Creamy Cauliflower Soup

At the risk of sounding overwhelmingly self-satisfied and obnoxious, I really do think I’m one of the luckiest girls in the world. My husband, Eric, knows me better than anyone else, and this nearly always translates into gifts of epic levels of awesomeness.  This Christmas was no disappointment, as he gave me something I’ve been desperately longing for but was too cheap to buy for myself – cooking classes.  The three he signed me up for (healthy soups, French sauces, and chili) are held at our local Whole Foods and I highly recommend them for those of you with a WF in your area. The soup class, my first of the three, was focused on healthy ingredients without the use of fats, butter, or oil.  Although you may be saying to yourself “Gee, those are what make things taste so yummy!”, with which I would agree, the four soups we made were all fantastic.  I’ve already made 2 – black bean soup and the cauliflower soup in this post.  I plan on making the other two (chunky sweet potato stew and chicken with long grain wild rice) soon, and I’ll post all three at some point in the future.  The cauliflower soup recipe came from Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Diet cookbook, which is by all accounts a tough and demanding diet that will greatly reduce your cholesterol and help you drop weight.  I can attest that, should you decide to try out this cookbook, this recipe at least was very simple to prepare, and extremely tasty.  Without further ado:

Creamy Cauliflower Soup
What You’ll Need

• 2 medium white or yellow onions, diced
  
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  
• 2 medium Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
  
• 2 stalks celery, diced
  
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
  
• 1 small head cauliflower, roughly chopped into bite-size florets
  
• 1 tbsp cashew butter (Note: I used reduced fat PB)
  
• 2 tbsp low-sodium tamari (Note: I used LS soy sauce)
  
• 1 tbsp Salt-Free Spike seasoning (or to taste)
  
• Sea salt/black pepper to taste

The most unique part of this recipe is the fact that the diced onions are not initially cooked in butter or oils, but instead in ½ cup of the vegetable broth. Simmer the onions in the broth over medium heat, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.  It’s okay if there’s some caramelization, but keep an eye on the pot so that the onions don’t burn.


After the onions are translucent and soft to the touch (with a fork, not your fingers!), add the chopped potatoes, celery, carrots, cauliflower, and the remaining vegetable broth.  Make sure to use a sufficiently large pot, so that you don’t replicate the space issue I always seem to have.


I bought a cauliflower head that was definitely more jumbo-sized than small, since my grocery store charges by the head and I have an intrinsic need to get the most possible for my money (see: cheapness). This resulted in a giant freaking heap of vegetables in my pot that I was more than a little concerned wouldn’t cook down.  Being the stalwart chef that I am, I decided to stick it out and keep them as they were (aka, I didn’t feel like dirtying, then washing, another pot). As I had fervently hoped known all along, after 20 minutes of simmering the veggies were greatly reduced in size.  Once they are soft and easily pierced with a fork, remove the pot from the heat and add the cashew/peanut butter and tamari/soy sauce.  Seeing as my fingers were covered with peanut butter, I didn’t take a picture of this step, but I’m sure you can get the idea.  Although it sounds weird, these two ingredients are critical to getting the creamy texture and slight bite to the finished soup.  Mix the contents thoroughly until the cashew/peanut butter is completely melted and mixed evenly.


For the next step, you will need either a large food processor, a blender, or an immersion blender.  Even though I now own all three appliances (yay Christmas presents!), I went with the suggestion of my chef instructor and broke out my brandy new immersion blender.  This also allowed me to avoid cleaning yet another extra vessel, as you blend the soup right in the pot (seriously, it’s genius).


If the soup is too thick, feel free to add some water to help thin it out to the consistency you desire – I added approximately ½ cup of water at this stage. Add salt and pepper to taste, which for me was about ½ tsp of each.

My final addition, which is not in the additional recipe but which we used in class, was 1 tbsp of Salt Free Spike Seasoning.



For those of you who have never used Spike before (like me, prior to my class), the Spike line of seasonings contain approximately 92874 different spices in one magical bag. It’s really a combination of 39 herbs, spices, and vegetables, but as we all know, I like to exaggerate.  This is my new favorite spice because it’s a) inexpensive, b) got great flavor, and c)is super convenient.  According to this website,

The main ingredients for the Spike seasoning include hydrolyzed protein from vegetables, various powders (like onion, orange, celery leaf and celery root, garlic, mushroom, parsley, spinach, tomato, etc), toasted onion, soy flour, dill, curry, white pepper, green and red peppers, tarragon, saffron, rosehips, sweet paprika, oregano, basil, marjoram, rosemary and thyme…

I mean, really, who has all those different things in their spice cabinet at any one time?

