It's so easy being green

When I saw a recipe for green minestrone recently, my first thought was "Why didn't I think of that?" Because I really hadn't, ever. And if there's anything I appreciate, it's green! I get routinely teased for green shoes, coats, toenails... but I can handle it. What good is a favorite color if you can't take a little teasing?

So I tucked away the basic idea behind the various green soups I saw online, gathered every green vegetable in the house and went to town.

Green vegetable soup 
Makes 12 cups
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 stalks of leeks, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
6 green onions, chopped finely
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 Anaheim peppers, seeded and chopped semi-finely
3 cups kale leaves, destemmed and chopped finely
1.5 cups edamame, shelled
4 baby zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 bunch asparagus, cleaned and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
8 cups vegetable broth
Salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the leeks, onions and garlic. Saute until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the kale and edamame and broth, and bring to a simmer for 10-12 minutes, add the zucchini and asparagus and cook for 5-7 minutes more. Taste the soup for desired vegetable tenderness, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Tip: this soup is a great one to make one evening and eat the following. The flavor is, as with most soups, really better the next day.

This is a really healthy soup! Maybe a little too healthy for some of us (me)... so I trotted out a bit of ricotta and whipped up a quick batch of ricotta gnocchi to go along with the healthy goodness. Lovely. Just the right bit of cheese to counteract the rolicking good health of the soup, and fabulous flavor, to boot.

The variations on this could be somewhat endless... is it green? Toss it in! And if one wanted to make it a true minestrone, little pasta shapes could help toward that end, as well as maybe some cannellini beans...

Enjoy!

Are you ready for some football?

ell, the game is in the second half and I could really use a nap, but if I don't post now, it won't happen. You know me. Out of sight, out of mind. Or, in tummy, out of mind! And while I'm not a huge football fan, the Super Bowl is a tradition, and there's food, right? At least, that's the way we roll around here. And from the look of all the food blogs this weekend, we're not alone. This is one big eatin' weekend in the U.S.

I think I cooked more today than in the three weeks prior, combined (which says something about how slack I've been in the kitchen lately). I'm tired like after Thanksgiving dinner, almost. But it was fun, and I got a chance to experiment with a bunch of new and different things, and a couple of tried-and-trues, too.

Here's what was on the Superbowl menu:

* Soft pretzel bites (for Seth). This was the biggest experiment for us, and well worth it. Very fun and easy to make, and yummy right out of the oven. I'm curious how they'll be tomorrow, as a lunch box addition for Seth. I'm sure he'll let me know!

 

Seth cutting up the bites.

  

I've never boiled something prior to baking before... It was pretty cool. Next up, bagels?

 

Golden, salty bites!

* Roasted chickpeas (for husband) and roasted edamame (for me).

 

Chickpeas with cumin and cayenne.

 

Edamame with garlic and salt.

* Jalapeno poppers (For the boys in general, though I got a little more into them than I thought... a bit of heat, but completely doable. And yummy.)

 

Before coating and oven

 

After: ready for poppin'

* Baked onion rings (have been making these for a while now. Love it!)
*  Zucchini sticks (ditto)
Both the onion rings and the zucchini sticks got eaten up before I thought of (remembered!) to take a photo. Alas. It was that kind of day. Food was going out of the kitchen like crazy.

* Salmon, grilled, for something healthy!

* Homemade tartar sauce (for the onion rings. I'm out of The IceBurg tartar and can't really take storebought anymore.)

Tartar sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. of lemon juice
1/2 cup dill pickle, minced
3/4 cup of white or yellow onion, minced
2 Tbsp. green onion, minced
1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
Salt and pepper to season

Mix all ingredients together and let sit, refrigerated, for an hour or so for the flavors to marry.

I was planning to add capers, but the jar I had on hand was a wee bit old, so I pitched it and decided to go caper-free. I looked around at a lot of different recipes and the variations are vast! We were happy with our mixture, though. It went well with the salmon, the onion rings, the zucchini sticks... well, everything!

If you watched the game, I hope you were pleased with the outcome? For me, it's all about the ads. Did you see the Google ad? I thought it was a new one but when I went to YouTube I discovered it was not. It's still sweet as can be. Since my dear friend Corinne has been working on her Paris plans all day (well, in between Superbowl ad times, from what I could tell from her Twitter and Facebook posts!), I thought I'd share this for her.



Here's my other favorite ad, for Snickers!



Oh, and tomorrow is salad day around here. I noticed, a little late, the lack of fresh and green and leafy in our day... that can always be remedied tomorrow!