fresh cilantro leaves. Enjoy!

Shortcut Soup

 

I have a backlog of recipes that I've been meaning to blog about, but I haven't written much lately because I haven't photographed anything because my camera is back at my cottage, while I've been cooking at the house where I've been cat sitting all winter.  However, I've decided just to forge ahead in the blogging, and I'll fill in photos later, because all of these recipes are definitely keepers, so I'm sure I'll make them again soon.

I'm calling tonight's recipe Shortcut Soup, but 400 Best-Ever Soups, the book in which I found it, calls it Butter [Lima] Bean, Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Soup.  It's a shortcut soup because instead of simmering a laundry-list of ingredients for hours to create complex flavor layers, this soup uses just three ingredients that already pack a flavorful punch, along with healthy lima beans, to create a fast soup that tastes like it was on the stove all day.  While I managed to take about five times longer than necessary to cook this soup, and created a huge mess in the process, I was pleased with the result....although on second thought, it's probably good that I didn't have a camera to document the cooking.

As mentioned, I've been cat sitting this winter, and I made this soup at the "cat house" tonight.  After failing to find canned lima beans at my local grocery store, I had to boil dry ones, so that added an extra hour to the cooking process.  When I got to the blending stage, I realized that the blender (which Erik declared probably dates back to the Eisenhower administration) leaked, so I had to quickly dump the soup back in the pot before it all oozed out.  In my haste I whacked the ladle, catapulting soup all over the stove, the counter, the floor, and the cookbook, which is actually a library book...oops.  At that point I decided to switch to the food processor to finish the blending, which worked fine, though food processors are just inherently slower and messier than blenders (when your blender isn't leaking, that is) when you're working with liquids.  However, I eventually got all the soup blended, and dinner was finally on the table.  To round out the meal I toasted thick slices of whole wheat ciabatta topped with brie under the broiler until it was bubbly and melting into the nooks and crannies.

Butter Bean, Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Soup (Adapted from 400 Best-Ever Soups)

Serves 3-4

* 2 14-ounce cans of butter beans (lima beans), drained and rinsed or about 2/3 of a pound dried lima beans, boiled until tender (about 1 hour), or about 4 cups of frozen lima beans, thawed.

* 1 quart of good quality chicken stock, or vegetable stock, if you want to make a vegetarian meal

* 4 tablespoons of sun-dried tomato puree, or about 8 sun-dried tomato halves, finely chopped

* 5 tablespoons of good quality store-bought pesto, or homemade, if you feel so inclined

* Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. In a large sauce pan (4 quarts or so) combine lima beans and the stock, and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce the heat and stir in the tomato puree and the pesto.  Cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.

3.,  Transfer the soup, working in batches if necessary, to a blender and puree until smooth.  Return to pan and reheat gently, about 5 minutes.  Season to taste, if necessary--between the stock and the pesto, the soup is plenty salty, but a generous grind of fresh pepper gives it a nice punch. 

If you have the right ingredients and reliable appliances, this soup can be on your table in just about 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Mania

 
I've been on a serious sweet potato soup kick recently. It started when I invented my own sweet potato and apple soup last spring, which I submitted it to Cooking Light for their reader recipe contest. I guess it wasn't a winner (in their book), although in their Thanksgiving issue there was a nearly-identical recipe. So I made it--it was fine, but I think mine is better. Then, last week Mark Bittman, who writes an excellent column for the NYTimes called "The Minimalist," had 101 suggestions for fairly easy Thanksgiving side dishes. One that caught my eye immediately was a Thai-style squash soup, which I just made, but substituting sweet potatoes for the squash. I really like Bittman's food philosophy and he has great ideas (check out his book Food Matters if you get a chance--it will change the way you eat.) However, he's definitely not a hand-holder when it comes to instruction. To illustrate this, I give you Thai Squash Soup:

"Simmer cubed winter squash, minced garlic, chili and ginger in coconut milk, plus stock or water to cover, until soft. Purée if you like. Just before serving, add chopped cilantro, lime juice and zest, and toasted chopped peanuts."

