15-Minute All-Greens Soup

Serves: 4

¼ cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
3 zucchini, trimmed and cut into ½-inch pieces
2 celery stalks, trimmed and cut into ½-inch pieces
1 cup snow peas, trimmed and cut into ½-inch pieces
½ bunch loosely-packed kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
1 cup loosely-packed fresh parsley or basil
About 2 cups vegetable broth, chicken broth or water (NOTE: Add more or less liquid to reach your desired consistency.)
Salt and pepper

1. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Prepare a large bowl with ice water. In a large pot of boiling water, blanch the zucchini, celery and snow peas until fork-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Dunk into the prepared ice water bowl; drain and pat dry. Blanch the kale, spinach and parsley until bright green, about 45 seconds; drain and pat dry, then squeeze out any extra liquid. Place the onion mixture and half of the blanched vegetables and parsley in a blender; process until smooth. With the motor running, drizzle in the remaining ¼ cup olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Return to the pot, stir in the broth, remaining vegetables and season to taste with salt and pepper; cook over medium heat until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Author's comments:
When I make this soup, I use whatever green vegetables and herbs I have in my fridge’s vegetable drawer. I’ve used kale, asparagus, green beans, sugar snap peas, snow peas, spinach, zucchini, celery, basil, parsley, cilantro. The list goes on and on, really. Please improvise with this recipe. The only ingredient you’ll need to adjust is the broth. Just add enough liquid until you reach your desired consistency. If I have any leftovers and I’m feeling decadent, I’ll melt in some shredded cheddar in the last few minutes of cooking.

But the beauty of blanching goes beyond the superficial. Blanching only takes a few minutes at most and will actually save you time in the long run. After blanching, all you need to do is blend the vegetables with a few more ingredients  and cook the soup on the stovetop just until heated through.
So what is blanching exactly? All it means is that you’re going to bring a large pot of water to a boil, add vegetables and cook until bright green and fork-tender, then you’ll dunk them into a big bowl of ice water and drain.
from Silvana's Kitchen 
http://www.silvanaskitchen.com/gluten-free-dairy-free-greens-soup/ 

About...Sorrel!

from: Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book

About Sorrel Jane Grigson writes:
"I learnt the advantages of sorrel in France, where every garden however small -- or at least every garden in Touraine and Anjou -- has a patch of [sorrel] as close to the kitchen door as possible. We visit a friend in the early evening... Suddenly ... she remembers food and rushes to the nearest corner of the vegetable patch to grab a couple of handfuls of sorrel. In a quarter of an hour we are eating a lively soup, fresh and agreeably sharp, that she has made with the minimum of trouble.

In France everyone, it seems, knows about sorrel, and the homely standby of quick sorrel soup... Sorrel soup, sorrel omelette, sorrel sauce with fish or eggs mollet, turn a frugal meal into something special. People wonder if it's spinach with lemon juice? No...

Sorrel comes half-way between vegetables and flavouring. A few chopped leaves can be added to a green salad for zest. A larger quantity can be cooked down to fill omelettes, like spinach, or to make soups and sauces. The best-known of French sorrel soups is made purely of sorrel and water, with an enriching finale of egg yolks and cream."

About cooking garden "things":
"Most people spoil garden things by over boiling them. All things that are green should have a little crispness, for if they are overboil'd they neither have any sweetness or beauty."
~ Hannah Glasse

submitted by Patti Andrews

Fresh Herb Salad with Edible Flower and Mustard-Dill Dressing

Serves 6

Organic edible flowers are perfect for this, and can include:
nasturtiums, daylilies, pansies, pinks, borage, roses, or flowers from any culinary herb (such as chives).

1 small butterhead lettuce
1 cup baby arugula leaves
1 cup fresh purslane or baby spinach or tat soi
1 cup watercress leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup snipped fresh Italian parsley (flat leaves)
1/2 cup sorrel leaves
1/2 cup baby mustard greens or collard greens
1/3 cup snipped fresh chives
1/4 cup snipped fresh chervil
2 Tbs. snipped fresh dill
1/2-1 cup edible flowers

Dressing:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp dill seed
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste

Wash and gently dry butterhead lettuce, all herbal greens and edible flowers. Tear apart lettuce and any large-leafed herbs. Toss together all greens except flowers in a large salad bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Pour
over herb salad and gently toss until well coated. Garnish with
edible flowers and serve immediately.

