A Gilt Nutmeg

I have a busy week this week, so I’ve been making some quick dishes and sneaking in some veggies wherever I can to keep my nutrients level up.  This cheesy zucchini rice is quick and comforting and I imagine would go well with any protein you’d care to pair it with (I ate mine with a chicken I roasted a few days ago), while at the same time getting in at least a little bit of vitamins in there.  In fact, and not that I don’t like zucchini, but I was pretty surprised at how little I was able to taste the zucchini in this dish both flavor and texture wise, so if you have picky kids out there, this would likely be a great side dish to try on them!

Zucchini Rice
Adapted from Pink Parsley

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup jasmine rice, or other long grain white rice
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 large zucchini, grated on the large holes of a grater
• 1 cup shredded cheddar or gruyere
• salt to taste

1. If the instructions on the rice call for it, rinse the rice.
2. In a saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil, add the rice, cover it with a lid and bring the heat down to low.
3. Cook the rice for 20 minutes, then turn off the heat.
4. Drop the butter and zucchini into the pot on top of the rice, replace the lid and let it stand for 5 minutes so that the zucchini softens in the steam.
5. After the 5 minutes, stir the zucchini into the rice, then stir the cheese into the rice and season with salt to taste.  Enjoy!

In the latest issue of Bon Appetit, they have a little blurb about getting the most out of your food; it turns out our bodies need help in absorbing certain nutrients.  The easiest example is Vitamin D and Calcium: our bodies need vitamin D to be present in order to better absorb calcium, which is why milk is now usually fortified with vitamin D.  Simple! Right?  Clearly, I was fascinated with this article and started wondering how I could incorporate this new found knowledge into my everyday diet so I got started right away with the energy-boosting Vitamin C and Iron combo.  Vitamin C is the helper here and an increased amount of iron will help raise energy levels, so I started hunting for recipes that might fit the bill.

I’ve had this recipe from Pinch of Yum saved for quite a while and I used it as a base to create my own stuffed twice-baked sweet potatoes.  All I can say is…these potatoes are delicious!  You hardly remember that you’re eating healthily and you feel great afterwards.  I tried to make a few healthy switches (greek yogurt instead of sour cream, a little bit of homemade ricotta instead of cream cheese) and some additions (prosciutto is also high in iron and adds some salty crunch), but the base still stands: sweet potatoes, which are high in vitamin C and spinach, which is high in iron.  After just one of these potatoes each, my dinner guest and I were stuffed and couldn’t eat any more.  Even better, they heat up beautifully, so these are some leftovers you’ll be happy to eat.

Spinach & Prosciutto Stuffed Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes
Adapted/Inspired by Pinch of Yum
Serves 4

**See notes below

• 2 large sweet potatoes (I tried to find some that when cut in half would make good boats that would stand up on their own)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 shallot, minced
• 3 slices of prosciutto
• 1 bag of fresh baby spinach
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons creamy homemade ricotta (or substitute cream cheese)
• approx 1/4 cup shredded Gruyere (I used Trader Joes’ Cheddar & Gruyere Mélange)

1. Bake the sweet potatoes in a 350 oven for 1 hour or until soft when poked with a fork.  When the potatoes are done, set them aside to cool for 10 minutes or so before slicing in half, lengthwise.
2. Leave the oven on 350 degrees after you take out the potatoes and lay the three slices of prosciutto on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil.  Bake for 5 minutes, flip the prosciutto slices and bake for 5 minutes longer.  Leave the oven on again and set the prosciutto aside.
3. In the meantime, melt the butter in a large pan and saute the shallot until soft.  (The shallots were still a little too pronounced in “oniony” flavor for me, so next time I’ll let them go much longer and caramelize them a bit instead.)
4. When the shallots are soft, turn the heat off under then pan and dump the bag of spinach into the pan, stirring slowly as the spinach leaves wilt.  You don’t want them turned to mush, just darkened and a little softened–the residual heat from the pan should be enough to accomplish this.
5. Once the potatoes have cooled a bit, slice them in half length wise and gently scoop out the insides of the potato, leaving a 1/2″ or more of potato in the skin, to keep the skin sturdy.  Brush the skins with some olive oil and put them in the oven for 10 minutes.
6. While those are baking, in a large bowl, mix together the insides of the sweet potatoes, the yogurt, ricotta, spinach-shallot mixture and then rip the prosciutto into small pieces into the bowl and mix until well combined.
7. Take the potato skins out of the oven, divide the filling from the bowl evenly into the skins, then sprinkle the cheese over the tops of the filling and bake for another 10 minutes until the filling is heated and the cheese melted.  Enjoy!

