A Quick Soup for Lunch or Anytime

I have been trying to eat more soup lately, at least for one meal a day. When I’m feeling a little under the weather and rundown, which seems to be the norm this winter, nothing hits the spot like a bowl of soup. Soup is also filling and an easy way to sneak in lots of veggies.

But it can seem like a chore to make a pot of soup, especially in the middle of a busy day. With just a little planning, though, I can turn leftover cooked meat, vegetables, and pasta or rice into a quick soup anytime.

The most important part of the soup is its base, the stock. A rich, satisfying, full-bodied soup requires a homemade stock. Making stock ahead of time is easy to do. Just let a big pot simmer away while doing other things around the house or, better yet, break out the slow cooker. Here is my method for making stock.

I usually make chicken stock on a Sunday afternoon. After cooling it in the refrigerator, I freeze it in two-cup containers. In the evening, I pop a container of frozen stock into the fridge to defrost overnight, and I’m all ready to make a bowl of soup for lunch the next day. (Defrost more containers if cooking for more than one person.)

When it comes time to make lunch, I compose the soup out of anything I find in the fridge that is either already cooked or will cook quickly. Of course, I make sure that the flavors are well-matched, too. I usually stick to five or fewer ingredients for a simple, nourishing soup. Here are some ideas for what to add:

• any cooked meat, shredded or sliced small
• diced bacon, crisped in the soup pot before adding the stock
• leftover cooked vegetables
• fresh greens, such as spinach or bok choy
• canned or fresh tomatoes, diced
• canned or cooked beans, rinsed
• boiled or roasted potatoes
• cooked pasta or rice

Heat 2 cups of stock per person in a large pot over medium. Add the ingredients and let cook at a low simmer for 10-15 minutes to heat through. Finish the soup with a swirl of olive oil, a pat of butter or a sprinkling of grated cheese, plus salt and pepper to taste. Serve with bread or crackers.

Braised Vegetables with Bacon

Continuing to post some of my favorite recipes, this particular side dish is a simple one from Mark Bittman‘s book, Food Matters. I love this recipe because it is quick, easy and completely adaptable to almost any vegetable. Just throw whatever vegetables you have in the pot together to create a unique side dish.

Even picky eaters will enjoy this dish because everything tastes better with bacon in it. If you don’t have bacon, though, or you’re looking for a change of pace, you can substitute prosciutto or pancetta.

Braised Vegetables with Bacon

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lg. onion, sliced
• ¼ lb. chopped bacon
• Salt and pepper
• 2 lbs. any vegetable (alone or in combination)
• 2 cups stock, wine or water
• ½ cup chopped parsley or other herbs

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven and turn the heat to medium. When hot, add the onions and bacon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to color, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down a bit and keep cooking, stirring once in a while, until the color deepens, another 5 minutes or so. Remove everything with a slotted spoon.

Trim and peel the vegetables as needed, and cut them into 2-inch chunks. Return the pot to medium-high heat, add the remaining oil, and when it’s hot, add the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown a bit. Return the onion mixture to the pot, add the liquid and bring to a boil. Lower the heat so that the mixture gently bubbles, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, anywhere from 5-30 minutes. Garnish with parsley or other chopped herbs to serve.

Baked Eggs for Dinner

We eat a lot of eggs at my house — not just for breakfast, but for dinner as well. When I’m tired or not feeling particularly creative, eggs are my fallback meal. I could probably eat eggs most days of the week, and why not? They are easy to cook, inexpensive, healthy and tasty.

But even though there are many ways to cook eggs, I do get tired of the tried-and-true dishes: scrambled eggs, omelets, frittatas. For a change of pace, I have been experimenting with baking eggs. There are many advantages to baking eggs. They are delicious, for one, especially if you like a slightly runny yolk. Baked eggs spend most of the time in the oven, so they don’t need constant monitoring. You can make a salad while they cook. And by adding meat and vegetables as the “bed” on which the eggs are cooked, a simple dish is transformed into a full meal.