From Delicious Living Magazine

Morrocan Orange-Walnut Salad

Serves 4-6 (Note: this takes some time to prep., but it is delicious!)

6 Large Oranges
1 cup thinly sliced radishes
1 Tbs. honey (optional)

½ tsp. cinnamon

1 lb. mixed salad greens, cleaned dried and chilled
½ cup thinly sliced red onion
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
salt to taste
freshly ground black peppe

1 cup toasted walnut halves, (or chopped toasted walnuts)


At least one hour ahead:
Peel and section the oranges using a serrated knife. First cut off the polar ends of the peel, then slice the peel off the sides. Cut in one side of the membrane and out the other using a gentle sawing motion, releasing each orange section into a bowl. Squeeze all excess juice from the remaining membrane into the bowl, and pick out the seeds if necessary. Discard the membrane. Drizzle honey if desired, and sprinkle cinnamon over the orange slices. Cover the bowl and let it stand @ room temp. at least one hour.

Shortly before serving:
Toss the greens in a large bowl with the onion, radishes and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, add the oranges with all their liquid, and toss well. Served topped with walnuts.

Submitted by Cheryl Rowell, from Mollie Katzen’s The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

10 Minute Light Vegetable Soup for Two

Just double this recipe for 4

Place 1 Tbl ghee (clarified butter), or olive or sunflower oil in good-sized stir fry pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 or more sliced garlic cloves for a couple of minutes to soften and release
the flavor. Add progressively to the stir fry pan, stirring each to coat with oil and soften:

2 good-sized scallions (or 4-5 tiny ones), chopped fine, including the green parts;
1 smaller broccoli stalk, with all the stem parts sliced into dime-sized pieces and the remaining flower tops cut small as well.
1 smaller zucchini or yellow squash and cut into quarter-sized pieces.
1 handful of beet greens (or other greens such as chard or kale) also cut into small pieces.

Once everything has softened and the aroma of the food is filling the air, add:
1 quart of boiling water
1 vegetable bouillon cube (Marigold Organic Swiss is excellent, or a homemade one to control ingredients)

Stir to mix thoroughly, turn off heat and serve with a hearty bread and summer salad.

Notes: This cooks up in 5 - 10 minutes max, as long as one is set up to wash and chop vegetables quickly into finer-sized bites. We really like these flavors together, though other vegetables might appeal. We sometimes use a homemade broth by saving the cooking waters of other vegetables, popping each in the freezer in small quantities, and then heating these "vegetable broth pucks" up while preparing the rest of the stir fry. We also sometimes begin with some Indian spices in the olive oil and grated ginger instead of garlic or vegetable bouillon.

submitted by Patti Andrews

"Cream" of Sorrel Soup

1/4 lb fresh sorrel
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat of a knife and peeled
1 qt of chicken stock
2 eggs

Heat the olive oil in the saucepan, add the garlic and let it color lightly. Add the chopped sorrel and salt and pepper, and stir to wilt the sorrel, then add the stock and simmer for 15 minutes. In the electric blender, puree the soup, half at a time, for 2 minutes. Return it to the saucepan and keep it warm -- not quite at a simmer.

Just before serving, in the bowl whisk the eggs well until they double in volume. Then, whisking rapidly, gradually add them to the hot -- but not close to boiling -- soup. Continue whisking until the egg liaison has set just enough to hold without further whisking and heating. The soup should be thickened but very light.

Note from Patti A substitute for cream that actually has a creamy thickness and flavor is whipped instant powdered non-fat milk. 

submitted by Patti Andrews; from Michel Guerard's Cuisine Minceur

Potages D'Oseille (French Sorrel Soup)

8 oz sorrel
2 oz butter
1 1/2 pts water
2 egg yolks
4 Tbs cream

Wash sorrel. Remove the stalks and cut into strips. Cook to a puree in a generous 2oz butter. Add water, which should be boiling hot. Season and simmer for 15 minutes. Beat together two egg yolks and cream. Pour in a little soup, then return it to the pan and stir over a lowish heat for a minute
or two. Make sure the soup stays below boiling point, well below, or the egg will curdle.

