Posts Tagged ‘beans’
« Older Entries |tuscan white bean with kale soup
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
As you may know, we make a gigantic batch of soup pretty much every week so that we have delicious and nutritious homemade meals ready to go for work lunches every day. This week we made a hearty Tuscan White Bean with Kale Soup.
Where did the recipe come from? I am not entirely certain. It started with my Mom I think. And from there we have sort of experimented and altered it here and there. But the basics are always the same.
The core to any good soup starts out with a base of sautéed carrots, celery, white onions, and garlic. We make huge batches of soup (10–16 big servings) so I usually begin with a dozen organic carrots peeled and chopped, at least 10 organic ribs of celery chopped, 2–3 large organic white onions chopped, and 8 or so cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped.
These all get sautéed with extra virgin olive oil in a large stock pot for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Then I add 3 large jars (cans work, too) of diced/chopped tomatoes and 64 oz. or so of small white beans (dried or canned). If they are dried, you will want to cook them ahead of time so soften them up.
Once the tomatoes and juices and beans are added, cover your whole base with enough water to give everything breathing room and bring to a boil covered. Then simmer on low for at least 20 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, take a gigantic head of kale and chop it into bite-size pieces. I always use the kale stems, too—they give the soup a decent heft and fiber blast.
Chop off the very ends of the kale to add to your compost, and then chop up the kale stalks like you would a broccoli stalk. You can add the kale stalks right away to the simmering soup mixture to give them time to soften up a bit.
After roughly 20 minutes have passed, add the kale leaves along with your favorite pasta of choice or a red quinoa. Turn the soup back up to high, cover, and bring to a boil again.
This time we added half a bag of rotini spinach and tomato pasta that we had on hand. I broke the pasta into smaller pieces before I added it to the soup. I add the kale into the soup in handfuls, stirring it in a handful at a time.
Once you add the pasta and kale, you will need to add more water so that the pasta has room to cook and expand. I add 2 cups at a time and keep on stirring. You can make your soup more or less thick, depending on your individual taste. We like a thick, hearty soup, so I start with adding maybe 6 cups of water and stir away. I want there to be decent motion with the soup, but I want to be able to pull up a hearty scoop of veggies, beans, and pasta, too.
After you add the kale and pasta and water, then you can mess around with adding herbs. I always add a generous amount of thyme. I don’t measure it, but I would guess at least a teaspoon or two. I also add generous shakes of basil, oregano, rosemary, freshly grated black pepper and freshly grated red pepper.
Once the soup comes to a boil again, turn it back down to medium low for 12–14 minutes to give the pasta a chance to cook.
Keep an eye on your soup—if it looks too thick and you think that beans or pasta are going to get stuck on the bottom of the pot, add more water.
If you get busy and forget about the soup, that is okay, too. You can turn it down to low and let it simmer. The longer it goes, the more all the flavors have a chance to meld and blend and get to know each other.
Once the Tuscan White Bean Soup with Kale has had a chance to simmer for a while, I turn it off and take off the cover and let the soup cool. Then I ladle it out into individual pyrex serving bowls with covers for the week.
Easy to grab-and-go from the fridge for daily lunches!
P.S. If you feel compelled, you can substitute veggie broth for water. I tend to just use water because I don’t notice a huge difference. Plus, most veggie broths have a lot of added salt. Using canned or jarred tomatoes tends to add enough extra salt anyway. It is ultimately your choice though. Feel free to experiment and mess around! That is the beauty of making homemade soup!
Tags: beans, carrots, celery, garlic, kale, onions, soup, tomatoes
Posted in Cooking Adventures | No Comments »
october garden harvest!
Sunday, October 10th, 2010
This weekend was beautiful, filled with sunny weather and crisp, yet warm-ish Autumn temps in the low 60s. While Craig tackled sanding the side of our house that we’re going to re-paint asap, I set about harvesting a bunch of fruits and veggies from our garden before frost comes. Last night the temps dropped down to the upper 30s (brrrrrr!) so a real frost is imminent.
We are still growing huge bush lake beans! And here’s the last cucumber.
And last cantaloupe. And likely last pepper.
Today I cleared out all the dying watermelon and cantaloupe vines, alone with the cucumber vines, so the bounty above is our last for this year. Always a little bit sad.
This pear tomato plant is actually from seed from last year! It sprouted up
amongst our carrots, and I let it go.
Even though this tomato plant bloomed late, we are getting a few pear tomatoes!
I picked a few more roma and cherry tomatoes today, too. I got rid of all but one of our roma plants since they’re not doing great in this weather. Worst case scenario, I will pick the green romas that are left and see if they ripen on the windowsill.
I also harvested our green onions today!
And I picked the last acorn squash. Our squashes only grew to baby size this year. Bad year for squashes. But they are cute.
We also grew corn this year in a very limited amount. Most of our stalks did produce corn, but the ears were really tiny. Bummer. So I cut the stalks today and I will bundle them in some sort of ornamental way for our front door.