Here is my recipe for baked eggs for dinner. It is adaptable to whatever meat and vegetables are on hand, so it’s a handy way to use up leftovers. This dish has been a great addition to my weeknight rotation. This recipe makes 4 servings.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high. Add up to ½ pound meat to the skillet, such as cubed prosciutto, diced bacon or crumbled sausage. Cook until browned and remove from the heat.

Spray four ¾-cup ramekins or small baking dishes with nonstick cooking spray. In the bottom of each ramekin, make a layer of cooked, chopped vegetables, such as peas, green beans, asparagus or spinach. Or use drained, canned, diced tomatoes as a substitute. Layer a portion of the meat on top of the vegetables.

Break 2 eggs into each ramekin, taking care to keep the yolks whole. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and, if you like, a little grated cheese, such as Parmesan. Bake for 8-12 minutes, until the whites are cooked and the yolks look set. Garnish with minced parsley and serve immediately.

Quick and Easy Weeknight Frittata

Happy new year! As is the tradition on this blog, at the start of every year, I try to revitalize things around here and motivate myself to post more. I am especially motivated this year because recently I have been getting a lot of visitors and wonderful comments, which has inspired me. I love hearing your ideas, and they do motivate me to get into the kitchen, so keep them coming.

This year, I’m going to focus on posting what I most like to cook: simple, easy recipes with a focus on healthy eating and seasonal ingredients. I will try to post at least one favorite recipe a week, plus tips and tricks as I pick them up.

My favorite recipe for this week is the frittata. A frittata is an Italian omelet. It’s flat and usually thicker than a French-style omelet, with a lot more stuff in it. Making a frittata is a good way to use up those odds and ends of vegetables and cheese that might otherwise get thrown away. You can even throw in leftover pasta, if you like.

I make a frittata about once a week. It fulfills all my requirements for a fast weeknight meal. I can usually make it with the ingredients I have on hand, so a trip to the grocery store isn’t required. It cooks in less than 30 minutes. Often, it can be made without meat, as we try to eat a vegetarian meal at least two or three times weekly. And the leftovers keep beautifully. They are good reheated for breakfast the next day or even cold in a sandwich.

I have tried a lot of frittata recipes from a different cookbooks, and I have gradually worked out a technique that produces good results every time.

1. Start with a 10-inch nonstick oven-safe pan (i.e., one with a metal handle, rather than plastic). Pour in a little olive oil and heat the pan over medium. In the meantime, prepare the vegetable filling. Chop up any vegetables you like. For this week’s frittata, I used red onion and spinach. Leftover cooked vegetables are perfectly fine. You could also throw in some cooked meat, if you have any, like bacon or sausage.
2. Once the pan is warm, add the chopped vegetables and let them cook until tender or wilted. For onions and spinach, this only takes about 5 minutes. Firmer vegetables will take longer. Pre-cooked vegetables only have to be warmed through.
3. While the vegetables are cooking, beat 5 eggs with some salt, pepper and 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced. Once the vegetables are ready, spread them out in the pan and pour the eggs over the top. Turn on the broiler. As the eggs are cooking, lift up the edges with a spatula and let the uncooked egg run to the sides of the pan. You want the eggs to be almost set but still a bit liquid on the top. It may be necessary to turn down the heat to keep the bottom from browning too much.
4. When the eggs are almost set, remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the top with grated cheese. For the frittata this week, I used mozzarella, because that’s what I had. You can do without cheese, but I always add it. It makes the frittata more satisfying, in my opinion.
5. Transfer the pan under the broiler and cook until the top is puffy and the cheese is melting and starting to brown. This should take no more than a few minutes. Take it out, cut it into slices and serve with toast.

Note: You don’t have to broil the frittata during the last step. Rather, you can put it into a 350-degree oven and let it finish more slowly. This works fine, but the frittata doesn’t get as puffy and browned, which I prefer. We call it egg pizza!

Leftovers keep for 3 days or so. Try a frittata sandwich for lunch the next day with slices of cold frittata between crusty bread.

Related articles

• Five Meals (simplycooking.wordpress.com)
• Adding Flavor to Simple Recipes (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

Sunday Morning Scrambled Eggs

I had the idea that last weekend’s cooking challenge was going to be an easy one. It was for a Country Scramble, a scrambled egg dish that contains a lot of other good stuff besides, most importantly, pan-fried potatoes. I make scrambled eggs with stuff almost every weekend, so I thought this one would be a breeze. I even planned to make biscuits to go with it.

