5-minute supper!

 

Tonight, I wanted soup. But I didn't want to spend time in the kitchen, obviously. (That's what extreme burnout does to me...)

So I took stock of what I had on hand and it hit me: with just 5 minutes of work, we can have tomato soup with rice and croutons!

Here's what I did:

Tomato Soup with Rice

1-1.5 cups leftover cooked brown rice
1 large can crushed tomatoes

Water - the amount that fits in the empty can
1/2 tsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp. dried garlic flakes
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of hot pepper flakes
a couple dashes of coarsely ground black pepper

Mix it all together in a pot and heat on the stove until heated all the way through.
Serve with croutons.

Quick croutons

Several pieces of leftover challah/bread
spray oil
granulated garlic
dash of salt
dash of pepper

Cut the challah/bread into small pieces. Sprinkle salt, garlic, and pepper over the pieces of bread. Spray with oil.
Bake at 220C until golden brown.
Serve with soup or salad.

Enjoy!!

Find more quick meal ideas HERE

Recipe: Super fast lentil soup

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This lentil soup is so easy, it almost feels like cheating. I literally can put a pot of soup together and it's ready to eat in 20 minutes, maybe less! - without an Instant Cooker (Instapot)!

And it's pretty nutritious and filling, and really inexpensive, too.

The key is to use ONLY shelf-stable pantry staples. No chopping anything, because then there are dishes and you also need more TIME!

Not shown but also needed: SALT

I know, some people only use fresh onions and garlic, but hey. sometimes you don't want to get garlic on your hands, or make your eyes water from chopping onions! So I keep these dried versions in my pantry, and they're also great timesavers. I buy them in bulk from the spice store in my nearby shuk. (If you live in my area, get in touch with me to join the WhatsApp group for deliveries from the spice store in the Teverya shuk!)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups red lentils
• 1-2 tablespoons dried fried onions
• 1-2 tablespoons dried garlic
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon hot paprika flakes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 liters boiling water

Pick over and rinse lentils. Put lentils, dried onions, garlic, and paprika flakes in a medium size pot. Add boiling water. Bring to a rolling boil for 2 minutes, then turn the flame down, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Add salt and pepper, and mix well. Serve hot.

Croutons of any kind make a great addition (leftover bread makes great croutons)!

I like this soup just the way it is, but I've also been known to add leftover vegetable soup to the pot once the lentils are soft, and turn it into lentil-vegetable soup. Or sometimes I'll toss in some cooked noodles. You can also play with the spice ratios. Nothing here is set in stone -make it your own!

I hope you like this time-saving and very inexpensive soup recipe! Let me know!

Minestrone Soup (vegan/pareve, GF option)

Soup is a great meal when I'm stuck without a plan, so here's tonight's soup:

This soup is perfect for when I've stocked up on lots of veggies, especially from the sug bet rack, and it's time to use them up. I call it my 2 shekel soup - because I usually use the 2 shekel/kilo vegetables to make it! (But honestly, it's more than 2 shekels, because I buy tomato paste for 4-5 per can, and the ptitim cost me a few shekels, especially if I use non-wheat ones, but it's still an extremely inexpensive dish to make!)


Minestrone Soup (vegan, pareve, GF option)

1-2 T. olive oil
1 onion, diced
1-2 sweet peppers (whatever color), diced
2-3 kishuim, diced
4 carrots, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
any other vegetables you want - I added eggplant, celery and mushrooms as well, feel free to add whatever works for you!
1 can tomato paste
water
seasonings - salt, pepper, basil, oregano, etc
Optional: 1/2 package of "ptitim" (called "Israeli Couscous" in America) - Today I used the whole spelt ones I picked up on sale last week, but I often just leave them out.
Here's my quick and easy soup method:
Place oil in pot. Add all the chopped/diced vegetables (including the garlic). Turn flame on to medium-high and start cooking the vegetables, stirring frequently (I use a trusty bamboo spoon). When they are softened, add tomato paste, water, and seasonings, and stir well. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, then lower the flame to simmer for about 20 min.
Add the ptitim if using, and continue to simmer for about 10 more minutes.

