Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

This soup is earthy and creamy and chewy and delicious all at the same time. I think you could substitute some regular white rice for the half of the wild rice, since wild rice is pretty expensive, but they cook at different rates and I always have a problem with regular rice in soups, it keeps taking on water and expanding and getting more and more mushy and you have to add more water to make it soup again. But wild rice doesn't do that. It does expand a little with sitting, but not significantly like regular rice.

wild rice and mushroom soup

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup
1 cup wild rice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock, plus more to make it soupy
about 20 medium sized mushrooms
1 onion, diced
1 cup cream
salt, pepper to taste

Boil the wild rice in the stock in a large-ish pan until it is mostly cooked, it will still be kind of crunchy/chewy, but the grains will start to burst and the liquid will be mostly evaporated-about 50 minutes. While that is cooking, chop the mushrooms into smallish pieces, put in a dry, hot pan and cook for few minutes until the mushrooms shrink and release water. When it seems like they have released all of their juices, add a little bit of oil to the pan and sauté the diced onion in it until it is soft, mix in the mushrooms with the onion and sauté for another minute, the mushrooms should brown a little more and be very fragrant, the onions should be tender and translucent. Add the mushrooms/onions to the wild rice, add the cream and additional stock if needed to make it the right amount of soupiness that you like, bring to a gentle boil for a few more minutes until the soup thickens a little bit; the wild rice grains should be bursting, but they will still be chewy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 4 servings.

Peanut Soup

I recently have started watching "The Minimalist" podcasts from Mark Bittner in the New York Times, and I'm hooked. I love the way he cooks; it's very easy, no emphasis on exact measurements, but you can find the recipes if you feel like you need exact measurments. And I'm a fan because the very first video I watched of his, he explained how to temper chocolate, which I have always heard is important, and I've had it explained to me before, but I never understood it until he talked about the different temperatures and admitted that he thinks "bloomed" chocolate looks lovely (I have always liked the look of it myself). Plus, I think he's pretty funny.

Well, I tried this peanut soup the other night, leaving out the chicken, of course. It was great! It was rich and delightful. I used collard greens for the first time in my life, and Lovemuffin even ate leftovers from it. Lovemuffin's one criticism was that he thought the sweet potatoes could be in smaller pieces, and I had even started with small cubes instead of slices the way Bittner did it. The leftovers were creamier and even more delightful than the first time around. I actually forgot the whole peanuts, but the peanut butter did a good job of flavoring the whole soup and it goes so well with the flavor of the sweet potato. I suppose because it's one of those sweet and salty combinations. Here's the exact recipe, if you need it.

Potato and Leek Soup

I've made this soup a couple of times at my work, and it's been a pretty big hit. The Lovemuffin eats a lot of it when I make it at home, too, so that usually a good indicator of a good recipe.

Here's what you do:

Peel 3 large russet potatoes, chop into pieces, put them into a pan and fill with just enough vegetable broth and water to cover the potato pieces. Add some black pepper and oregano and dill, if desired, to the pot. In the meantime, clean and chop 3 leeks, just the white and light green part, into thin slices. Peel and chop one onion into pretty small pieces. Saute the leeks and onion in butter or olive oil until they are translucent and tender. When the potatoes are soft and the leeks are tender, blend the potatoes with the broth in a blender until smooth or mostly smooth. You might not need all of the liquid.

Put the blended potato stuff back in the pot, add the sauteed leeks and onions and about a cup of half and half. Let it simmer for a few minutes, it will thicken a little, you can add milk or water if it is too thick. Add salt and pepper to taste, and consume.

Roasted Red Pepper and Raspberry Soup

Last summer Lovemuffin and Pricklypear were lucky enough to go to Paris with his Parental Figures. They had heard about this amazing restaurant that they really wanted to go to. I wish I could remember the name of it, because it was truly amazing and I would like to recommend it to everyone I know. They served dinner in 4 courses, but it was a fairly casual place. One of the things that Lovemuffin got was this soup, Roasted Red Pepper and Raspberry Soup, and for some reason it is the only thing I really remember, probably because the combination seemed so unlikely, and yet it was so incredibly delicious. It was a vivid red color, kind of tangy, kind of sweet, and I could actually taste both the rasberries and the peppers, and they really complimented each other. I have thought about this soup on and off ever since then, fully intending to make an imitation. I did try it once, but I wasn't satisfied. The other night I tried again, and this time I think I succeeded. I'm sure it's not exactly the same as the one in Paris, but it's the same idea and it is very good.

Roasted Red Pepper and Raspberry Soup

3 red bell peppers

2 tomatoes

1/2 onion

3 cloves garlic

4 c. water

1 c. vegetable stock

1/2 tsp. dried oregano, or 1 tsp fresh

approx 6 oz. frozen raspberries

salt and pepper to taste

Cut the bell peppers in half, remove seeds and stem, place on a broiler pan, skin side up and broil for about 10 minutes, until the skins are black and charred. Keep an eye on them, you may need to rotate them or the pan to char it as evenly as possible. Remove from broiler and immediately drop into a paper bag, close bag and let the peppers steam and cool. Place the whole tomatoes on the broiler pan, broil until the skins begin to blister and char a little, turn them over, and repeat on the other side. (More on charring peppers and tomatoes in another post.) The tomatoes will go faster than the peppers, and their skins don't need to become very black, mostly just blistered. Remove to a bowl, let cool, and slip off the skins. Peel the charred skins off the cooled peppers. Chop the peppers and the tomatoes into smaller pieces, don't worry about making them even sizes or shapes, they just need to be smaller. Chop the onion into smaller pieces, and crush the garlic cloves.
Place the peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, water and vegetable stock in a medium size pot. Bring to a boil, let simmer for about 30 minutes, until the onions and garlic are both soft. Add the oregano near the end of the cooking time. Let cool for a few minutes, then puree the soup in batches in a blender. Place the frozen raspberries in the blender, ladle some of the soup over them, enough to cover, and then puree both together. Strain this to remove the raspberry seeds, then put the strained liquid back with the rest of the soup. At this point you can either serve the soup right away (it may need a little re-warming after adding the cold raspberries), or chill and serve it either warm or cold later. Serves 4, with some leftovers.
*Note--if you have leftovers and keep them for a couple days in the fridge, the flavor becomes super intense.*