Potato-Leek Soup and Parmesan-Chard Bread

It’s been so cool and rainy out that a nice hot bowl of soup and chunk of homemade bread sounded perfect.

I’d say that both of these recipes were pretty big successes, though there are definitely tweaks Gastronomike and I want to make for next time.

 

Garlicky Lentil Soup

This is one of our old reliable, go-to recipes for when we’re busy, lazy, or just really want some good red lentil soup.  All three of those reasons were in play tonight.  This soup cooks for a while, but requires very little effort to make.

 

Bean Soup (no recipe content)

I totally forget the recipe for this one.  Judging by the picture it was diced tomato, white beans, potato, celery, onion, carrot, salt & pepper, and maybe spinach.  I wouldn’t have put it up at all but I just liked the picture.  Experiment on your own!

 

Dilled Potato and Kale Chowder

We had been calling this recipe “potato soup” until after our first bites, when Gastronomike commented that it tasted like a vegetarian clam chowder.  And so the soup gained a new name, at least for me.  We both really enjoyed this, and it was a great meal to have on an unseasonably chilly August evening.  The only thing missing was a loaf of crusty bread to accompany the chowder.

 

Warm Cucumber Soup with Pasta

This made an excellent lunch. Light, easy, and a great way to use up several cucumbers that were past their prime. I did make the unfortunate choice to use soup pasta that happens to be shaped exactly like cucumber seeds, and so it was easy to perceive all the pasta as seeds.  But that’s easily fixed for next time.  I’d say this is yet another winner from the great soup-only cookbook.

 

Borscht, Borscht

Recently, when out to dinner with some friends, we got to talking about how our respective farm shares forced us to make things we’d never expected. When you suddenly have three giant cabbages and a drawer full of beets in your fridge, you need to get inventive. Jon mentioned a borscht recipe, and sent it along to us. It was really easy to make–literally throw everything into one giant bubbling pot–and extremely satisfying. R & I both sort of regretted not being able to enjoy it on a cold winter night.

Here we go, our first Guestronomic (that creaking you hear is that pun!) recipe, from our old buddy old pal The Ithacarian.

 

Spiced Lentil Soup

R. is really into making soups, and today she was totally set on making a lentil soup. So we went into our soup cookbook and basically picked one at random. It wound up being pretty great, although when we make this again, we’re definitely going to make it spicier.   Maybe by doubling the garlic, or upping the salt & pepper, or even adding some chili powder.  We ate it with a nice crusty asiago bread from the co-op.  It took like 30 minutes to make!

 

Black Bean Soup

This is the most delicious meal I’ve had in a long time.  It was absolutely perfect in every way– the soup was spicy, our homemade baked tortilla chips were crunch, and my guacamole was tangy.  Perfect.

We weren’t actually expecting the soup to be so spicy, because none of the individual ingredients are particularly spicy.  But somehow the combination produced a fiery and very pleasing dish.

 

Carrot Soup

 

I really loved this orange, slightly sweet and slightly tangy soup.  Gastronomike thought it was okay.  I’ll definitely make it again.

 

Leftover Summer Soup

This is hardly a gourmet recipe, but it was super easy and tasted surprisingly great.  I assumed that since it was a throw-together dish using ingredients like “bullion” it would be “eh” at best (espcially since the vegetables had been sitting, pre-cut, in the refrigerator for at least 4 days).  It was not “eh.”  It was superb.