**Cooking Notes: I went to my local Italian deli for some suggestions about what sort of meat to add instead of bacon, which I felt was too strongly flavored.  Sadly, they weren’t much help, but when I decided on prosciutto, the guy tried to give me thick slices “for baking”–he clearly didn’t understand what I was aiming for!  I whispered to the person cutting it to go ahead and slice it thin like they would for sandwiches so that it would turn out nice and crispy.

Also, this recipe is for 2 potatoes, which make 4 servings (one half potato each).  The thing about sweet potatoes, however, is that, unlike white potatoes, the skin often cleanly separates from the potato, which makes carving out a sturdy little boat very difficult.  Anticipating this, I roasted three potatoes and picked out the 4 halves that didn’t separate and saved the other 2 to eat later.

Here I was, on a Friday afternoon, pondering where my next week of blogging might go, when it occurred to me to  check the calendar.  And boy howdy am I sure glad I did, because I had no idea that Easter and Passover were only a week away!  Of course, the blog week took shape very quickly thereafter and the first holiday cooking I’m tackling is Easter.  I wanted to do something “appropriate” (spring…bunnies…you get the idea), but I did Carrot Cake  a few weeks ago for Project Pastry Queen and I wasn’t yet ready to blog about the traditional ham or lamb, so I had to get creative.

Wanting something a little out of the standard Easter fare, I was delighted to stumble across this recipe for Carrot Vichyssoise.  Vichyssoise is a potato leek cream soup served cold and this variation brings carrots to the mix, which adds a lively flavor and color to the soup.  I thought it might be hard to enjoy eating cold soup, just because hot soup, no matter the weather, is one of my favorite things in the world, but this soup is filling yet light and refreshing at the same time and the cold didn’t bother me at all.  It will be a fantastic part of your Easter supper and, if you just can’t deal with the cold, it’s great hot, too.  The Easter Bunny will be pleased!

Carrot Vichyssoise
Adapted from Whole Living
Serves 6

• 3 large leeks (about 1 1/2 lbs), white and light green part sliced into 1/4″ pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 4 Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs), peeled; 3 diced, 1 set aside
• 5 large carrots (about 9 oz), peeled; 3 sliced, 2 set aside
• 2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 cups whole milk
• chives for garnish

1. Add about a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a large pot and turn the heat on to medium-low.  Add the leeks and garlic and cover with the pot lid, cooking for about 15 minutes.
2. Add the diced potatoes, sliced carrots, chicken broth, water, salt and pepper.  Bring the pot to a boil and then turn the heat down so it’s simmering for 20 minutes.
3. Once the vegetables are tender, turn off the heat, stir in the milk, and either transfer the mixture to a blender, or use a stick blender right in the pot to blend until smooth.
4. Let the soup cool (I transferred it to a large glass bowl to speed the cooling along), then move it to the refrigerator to chill.
5. While the soup is chilling, set a small pot of water to boil and make a small bowl of ice water.  Grab that last potato and the 2 extra carrots and slice them into small matchstick shaped pieces about 2 inches long
6. Boil the matchstick potatoes and carrots for 3-4 minutes, until just tender (you don’t want them too soft) and then drain the pot.  Add the carrots and potatoes into the ice water to stop them from cooking any further.
7. When ready to serve, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the potato and carrot matchsticks and the chives.  Be sure to share some with the Easter Bunny and enjoy!

