Tag Archives: potato

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup, Take 2

I made my recipe for Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup last night, but with fresh potatoes. Heres roughly how it went:

4 small broccoli crowns, chopped into small pieces

8 small russet potatoes, diced

2 cups carrots, cut into tiny pieces

1/2 yellow onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup cashews, soaked in hot water for at least an hour

1 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1 tbsp stone ground mustard

2-6 c vegetable stock

olive oil

This made a huge pot of soup as I plan on eating it for a few days (and I eat huge bowls of soup), so feel free to halve the recipe to get roughly 4 servings. If you’re not feeling cheesy, this soup was tasting fantastic before I added the ‘nooch’ in! If going cheese-less, add in some fresh chives and scallions and don’t skip the mustard!

Start by sautéing your onion in olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat. Once soft and beginning to brown, add in the potatoes, carrots, and garlic. Sauté until fragrant, and add in 2 cups of your vegetable stock. Cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender and mash easily with the back of a spoon. While the potatoes cook, blanch your broccoli in boiling water for 2 minutes, or until tender, and then immediately shock in ice water. This will keep the broccoli from turning a funky color when put in the soup. Next, drain the cashews and puree them in a food processor or high speed blender until smooth, adding as little water as necessary. Using an immersion blender if you have one, puree the potatoes and carrots until completely smooth and creamy. If needed add a little more stock to help blend. Fold the cashew cream into the potatoes, and add enough stock to suit your texture preference. The soup should remain thick. Stir in the nutritional yeast and mustard, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the soup to a low boil and add broccoli. Cook stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is hot.

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Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

Dan hit up the farmers market last saturday and came home with a wealth of cheap produce, including about 5 pounds of small waxy potatoes that needed to be put to use! We normally just split, season, and grill them, but I was craving something cool and creamy. We also had a bag full of basil left over from a friends CSA share, so I thought I’d combine them to make a creamy, pesto spiked potato salad! We’ve been  eating this for a few days now, and I think it had the best flavor on day 1, so whip this up when you have a potluck to go to!

Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

1 1/2 pounds waxy potatoes

2 c loosely packed basil

1/4 c finely minced white onion

1/4 – 1/2c veganaise

2 tbs water

2 tbs nutritional yeast

1/4 c sesame seeds- or whatever nuts you have around

1 tbs sunny paris blend, or similar type seasoning

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Halve your potatoes and place them in a pot with enough water to cover them by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, and cook until easily pierced with a fork. Drain, rinse gently under cool water, and chill while you make the dressing. Place the onion, and the Sunny Paris blend in a large bowl. In your food processor, combine the sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, and the basil, and pulse until a coarse paste forms, adding the olive oil to help bring it together. *Normally i’d use pine nuts, but I was out of everything but sesame seeds, so i just used those. They were subtle but delicious! Now, with the machine running, add in the first 1/4 c of vegan mayo and combine. If you want a lighter calorie count, thin to your desired consistency with water- it won’t kill the flavor. Otherwise, if you want a pronounced mayo flavor, add the other 1/4 c of veganaise in. Or, if you want to saucy, do both! Add salt and pepper to taste and fold into the cooled potatoes. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

grill-a-thon!

grill-a-thon!

i forgot to take a picture of the potato salad on it’s own, so here it is swimming in a sea of delicious grilled food!

Random Dinners, aka explanatory food porn

hi! i’ve been busy this month planning The Hive Salon’s birthday party but i scrounged up a few decent pictures of dinners that i’ve had, and the random ingredient notes that accompanied them!

grilled portobellos and steamed veggies

portobello caps marinated in red wine and balsamic vinegar before grilling on a cast iron pan. cauliflower roasted with coriander, salt and pepper, steamed green beans and peppers, mashed sweet potatoes, and creamy onion gravy. to make the gravy i cooked down two minced yellow onions, and then pureed them before adding to equal parts vegetable stock and almond milk. i seasoned the sauce with a little dijon mustard, white wine, salt, and pepper. simple!

polenta, greens, grilled tofu, walnut mushroom mix

this was a more labor intensive meal- but so delicious! i made some polenta with vegetable stock and a pinch of turmeric to intensify the color, and poured it into square 9×13” cake pan to cool. after it firmed up i cut it into squares, brushed it with oil and then grilled them. i topped them with steamed kale, grilled tofu, and mushrooms that were cooked down with caramelized onions, walnuts, and thyme. while i did all the busy work i let a bottle of fig infused balsamic vinegar reduce by half, and then spooned it over the top.

potat

potato spinach leek soup

this was super easy as well. cube up 2 1/2 lbs russet potatoes and reserve half when done. to the pan add 3 large thinly sliced leeks, one large diced white onion, and a few cloves of garlic. cook until soft and add 4 cups vegetable stock. toss in 3-4 handfuls fresh spinach, and puree with an immersion blender. add 1-2 tbs nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, and a teeny bit of thyme/rosemary, or if you’re a fan, dill. don’t season too much or you won’t taste the leeks! now, add the rest of the potatoes back to the pan and add enough almond milk to reach your desired consistency. serve with fried leeks on top for crunch (rolled in chickpea flour).

yay! if you didn’t see my last post, i’m on instagram posting damn near everything i eat at Jendo612, and i pin on pinterest under thehivesalon!