Soup's done and you're all set for a great meal!

I make this soup about once a week, using up lots of vegetables this way (and then my family EATS those vegetables!), and it's always a hit.


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Repurposing Leftover Challah

This week, for some reason, we had almost a whole challah leftover after Shabbat!

Not wanting to waste it, I figured I'd make French Toast on Sunday. But then I got distracted and didn't do that - instead, I used the eggs to make scrambled eggs!

So tonight I made a delicious split pea soup, and decided to use up the challah by making croutons!

croutons baking in the oven

Making croutons is actually really easy, and everyone loved them!

How to make croutons:

Cut leftover bread or challah into small pieces. Place bread pieces in a bowl. Add salt*, pepper*, granulated garlic*, oregano*, dried parsley*, or other spices, and a large dollop of olive oil. Toss to coat. Spread the spiced bread on a baking tray and bake at 200C till browned. I used my toaster oven, because it uses less energy than the big oven, so it's ideal when I only have one tray to put in.

*I didn't measure my seasonings. I just poured. sorry. season to taste! 

Easy peasy! And so good!

Split Pea Soup (Quicker Cooking Time)

It's soup weather, or it will be soon! It's November after all, and they keep saying the rain is coming! (I'm still waiting for it to show up. But other than the fact that I know we need rain, I don't mind the sunny days in the meantime!)

Here is one of my favorite soup recipes, updated to have a much quicker cook-time:

I discovered that if you SOAK your split peas in a large bowl with water, for a couple of hours before cooking them (and drain and rinse before adding to the soup pot), you can make a split pea soup in less than half the time!! My latest batch was ready after simmering for  about 1 hr -- which I consider a major improvement!
If you are looking for a really quick soup, check out this one or this one.

Split Pea Soup

Split pea soup simmering on my stove.

1 onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

3-6 carrots, cut however you like (I slice in thin circles)

Any other soup worthy vegetables - I sometimes use potatoes, celery, kishuim, and more

1 kg split peas, picked over and pre-soaked
boiling water to fill the pot - it's best if the water is filtered if you live in an area with hard water. Filtered water significantly reduces cooking time

salt, pepper, dill, parsley 



Place onion, garlic, and vegetables in the pot, then add LOTS of water from that you already boiled in your kettle (preferably filtered water - this reduces cooking time, too!). I find starting with the water already hot helps a lot to reduce cooking time Turn the burner to high. Drain and rinse the split peas you pre-soaked, and then add them to the pot.
Bring the pot to a boil, and then turn down the flame.

Simmer, covered, until it's fully cooked...stir occasionally, and add water as needed... Skim the top as needed, too.
(You'll know it's done when the split peas have all gone soft and it's the perfect texture. If your split peas are still too hard, you're not done cooking it. Just keep going!)
Add seasonings and cook for 10 minutes more.

Enjoy!

Pesach No-Pasta-Minestrone Soup

I'm really feeling like it's possible to enjoy the simplicity of food on Pesach. There are fewer options available to me in my non-kitniyot kitchen than I normally have on hand, but it's ok. We're all eating and doing just fine.

Here's one favorite of the week:

Pesach No-Pasta-Minestrone Soup

1-2 T. olive oil
1 onion, diced
1-2 sweet peppers (whatever color), diced
2-3 kishuim, diced
4 carrots, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
any other vegetables you want - I added celery and mushrooms as well, feel free to add whatever works for you!
1 can tomato paste
water
seasonings - salt, pepper, basil, oregano, etc

Here's my quick and easy soup method.

Place oil in pot. Add all the chopped/diced vegetables (including the garlic). Turn flame on to medium-high and start cooking those vegetables, stirring frequently (I use a trusty wooden spoon). When they are softened, add liquids and seasonings, and stir well. Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the flame to simmer for 10-20 min.


