"Best Ever Tortellini Soup"

A double batch!

Many many moons ago, when the boys were still young, Arta gave me a photocopied list of soup recipes.  I have carried those recipes around in a ratty binder for years, bringing then out with regularity.  In it was this beauty for "Best Ever Tortellini Soup". 

It is one of Duncan's favourites. 

There are a number of pluses to this recipe, including that it takes very few ingredients, is quick to pull together, and.... IT FREEZES WELL!

This is a perfect soup to make in a large batch, to move into 2 cup mason jars to put in the freezer, so it can be brought out later in the season for food happiness.   That is, pull a mason jar of soup out of the freezer in the morning (or the night before), take it to work with me (it won't spill in my knapsack), and then microwave it at lunch to have a delicious, healthy, warm jar of soup at work in the middle of the day. 

I thought I would post the recipe here so that I am not always searching for the photocopy! 

I do have a few 'notes' having made this soup so many times:

PROCESS:

I try to have three 'zones':  

a.    BOIL WATER FOR TORETLLINI:  I get one pot on the stove with water heating up, so can get the tortellini cooking.  You can cook it at the lower rather than higher end of the suggested minutes range, because it is going to be sitting in a hot soup eventually, so it will further soften up.

b.  OPEN TINNED TOMATOES AND PUREE IN BLENDER:  you could make the soup without pureeing the tomatoes, but then you would get a different kind of chunky stew.   I often blend them up first, so that they are just sitting in the blender waiting to be added to pot once the onion/bacon blend is done. 

 c.  FRY BACON AND ONIONS TOGETHER:  I don't actually add any oil to the pan, as the bacon tends to have enough in it to get the onions carmelized.  If i am using green onions, I chop the whites and green tops apart, and add the white ends first once the bacon is already starting to get cooked.  I keep the green tops and the garlic back til near the end of the frying process, since they really don't take any time at all to cook down.  

--> and then it all just comes together.  Add the tomato puree, the stock, the toretllini, and then season to taste.   I generally add LOTS of basil and dill (like, several tablespoons full).  Really, this is a matter of following your taste.  Salt and Pepper too.  I don't really scrimp there.

SUBSTITIONS and MODIFICATIONS:

1.   You can use as much or as little tortellini as you like.   If you want the soup more substantial, then you can put in enough that is more like soupy tortellini than toretellini soup.   Both ways are tasty!

2.   You can do it with regular onions instead of green onions.  In that case, it will simply take you longer at the first stage to get your onions nice and carmellized.  When I go in that direction, I sometimes adapt to use two or three onions, so there are LOTS of them in the soup.   It takes longer, but it is another possibility that is equally tasty.

3.   You can use as much or as little meat as you want.   I like making this recipe if we have left over meat of any kind (ie. from a chicken the night before?), and then i just chop up and toss in whatever there is to hand.  I see adding the extra meat as just a choice, not as central to the recipe.   For example, if you have chosen a beef tortelinni, you might think you have meat enough.  Also, I can see no reason why tofu wouldn't work if you wanted to do this in a more vegetarian way, and ditch the bacon.

4.  Parmesan cheese on top is a winner.   But it is also good if you happen to have a different kind of shredded cheese around, and want to sprinkle it on top.  You just can't go wrong.

 

Purple Potatoes (and the air fryer)

Duncan and I finally went out and got the Big Kahuna of airfryers (one with two different baskets so you can do two different things at the same time (with different temperatures, and different times for cooking PLUS a feature that lets the two sides coordinate so everything is done at the same time).  Magic.   

Purple potatoes chopped up

Duncan has become the Monarch of Perogies.   I have become the Monarch of fries. 

I ended up heading to the interweb for strategies to perfect my skills at making perfectly crispy fries.  The instructions  reminded me of the process Arta used to make  Arta homemade fries when we were young (ie. soaking in water, and then parboiling, and only THEN into the oil).

The suggestion on the web, for the most crispy fries ever, was to parboil them for 5 minutes in water to which you have added a teaspoon of baking soda.

