Thanksgiving Soup -- Parsnips, walnuts and pears

It's been a while.  I've missed soup and blogging, and soup!  I actually had no intention of making a soup with everything else that I had signed up to bring for Thanksgiving dinner, but at 2 pm the day before Thanksgiving while I was still at the office, I started googling soup recipes.  My search for "Thanksgiving soup recipes" turned up mostly the usual variations of squash soups.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good squash soup, but I was feeling a little experimental.  I came across this recipe from Food & Wine and immediately spotted a winner.  I was intrigued by this recipe and the few but new ingredients.  Hopefully my not-so-experimental family would feel the same way.

The next step was to find the ingredients at 5 pm the day before Thanksgiving.  I had already strategically purchased my other Thanksgiving groceries the night before to avoid the markets Thanksgiving eve, but I just couldn't stop myself.  By this time I was fully committed to tracking down ingredients I'd never seen before.  The recipe called for sunchokes and an Indian spice called garam masala.  I wasn't sure how common of a spice that is, so my first stop was the Indian market near my house.  I found that and tumeric easily and both cost only $3.  I was worried about finding the sunchokes, but that was actually quite easy.  Sprouts had them right by the ginger!  And with that, I was on my home to whip this (and 5 other Thanksgiving side dishes) up!

The prep was pretty easy.  I was worried the sunchokes would be hard to peel, but they were much easier than ginger (much thinner skin).  And since this soup is pureed, I threw everything in the food processor and later used my hand mixer to puree (Thank you Cuisinart. LOVE my kitchen power tools).  To start the soup, I sauteed the parsnips, sunchokes and garlic in olive oil for a few minutes and then added the spices.  I added the water, chicken stock and cream and let simmer for 25 minutes.  If I make this again, I will use a little less liquid to make the soup slightly thicker. Once the soup simmered, I pureed it with my hand mixer and stirred in the lemon juice.  I let it cool and refrigerated it overnight.  The topping was also quite easy.  I sauteed the walnuts in olive oil for a minute or so.  I then added the garlic, lemon juice and walnut oil.  I let it cool a bit and then added the pear and parsley.  I gave a little extra lemon juice so that the pears would not brown overnight.

Parsnips, sunchokes and pears

Spices from the Indian market

Thanksgiving day I took the topping out of the fridge early so that it would come up to room temperature.  I heated the soup up slowly right before dinner was served.  I served the topping on the side and let guests add their own to their liking.  The guests were quite impressed that we had a Thanksgiving starter, but they didn't seem too excited about the choice of recipes.  To be honest, this isn't the prettiest soup to serve.  Mine definitely did not look as nice as the picture on the online recipe.  The braver guests tried it and like it, while a few chose to go straight to the turkey and traditional sides.  But overall, the family enjoyed it.  They said "different, but good."  I really enjoyed it as a new, surprising addition to a predictable Thanksgiving menu.  The pears and walnuts really made the soup.  So much so that I would double the batch of the topping next time.  The spices in the soup were new but interesting.  I was a little bummed that I couldn't locate the taste of the sunchokes over the spices.  I am still not sure what a sunchoke tastes like.  Overall, I think this was a fun experiment and a new flavor to add to Thanksgiving dinner.  It was worth the extra trips to the market, and next year I will just plan ahead to make my Thanksgiving soup.

Happy Holidays!

Soup with pear & walnut garnish

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil / From home

1 3/4 pounds parsnips, peeled and chopped / Sprouts Market / $1.49/lb = $2.65

3/4 pound sunchokes, peeled and chopped / Sprouts Market / $3.99/lb = $2.51

4 garlic cloves, chopped / from home

4 teaspoons garam masala / Indian market / $1.50

2 teaspoons ground cumin / from home

1 teaspoon ground turmeric / Indian market / $1.50

1 teaspoon kosher salt / from home

4 cups water

3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth / from home

1 1/2 cups heavy cream / Sprout market / $1.69

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice / Sprouts market / $0.99