Quantities, you ask? No need! (Mark Bittman trusts our competence, apparently.) But, if you're the kind of cook that likes to have a little more direction, here were my quantities:

* 6 sweet potatoes (4.7 lbs, according to my grocery store receipt)

* 5 large garlic cloves

* 1 piece of ginger, slightly smaller than my thumb

* 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded (but in retrospect I could have left the seeds in, or used 2 peppers, to give it more heat. My soup didn't turn out spicy, just has a subtle jalapeno flavor. For more authenticity I might suggest some kind of Thai chili (see here), but in the Nantucket Stop n Shop, a jalapeno was the best I could do

* 1 can light coconut milk (found in the international aisle--A Taste of Thai and Thai Kitchen are 2 good brands, also Trader Joe's has their own store brand).

* The dregs of a carton of chicken stock--about 1/2 a cup. I would have used more if I had it

* Water--enough to cover the sweet potato

* Juice & zest of 1 lime

* About 1/4 loosely packed cup of cilantro

And there you have it. Just peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes, gave the garlic, ginger and jalapeno a rough chop, covered with liquid and simmered until the potatoes were soft. I would definitely suggest pureeing, because the coconut milk kind of separates and forms a weird foam on top when it simmers. Once it's all pureed together it's wonderfully smooth and can be seasoned to taste. Pureeing is also great because you can cut the potato (or squash) in large, uneven chucks and you don't have to waste time mincing the garlic and ginger. Once it's all pureed the texture and flavors will all be evenly distributed. And while we're talking about pureeing, let me put in my plug for using a real blender instead of an immersion blender. While the immersion blender is nice because you don't have to transfer soup and make multiple pots and bowls dirty, I just don't think it gives nearly as smooth & rich a texture as the blender can. But hey, that's just me.

For the other 100 great ideas, click here.

While Bittman's soup is great, I wouldn't serve it on Thanksgiving, because the flavors don't totally mesh with many traditional dishes. However, my own Sweet Potato & Apple Soup would be perfect for Thanksgiving, or whenever. It is as follows:

Sweet Potato & Apple Soup (by Macy)

Makes about 8 cups of soup 

* 3 medium-large sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds)

* 2 Tablespoons olive oil

* 1 medium-large white onion

* 3 medium-large Granny Smith apples (about 1 ¼ pounds)

* ½ teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste

* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, or to taste

* 1 32 oz. carton of chicken stock (or vegetable stock, for vegetarians)

* ¾ cup half and half (optional)

* ½ teaspoon Kosher salt and ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F. Scrub the sweet potatoes and poke each one several times with a fork. Bake potatoes in the middle of the oven on a foil-lined cookie sheet for one hour or until they are very soft and can easily be pierced with a knife. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and slice each one in half lengthwise and cool for a few minutes.

While the potatoes are baking, chop the onion to a medium dice. Heat the olive oil in a 3-quart sauce pan on medium heat. Add the diced onion, and sauté, stirring frequently until the onion is very soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and core the apples and chop to a large dice. When the onions are translucent, add the apples, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir a few times until the apples start to brown, just a few minutes.

Add the carton of chicken broth to the saucepan. Cover the saucepan and bring the broth to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 8 minutes or until the apples are very soft. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Place approximately 1/3 of the broth mixture and one of the potatoes (remove skins first) into a blender. The potato skins should be quite loose and you can squeeze the potato flesh right out. Puree ingredients to a smooth consistency. Transfer the pureed soup to a mixing bowl and repeat until all the ingredients are pureed. If the ingredients are still quite hot when you are doing this step, remove the center piece of the blender lid and cover with a dish cloth while you're pureeing to avoid too much pressure build up/explosions.

Transfer the soup back to the saucepan and reheat if necessary. Season with salt and, pepper. If desired, stir in half & half, heating the soup gently until it is warm.

While Thanksgiving is always the time that I think most about sweet potatoes, these soups will warm you all winter long. Enjoy!