The biggest thing I did today was dig up the rest of our potatoes. They have been ready for weeks (months?) but I have been putting off the task. Thankfully, Craig’s Mom told me we could wait to dig up the rest of the potatoes, and they would be fine. I wasn’t sure, but she was totally right! I dug through our bed today and extracted the rest of the lot.
I am psyched because I wasn’t sure which varieties would be left. But it appears we got a harvest of a bunch of different organic types!
Looking forward to making another potato frittata this week!
Hope you had a great weekend. Hope you had a chance to relax. What have you been up to?
Tags: autumn, beans, cantaloupe, gratitude, green onion, organic, potatoes, raised garden bed, tomatoes
Posted in The Growing Season | No Comments »
how to harvest potatoes
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
It’s time! The potatoes are finally ready! We started harvesting them last weekend.
After potato plants bloom, the leaves start to turn brown, and eventually the potato plant part dies. You can begin harvesting potatoes any time after the plant blooms (new potatoes!), but waiting a week or two after the plants turn brown helps the potatoes to develop thicker skins if you want to keep your potatoes around for a little while.
We pulled out a mini hoe, shovel, and wheel barrow and began to dig away!
Here is our little potato patch.
We planted 6 different varieties of organic potatoes this year, and you can read more about how we did it here. As we started digging, it was so fun to see what color the potatoes would be!
Hi potato! There you are!
Is it a cranberry red or red cloud? I’m not sure.
So you remove the dying potato plant from the soil, and then gently dig down into the soil sifting through to pick out the potatoes. Some of our potatoes were pretty big, some were very teeny, and just one was a little rotten. Ewwwww.
The rest came out quite dirty, but nice and firm with skins intact.
We have harvested 4 plants so far, and here is our bounty.
I love the color of the purply-blue ones. They are called all-blue.
We are quite thrilled with how our first year of growing potatoes has turned out! It was a nice harvest last week.
While our squashes failed this year, so far in August we have gotten tremendous amounts of bush lake beans, roma tomatoes, melons, and beets.
Now what to make? Should I roast the potatoes? Warm potato salad? Home fries? Scalloped? What is your favorite fun potato dish?
Tags: beans, beets, gardening, gratitude, organic, potatoes, summer, tomatoes
Posted in The Growing Season | 2 Comments »
wrapping up july in the gardens of plenty
Friday, July 30th, 2010
When July began, we were inundated with lettuces. Everywhere. I couldn’t pick them fast enough! That is why they became the July banner. And the fireflies were out every night. Along with the heat. And humidity. July has been HOT. 90°F+ for many, many days with very little rain. I don’t remember the last time July was this hot.
Who’s looking forward to getting their water and electricity bills in August? Yeah. They’re gonna suck. We have one little tiny AC unit that we broke out to use in the bedroom, and I can’t believe how many nights in a row we used it. Eesh. And the near-daily garden waterings. Plus trying to save our lawn, which was a failure. Our grass took its bow at least a few weeks ago. Craig is psyched though—mowing is awesome when you don’t have to do it.
July has been a month of learning for me. I delved deeper into blogging and talking to other bloggers. I started participating in more online discussions with other writers and really focused on visiting other blogs that are incredible. I plan to organize my thoughts more and share, share, share! Soon!
I also started to dip my pinky toe into being more social online and getting to know other gardeners. Stepping out of my comfort zone has been awesome. Even if it was slightly anxiety-ridden for me at first. I get shy. But I also gain confidence. I am learning so much, and it is so rewarding to share information and swap life and garden stories with ilk! And not just other gardeners, but other amazing women and men out there who are invested in self-discovery, in mindfulness, in celebrating the simple pleasures of each day. I love this.
On the gardening side of things, all of this interaction has really helped me, too, because my little plenty this year has been suffering quite a few setbacks. And other gardeners have been awesome with sharing their advice. First there were the squash vine borers. Then there were the red leaf lily beetles. And now I’m battling some sort of tomato fungus that I don’t think is late blight, but rather septoria leaf spotting.
Ick, again.
After 3 years of awesome gardening, I have really had to step back and think about what I am doing. I know you can’t prevent all pests and diseases, but I somehow thought I was immune because I garden organically. Not the case! Turns out I should have been more vigilant, especially last year, to look for signs of pest and disease. Well, silly me… I was far too busy planning my wedding and then enjoying the first weeks of newlywed-dom and then went off to Europe for my honeymoon.
Yeah, well, turns out there were a ton of warning signs going on in my garden that I was clueless about! Wedded ignorant bliss!
If I had payed closer attention to my squashes last year, I might have noticed the onset of squash vine borers. I think I had them last year, but the case wasn’t crazy severe. They overwinter in your soil, though, and so I have had these icky buggers on hand for quite some time. And thinking back, I am pretty sure I had a septoria problem last year, too. But I just chalked it up to crappy tomatoes because New England had sooooo much rain last summer. Slugs were the biggest garden problem! So I just thought my tomato plants were waterlogged and hangin’ in the best they could. I have most likely been harboring septoria in my soil.
