I have always loved wild foraged foods. There is something so delicious about eating food that you didn’t have to pay for or nurture into existence. But I’ve always been a little dubious of digging up the food myself. I’ve heard too many horror stories of a fun day gone awry by someone choosing the wrong plant to pop in their mouth. So I’ve always satisfied my wild leek needs by letting someone else do the scouting for me and I just have bought them at the farmers market. Well, that is, until now. I have a slightly ... << MORE >>

As someone who eats mostly local food in Vermont, I'm often asked, "What do you eat in the middle of winter?" The middle of winter has never been my problem. We have some great small farmers in central Vermont that are making great strides in wintering over their storage crops. So in the middle of winter I'm loving on my potatoes, cabbage, parsnips and celeriac. My tough time is right about now. The cabbage has all been munched up, the remaining onions are getting smaller and I've eaten so many potatoes, even the Irish in me is getting ... << MORE >>

When I'm not trying to develop a recipe for this blog or another publication, I usually just throw things together with mixed success. Sometimes it's tried and true, but basic (like whole wheat pasta with a red sauce) and sometimes it's just a random cooking of what I've got in the fridge. I often try to track these recipes, in case they turn out tasty, but usually the recipe ends up in some random pile for later recycling. But I stumbled upon something darn tasty this week. And I didn't write down the exact measurements, but fortunately it's ... << MORE >>

Cabbage is one of those foods with a less than stellar reputation. At least spinach has Popeye to advocate, but cabbage is alone in it's cruciferousy stinkiness. One of my earliest memories of the public opinion of cabbage was something I heard on the local news. A young man called the police because there was a horrible smell coming from his elderly neighbor's house. He was concerned that she had passed away without notice. But it turned out that the smell was just her dinner of cabbage soup simmering on the stove.

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Baguette was a staple on my family table when I was growing up. My hometown has some pretty amazing bakeries and I admit that it made me a bit of a bread snob. I like to tell people that my bakery doesn't make bread because I'm know good bread well enough to know that mine isn't. But all that tasty artisan bread inevitably leads to one thing: not so tasty rock hard day old loaves. But when life gives you old bread, you should make croutons! (I know, that doesn't quite have the same ring as that whole ... << MORE >>

Onions are kind of like the worlds most perfect food. Well, there is that whole tears and pain part, but we’re going to ignore that, because there is also the taste part. They round out any dish just perfectly. They slice into a sandwich, they sauté into a stirfry, or, in the case of today’s recipe, they make one of the yummiest and easiest soups around.

Many years ago I worked as a cook in a retirement home and my boss told me to make an onion soup. I thought he was off ... << MORE >>

A friend of mine has a wonderful cookbook called "Twelve Months of Monastery Soups" by Brother Victor-Antoine D'Avila-Latourrette. She loves this cookbook so much that she won't even lend it to me. So I took matters into my own hands and put it on my Christmas list. With this cookbook firmly in my own possession I anticipate many delicious soups this winter. I'm only going to post recipes that I modify enough to feel like they are mine (I'm not going to go reprinting other folks recipes), so I still recommend buying the cookbook for yourself. It's just that good of a cookbook.

I came across a recipe called "Quick Mexican Black Bean Soup," which was, really, a whole string of words I love. I changed it around and came up with my Winter Mexican Black Bean Soup. This is a delicious, hearty, and fulfilling soup. I love it. This isn't quite as local as I would want, since I'm using canned black beans and canned tomatoes. But if you have access to local beans that you can soak and cook separately and you canned summer tomatoes yourself, then the soup is plenty local. And there is nothing in this recipe that you can't get in the winter without breaking the bank. Enjoy!


Winter Mexican Black Bean Soup

2 tbs olive oil
2 small onions, sliced
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 (14oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 (25oz) can of black beans
6 large red potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
7 cups water
1 bouillon cube
2 tbs lime juice
1 tsp coriander
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper

1) Over medium high heat in a large soup pot, saute the onions, olive oil and salt until the onions start to brown, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for an additional 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2) Add the tomatoes, black beans (with water from the can), potatoes, water and bouillon. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and let cook, covered for 20 minutes.

3) Mix in the lime, coriander, cumin and black pepper. Let cook for an additional 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

        

So perhaps the days of soup have returned. I've been having lots of fun with all kinds of soups. I'll try to make sure that that's not all I write about in the coming months. But keep an eye out for a super delicious Onion Soup with Croutons and Cheese recipe in mid-January. But enough of that, today's entry is really all about this Cabbage and Sausage Soup. The inspiration for this soup came a week ago Saturday when I was needing some food in the middle of the very long day that is the Touch of Vermont ... << MORE >>

As promised, here is the dueling celery root puree recipe! I used thyme, tarragon and lemon pepper, but you should definitely experiment and use your own herb combo.

And tomorrow (Saturday December 12), those of you in Vermont should definitely come to the Touch of Vermont Holiday Gift Market at Montpelier City Hall, 9-4. There will be 45 Vermont vendors and a huge raffle benefitting OUR House of Central Vermont. And one of those 45 vendors will be me!


Herbed Celery Root Puree
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One of the wonderful things about being a local foods recipe writer is being forced to try new things with new foods. My columns would get pretty boring if I just wrote about what I normally eat! Celeriac (or celery root) is one of those vegetables that I always looked at at the farmers market and thought, “Um, maybe. Or, you know, not...” But being the intrepid food writer I am, I dared to experiment! And now I am in love. Celeriac has all the wonderful tastiness of celery, but none of the stringiness or short shelf life ... << MORE >>