Same potatoes after 5 minutes in H2O

Baking soda?!  Apparently, the soda attacks the smooth strands of starch in the potatoes, 'roughing them up', so that when you air fry them, they end up being significantly more crispy.  

OK.  I tried it.   It works.

The interesting magic was trying this trick on purple potatoes.   I had a small handful of them left over from another recipe.  I had no other potatoes in the house and was desperate for fries.  And so, i tried it.  

Potatoes fresh out of airfryer

For whatever reason, the soda in the water did some magical colour transformation on the potatoes. 

  Somehow all that beautiful teal colour does make them taste even more delicious!   I highly recommend trying it out.

Anti-Inflammatory - Roasted Cauliflower with (what was supposed to be Almond) Sauce

 

Over the holidays, I have been trying to work my way through more of these anti-inflammation recipes (trying to get my repertoire increased).  Here is today's adventure: another effort to do something interesting with Cauliflower.  Basically, a recipe in two parts:

    A.  Get the Cauliflower covered in a mix of oil, salt, pepper, turmeric, and shoved in a 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, til tender and slightly browned (and may I say, my life has been transformed since discovering parchement paper! What a glorious way to avoid all the work of scrubbling a baking sheet clean!)

B.  Throw the other ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth:

• 1 T chopped parsley
• one garlic clove chopped
• I T lemon juice
• 1 scallion chopped
• 1 T maple syrup (I was out, so used honey instead)
• .5 t salt
• .5 t pepper
• 1 cup plain yogurt (the recipe calls for almond yogurt but I used a vegan coconut milk yogurt, and imagine you could use almost any yogurt)
• 1/4 cup almond butter (I substituted 2 T of pumpkin seed butter, and 2T of sesame seed butter.... i was out of almond butter!)

And here are they combined together (with Penny waiting hopefully to see if i was going to accidentally drop anything on the floor....)

You end up with a quite thick and creamy sauce.  And it is not a mere garnish, but a central part of the recipe.  The jury is still out for me on the flavour.   It is interesting, but not really something that if firmly in my 'palate memory'.  I imagine it would have a much different flavour with the almond butter.  On the other hand, we do have some nut allergies in the house, so there are some reasons to branch out into the other nut and seed butters.   I imagine this would also work with peanut butter and give you another quite different flavoured sauce (though this book is trying to lean away from peanut/legume towards other kinds of nuts and seeds).   I can see there is room for experimentation (and i think i am going to try adding hot sauce to it next time to give it more kick). 

Anti-Inflammatory - The Breakfast 'Green Drink"

 So... I have been told by the wonderful (and painfully direct and truthful) Dr. Lam that my arthritis will hurt a bit less if I follow an anti-inflammatory diet.   Thus, I went and took at look at the changes that would be needed.  My first moment of sadness was in realizing how many of my favourite things are 'inflammatory'. (uh... like ALL of them?!)

However, having reached the point where pain may well be overwhelming pleasure, I went out and bought a "anti-inflammatory diet" cookbook to guide me in this new adventure. 
 

I thought I would share some of the recipes I have been enjoying along the way (along with my alterations!  :-)

The recipe that has become my 'go to' is this one... a morning smoothy.  Basically, into the blender (I use a good blender that can deal with ice) goes:

• half an english cucumber
• a pear (cored of course!)
• half a bulb of fennel (anise) 
• a big fistful of fresh spinach
• freshly grated ginger
• coconut water (or just water...)
• Ice

BLEND TIL SMOOTH 

At first tried to follow the instructions on amounts, but have shifted around a bit.   Particularly on the ginger.  I put in TONS (I adore ginger)... may a couple of tablespoons or more.  Add more water if you want it more watery, or more ice if you want it like a slurpy.

This makes a blender full.   I usually have a big glass, and then pour the rest into 1 cup mason jars (I usually get 3 of these), and then i have a few more servings for the next day or two.  It will keep this way the better part of 5-6 days (in the mason jar and fridge).  Massive amounts of vitamin C,  super refreshing, and a real waker-upper!

I never imagined I would be the kind of person to actually LIKE a green drink, but there you go.  The world is full of mystery.