I’m a pretty picky eater.  And because of that, when I buy certain ingredients for recipes, I buy them in the smallest amount, knowing sadly that some of it will go to waste.  I try to encourage The Roommate and The Boyfriend to eat up, but to no avail.  So here I was with a partial container of sour cream, a partial carton of buttermilk, a partial package of chives, and a partial container of blue cheese crumbles in the fridge.  I also bought beautiful asparagus yesterday, spur of the moment, because whereas a pound is normally around $5, it was on sale for 99 cents!  (I had to explain to my East Coaster friends that it wasn’t discounted because it was gross, but that So Cal is having a lovely warm mild winter so asparagus is growing early like crazy and they’re trying to sell it as fast as they can.)

So here I am browsing Pinterest and I see a pin for crispy asparagus with dipping sauces.  Curious, I scan the recipe and I start thinking, “…buttermilk, I have that!…sour cream, I have that!…blue cheese, I have that!” and so all of that, paired with the fact that this beautiful asparagus needed to be eaten, I knew exactly what I was making when I got home.

and now I can say, this is a phenomenal recipe!  I have never had so much fun eating asparagus.  Roommate, Boyfriend, and I couldn’t stop eating them and I honestly can’t believe that ingredients I normally don’t like (mayo, sour cream, etc…notice a white gloppy pattern?) all come together to make such a delicious sauce.  Bonus: the asparagus is baked so it’s super healthy–and let’s just leave it at that and not think about whether the dipping sauce is healthy or not, shall we?

Baked Crispy Asparagus with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce
Adapted from SpoonForkBacon
Makes 1 lb of asparagus and almost 1 cup of dipping sauce

Asparagus

• 1 lb of thin asparagus spears, tough ends removed
• 1 cup almonds
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup flour
• 4 eggs
• cooking spray

Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup light sour cream
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chives, chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, process the almonds and panko bread crumbs until finely ground and combined (I used whole almonds because they were on sale, so I processed them up first for a few seconds before adding the panko crumbs.  If you buy pre-sliced almonds, just throw the panko and almonds all in at once).
3. In three separate dishes, put the flour in one dish, put half the almond-panko mixture into another and 2 of the eggs, beat with a fork, into the third.  I started with just half the almond-panko mixture and half of the eggs in the pans because the panko gets a little clumpy when the egg drips in it and then the egg gets a little clumpy when the panko falls in it.  Basically, you need a half-time to rinse the pans out and start fresh.
4. Roll the asparagus in the flour, dip it into the egg, then dip it into the almond-panko mixture and lay it in rows on the cookie sheet.
5. Once all the asparagus is rolled, dipped and dipped again, lightly spray the asparagus on the cookie sheet with cooking spray and then put it in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
6. While the asparagus is baking, put all the ingredients for the dipping sauce into a small bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
7. Serve the asparagus hot and dipping sauce cold and enjoy!

I think one of the first blog recipes I saved away to cook someday was Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil’s Blue Cheese and Red Potato Tart.  It sounded so familiar yet exotic at the same time and I’m ashamed to admit that it sat in my virtual recipe box for a year and a half now.  But when some lovely red potatoes showed up in my CSA box last week I just felt it:  it was finally time to make this tart that I’ve been dreaming about for so long.

The crust turns out perfectly tender, the potatoes are creamy and the blue cheese gives just the right amount of tang.  The Boyfriend and I had this and a salad for dinner, but I bet it would be fantastic with some sausage crumbles on it and served for a brunch.

Blue Cheese & Red Potato Tart

Adapted from Love & Olive Oil (who adapted it from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Gourmet)

Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 egg

Filling:

• 1 lb small red potatoes, sliced into 1/4″ slices (but wait until the crust is in the fridge to slice the potatoes so they don’t turn brown!)
• about 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 egg yolk
• thyme & rosemary to your liking (about a teaspoon or two of both)
• finishing sea salt for seasoning afterwards

1. Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add the cubed butter to the food processor and pulse until the contents look like coarse cornmeal.
3. Add the egg and run the processor for 1-2 minutes until the dough forms large (approx pea sized or larger) clumps.
4. You can, at this point, either squish the dough together and roll it out with a rolling pin on a floured surface, but I just dumped the crumbs into the tart pan (a 9″ circle is best; I used a 9″ square pan) and pressed them evenly into the pan.
5. Chill the tart pan in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 and slice your potatoes into 1/4″ slices.
7. Arrange the potato slices slightly overlapping in the crust and sprinkle the blue cheese evenly over the potatoes.
8. In a small bowl (I did it directly into my glass liquid measuring cup) whisk the egg yolk into the heavy cream and pour it over the potatoes–since my square tart pan wasn’t as large as Lindsay’s round one was, I left about 1/2″ – 1″ of liquid in the measuring cup just to make sure it didn’t over flow.  I just made sure that the potatoes were barely covered by the cream.
9. Sprinkle the thyme and rosemary evenly over the tart.
10. Bake the tart until bubbling and browned, 40-50 minutes.
11. Let the tart cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

I have a new favorite pizza place here in Beachtown.  It’s called Stella Rossa and I have NEVER had pizza like Stella Rossa makes pizza.  They let their dough ferment for 18 hours so the crust that they put in front of you hot from the oven isn’t so much like pizza dough as it is more like fresh, airy, crusty, delicious French bread.  The pizza I love the most at Stella Rossa is an incredible seasonal option on the menu, topped with thin slices of roasted butternut squash, Applewood smoked bacon, Talleggio cheese, and sweet basil. I NEVER would have paired butternut squash with basil but wouldn’t you know that it’s perfect!  I would have defaulted to sage, like most of us would, but I now know that basil and butternut squash are like Romeo and Juliet–people try to keep them separate but secretly they are perfect together.

I’m not ready yet to start out on my own with making pizza crust just yet, especially when Trader Joe’s has such great tasting dough ready made in their fridge, but boy did I want this pizza at home!  So I mandolined some butternut squash, tried to find some acceptable cheeses to substitute and some good basil.  I left the bacon off, just because, but you feel free to add it to your pizza.  Truly, this pizza is a fantastic quick dinner that’s a break from the normal tomato based pies.

Butternut Squash Pizza
Makes 2 medium pizzas
Inspired by Stella Rossa

• 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and sliced thin enough to see through
• 3-4 small mozzarella balls in water, sliced
• about 1/4 cup shredded Harvati cheese
• bacon, crumbled (optional)
• handful of fresh basil
• 1 package of Trader Joe’s plain pizza crust, divided into two parts

1.  Lightly olive oil a baking sheet and put it into the cold oven.  Heat the oven with the baking sheet in it to 450 degrees.
2. Once the oven and pan are heated, take the pan out and place it on a heat-safe surface.  Working quickly, take one part of the pizza dough and gently stretch it out into a thin round.  The easiest way I’ve found to do this is to hold the dough in the air by one edge to let gravity do it’s magic and focus on stretching out the thicker outer edge of the dough (the middle will thin itself out naturally as you stretch the edge out).  Arrange the stretched out dough onto the hot oiled baking sheet.
3. Top the dough with the ingredients–squash first, the two cheeses and the bacon crumbles if you are using them.  Leave the basil off for now.
4. Move the baking sheet back into the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, until the crust and cheese is lightly browned; remove from oven.
5. Lay the basil leaves on top of the hot pizza (they’ll wilt a little), cut into slices, and enjoy!

I know a lot of you are trying to eat healthy after the holidays and as part of your New Year’s Resolutions.  I can warn you that this is the last healthy recipe of 2011 and that you should probably just ignore the blog for a week because I’m starting off the year with something that will derail that diet of yours before January 2nd is even done.

Now that all said, I really do love cabbage.  I don’t know why or how I came to love cabbage, but I really do love it.  Mom would always steam it and add butter and salt to it (never pepper, which hides the natural sweetness of the cabbage for some reason).  Steamed cabbage isn’t very pretty, though, so I’m willing to bet it won’t convert any non-cabbage eaters, whereas this recipe just might.  Roasted in olive oil and sprinkled with salt, I could barely wait for the cabbage to cool before I was picking the rounds up off the cookie sheet with my fingers and eating them as if they were some odd looking savory cookie.  With hardly any work involved, this is a great way to start off the new year with a healthy kick as a side dish or even just a delicious snack!

