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 >>

This recipe came into be several years ago. A friend and I used to get together every Sunday to cook. She belonged to a CSA and when she got a pumpkin in her box she suggested pumpkin pie! I thought
she was some Suzy-Homemaker nut to think of making pumpkin pie from *gasp* non-canned pumpkin! But she assured it was not only possible, but delicious. So, with a skeptical eye, I roasted
and pureed the pumpkin. Oh no! The pumpkin puree was waterier than canned pumpkin! But my friend assured me that all would be ... << MORE >>

It's a dark time in the Fitts' house. It's that time of year where I have no idea where my food is coming from or what I should eat. During the summer it's so easy. Every week I know I am going to get my food for the week at the farmers market on Saturday and I eat what's available and in season. I tend to gather goodies from the market, bring them home, and then figure out what to make.

But this time of year, there is no weekly Saturday market to fulfill my food needs. I mean, ...<< MORE >>

Toward the end of the summer farmer's market season I felt the need to start hording storage vegetables. This wasn't really a sensible thing to do, since Montpelier has a great winter market that I regularly sell at. But we do have a one month gap between the last summer market and the winter market (and I'm way too busy to shop at the Thanksgiving Farmer's Market). So maybe there was some kind of sense in the HUGE pile of various squash on my dining room table. Last week I had 6 pumpkins, 6 delicata, 4 sweet dumplings, 4 butternut, ...<< MORE >>

Minestrone Soup could very well be Italian for "belly full of yummy." Actually it's apparently it's just Italian for "soup." Minestrone soups vary widely from kitchen to kitchen. They generally are vegetable based with some tomato and often have pasta and/or beans as well. But really this is a soup that you can really tailor to your liking. Today's recipe might not be one that you would want to want to follow to the tee. I'm going to be selling soup at the winter farmers market and I've been practicing making big pots of different kinds of soup. So this recipe will make you a hefty 8 qts of soup. That might be a bit much if you're going to be settling down to a cozy dinner with the honey. But, if you, like me, like to make large batches of soup to save some for later, I recommend cooking the pasta separately in some broth and add it when you're going to eat the soup. That way you don't get the little pieces of "previously pasta mush" when you go to reheat it (unless you're into that kind of thing).

When I was a kid, one of my favorite soups was Progresso's Minestrone. I recently tried it again and I'm pleased to say that palate has matured a bit in adulthood. But, I still decided to base my minestrone off my fond memories of that soup. That meant both white beans and pasta were a must. But for the rest I just took stock of what I had.

I recently made a veggie broth that featured the carrot peels from my adventures in carrot ginger soup (that recipe will soon make it's debut). This broth also had a bunch of late season tomatoes in it (among many, many other things), so the broth ended up being sort of sweet and tangy. Very delicious for minestrone.

I also decided to use celeriac in this soup, as it's a root I haven't used much and I'd like to get used to it. It kind of looks like something your (very large) cat hacked up, but it's got a great sweet, mellow celery flavor and made a wonderful addition to this soup.

I also realized at the end that I ended up adding very little salt.Only 2 tsp for 8 qts of soup. Celeriac is rich in sodium and the broth already had some, so those two tsp aren't the only contributors, but overall this soup is so flavorful that you just don't need much sodium at all.

I've had some hot Italian all-beef sausage from Applecheek Farm in my freezer for quite a while and I'd never quite found a good use for it. This soup was entirely what I had been waiting for. Without the sausage this soup is vegetarian, but if you are a sausage fan, throwing in some hot Italian at the end (or even leaving it in a bowl on the table for those who choose to partake), will truly make this dish a belly full of yummy.



A (huge) pot of Minestrone

3 medium yellow onions, sliced
1 medium celariac root, medium dice
3 large carrots, medium dice
1 medium head of garlic, cloves sliced
2 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
16 cups vegetable broth
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (or several fresh tomatoes if it's the season)
1 bunch of kale, rough chopped
1 14 oz cans of Navy Beans
16 oz pasta (I like elbow or penne and because I try to keep everything whole grain, I use Bionature's whole wheat pastas)
black pepper to taste

1) Saute the onions, celeriac, carrots and garlic with the olive and the salt over medium high heat until the carrots and celeriac start to soften, stirring regularly.

2) Add the vegetable broth, tomatoes, and kale and turn the temperature to high. Bring the soup to a low boil and cook until the carrots and celeriac are soft.

3) Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Add the beans and cook for several minutes more. Add salt & pepper to taste and enjoy!