After adding the salt, pepper, and Spike, blend thoroughly until completely smooth.  If, like me, your carrots were massive, it may take an extra 1 or 2 minutes to remove any of the tiny orange chunks floating around.



Like most soups, I’d recommend serving this with crusty French or Italian bread, and a nice side salad.  Although this soup is delicious, it may not be hearty enough for a full meal, although feel free to eat as much of it as you want – there’s no added fat, very few calories, and it’s chock full of veggies and nutrients. Overall, this creamy yet healthy starter was Whole Foods selected, hungry husband (and wife) approved.

Winter Wonderland

I made this as a special dessert on Christmas Day since the picture I saw online was so pretty and festive.  Even though this has a decidedly wintry theme, you could easily adapt it for any season by making different shapes for the topping.

Snowflake Cake
What You’ll Need

• 1 package Devil’s Food chocolate cake mix
  
• 1 package fat-free/sugar-free vanilla pudding
  
• 6 squares (1 bar) Baker’s white chocolate
  
• 1 small tub fat free Cool Whip
  
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
  
• 1 cup cold milk
  
• 1 small can raspberry pie filling, warmed and strained
  
• Wax paper

Start out by baking the cake in two 9-inch round pans according to package’s instructions.  I’m not going to go through that or show pictures because really, we all know how to make a boxed cake.
While the cakes are cooling, cut two pieces of wax paper large enough to cover cookie sheets. Also get some scrap paper, and using a Sharpie draw snowflake and/or star shapes ranging from between 1-3 inches.



Slip these sheets underneath the wax paper so you can trace over them.



In a small mixing bowl, break the white chocolate squares into small pieces.




Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler according to the instructions on the package.  I went with the microwave route and nuked the chocolate on medium heat for short bursts, with lots of mixing to make sure it blended evenly. After there are no chunks remaining and the chocolate is smooth, let it cool for 5 minutes.  Do NOT skip this step!



After the chocolate has cooled, use a spatula and scrape it into a Ziploc bag (sandwich size works best).  If you’re uber fancy, you could use a pastry bag, but who really has those laying around?  Snip the very edge of one of the bottom corners off of the bag to create a small opening. Using both hands, gently squeeze the chocolate onto the wax paper, tracing over the shapes on the paper.  After you’ve finished, freeze (or refrigerate if you don’t have room) the snowflakes for 10-15 minutes, or until they have hardened.



Be generous with your shapes – the thicker the lines, the easier they will be to remove and the more sturdy they will be on the cake! This definitely takes practice, as you can see by some of my skinny and sloppy snowflakes.  I filled two large cookie sheets with large and small snowflakes, which left me with plenty of extras once I started to decorate the cake.  My suggestion is to err on the smaller side as they are easier to pull off the paper and less likely to snap in half.  On the other hand, when that happens, you get to eat your mistakes!

To make the frosting for the cake, mix the pudding, confectioner’s sugar, and milk with a whisk for 2 minutes, or until the pudding is completely dissolved and the mixture is smooth.



Using a spatula, gently fold in the entire container of Cool Whip.



Mix the frosting until there are no white streaks remaining, but not to the point of breaking down the consistency.  The texture should be light, fluffy, and creamy.



Transfer the contents of the raspberry pie filling can to a small bowl.  Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until warm but not hot.  Using a spatula, scrape the pie filling into a small sieve or strainer.  Use the spatula to push the pie filling through, scrape the seedless extract from the bottom, and place it into a new bowl.



Place one of the cake rounds on a cake plate. Using a bread knife, I cut the top off of mine to get an even surface.



Spread the raspberry filling onto the cake, leaving about ¼ of an inch of the edges free.



Spread about ⅓ of the frosting on top of the raspberry jam, being careful not to mix the two.



Frost the cake with the rest of the frosting.  Carefully peel the snowflakes off of the wax paper and press them lightly into the surface of the frosting.  They will stick, even if it doesn’t seem like it.  Alternate the large and small snowflakes to completely fill the surface of the cake.