Soup's done and you're all set for (the start of) a great meal!

This soup served 6 plus a few leftover portions for the next day. 

I bought a ton of soup vegetables for Pesach, figuring between soups and baked potatoes I can get a bunch of easy meals together for the family.

What's your family eating this Pesach?

Pumpkin Soup! (Vegan/Pareve)

I found pumpkin (or it's cousin - dala'at) on the sug bet rack in surprisingly good shape, so today I made Pumpkin soup. Some of it went to a friend, and we'll have the rest with our supper tonight.

It's so simple to make a yummy pumpkin soup! And the best part is that most of the ingredients for this soup were bought for 1-2 shekels/kg (even the garlic, which I found on the sug bet rack as well)! I used my smaller soup pot this time, so it's not a huge soup, but you can easily double this and make a large pot.

Ingredients:


olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, diced
1 granny smith apple, chopped (core removed, but I did not bother to peel it)
2 large chunks of dala'at (pumpkin like squash), peeled and cut into chunks
water
salt, pepper, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, to taste

Heat the oil (about 1 tablespoon is good) in soup pot, and add onion, garlic, and apple. Stir frequently while cooking them till soft. Add the pumpkin chunks and continue to cook, stirring frequently. I added in cinnamon at this point. Once soft, Add water and bring to a rolling boil. Lower flame and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove from flame, puree (with an immersion blender is easiest), and season to taste.



Enjoy!

(I'm serving this with grilled cheese for the kids, rice and roasted veggies for the adults, I think)

BONUS: This recipe is kosher for Pesach (Passover) as well!

Today's red lentil and tomato soup

Had to quickly come up with a soup to share with a friend's family who could use a hand right now. So I ended up making this soup, it was so yummy! I ate 2 bowls of it for lunch.




Red Lentil and Tomato Soup
makes approximately 16 servings

1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 large red pepper
olive oil
500g red lentils
1 large can tomato paste (580g, 28-30 Bx)
water
salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes



Dice the vegetables and saute in olive oil in your (large) soup pot . When beginning to carmelize, add rinsed lentils and lots of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the lentils start to break apart. Add tomato paste, more water, and seasonings to taste. Bring back to a boil, then simmer for another 10 min.
Serve piping hot. It's perfect with a nice crusty bread!

Crock Pot Lentil Soup (Vegan)

This Shabbat I decided NOT to make my usual cholent.

Instead, I made this Crock Pot Lentil Soup which was a really great way for us to warm up at lunch! And it was so simple to make!

And, since we were just 3 for lunch, we have plenty of leftover soup for Melave Malka after Shabbat!

Here's the recipe:

Crock Pot Lentil Soup

1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small potato, diced
1 cup whole barley grains, soaked if possible, drained, and rinsed
500g whole red lentils, picked over and rinsed
water to fill the pot
salt and pepper to taste

Fill Crock-Pot with all the above ingredients. Cook on high for a couple of hours, then switch to low till lunchtime, or at least 5 more hours (although my low setting is not working well - it's TOO low, so I left it on high and it was perfect for lunch!)
Note: My crock pot is a 6 or 6.5L crock pot, like this one:


 

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

I've been making some version of this soup for nearly 20 years! I was inspired by a recipe from one of my all time favorite cookbooks, The The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest
It's one of my favorite autumn soups. 

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1-2 apples, coarsely chopped
olive oil
2 butternut squashes, peeled and cubed
water for the pot
salt, pepper, cinnamon to taste

Directions

Heat oil in a large soup pot. Add onion, garlic, and apples, and cook, stirring, for about 8 minutes, until it all begins to brown.
Add butternut squash, and continue stirring, until the squash is slightly softened. Add water to the pot to cover the squash and apple mixture. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 30-40 min. Remove from flame, and puree using an immersion blender, Add salt, pepper, and cinnamon to taste.
Serve hot. I've occasionally served this soup cold too.

Don't forget to save those squash seeds - you can roast them! I put them in granola, but you can also just eat them.