Pepper / from home

Topping

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil / from home

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped / Sprouts market / $9.99/lb = $3.80

1 garlic clove, minced / from home

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon walnut oil / Sprouts market / $6.99

1 small Bosc pear / Sprouts market / $1.49/lb = $1.31

1 tablespoon chopped parsley / from home

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon / from home

Kosher salt / from home

Pepper /from home

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Servings: 10
Taste: 4 stars
Prep: easy
Cost: $22.84 (soup), = $2.28 per serving

Mushroom Bok Choy Soup

I recently signed up for a CSA delivery and have since been re-energized back into soup blogging.  I receive monthly shipments of a surprise box of fruits and veggies.  This month's delivery included strawberries, oranges, potatoes, shallots, carrots, lettuce, and BOK CHOY.  I immediately went searching for bok choy recipes once I saw the 4 beautiful bunches.

I came across this recipe from Epicurious that just had to be delicious.  It also seemed fairly easy to make, as my Asian cooking skills are still developing.  The title of the recipe implies there is chicken in the soup, but actually only calls for chicken stock.  Adding chicken didn't seem exciting enough to stand with the other ingredients, so I decided to pair this soup with an entree of miso glazed salmon and additional side of bok choy based on a William Sonoma recipe.  Not to mention I could already picture the horror explaining to my boyfriend that the only protein in his dinner is in the stock! LOL!

The best part about making this meal was my trip to the Asian market, where I had to rely on social media to choose from the abundance of unfamiliar options.  After a Facebook conversation, I located a proper fish sauce.  It took a couple text messages to find the miso for the salmon marinade. (Thank you, Catherine Tran.  I dedicate this blog post to you!).  I was pleasantly surprised how affordable the various sauces and oils were. And I'm excited to keep using them up.

So many options for fish sauce!

My ingredients

I decided to deviate a bit from the recipe when I remembered I had a package of dried mushrooms I had been saving for a special occasion.  I figured why buy more of an expensive ingredient when I can use what I have AND use the delicious liquid to add flavor to my broth.  My first step was to reconstitute the mushrooms.  I used the directions on the package and rinsed them well in warm water and then let them sit in hot water for 15 minutes.  While the mushrooms were coming back to life, I made the marinade for the salmon. Once the mushrooms were ready, I drained them but saved the cooking liquid.

Porcini, shitake, black & oyster mushrooms

I didn't want to make the full batch since only 2 of us were there to enjoy so I used only 4 cups of chicken stock (recipe called for 8 cups) and then added about one cup of the mushroom liquid.  I brought the broth, ginger and mushrooms to a boil.  By this time, the salmon had marinated and I put it in the broiler along with more bok choy.

Miso salmon and bok choy 

To the broth, I then added fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and chili oil and let simmer for a few more minutes while the salmon cooked.  I roughly used half of the measurements the original recipe called for, but I may have added a few extra splashes here and there to taste.  I then added the bok choy and let that simmer for a few more minutes and lastly added the rice vinegar.  I covered the soup and turned off the stove until the salmon finished cooking.

Soup's on!

This dinner was so easy to make, and my kitchen smelled amazing.  I was a little nervous at this attempt given my lack of familiarity with the ingredients (miso is in the refrigerator section, huh?), but it ended up being a delicious meal.  The boyfriend even went back for seconds of soup and salmon.