Roasted Cabbage

Adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 head of green cabbage
• olive oil
• sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and brush a cookie sheet with olive oil (I pour a little in the pan then swirl it all over with a paper towel).
2. Slice cabbage into thin slices, about 1/2″ – 3/4″ thick and arrange on oiled cookie sheet.
3. Lightly drizzle more olive oil over cabbage slices and sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Roast in oven for 30-40 minutes until the outside edges are starting to get toasty and crunchy and the inside is tender.
5. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Well, the holidays are over and the leftovers are dwindling.  It’s cold outside and you don’t want something too heavy after finally eating the last of all the pie and cookies that were in your house.  Naturally, what do I turn to, but soup!  Now I admittedly love (LOVE) Campbell’s Tomato Soup with a grilled cheese sandwich, but I had the inspiration recently to make it from scratch and I have to wonder if I’m actually going to go back to Campbell’s now.

Making Cream of Tomato Soup from scratch means a whole new depth of flavors, instead of just the flat flavor you get from soup from a can, and the effort really isn’t that much more involved.  Plus, you lose all the salt and preservatives that you always find in prepackaged foods.

Cream of Tomato Soup

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Makes about 5 1/2 cups

• 2 cans (28 oz) whole tomatoes (not packed in puree), drained, 3 cups juice reserved, tomatoes seeded
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 large shallots, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Pinch ground allspice
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
• handful of fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons brandy or dry sherry
• Table salt
• Cayenne pepper

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. Spread the tomatoes out on the sheet and sprinkle the brown sugar over the tomatoes.  Bake for about 30 minutes until the tomatoes begin to brown a little, in the meantime…
3. Melt butter in a nonreactive large saucepan.  Add shallots, tomato paste, and allspice.  Reduce the heat to low and let the shallots cook until soft (about 10 minutes).  Sprinkle flour over the shallots and stir until thoroughly combined, cooking for about 30 seconds.
4. Whisking constantly, gradually add chicken stock; stir in reserved tomato juice, roasted tomatoes and basil leaves.
5. Cover the pot with a lid and bring the contents to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
6. Using a stick blender, puree the contents until smooth.
7. Add cream and heat over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Off heat, stir in brandy or sherry; season to taste with salt and cayenne.

(Cooks’ Illustrated adds that “this soup can be prepared through step 3, cooled, covered, and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Reheat over low heat before proceeding with step 3″.)

My path to enjoying mushrooms keeps going farther and farther–case and point, when The Boyfriend tasted this risotto last night, the first thing he said was “this is really mushroomy” and I was surprised that I hadn’t even noticed!  Instead I was loving the gentle earthy savory flavor the risotto had throughout without even attributing it to the mushrooms.  Now I’m convinced that mushrooms truly do have that special “umami” that everyone is always talking about and this risotto really lets it shine without being too overwhelming.

Again, this is based off of Cooks Illustrated’s “Almost Hands-Free Risotto” recipe that I love so much–so much so that, it was actually the very first recipe I ever posted on this blog.  It’s perfect for a cold winter’s night and very rich, despite the fact that there’s actually only a 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese in it (the normal risotto recipe calls for twice that much!).

I can’t wait for you to try it; I really can’t wait to eat this for leftovers, that’s how much I love this recipe (I HATE leftovers normally…)

On a complete side note, since this recipe calls for white wine, I love love LOVE the organic Green Fin white wine found at Trader Joes for just $3.99.  It’s light and refreshing without that hit of alcohol vapor after you swallow which comes with most cheap wines–I think this wine is perfect for cooking and for drinking-while-you’re-cooking.

Mushroom Asparagus Risotto
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated and Gourmet via 20SomethingCupcakes
Serves 2 with some leftovers

• 2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 cups water
• 1/2 lb thin asparagus spears (the big thick ones won’t be as delicate in the risotto), cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 1/4 lb (approx) fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 garlic clove (minced or pressed through a garlic press)
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup (or 1/2 cup, depending on your tastes) grated Parmesan cheese (I used Trader Joe’s Parmesan-Romano blend, which could be why I used only 1/4 cup–it has a stronger flavor than just Parmesan by itself)
• maybe some salt and pepper to season but I thought pepper would be too overpowering and I accidentally used full-sodium chicken broth so I definitely didn’t need any extra salt in mine

