"Cream" of Mushroom Soup

The portabellas I bought this week were calling out to me- and they wanted to become the tastiest "Cream" of Mushroom Soup ever. And I made their dreams come true.

I did a little Googling and came up with a recipe based on a recipe from The Modern Vegetarian's blog and one from Veganfood.net. My hybrid:

1 TB olive oil
1 medium/large red onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
5 medium portabello caps, diced in large pieces
1.5 cups water
1.25 cups unsweetened soy milk
2-3TB flour

I sauteed the onion in the olive oil until soft. I added the garlic for a few minutes until fragrant and then put in the shrooms. I let it cook 2-3 minutes and added the water and some salt. As that came to a boil, I mixed the flour with the cold milk (I think to prevent clumping). Once boiling, I added the milk mixure and let it simmer for a few minutes. When it didn't thicken as I was expecting, I happily got out my immersion blennder. Scooping out about half of the chunks into a bowl, I blended the remainder in he pot until nice and smooth. I added back the chunks, stirred, and removed from heat.

It was so creamy, rich, and delicious. If you aren't a HUGE garlic lover, you can probably just use 2 cloves. It made 2 large servings at 250-300 calories a piece and could have stretched to 3 servings. I put mine on top of some barley for some extra texture. And I licked the bowl clean.

I thought about adding a cube or two of veggie boullion but wanted it "naked" first. I debated adding pepper, too, but it was just so good I was scared to mess it up.

Still no camera...but it wasn't pretty anyway- it was dark grey.

Sorta Chunky Tomato Soup

Since it's 6 degrees outside I thought I'd make some nice warm soup for lunch. And since I've been watching TV all day because it's 6 degrees outside and because I hurt my back running on Friday and have consequently been spending a lot of time with the heating pad, I decided on tomato soup because Sandra Lee (semi-home) made it and it seemed like the right thing to do.

My initial idea was the roast the tomatoes, but since I don't write these things down until after I've made them, I forgot. So, I started with 1/2 a red onion, sauteeing it in a little olive oil until translucent. Then I added 6 tiny cloves of garlic for a few more minutes and deglazed the pan with some red wine vinegar. I've wanted to use rwv in my tomato soup, but I didn't know how it would react to soy milk. But today I'm daring. Bold, even.

After deglazing, I added some water, 6 small plum tomatoes, 1 TB tomato paste, and 8 white mushrooms. I let it cook a few minutes then added 1cup of unsweetened soy milk. After stirring it all up, I scooped out half of the mixture and used my immersion blender to smooth out the rest. Once I added the pulp back in I tore up a few leaves of basil from my aerogarden. It's growing ridiculously high so I had to cut it back a little. What a shame to have fresh basil that I was forced to eat...

Now I don't ever remember having a single bowl of tomato soup in my life until the past year. So I never experienced what I understand is true tradition- grilled cheese and tomato soup. However, Sandra Lee reminded me of this true American meal and I thought I'd follow suit with my own version. I toasted a few pieces of whole wheat toast and spread with a thin layer of french onion Better than Cream Cheese. My favorite part was removing the crust and letting it sit in the soup to get a little soggy. While not exactly what everyone else grew up with, it hit the spot. And made just enough for another meal.

Ugly Soup

My recent lack of culinary innovation is scaring me. I guess I used it all up at Christmas.

Lately I've been a little obsessed with nutritional yeast. A "stand by" of mine is yellow split peas and barley with nutritional yeast, so I went with what I know. I jazzed it up with some red onion, plum tomatoes, and portobellas. I knew that the shrooms would make it a little gross, but it was pretty ugly. Tasted alright, though not as nutritional yeasty as I'd wanted.

Tofu, I'm Not Scared of You!

My camera has no batteries because it evidently takes a LOT of power to take 30 pictures.

Since I'm going to the beach this weekend and Iowa for the Livestrong Presidential Cancer Forum, I wanted to use up my produce. I purchased some portabellas on a whim this week, and I had some green beans. I needed some protein, though, so I decided to throw in some tofu, too.

I pan-fried the firm tofu I'd cubed in a light layer of olive oil spray. I actually didn't touch it, so it got nice and brown. But I didn't feel like browning all four sides so I browned 2 sides and threw in the green beans with some red wine vinegar. When those were almost done, I added strips of the shroom. Meanwhile, I cooked some couscous and topped it with the veggies. A pretty easy and tasty dish. I had no onions so next time I'll make it like I usually do my caramalizing some onions first. Yum.