What I ended up with was a “plate of fail.” That’s what I call the plate where food goes before burial in the trash can. In this case, it was 3 pieces of charred bacon — I’m blaming their demise on my toddler, who distracted me during the frying process — and an entire batch of biscuits. More on that later.

The eggs themselves didn’t go on the plate of fail, and my husband said he really enjoyed them, but they were not my favorite dish. I think there was too much stuff in them. When I researched Country Scramble recipes online, most of them contained similar ingredients: diced potatoes (cooked like hash browns), bell pepper, onion, cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon. I planned to add all of these, plus some scallions for freshness and color. I diced the potatoes, onion and pepper pretty small and added them to a hot pan with some of the liquid bacon grease. (By the way, 2 slices of bacon were rescued and made it into the final dish.) I mostly let them alone, turning them with a big spatula now and again until they were browned on all sides and the potatoes were tender. If I had stopped at this point, I would have had some pretty darn good hash browns.

I pressed the hash browns into a flat layer and poured over 5 eggs beaten with some salt and pepper. I sprinkled over some grated cheddar, the 2 crumbled rashers of bacon and some sliced scallions. After letting it set for a few minutes, I began to scramble. Well, the finished result tasted good, but it wasn’t really eggy enough for me. I think I could have doubled the number of eggs used and it would have been much better, but I already had made way too much for the two of us to eat.

I think I prefer my normal Sunday morning scramble, which has more egg and less stuff. I’ll put the recipe — such as it is — at the bottom of this post. By the way, my husband did take pictures, but I’m not going to post any of them, as this was not the most appetizing-looking of dishes. Judging on looks alone, the picture probably better belongs here.

As for those biscuits… I have made a lot of biscuits, from a lot of different recipes, and they usually turn out great. Biscuits are the easiest and tastiest breads you can make, after all. But I tried a new recipe called, ironically enough, “The Best Biscuits Ever.” These biscuits were a lot of work, and I think that was their downfall. I’ve never made a biscuit where the dough was worked so much. The first batch came out looking very much like hockey pucks: hard and flat and black on the bottom. To rescue the second batch, I had to pile three biscuits on top of each other for a layered effect. They were certainly flakey, but they did not rise at all. Lesson learned. I will return to my tried-and-true buttermilk biscuit recipe next time.

Here is how I usually make Sunday-morning eggs. This recipe is designed to use up little bits of leftover food before going grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday-Morning Scrambled Eggs

1. Go through the refrigerator and find 1, 2 or 3 things to put in the eggs. Leftover cooked veggies or potatoes are good, or a stray tomato. Onions, mushrooms or peppers will all work. Also, that last bit of cheese. If you have a little smoked salmon, prosciutto or bacon, even better. Cut up everything into bite-sized bits.

2. Beat together 2 eggs per diner, plus 1 egg for the bowl, until just combined. Stir in a dollop of cream (or half-and-half) and some salt and pepper.

3. Heat some butter in a nonstick pan over medium. Heat through or cook, if necessary, the filling ingredients you chose (except for the cheese).

4. When the filling is ready, spread it out in a single layer and pour the eggs over. Sprinkle with crumbled or grated cheese and some herbs, if you have any. Let the eggs sit for a minute or two, until they start to set.

5. Using a rubber spatula, scoop and fold the eggs to create big, fluffy curds. Keep scooping until the eggs are cooked the way you like them. I like mine a little wet, but some people prefer them to be entirely dry. Serve immediately with toast of some sort or biscuits.

Fresh Tomato Sauce for Pasta

Last night, I made an absolutely delicious pasta sauce using fresh roma tomatoes from my garden. Like all quick tomato sauces, this one is just a variant of my super simple tomato sauce recipe, but it was so good that I wanted to give it its own entry.

This sauce celebrates the bright, sweet flavor of summer tomatoes at their peak. The tomatoes are cooked down until they thicken and practically dissolve. Adding a healthy amount of garlic and some bacon cuts the sweetness and builds richness. Finish with a handful of basil for that last summery touch.