Vegan Mo-Fo! Potato Kale “Cassoulet”

and so it begins… i have decided to participate in vegan mo-fo! otherwise known as vegan month of food, mo-fo-ers try to blog 5 times a week about vegan cooking for an entire month. i know, i know, its a LOT of commitment- and of course this is one of the busiest months for me at work, and i have another large project underway, so i’m going to be realistic and hope that i can post at least 3 times a week. just don’t hate me if i dont, okay? thanks! i put the cassoulet in quotes because i’m assuming that beans and biscuits need to be involved to earn the name, but, i haven’t looked into it yet. ;)

Potato Kale Cassoulet

serves 6-8

1 pound yukon gold, or red potatoes, diced

1/2 pound kale, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 large leek, quartered and sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c white wine

1 1/2 cups cannelini beans

2+ cups vegetable stock

1 tsp thyme

1 bay leave

salt/pepper

Biscuits

1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 c almond milk

1 tsp cider vinegar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c earth balance

preheat your oven to 425

i recommend using a dutch oven, or another oven to table style pan for this dish-it simplifies everything! but, if all you have is a stock pot and a casserole dish, that will be fine too.  start by heating some olive oil in your pan, and adding your leek. saute the leek until nice and soft, but not golden. add in the potatoes and garlic, and cook until the garlic is fragrant. add the wine and bring to a low simmer, and stir occasionally until the wine is cooked off. at this point, add the beans, kale, thyme and bay leaves, a pinch of salt and pepper, and 2 cups of the stock. throw on the lid, and bring the pan up to a simmer again. now start your biscuits! add your vinegar to your almond milk and set aside. in a large bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. using a pastry cutter, or two knives held side-by-side, cut the margarine into the flour until crumbly. now pour in the curdled almond milk, and fold until mixed. flour your hands and knead the dough 8-12 times, adding additional flour if necessary to form a smooth, slightly sticky dough. gently roll into a large log, and cut into 8 equal pieces. use your palms to flatten the biscuits slightly. remove the lid from your stew and stir, checking to see if additional stock is needed. i eyeballed mine to be about an inch and a half from the rim, but not so much that my stew was soupy. arrange your biscuits on top, and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden.

before...

before....

after!

after!

Soup!

soup is pretty magical. and so are crock pots. and when you have to orchestrate 6 well-rounded dinners a week around work, social, and nightlife schedules, the idea of cooking can be extremely daunting. thankfully, i love soups, crockpots, and can have the foresight to soak a few beans the night before so that when i come home covered in hair, starving, and frazzled, i can look over and say “aw shucks would you look at that-dinners ready!”

Cannelini and Quinoa Soup

makes 6 huge bowls

1 lb dried Cannelini beans, soaked overnight

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots, sliced

1 onion, diced

1 pint cherry tomatoes

8 cups vegetable stock

3 stems fresh thyme

combine the onion and garlic in a pan with a few tablespoons olive oil, and saute over medium heat until soft and beginning to brown. combine in your slow cooker with all the other ingredients and set on high for 6 hours, or low for 8. check at 6 hours to see if the beans are soft, or to see if you need more water. season with salt and pepper only after the beans have finished cooking.

cannelini and quinoa soup

cannelini and quinoa soup

Creamy Golden Wild Rice Stew

3/4 golden or regular wild rice

4 cups almond milk

1 lb cremini or white button mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2 dice

2 cups vegetable stock

1 large white onion, diced

2 shallots minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, thinly sliced

2 carrots, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp each of thyme and rosemary

1 bay leaf

combine the onion, shallot, and garlic with olive oil in a pan and saute until soft and beginning to brown, add mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have released their liquid. combine all ingredients  in your slow cooker and set for 6 or 8 hours. when the potatoes are soft, remove the bay leaf, and puree up to half the soup in a blender, and add back to the pot. season with salt and pepper, and if you’re super fancy, a drizzle of truffle oil on the top of each serving

creamy golden wild rice soup

creamy golden wild rice soup