Smooth Celery and Allium Soup

I found this recipe for a celery bisque this morning and felt like I had stumbled upon a revelation.  Smooth, creamy, celery (i.e. cheap, abundant, easy) soup!  It was the perfect way to use up that wilting head of celery in the crisper.  

Then I started contemplating, I had leeks that needed using.  That would be a nice addition.  I got out my chopping board and started down the list of ingredients.  I rummaged in our onion basket for a yellow onion - and came up empty handed.  Grrr!  We were out of onions again!  Barry asked why I couldn't use the purple onion that was in the fridge.  It was a logical, level-minded question to which I replied, aghast "No!  I can't use a PURPLE onion in my celery soup! Think of the HORRIBLE color it would make!"  

So, he suggested another logical option.  "We have those huge green onions in the garden that need to be picked.  I bet you could use the white parts of those instead of the onion."  And so, Barry solved the dilemma.  He's good at that :)

The picture you see below is not leeks, like they appear to be.  Instead, they are massive green onions which we should have picked months ago.  But instead they've been happily growing away, waiting for a moment such as this.

These are the real leeks, picked yesterday.

The celery, in progress.

Leeks, green onions, celery - an aromatic soup in the making.

The final product - delicious and creamy!

Recipe (adapted from Honest Fare)

Celery cluster (I only had about 2/3 left of mine)

Half a white onion OR the whites of 10 LARGE green onions

2 leeks (whites and 2-4 inches of green)

3 cloves of garlic

2 tsp salt

1 TBSP sugar

2-3 TBSP McKay's Chicken Seasoning

1 TBSP Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Couple dashes of cayenne pepper 

3 cups water

Parsley, basil, or cilantro, chopped (for topping)

Directions

Roughly chop celery (including leaves), onion, and leeks.  Sauté with garlic and olive oil in heavy soup pot until tender.  Add water and seasonings.  Boil for additional 15-20 minutes.  Blend until smooth.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  Serve hot with chopped herbs on top.

(The original recipe called for silken tofu, which I was going to use but the soup turned out deliciously creamy without it so I left it out.  Maybe I'll give it a try next time; it does sound delicious!)

Winter Garden

Citrus and leeks does a happy tummy make.  This bounty went into a potato leek soup and fresh orange grapefruit juice.  Both were delicious, made even more so from knowing where they were picked.

Small Home

Love this home of Jessica Helgerson.  Only 540 square feet and with a great history too!  It's very cool what the owners are doing with trying to live as self-sufficient as possible.  Check out the link for more pictures!

Fresh Eats

Our first heirloom tomato this season - A Striped German!

Veggie wraps with the siblings - colorful and full of flavor!  Definitely worthy of a more permanent place in our meal rotation.  Components: tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, lettuce, onions, green peppers, carrots, green hummus, vegan cheese sauce, and spinach wraps!

Gifted quail eggs (Thanks Maribel!).  They became a delicious mini omelet that we used as the first course of our date night meal :)

Garden Meals

Just a few pictures from what we've been cooking lately.  As you can see, there have been lots of tomatoes around here these days!  Also pictured are plums (which were quickly made into plum jam), leeks, peaches, and fresh herbs being made into a yummy lasagna.  The garlic sauce on top of both the lasagna and the pizza is the same incredible stuff that I posted about last week - what a revolutionary sauce it has been!

Lasagna in the making

A new backyard friend!

A cute slipper tomato!

Tomato hats!

Four pounds of backyard produce about to be roasted and made into tomato sauce!

"To Live Content"

“To live content with small means: to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common–this is my symphony.”

-William Henry Channing

Garlic Cream Sauce (Vegan)

I have a confession to make.  I've been holding out on you.  I haven't yet shared this incredible, amazing, delicious, over-the-top garlic cream sauce that I found.  I first described it as akin to an alfredo sauce - but I think it's better than that because it's vegan and doesn't feel as heavy.  We've eaten it in some form or another almost every week since I found it!  It has showed it's creamy self on many things: pizza's, lasagna's and more.  But this baked pasta dish takes the prize.  Mixed with sun-dried tomatoes (my favorite!), spinach or peas, and pasta, this vegan cream sauce almost makes me want to become an opera star so that I could sing it's glories to the world!

Creamy Garlic Sauce

Adapted from Sweet Beet and Green Bean

2 whole heads of garlic, roasted

1 block silken tofu*

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

onion powder, cayenne, paprika, pepper, etc to taste

Breadcrumb Topping

2 pieces stale, hardened bread

1/4 cup flax seed meal

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1-2 TBSP McKay's Chicken seasoning

1-2 TBSP Brewer's yeast

1 TBSP garlic herb seasoning

Directions

-Roast the garlic as follows: wrap the whole head (unpeeled) in tin foil and then bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.  Remove and open the tin foil package.  Once cool, the individual bulbs of garlic squeeze out very easily.
-Blend garlic, tofu, oil, and seasonings until smooth.
-Mix with pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, and greens (spinach, peas, etc).  Place in baking dish.
-Coarsely blend all breadcrumb topping ingredients.  Sprinkle on top of pasta dish.
-Bake at 350 F just until top is slightly browned.

A few notes:
*I've used regular tofu and it works well, just not quite as creamy
** This sauce is endlessly versatile - I've added tomato paste, sundried tomatoes and the oil they come in to the sauce before blending (in lieu of the canola oi) and it makes the sauce into a delicious tomato garlic cream sauce.
***The pasta will absorb quite a bit of the sauce while baking.  To counter this, I only bake it for a short amount of time and, if making a large dish, I'll double the sauce.  It's also handy to save aside a little extra for spooning on top if things get too dry.