Creamy Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Soup

This soup may not look like much, but boy, is it delicious. Hot, creamy, and filling, it's the perfect thing for a fall evening. Pair with some crusty gluten-free toast, and you have yourself a tasty meal.

I highly recommend roasting several heads of garlic ahead of time. They store forever, and taste great with everything - spread on toast, added to soups as I do here, or just for a subtle garlic flavor in other dishes. Not sure how to roast garlic? Check out this great tutorial.

Creamy Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Soup

Serves 4

Creamy Corn Chowder

The days are getting shorter. Too short, if you ask me. And it's getting cold. Windy and cold.

All of this means that it's soup season. Not the light, thin soups of summer, but the hearty and rib-sticking stews of fall and winter. Like corn chowder.  Depending on how you make it, it can be light and delicate in flavor or thick, creamy, and oh-so-filling. I like it the second way, and topped with crispy bacon.

I love eating out on the porch, although the days we have left to do that are numbered. But with a piping hot bowl of corn chowder, it's possible to extend those days just the tiniest bit.

Creamy Corn Chowder

Jail Kale Stew

Last weekend I tried out a different farmer's market. I was downtown for work, so I walked down the street to check out the Downtown Salt Lake City Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park.  Despite the rain clouds, it was a hopping place. 

The County Jail runs a three acre garden - inmates grow the crops and even get to sell the produce at the farmer's market, under supervision.  They use all heirloom seeds and no chemicals. It's such a great idea to give inmates opportunities to be productive, that I just had to support the program by picking up some kale.  It was some of the best kale I've had in a while-tender with just the right amount of crunch. 

Also in this soup are some of my garden tomatoes and peppers, as well as some purple pole beans I picked up at the farmer's market.   

Enjoy!

"Jail Kale" Vegetable and Sausage Soup

1/4 cup olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 bunch kale, torn into small pieces 

1 bunch green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces (about a cup)

1 large tomato, chopped

2 links hot Italian sausage

4 cups chicken broth

5-7 basil leaves, chiffonaded

Dash of thyme 

Dash of dried chipotle

Salt and pepper

Bread Soup

A bastardization of these soups...delicious. Bread and cheese tossed in just when it's time to serve.

Hot and Sour

Even though it's solidly spring now and the weather's getting better by leaps and bounds, we still have chilly days where there's nothing better than a hot soup. And boy, is this soup hot - in a good way.

I bet it could be hotter if you like it like that, but it was plenty hot for me. I used leftover pork and beef stock instead of chicken broth (it was in the freezer, and it's pretty light anyways). No tofu because I didn't have it, and for the Thai chile sauce I used the totally inauthentic chipotle and crushed red peppers in my spice drawer. 

It was both delicious and filling, and good the next day too.

Love Your Mussels

I have to admit, I didn't give mussels a second thought until I had a magical dish of clams and mussels steamed in a chardonnay broth with fire roasted tomatoes. Before that, mussels always seemed finicky. You had to clean them. You had to be careful to check that they were alive. I always passed them off as too much work, and just left them out of any recipe that called for them.

Not so much anymore. 

Mussels are work to clean, it's true. Lest that scare you off, it's totally worth it in the end. Mussels, known as the "poor man's oyster," are sweet and delicious. And unlike a bony little fish that a waiter once insisted was the poor man's lobster, mussels are easy to eat - just tip them back into your mouth with a little bit of broth, and you'll be happy in no time.

Here's how to get them ready:

Storage:

While mussels can live for several days at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it's really best to eat them the same day you buy them. The longer you wait, the more will have died, and the more money you'll have wasted. As soon as you get them home from the store, take them out of their packaging, place in a bowl big enough to fit them, and cover with a damp paper towel. You want the mussels to breathe, but also have a little bit of moisture. They're sea creatures, after all.

Cleaning:

Soak the mussels in cool water for about 30 minutes. This helps them release any sand or grit they might have been hanging on to. There's nothing worse than gritty seafood, if you ask me. Once they've soaked, sort through them. Throw out any mussels with a broken shell, or that are open and do not close if you rap on their shell lightly with a knife. These are dead. You want the mussels to have tightly closed shells that do not budge when you try to slide the two sides of the shell against each other.

Next, scrub the shells under running water to remove any remaining grit.

Just before you are ready to cook the mussels, debeard them. The beard is a little stringy thing hanging out of the side of the shell. Not all mussels will have them. They're not inedible, so it's okay if you don't get every last string, but they don't taste that great, so you want to remove as much as you can. Remove them by tugging side to side a little and yanking them out. I usually use a pair of tweezers to help me with this, but you can use your fingers too.

Now the mussels are ready to cook! The basic recipe for cooking mussels on the stovetop is to drop them into simmering liquid, cover, shake the pan, and leave the whole thing alone for 5-7 minutes. Check to make sure the mussels have opened up, simmer for a little longer if they haven't. Once it's all done, discard any mussels that didn't open up, and enjoy.

In my most humble opinion, the best way to enjoy mussels is cooked in wine and butter, because that's how I fell in love with them, after all. Recipes like this one form the basis of what I'm doing, but honestly? I usually just wing it.

Mussels in a wine broth are excellent paired with hearty (gluten-free) toast smeared with butter and roasted garlic.

Don't love mussels already? Give 'em a shot. You might just be glad you did.