This cake was as pretty to look at as it was tasty to eat.  Even though it uses a box cake mix, the use of the fruit filling as well as the light frosting make it taste much more decadent.  The best part is that, besides the eggs/oil used in the cake, there’s no extra fat in the frosting! I will definitely be using this as an alternate to the regular buttercream frosting I whip up for all of my other cakes.  This cake is also very adaptable – the original recipe called for a yellow cake mix, but I felt more like chocolate.  You could easily use any other flavor of cake, or fruit filling, or even frosting. Feel free to tweak this according to your liking, and don’t feel guilty for eating something that looks so pretty!

Thanksgiving Stuffing

What’s that? It’s January, you say? You’re finally recovering from the holidays, you’re sticking to your New Years diet (for another 2 weeks at most – let’s be honest), and the last thing you want is a reminder of all the food you ate in November and December? Well, my friends, you might as well stop reading now.

Actually, scratch that.  Please keep reading, at least just to humor me.

This post, and this recipe, is a lifetime in coming.  I know that I can often be the queen of hyperbole, but in this case it’s actually true.  My family has been making a certain type of stuffing for my entire life that I absolutely LOVE. Honestly, I get more excited to eat stuffing at Thanksgiving than any other dish, pie included.  Problem is, there’s never been a recipe.  Now that I’m older and I’ve been involved in making it for over a decade, I could probably make a reasonably close version on my own, but somehow, whenever other family members have tried, it never quite comes out the same.  As asking my family for a recipe often involves a lot of “pinch of this” or “sprinkle of that” or “enough blah blah to taste”, I decided it was high time that we scientifically figure out the exact measurements of every spice and liquid that goes into this stuffing by using magical tools called “teaspoons” and “measuring cups”.  Radical, I know.

(Side note – I hate when cookbooks say “…to taste”. What does that even MEAN?! How can someone making a recipe for the first time know what it’s supposed to taste like? Damn you, trained chefs!)

So, despite the extreme lateness of this post (see: crazy ass couple of months preventing me from sitting down and writing this), I present you with My Family Stuffing Recipe.

Turkey Stuffing

What You’ll Need

• A turkey (Obviously.)
• 1 package carrots
• 1 package celery hearts
• 3 medium size white onions
• 3 cans Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1 can Low Sodium Vegetable Broth
• 3 loaves of white bread
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 ½ – 2 tsp dried sage
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• ½ tsp dried sweet basil
• 1 tsp celery salt
• 1 ½ – 2 tbsp Bell’s Seasoning
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp salt

What To Do

Start out by placing the bread slices (overlapping if necessary) flat on a cookie sheet.  Bake the bread at very low heat (250F) in the oven until it is dried and crunchy.  Make sure to use the middle rack of the oven so the bread does not toast or burn.  After removing from the oven let cool, then shred the bread into small cubes or pieces into a large mixing bowl. This step can be done ahead of time, even the night before, as the bread will only get crispier if it’s left out overnight (which is a good thing!).

The night before you plan on baking your turkey (which, let’s face it, is only ever the night before Thanksgiving), remove the giblets package from the cavity. Wash them thoroughly, then put them in a sauce pan with 2 cans of the chicken broth.  Add 4-5 stalks of celery - with the greens left on - chopped into thirds, 2-3 peeled carrots (or as my picture shows, ½ of a bag of baby carrots) chopped into thirds, and 1 ½ quartered white onions. Cover and cook the giblets on low heat until they are cooked. If the broth is cooking down too much, you can add water to retain the moisture.

 

After the giblets are cooked, remove from heat and wait until they are cool enough to touch.

In a skillet, cook one package of “meatloaf mixture” meat – ground beef, pork, and veal. Drain some of the fat but keep a little bit for extra moisture in the stuffing.

The next steps will require you to have a stand-alone meat grinder, a grinder attachment for your Kitchenaid, or a lot of patience with your food processor.

Using the meat grinder, begin grinding the cooked meat, giblets and vegetables. Note: this produces A LOT of juice drippings.  I always place a cookie sheet and newspapers underneath the grinder to catch the liquid so it doesn’t splatter all over the floor.

Interspersed with the cooked materials, grind the remaining onion, 3-4 peeled carrots, and 4-5 more stalks of celery – with greens removed – to provide some texture and roughness to the mixture. Also, gradually work in a few handfuls of the dried bread to absorb the liquid that will pool up in the grinder and provide a basis for the stuffing.

