Having just been surprised by Corinne’s deep purple, fragrant, and altogether delicious Borscht, I figured I would have to be extra creative with my soup. I immediately began to rack my brain for some exotic, culturally unique recipe that I might have in my repertoire, but unfortunately Papua New Guineans do not have a  cultural soup, and thus I had to resort to internet surfing for a great idea. I still wanted it to have an international flair of some sort, but I knew not what. I love thick soups, they are far better than thin/watery soups in my personal opinion, and I knew it would be easier if I could find one specially geared for the crock pot already since I had Bible Study the night before and did not want to have to figure out what would get soggy if I left it in the crock pot, etc… With two pescaterians in the office, I also figured I should cater to them and not slip some sort of meat inside. With these four things in mind, I found this rather delicious recipe from TheKitchn which carries an Indian flair, a very Americanized Indian dish…but all the same, delicious and unique. I really wanted to make naan to go with the recipe, but it was that or Bible Study, and I figured making naan was not a legitimate reason to skip. :)

I didn’t change much about this recipe (strange for me, as I tend to be the kind of cook to “follow” a recipe and then modify it a trillion different ways), holding only the bellpepper (DISGUSTING!!) and chili, and adding extra garlic- you can never have too much garlic! Even without all these ingredients, the recipe was delicious and well received by the office. One note: don’t forget the coconut milk, it really does make the soup!
— Leanne

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeno chili (or other hot chili), seeded and minced
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 (16-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with their juices
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 10-ounces baby spinach
• 1 cup coconut milk

Instructions

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onion with one teaspoon of saltuntil translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and another teaspoon of salt, and sauté until just translucent around the edges.

Stir in the curry, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and chili and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in 1/4 cup of broth and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Pour this onion-potato mixture into the bowl of your slow cooker.

To the slow-cooker, add the rest of the broth, chickpeas, bell pepper, cauliflower, tomatoes with their juices, the pepper, and the final teaspoon of salt. Stir to combine. The liquid should come half-way up the sides of the bowl; add more broth as necessary. Cover and cook for 4 hours on HIGH.

Stir in the spinach and coconut milk. Cover with lid for 1 minute to allow the spinach to wilt. Taste and adjust salt and other seasonings as needed.

Serve on its own or over cous cous, Israeli cous cous, or orzo pasta.

Editor’s Note: Corinne failed to mention that this was the unanimously selected WINNING ENTRY in the soup contest!  Making her win even more impressive is the fact that this was the first borscht that many of us had ever tasted!

When the soup competition was announced almost a month ago, we all signed up.  We tend to sign up for anything that has the word “competition” attached to it, especially within our own office.  Who doesn’t want a shot at glory after all?

Since I’m crazy busy (and just crazy in general), I signed up to go first.  I didn’t know what to make at first, but then I remembered this great soup I had had, growing up in Moldova.  Thus, borscht was introduced to the office.

The following recipe is based on one I found here with some modifications based on my memories.

Borscht

Serves: 4-5 (or a bit more)

• 1/2 head green cabbage
• 1 medium beet
• 2 potatoes
• 1 medium carrot
• 2 small onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 12-14 cups vegetable stock
• 2 Tbsp vinegar
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp fresh dill
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 peppercorns
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Wash and peel the beet.  Save skin.  Cut the beet into thin strips.  In a large pan, heat some of the oil, add the beet, and cook until half done.  Add 1 Tbsp tomato paste and stir for 3-5 minutes.  Add 1 cup stock.  Cook 10-15 minutes.  Remove from stove.
2. Place beet skins in a small saucepan.  Add 2 cups of water and some sugar.  Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes.  Add 1 tsp vinegar.  Strain the liquid; discard the skin.
3. Cut onions and carrot into thin strips.  Cook in oil until half done.  Add the rest of the tomato paste, stir, and cook 5-7 minutes.
4. Slice potatoes, shred the cabbage, and finely mince the garlic.
5. In a large, heavy pot, boil the rest of the stock, add the bay leaves and peppercorns, and cook 2-3 minutes.
6. Add potatoes and salt; return to boil 2-3 minutes.
7. Add cabbage and cook on medium heat 8-10 minutes.
8. Add the beet and cook 3-5 minutes.
9. Add carrot and onions, return to boil.
10. Add beet skin liquid and cook 2-3 minutes.
11. Add sugar, salt, pepper, dill, parsley, and garlic.  Bring to a boil.
12. Add the rest of the vinegar.  Do not boil.

If it’s bright red or pink in color, you’re on the right path.

Can be served hot or cold.

I recommend that it be served hot with a dollop of sour cream and lots of fresh bread. :)

Enjoy!

A quick aside.  Simply Recipes is a fantastic site.  Elise Bauer chronicles recipes that she and her family cook and enjoy.  I have enjoyed every recipe that I found on the site (with a single exception).  I appreciate that I can find recipes that don’t take an entire evening to make and still taste fantastic.

I chose this soup since Kale is in season and available at Whole Foods (already ate the Kale that came in our ah organics box).  Kale starts out fairly tough, and holds together very well in this soup.  The pureed veggies make the broth a fantastic consistency – not too thick and not too thin.  The white beans match the rest of the flavors very well.  I

Ingredients

• 3 medium carrots, peeled and quartered lengthwise
• 2 large tomatoes, quartered - I used canned whole tomatoes since good tomatoes are nowhere to be found
• 1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges or 4 or 5 slices
• 1/2 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick wedges
• 6 garlic cloves – leave the skin on for roasting
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 6 cups or more of vegetable broth – I really like the $2 / 4 cups organic variety at Whole Foods
• 4 cups of finely chopped kale
• 3 large fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 15 oz can of great northern white beans, drained

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Toss carrots, tomatoes, onion, and butternut squash in olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Arrange on rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes – until they are brown and tender.
4. Cut squash and carrots into 1/2 inch pieces; reserve.
5. Puree garlic, onion, and tomato to create vegi puree.
6. “Deglaze” pan with 1/2 cup broth to create pan bits.
7. In large soup pot combine broth, vegi puree, pan bits, kale, thyme, and bay leaf.
8. Boil, reduce heat, and cook soup for about 30 minutes, until kale is tender.
9. Add carrots, squash, and beans to soup.  Simmer for about 8 minutes.
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper  (mine needed a little pepper but no salt).

I made the soup in the morning and kept it warm in a crock pot until lunch.  I stopped after step 8 and added the carrots, squash, and beans in the office 15 minutes before serving.  This kept the beans and veggies from becoming mush.

For our office (8 eaters) I about doubled the recipe.

We enjoyed having lunch together as an office so much (the soup was pretty good too), that we decided to have a weekly office soup lunch.  Since I’m crazy, I offered to cook.  So far we have had two additional soup lunches and both were quite good.

All that said, over the next week we will be posting our all recipes and commentary. You can look forward to reading about:

• Corinne’s botscht
• Leanne’s chickpea curry
• Amal’s lemon lentil soup
• Mike’s butternut curry
• Nick’s potato soup
• Mike’s leek potato soup
• Mike’s roast vegi and kale soup

…when you catch the local wildlife taking naps in front of your office.

If only we could do the same.

- Leanne