Fresh Tomato Sauce for Pasta

Yields: 2 servings
Time to make: ~30 minutes

• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 slice bacon, fried and crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb. roma tomatoes, chopped
• handful basil leaves, sliced
• grated Parmesan
• ½ lb. penne or other cut pasta

Start heating a pot of salted water for the pasta. Heat the oil and garlic over medium until the garlic just starts to color. Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the crumbled bacon and tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Let cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes start to break down and thicken. Lower the heat if the tomatoes are cooking too quickly.

When the water boils, cook the pasta. By this time, the sauce should be very thick. If the mixture gets too thick, add a spoonful of pasta cooking water to loosen it up some. When the pasta is ready, drain and mix it with the sauce. Top with the basil and Parmesan to serve.

Cucumbers from the Garden

Everyone knows that tomatoes from the garden taste the best. They are warm, sweet and taste like sunshine on a plate. Nothing you can buy in the grocery store can come close to tomatoes you grow yourself.

This year, we are growing cucumbers for the first time, and I have discovered that the same is true of them. Usually, I can take or leave cucumbers. But the cucumbers from our garden actually have flavor. They are cool, crisp and herbaceous, great with just a touch of salt or lightly pickled. After eating my own homegrown cucumbers, I think I’ll have to give up supermarket cukes altogether.

My favorite way to prepare cucumbers is to marinate the slices in vinegar and seasonings. I keep a bowl of these “pickles” in the fridge and snack on them guilt-free before dinner or throw them into salads. This isn’t a recipe so much as a set of guidelines. Feel free to experiment.

Lightly Pickled Cucumbers

Peel and slice the cucumbers. For 1 lb. of cucumber slices, combine 2 cups water and 1 cup white wine vinegar. Add 1 tbsp. coarse salt plus fresh dill, hot red pepper flakes and sliced garlic, as desired. Let the cucumbers marinate at least 1 hour. Keeps up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

If I have too many cucumbers to eat fresh, I plan to make freezer pickles. Here’s a recipe from Sidewalk Shoes.

The Master Recipes

Yesterday I posted some of the tips I’ve learned for cooking without a cookbook. One tip was to put together a set of master recipes that are easy to do and make use of the ingredients you have on hand. Here is my list, organized by type of dish, in case you are looking for suggestions. Each item is linked to the actual recipe.

Soups

• Chicken Soup
• Creamy Soup
• Minestrone
• Stock

Pasta Dishes and Sauces

• Carbonara
• Lemon & Herb
• Macaroni & Cheese
• Pasta with Broccoli
• Tomato Sauce
• Vegetable Pasta Sauce

One-dish Entrees

• Burritos/Enchiladas
• Frittata
• Pizza
• Risotto
• Sausage Stew

Salads

• Caprese Salad
• Slaw
• Spinach Salad
• Vinaigrette

Sides

• Croquettes
• Gratin

Breads

• Biscuits
• Cornbread

Sauces and Condiments

• Compound Butter – For flavoring scrambled eggs, chicken and fish, or just as a spread.
• Garlic Confit/Oil – Use to make vinaigrettes, marinades, mayonnaise or just for sauteeing.
• Pesto - Not just for using up herbs, pesto can also be made with cooked vegetables like asparagus, spinach or mushrooms, or with sun-dried tomatoes. Vary the cheese and nuts as well. Pesto also makes a great pasta sauce or spread for snacking or sandwiches.
• Salsa - Puree and fry for a Mexican-style sauce. Leave chunky and raw for a great dip or relish.

Dips, Spreads and Snacks

• Bruschetta
• Cream Cheese Spread
• Guacamole
• Smoothie
• Sour Cream Dip
• Spiced Nuts

Easy Desserts

• Fruit Popsicles or Sorbet
• Ice Cream

How to Cook Without a Book

One of my cooking goals this year has been to cook more without using recipes. I do love cookbooks. I browse through them frequently and use them to come up with new ideas. I also enjoy challenging myself with difficult or new recipes when I have the time, usually on the weekends.

