leeks and assorted veggies
First let me say that this is what I burned my hand on. More on that later, but my hand still stings, and I am rather annoyed that this was the cause of it.
So, one of the cookbooks I picked up was The Moosewood Restaurant New classics. I hadn’t made anything from it, but I had a fennel bulb that was looking to be cooked, and figured that their fennel leek soup would fit the bill. It helped, too, that I had some leeks. I was missing other things, such as the potatoes and used chard instead of spinach, but figured it would all work out.
- 1 fresh fennel bulb
- 10 cups of water
- 3 leeks
- 1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped carrots
- 4 cups coarsely chopped potatoes (I had only one potato, so made do with that)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (I used fresh thyme)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds (I used fresh)
- 2 cups spinach (I used chard)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (I used dried dill)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (that I had)
This was interesting, because the stuff was put in in bits. First all the fennel except the fennel bulb went into the pot, then the leek leaves, then the carrots and potatoes.
veggies in the pot
While that was all simmering, I put the fennel bulb and leeks into a pan and cooked them, then added them to the stock.
I threw in some garlic, as I think garlic makes everything taste better.
I cooked it all for about 45 minutes, and even tasted it. I could see where the potatoes would have helped, but it didn’t taste bad, just thin.
finished soup
And here is how I burned my hand. The next step was to pour the soup, a little bit at a time, into the food processor. While I was transferring, I poured it on my hand.
Then it was so hot that the top of the food processor got soft, and the top fell in while I was running it, so the first batch had bits of chopped up lid in it, and I didn’t think that would taste right.
Once that was all cleaned up, I finally got the soup together, and tasted it. It wasn’t bad, but, as I said, it could have done with the extra potatoes.