Full dinner

Soup Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups bok choy / from home
4 cups chicken broth / from home
1 Tbsp ginger, peeled and minced / Asian market/ $2.29/lb / $0.41
1/2 cup mushrooms / from home
2 Tbsp fish sauce / Asian market / $3.99
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce / from home
1 Tbsp chili oil / Asian market / $1.99
1/2 Tbsp sesame oil / Asian market / $2.29
2 Tsp rice vinegar / Asian market / $1.89

Salmon ingredients:
4 salmon fillets / Asian market / $12.27
1/2 cup yellow Miso paste / Asian market / $4.95
1/4 cup sake / Asian market / $3.49
3 Tbsp soy sauce / from home
2 heads bok choy / from home

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4
Taste: 5 stars
Prep: super duper easy
Cost: $10.57 (soup), $20.71 (salmon) = $7.82 per serving

Beef, Cabbage & Beet Borscht

Now I know.  There are 2 types of people in this world:  Those who love beets and those who are absolutely repulsed by them.  I had no idea this little root would get such a reaction.  I happen to love beets. So when I found a hearty beet soup recipe in my William Sonoma cookbook, I thought it sounded heavenly. Little did I know, I would offended some of my family and friends by trying to serve them beets.  But it turned out they were split about 50/50 on their love and hate for beets, so my hard work was somewhat appreciated.

I also had no idea that this meal was such a cultural staple.  I had never heard of this soup as my knowledge of Eastern European cuisine is lacking at best.  I usually try to stay away from recipes with a strong cultural tradition behind them, since a recipe in a book can never be as good as someone's grandma's recipe.  But my curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to try this out, hoping it does justice to a traditional Borscht, but having nothing to compare it to in order to fully judge.  Bottom line, if you like beets, you will like this soup.

I also did not read the directions ahead of time to realize the time commitment involved in making this soup. It literally took me 3 days.

Evening 1: I cooked the beets by simmering for about 45 minutes.  After simmering, I saved 2 cups of the bright red cooking liquid and refrigerated overnight.  I stored the beets in the refrigerator separately.  Tip: use gloves while scrubbing and handling the beets.  You will thank me later if you don't know why now.

Evening 2: I cooked the beef.  I sauteed the cubed beef in oil for about 5 minutes.  I then added the leeks and carrots and sauteed in the same pan for another 5 minutes.  Once the veggies were soft, I added the beet liquid, beef, tomatoes, cabbage, water, tomato paste and dill.  This simmered for about 1 1/2 hours until the beef was deliciously tender.  I then added the beets, vinegar, brown sugar and salt and pepper.  By this time, it was way passed dinner time so I let cool and stored the soup in the refrigerator. The recipe actually indicated the soup tastes better the second day, so I didn't feel too bad about waiting one more night.

As you can see below, Nugget did not like the fact that I was in the kitchen so long.  But she did like eating up any veggies that may have fallen on the floor!

Evening 3:  By this time, I was determined to finally complete and sample my soup.  I reheated it over medium heat and added more seasoning to taste.  I removed the dill sprigs and was finally able to sample the Borscht.  I garnished with sour cream and chopped dill and served it to my family.  Unfortunately, it turns out they don't like beets.  Luckily my foodie girlfriends volunteered to be my taste-testers and they helped me eat the Borscht and didn't let any go to waste.

I did like the soup, but once I realized how many family Borscht recipes there are out there, I started to think I could have made improvements here and there.  Next time I will use a beef broth base rather that just the cooking liquid from the beets.  I think this will give it a more savory flavor.  And I may add more tomatoes as their flavor was covered up by the beets.  I'm curious to hear your thoughts on a Borscht recipe????  Any suggestions?

Oh, and one more tip:  Before you make this soup, be sure to ask you family if they eat beets!

Ingredients:
6 beets / $2.49 per bunch / $4.98
3 Tablespoons olive oil / from home
3 pounds stewing beef / $3.99 per pound / $9.22
2 leeks / $2.99
2 carrots / from home
1 can diced tomatoes (14.4 ounces) / $0.79
1 head green cabbage / $0.99 pr pound / $1.46
2 tablespoons tomato paste / $0.99
6 dill sprigs / $1.99
5 tablespoons red wine vinegar / from home
1/2 cup brown sugar / $0.89
1/2 cup sour cream / $0.99

Prep time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 2 hours
Servings: 8-10
Taste: 4 stars
Prep: easy but time consuming
Cost: $24.30 ($4.05 per serving)