Shabbat Menu

Oh my, it's Thursday night and I have not spent more than 3 seconds thinking about Shabbat food!

I'm out of potatoes and kishuim and bananas and I haven't baked challot.



I have a bunch of basics here so I should be able to pull it together...

(Just took a big break in the middle of writing this blog to check what I've got in the house!)
Since I have 2 butternut squashes and granny smith apples galore, I'm going to have to make Butternut Squash and Apple soup, which thankfully can be served cold (garnished with fresh basil might work!) because someone just told me it's supposed to be VERY hot here over Shabbat (leaning against running the A/C, though. I haven't decided. Will you be running yours?)...

So here's the plan:

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Honey Teriyaki Chicken Wings (Friday night)
Baked Shnitzel for lunch
Brown Rice
Snap Peas (got some fresh ones this week!)
Roasted Cauliflower (I've had one in the fridge that if I do not use NOW will be no good)
Salad - lettuce, roasted orange peppers, craisins and cucumbers
Tomato-Basil salad


Baking: Apple Cake with cinnamon crumb topping (for seudah shlishit treat), chocolate chip cake, gingerbread cookies, and whole wheat and oat bran challot.

What are you making for Shabbat?

Chinese-Style Mushroom Soup

I was inspired to make this soup when looking through one of my all time favorite cookbooks , The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and because some of the ingredients were a little too specialized for me, I've adapted it to work with things I normally keep in my kitchen.

I've been making it for years and years now, and it is really a favorite! Too bad fresh mushrooms are pricey here, or I'd make it almost every week.

Here's what you need:

Fresh mushrooms, sliced (at least 1 pint-size container, more is better though, if you can manage)
5-6 green onions, white and light green  portions (set aside the darker part for garnishing the soup), sliced
2-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
 olive oil for sauteeing
tamari sauce
vinegar
red wine
honey or sugar
crushed black pepper
water

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add green onions, garlic, and ginger. Cook for about 5 min, stirring frequently. Add mushrooms. Stir occasionally, cook till reduced to about half. Add  tamari sauce (I used about 1/2 cup), some vinegar (I didn't measure, probably about 1/4 cup), and 1/4 cup red wine (I used the end of a bottle that had been open for a while). Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 5 min

Look at all those mushrooms!

this the pot simmering with tamari, vinegar, and wine... mmm

Then add 2 T. honey or sugar, and some black pepper (depends how spicy you want it). Stir well. Add several cups of water to fill your pot to at least 3/4 full. Bring to a boil. Five minutes before serving I toss in the reserved green onion tops (sliced thinly), cuz I won't serve raw onions of any kind at the moment. I don't do that on Shabbat though.

Taste it to be sure you don't need to add more Tamari sauce or vinegar. This soup should be very flavorful, I just don't know how big your soup pot is!

Enjoy!

Minestrone Soup Recipe

I had a request for a minestrone soup recipe, and since it's a favorite around here, I figured I will share mine today!

It's not so much a recipe though.

I truly feel like cooking is so much more interesting when you don't have to follow someone's rules, instead you can be as creative as you like in the process of creating delicious food...

So here's what I do:

Heat 1-2 Tbp. olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot.
Add diced onion, chopped garlic, diced peppers, zucchini/kishuim, and any other veggies you want to use (I usually add celery, chopped tomatoes, broccoli stalks, eggplant, mushrooms... really whatever I feel like).
Cook over med heat, stirring occasionally. You want the veggies to brown somewhat. The key here is to really use a lot of vegetables.
Add soup stock to mostly fill the pot, and about 500g tomato paste (unless of course you are using a much larger/smaller pot than mine! I usually make a 5-7 quart pot)
Add black beans or lentils (if you want - my kids prefer when I leave them out).
Add seasonings - salt, pepper, basil, parsley and whatever else you want (I throw in a little cayenne pepper even)!
Stir, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 20 min. Add 1 cup of p'titim (a.k.a. Israeli couscous) or whatever small shape pasta you like to use, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, till the p'titim/pasta is cooked.
Serve hot!