Light home-made stock can be used instead of water, or the liquor from cooking vegetables, but keep these flavours unobtrusive, particularly the meaty ones. Serve the soups with small cubes of bread fried in butter, or cubes of toast. If you can buy a French loaf, cut some of it into thin diagonal slices, fry them in butter, and put them into the tureen just before pouring on the soup. You will notice that
most sorrel soups are thickened with egg yolk.

NOTES from Patti ~ Our first "two handfuls" of sorrel was made into this soup that was reminiscent of the Greek Avlogomeno soup (a favorite of mine), though that is yellow from eggs and lemon juice, rather than green from sorrel. It's on our "make again" list now. 

Also, a handy time and clean-up saver is to make the soup in a shallower type pan and then use an electric Braun-type hand mixer to puree the soup right in the pan!

submitted by Patti Andrews; from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book

Sorrel Sauce

We’ve enjoyed pasta with a similar sauce using fresh parsley and lemon (w/out the puree step). This can be used with poached white fish, salmon or pasta. Don’t include the central stem of the sorrel if tough.

4 oz. sorrel, chopped
½ pint of fish, vegetable or chicken stock
½ oz. butter
1 Tbs. flour
4 Tbs. cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Simmer the sorrel leaves in the stock for 5 mins.; allow to cool slightly, then puree in a blender or food processor. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add flour and stir over gentle heat until blended. Add the sorrel puree to pan and simmer for ~ 4 mins., stirring. Add the cream and season to taste. Serve immediately.

Submitted by Cheryl Rowell; from The Herbal Yearbook

Pumpkin or Winter Squash Ravioli

Recipe 1 (easier) – in a sage vegetable stock
1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin
½ tsp each salt and pepper
¼ cup nonfat ricotta
48 round wonton wrappers
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups vegetable stock
1/8 tsp nutmeg
10 fresh sage leaves cut in thin strips
additional Parmesan cheese

Puree pumpkin or squash in a blender or food processor with the ricotta, Parmesan, nutmeg and salt & pepper. Place a generous Tbs. of this mixture in the center of a wonton. Moisten edge with water. Cover with another wrapper and press edges firmly to seal. In a medium sauce pan, bring the vegetable stock to a boil, add sage. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a shallow oven proof serving dish. Bring water to a boil; add raviolis and cook for approximately 4 minutes and place in the oven dish.

Recipe 2 (more involved) – with a hazelnut sorrel cream sauce
2 ½ cups pumpkin puree
1 egg, beaten
2 large carrots, cooked and pureed
2 Tbs real maple syrup
2 onions, diced
2 ½ pounds fresh pasta sheets
1 clove garlic,
minced salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons ground coriander seed
1 cup hazelnuts
½ tsp each ground mace & allspice
1/3 pound grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup unsalted butter 1 pinch ground cardamom
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 pinch cayenne and white pepper salt to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups shredded sorrel, stems removed

Saute the onions, garlic, and spices in butter until the onions are soft. Stir together with the pureed vegetables. Add cheese, maple syrup, egg, salt, and black pepper. Adjust seasoning. Set the filling aside.

Preheat the oven to 400oF. Toast the hazelnuts in a shallow pan on the middle rack for 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown and fragrant. When they are cool enough to handle, wrap the nuts tightly in a lint-free towel, and vigorously rub nuts against the towel. Continue rubbing until the nuts are almost blond.

Cook the cream, garlic, cayenne, and white pepper over high heat; stir often, and adjust heat to keep the cream from boiling over. When the cream is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, add a pinch salt. Adjust seasoning. Remove sauce from heat until you're ready to use it.

You may use fresh pasta sheets and a ravioli cutter, or wonton wrappers as above. If using fresh pasta sheets, place dollops ½ inch apart with ½ Tbs filling, or for larger – 1 Tbs filling, 1 inch apart. Keep finished ravioli under damp cloth until ready to cook. Cook the ravioli in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain.

Meanwhile, reheat the sauce. Add the shredded sorrel to the sauce; cook just until it wilts -- about 30 seconds. Add half the hazelnuts, turn the heat off, and add the cooked ravioli. Stir gently, and serve immediately. Garnish with remaining hazelnuts.

Submitted by Cheryl Rowell – (recipe 2 was taken from allrecipes.com)