1. Set the chicken broth and water to a boil in a pot that is NOT the pot you will be making the risotto in (I always forget and have to transfer to a new pot half way through).  Once it’s boiling, reduce to a simmer and throw the asparagus in there to cook for a few minutes.  Once it’s almost soft (or however you prefer it done), fish all of the asparagus out and set aside.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in the heavy-bottomed pot you WILL be making the risotto in (I highly recommend using a dutch oven or Le Cruset for this–part of what makes this recipe work so well is that the sides heat up well and cook the risotto from all angles instead of just the bottom).  Saute the mushrooms in the melted butter for a few minutes until soft, then transfer them to a bowl and set aside.
3. Melt the other two tablespoons of butter in the same pan and add the garlic, sauteing until fragrant about a minute.
4. Add the rice and stir frequently for 3 minutes until the grains are translucent around the edges.
5. Add the white wine and stir until the liquid is absorbed, about another 3 minutes.
6. Then stir in 2 1/2 cups of the broth (there should be just a little broth left behind in the pot), reduce heat to lowish-medium, cover with a lid and let it gently simmer for 18 minutes, stirring twice.  What I do is set the timer for 6 minutes, stir, set the timer for another 6 minutes, stir again, then set the timer for the last 6 minutes and voila it’s ready!
7. Stir in the last bit of broth to make it extra creamy, stir in the cheese, then gently stir in the mushrooms and asparagus you had set aside.
8. Turn off the heat, cover it with a lid again and let it sit for another few minutes to let the asparagus and mushrooms warm back up.
9. Serve immediately, with extra cheese for sprinkling, and enjoy!

A few weeks ago I got an email from my second cousin saying that my great aunt had found my name in the LA Times newspaper.  Now while I let you wrap your head around those extended family connections, I’ll add that I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about or why my name would be in the paper.  I followed the link she sent to find that a recipe request I had submitted months before hand (and subsequently put on the back burner in my mind) had been answered!  This column in the LA Times food section, called “Culinary SOS”, will track down recipes for you from any restaurant in the country that is willing to share them…but vegetable soup?

Once you try it, this is the only vegetable soup you will ever want to eat (at least that’s how it worked for me).  The Coral Tree Cafe here in the Brentwood area of LA has lots of fancy sandwiches for a pretty penny and some equally expensive lovely baked goods, but whenever I’m there, I only have eyes for this huge $5 bowl of vegetable soup–which, I might add, was always a soup that was way at the bottom of my soup list.  It has some veggies thrown in there that aren’t typical of vegetable soup like zucchini and red bell pepper and I just love the soft yet chewy texture the pearl barley adds.  I’d even gone so far as to write down the veggies I could decipher on the back of a receipt, but was too worried that my attempted copy-cat soup would turn out vastly inferior.  Thus, writing to Culinary SOS.  It’s just vegetable soup, how hard can it be?  But as I said in my note to CSOS, there was some special ingredient that I knew I was missing.  It was marinara sauce.  Seriously.

Coral Tree Cafe Vegetable Soup
Adapted from the Coral Tree Cafe, courtesy of The LA Times’ Culinary SOS
Serves 8-10

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cups diced carrots
• 2 cups diced onions
• 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 3/4 cup pearl barley
• 1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
• 2 cups quartered mushrooms
• 2 cups diced zucchini
• Salt and pepper

1. In a heavy-bottomed stock pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat until tossing in a piece of onion means you hear a lot of sizzling.
2. Add the carrots, onions, bell pepper, thyme and barley to the pot, stirring frequently so the barley doesn’t burn, for about 20 minutes.  The onions should be clear at this point.
3. Add the vegetable broth and marinara sauce, cover the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and zucchini and let simmer for at least another 10 minutes.
5. The instructions from Coral Tree say you can eat it now and if you like your veggies slightly crunchy still, go for it.  I prefer mine softer and simmering it for a while longer also means your barley puffs up a lot more.  I would let it go for at least another 30 minutes, with the pot covered.
6. Serve hot with bread and butter on the side–it’s necessary for mopping up the last drips of broth.  Enjoy!