After you finish grinding, beat 4 eggs in a separate mixing bowl then set aside.

Then, soften the bread by drizzling about 2 cups of giblet juices over them.

Mix the ground mixture into the bowl with the dried bread. Using a heavy duty metal or plastic spoon, begin folding the bread and ground mixture together.  Use your spoon to slice through the bowl, cutting the bread chunks into smaller pieces.  When it begins to look uniform, slowly drizzle in the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.

Add one can each of chicken broth and vegetable broth to the stuffing, as well as the dried spices.  I would recommend adding the first half of the spices, mixing, adding the second half, and mixing some more, in order to avoid an uneven distribution.

At this point, all that’s left to do is mix until you feel like your arm is going to fall off.  It’s important to scrape from the bottom of the bowl and fold in, like you were mixing a cake batter, so that the dried spices really get incorporated well. The “cutting” motion also helps to completely break down the bread so that you have a fairly mushy stuffing – there shouldn’t be any large, noticeable chunks remaining. 

After the mixing is done, you’re ready to stuff the bird! I always wash and salt the inside of the turkey before adding the stuffing to both ends.  I won’t go into specifics about cooking a turkey, because this post is already 3.97827 times longer than any other I’ve written and I’m tired of typing.

We usually have some stuffing left that doesn’t fit into the turkey; this is easily solved by putting the extra into a casserole dish and baking at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and crusty.  It’s extra delicious if you baste it with a little bit of juice from the turkey.

Of course, nothing tops leftover turkey-stuffing-cranberry sauce-hard roll sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving – they might even be better than the big meal itself! Even if no one tries this recipe, which I would understand since stuffing is such a family-specific dish, I’m happy to finally have my family’s version recorded for posterity!

I’m baaaack!

Yes, it actually has been over a month since I last put up a post.  I’m sorry, faithful minions. Between Christmas, New Years, a mini-vacation with my hubby, and, oh yeah, TWO major family medical emergencies, I’ve been a bit, shall we say, distracted. Gobsmacked. Cray-cray.  Insert favorite synonym for OHMYGODI’MLOSINGMYMIND here.

But yay, life is finally getting back to a semblance of normalcy! And since I know you’ve missed me so much, I figured I’d put up a quickie (don’t be a perv) to tide you over until my next mammoth post – Thanksgiving stuffing.  And yes, I do realize that was in November, but in my mind there is never a wrong time to make stuffing.

This recipe is one that I found on Allrecipes.com a long time ago when I was searching for a quick and easy appetizer to make for a holiday dinner.  Since then, I make it for most potlucks, church group meetings, dinner parties, etc.  The recipe makes one large casserole dish, and there’s rarely leftovers (even in small groups).

Vidalia Onion Dip

What You’ll Need

• 2 cups chopped Vidalia onion (about one medium/large onion)
• 1 cup fat free mayonnaise
• 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• ½ grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

**Optional: Hot sauce to taste

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Evenly chop your onion into 1/4 inch cubes. I tend to be impatient and just end up roughly hacking the onion into irregularly shaped pieces, and it still turns out fine.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise with the onion.  Add the cheese, pepper, and hot sauce (if desired) and mix well (it will be very thick and gloppy).

Transfer the contents of the bowl into an oven-safe casserole dish.  Smooth out with a spoon so that the dip is evenly distributed.  Lightly cover the entire surface with bread crumbs.  Bake for 35 minutes, or until the bread crumbs are golden brown and the dip is visibly bubbling. Serve with your favorite crackers or flatbreads for dipping.

I used a grated Parmesan & Romano mixture for the dip in this picture, and I think the additional cheese really brought this to a whole new level.  I think it would be interesting to try using an Italian 4-cheese blend to give it that much more flavor.  I like serving this with the giant Wheat Thins because even after the onions are cooked the dip is chunky and it’s easier to scoop it out with a bigger surface area. The original recipe does not call for bread crumbs, but I like the crunch they give to a dish that would otherwise be fairly mushy.  However, if you want to save the calories, or can’t have the gluten, feel free to omit them. You could also easily adapt this dip by adding some diced scallions, chipotle pepper sauce, etc. Have fun experimenting!