My favorite heavy-bottomed pot. Ignore the messy kitchen, please!

Easy Vegetable Soup

When making a vegetarian vegetable soup, I always saute all the veggies (I use a lot of vegetables!) in extra virgin olive oil, then cook, covered, to reduce, for 10-15 min. before adding any liquid. I don't know, I just think it tastes better this way in the end. I use onions (2 medium), garlic (5+ cloves), celery (2-5 stalks, depending on my mood), carrots (I often use as many as 8), zucchini/kishuim (2 or more large), and other veggies as the mood hits me. I season it with loads of fresh parsley and fresh dill, and freshly ground black pepper and salt. It's a really easy soup.

I often add egg noodles to make a vegetable-noodle soup.
This is one of my family's favorite ways to eat tons of vegetables.

Wintery Food - Lots of Stews and Soups

This is supposed to be quite the week here in Israel! Not only are they predicting up to 250mm of rain in my area, they are also expecting winds up 100 km/hr. And snow in the higher elevations!

BRRR

If your house is anything like mine, it has heaters, but it's pretty drafty and nearly impossible to keep warm.

We're piling on the layers, wearing our warmest socks and sweaters (I found some wool-blend socks which do a pretty good job of keeping toes warm), and walking around with steaming hot mugs in our hands.

We're drinking tea and coffee, some hot chocolate, and if I get some apple juice, we'll make mulled mock-cider.

We'll be getting filled up with toasted sandwiches and soups. And stews.

Here are some to try out:

Vegetable Stew with Eggplant and Red Lentils

Lentil Stew

Split Pea Soup

Pumpkin Soup

Chunky Tomato Soup with Rice

Tomato Soup with Black Beans

Minestrone Soup

My Fusion Soup

Traffic Light Soup

Carrot and Red Lentil Soup

Crock Pot Tomato Soup

"Garden" Pea Soup


I hope that helps inspire you to make some soups! Please let me know what YOUR favorites are!

Shabbat Menu

I can't believe it's almost Shabbat again!
The week really flew.

It's pretty incredible how that happens - on Monday you're thinking, "how will I EVER get through this week?" and by Thursday night, you just can't believe how quickly it went!

But that means it's time to cook for Shabbat again!

Here's my plan, I'm hoping that it will keep everyone happy.

Homemade Challah (I'm really low on flour so for the first time in a LONG time I will only make a small batch)

Vegetable soup (found some cheap cabbage this week, so I threw that in the pot to saute with the onions, also used garlic, celery, carrots, and kishuim/summer squash)

Vegetarian Cholent for lunch (DO soak that barley overnight first, it makes such a difference. I don't know why, but it does!)

Chicken - haven't figured out how I'm preparing it yet.

Rice (as usual)

Roasted potatoes (old standby too)

Honey-Cinnamon Oranges

Israeli Salad

Apple Crisp

Are my menus too boring and predictable? I keep coming back to the same old things, because that way I know my kids will eat the food I make! Last week I made roasted red peppers and no one touched them! What can I do?

Split Pea Soup

It's soup weather.

It suddenly got cold out, or rather, just chilly. In our part of the country cold and chilly are the same. No, we aren't going to have a snowstorm in the Emeq, as far as I can tell, but we ARE having a whole lot of rain, wind, thunder, and lightning. It's about time we changed over our wardrobes (even my 14 yr old reluctantly put on long pants this a.m.! He thinks shorts are appropriate attire well into December, so that's saying a lot.), and pulled out the down comforters!


And here, in our house, where I only run the heat when absolutely necessary, that means eating lots of soup and drinking lots of tea.


Here is one of my favorite soup recipes:


Be warned, however, this is NOT a quick soup. This soup needs 3-5 hrs to cook fully.