But during the week, when time is at a premium and energy is often at a low, I find it’s easier to cook without consulting a cookbook. I started seriously teaching myself how to cook about three years ago, and now I’ve reached the stage where I feel very comfortable winging it. Here are the keys to success that I have learned along the way.

The first is to learn some basic cooking techniques. While books on techniques are readily available, I’ve found that cookbooks that contain a lot of simple recipes are the best teachers. I highly recommend Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and Cooks’ Illustrated The New Basic Recipe, especially for learning basic methods of cooking meats and vegetables.

But don’t try to memorize every possible cooking technique. Sure, there are 101 one ways to cook chicken, but you don’t have to know them all. Instead, after sampling a few different ways of cooking a particular ingredient, pick one or two that you like best for the ingredients you cook most frequently. For instance, I like asparagus pan-roasted. I’m probably not going to bother steaming it, although that’s a fine way to cook it. For ingredients like chicken, I have 3 or 4 techniques in my repertoire, depending on whether I’m cooking bone-in pieces, boneless breasts or cutlets.

I keep a cooking notebook, where I list all the ingredients I usually buy, plus notes I’ve collected about them — including my favorite techniques for cooking that ingredient. This is also a good place to record notes on storage, freezing and any special prep required for that ingredient.

Next, develop a repertoire of key recipes, what I call master recipes. These should be recipes that you really like, which cook quickly and can adapt to whatever you have on hand. In my repertoire are a few soups, a handful of pasta recipes, an easy fish dish, and some one-dish meals like a stew, risotto, burritos and frittata. Although I prefer simply cooked vegetables or one-pot entrees, I also have a few side dishes in my roster, including some basic salads, a couple of potato dishes and a vegetable gratin.

Even though these recipes are easy to memorize, I record them in my recipe notebook in case I need to review the details. I rotate through them depending on what I have on hand to cook with, but I always make sure I have the foundations for my master recipes in my pantry.

The third key is to understand what flavors go together, especially when seasoning the dish. The Flavor Bible is a terrific reference. It lists pretty much every possible ingredient and the foods, herbs and seasonings that go best with it. You can pick and choose based on what you have and what you like.

Cooking this way makes grocery shopping a lot easier. I no longer make a list composed of what’s called for in the recipe, regardless of whether it’s in season or way too expensive. Instead, I look for produce that’s high-quality, in season and therefore usually cheaper. And I know that I need to replenish any foundation foods, dairy, eggs and meat when we’re running low and stock up when they’re on sale. I also treat myself to one or two cheeses — usually on sale — that will go well in salads or for snacking.

On the weekends, I spend some time making foods that will make it easier to cook during the week. For instance, I prep produce: washing, peeling, slicing. I also make a batch of chicken stock, a bottle of salad dressing and a loaf of bread or some pizza dough. I may make a sauce or pesto if I need to use up some surplus. This helps me avoid buying the packaged versions of these foods.

So I may not be posting as many recipes on this blog, since I am not cooking as many recipes anymore. Please share your tips for cooking without a book in the comments.

How to Make Fruit Salad

I love this time of year, because we are currently inundated with fruit. Strawberries are for sale along the sides of country roads. Blueberries and raspberries are cheap again, but oranges are still plentiful. And it’s only going to get better. Melon season is coming, and peaches, and plums.

When your wealth is so abundant, the best thing to do is to make salad. Sure, you can just cut up different kinds of fruit and toss them together in a bowl. But a few simple additions can make an ordinary fruit salad sparkle.

First, pick fruits that are in season and are absolutely ripe. I usually limit myself to three different kinds of fruit, as I think too many varieties muddy the individual flavors. Cut into bite-sized pieces and toss gently with the juice of 1 lemon. This will help keep the fruit from browning. Depending on sweetness, I may add a spoonful or two of honey to the mixture.

There are many options for adding a little extra flavor. Here are my favorite ideas:

• Add ¼ tsp. vanilla extract.
• Shave over some lime or orange zest.
• Sprinkle in a little cayenne or black pepper.
• Toss with nuts or cheese.
• Instead of the honey, muddle minced mint or basil with sugar and toss with the fruit.
• Add up to ½ cup of white wine, champagne or liqueur and chill.
• Serve over vanilla yogurt or ice cream to make an instant parfait.