Ewwww. Makes me feel like a bad gardening mamma. I got distracted. I got a little too giddy about my success. I failed to read, research, and take preventive measure like rotating my crops and turning my soil.
Just like life, eh? It is so easy to get carried away, get distracted, forget to practice gratitude and be humble. Well, now it has caught up to me, and I am paying for it with a subpar harvest thus far this summer.
It is okay, though. I can take it. It happens to the best of us.
I am experiencing so much, and I feel so present to be able to learn from my mistakes. And not all is lost, which is the best part about the garden. It WANTS to grow. The garden WANTS to flourish. Like the kid in class who knows the answer and has her arm strained up to the sky, begging for the teacher to call on her. Ain’t nothin’ gonna break her. So I take so much comfort in the tiny little garden successes these days. They are amazing.
Here are a few worth sharing as we wrap up July in the gardens of plenty.
Here is my first cantaloupe! This is my first year attempting to grow melons.
My sugar baby watermelons are big enough to sling. I am using old knee-high stockings to cradle and support them.
So exciting to see them grow bigger and bigger! This sugar baby watermelon is the furthest along.
My 4 corn stalks are right on schedule!
One is way taller than the others, but here’s hoping...
Here comes an ear!
After waiting and waiting, my first roma tomatoes are finally ripe!
Romas and cherry tomatoes
We had our first real tomato harvest this week.
Our bush lake beans are still producing in full force.
Our cucumbers have been doing very well.
The vines are withering in the heat, but we are still picking sugar snap peas.
Don’t call it a comeback! Despite the collapse of most of my squash plants, a few are still hanging on. We have new zucchinis growing.
All in all, it could be worse, right? I am thankful for the good and the bad. It is summer, after all, which is simply wonderful.
Tags: beans, cantaloupe, corn, gardening, gratitude, lettuce, sugar snap peas, summer, tomatoes, watermelon, zucchini
Posted in The Growing Season | 4 Comments »
progress and proliferation
Friday, July 16th, 2010
It was just a little over 2 months ago (yikes! already!) that I planted most of my organic veggie and flower seeds. And so far I have been quite encouraged by what I’ve been able to harvest: cilantro, green onion, radishes, broccoli rabe, garlic scapes, lettuces, baby spinach, sugar snap peas, zucchini, and beans.
Everything else is still a work in progress, but coming along with a hit or miss here and there. I’ll get to my misses in more detail in a future post, but let’s just say that my carrot tops and peppers are being obliterated by some sort of munching pest. In fact, I think my carrots might be done for. I wasn’t paying them any attention when perhaps I should have been.
Not gonna dwell on carrot misfortune right now. It’s Friday! And I want to focus on all the great things happening in the garden!
Here’s a good example of excellent garden cheating. Had to do it with my corn. I originally planted 8 seed groupings of two, but only 3 plants came up.
So I broke down and bought some corn starts to supplement the corn that either failed to germinate or got eaten by chipmunks. I prefer to blame the chipmunks. They are still burrowing deep holes between the freshly planted new stalks.
I hope the newer starts will still produce even though the corn I planted from seed is much further along. I think we’re in good shape. Unless the un-mowed lawn keeps taking over. Then we’re in trouble. This weekend! This weekend! Craig, my most bestest favoritist person, will mow this weekend!
All the rain we had the other day coupled with frequent watering is helping my cucumbers along.
Craig says it’s in that looks-like-a-pickle stage.
I am definitely liking the trellis action this year. While it has given my cucumbers more growing space and it’s keeping them from spilling out onto the lawn, the watermelon and cantaloupe, however, are consuming the trellis and still going full steam ahead anywhere and everywhere the vines can go. This weekend I am going to have to go hunting for another trellis for the cantaloupe.
And there she is: one itty bitty baby growing watermelon. Let’s see how long I can keep this up.
Finally after waiting and waiting, I have a summer squash starting to grow!
I see more buds, so I hope the growing is just beginning.
We’ve picked 3 zucchinis so far, and I hadn’t seen any others successfully growing, so I was starting to get worried. Sometimes they start growing their little zucchini nubbin and then they turn yellow or rot. I’m sure there’s perfectly good reasons for why this happens, but I almost don’t want to know. However, after the rain I spotted new, good growth.
Hope these zucchs continue to stay healthy.
And, of course, I will end again with more flowering zinnias. They are a dwarf variety and they are pretty cute. I’m a little bummed that the flower stem part is only about 2″ long, so it kind of makes it hard to cut them for a bouquet. I suppose I could put them in a teacup? The colors are vibrant and new shades keep blooming.
Pay absolutely no attention to the giant weed right in the middle. This weekend! This weekend! I WILL weed this weekend.
Tags: beans, broccoli rabe, cantaloupe, cilantro, cucumber, gardening, garlic scape, gratitude, herbs, lettuce, radishes, spinach, sugar snap peas, summer squash, watermelon, zucchini
Posted in The Growing Season | 3 Comments »