UPDATE: I discovered that if you SOAK your split peas in a large bowl with water, for a couple of hours before cooking them (and drain and rinse before adding to the soup pot), you can make a split pea soup in less than half the time!! My latest batch was ready after simmering for about 1 hr -- which I consider a major improvement!

If you are looking for a really quick soup, check out this one or this one.


Split Pea Soup






Split pea soup simmering on my stove.



1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

3-6 carrots, cut however you like (I slice in thin circles)

Any other soup worthy vegetables - I sometimes use potatoes, celery, kishuim, and more

1 kg split peas, picked over and rinsed

water or soup stock to fill the pot

salt, pepper, dill, parsley

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil


Heat olive oil in your (large) soup pot

Add onion, garlic, and vegetables. Cook, stirring frequently, till onion is limp, maybe even a bit browned.

Add water or soup stock, and split peas.

Bring to a boil

Add seasonings

Simmer until it's fully cooked...stir occasionally, and add water as needed...

(You'll know it's done when the split peas have all gone soft and it's the perfect texture. If your split peas are still too hard, you're not done cooking it. Just keep going!)


Enjoy!

Chunky Tomato Soup with Rice

I had to make some of my son's favorite foods for his birthday supper.

He loves cheesy broccoli pie, so I made that. But it is so not frugal, since cheese AND broccoli are ridiculously expensive, so I won't share that recipe here.

He also loves chunky mashed potatoes, but I would hope everyone knows how to boil potatoes and mash them.

I also made a sweet potato, fig, craisin, and pistachio salad, but that was for me (yay for cheap sweet potatoes last week!)!

SO... I will share the chunky tomato soup recipe.

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
olive oil
Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil in a nice, thick bottomed soup pot, till browning

Add:
4 tomatoes, chopped
Continue to cook, stirring frequently for about 10 min.

Add
500g tomato paste
6 cups water
salt, pepper, and ground allspice to taste.

Bring it to a boil, then add (already cooked) brown rice. (I cooked my rice pareve the other day, with a leftover remake in mind!)

Heat thoroughly.

Serve generous portions, my kids all really loved it. 

Tamari and Noodle Vegetable Soup

It started out as a vegetable and potato soup, but after dicing one potato I decided to change it.

I diced: 1 large onion, 4 cloves garlic, 3 large carrots, 1 large potato, 1/2 head of cabbage, 2 stalks of celery.

Heat olive oil in pot, then add diced vegetables. Stir frequently while cooking. Cook them about 15 min. like this. Add Tamari sauce, a splash of vinegar, some honey, ginger, and ground black pepper. Simmer for 5 min or so. Add water to cover, and more. Bring to a rolling boil. Add a package of noodles. Cook for an addtional 5 min. Serve hot.

We made a meal out of this and some oat bran muffins (not very sweet).

Foraged Greens in My Soup

Tonight's supper was a little last minute...

I was out in the back with the kids this afternoon and they had this desire to weed the yard (and the area right behind our yard leading out to the field). So we pulled up lots of milk thistle, and a bunch of dead branches, and picked some mallow too. The milk thistle got a taste of my scissors as we collected it - so much easier to take the thorns off the leaves BEFORE bringing them into the house...

(While we were out there, we discovered a scraggly looking prickly-pear cactus that had been hidden behind a bunch of dead branches. Time to clear out  that area - maybe we'll be able to nurse that cactus back to health? And enjoy the fruit at some point?)

So, I washed, checked, and chopped those greens, then wilted them in my cast iron skillet. Then I stared at them... Once wilted, a whole bunch of greens doesn't look like so much food...

Here's what I made with them:

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
3 large potatoes, diced
cook the above in a soup pot, with olive oil, till browning and fragrant.
Add water, soup stock, spices to taste (I only used salt and pepper).
Bring to a boil.
Add wilted greens.
Lower flame, and simmer about 10-15 min.
Serve hot with some croutons!

That was our yummy, if slightly too peppery, soup tonight. A few of the kids EVEN asked for seconds. Sounds like this recipe is a keeper!!