Dinner on the Table with a Little Help from my Blogger Friends

Tags

beef, beef & broccoli, beef stew, beer stew, caramelized onions, cauliflower soup, cheesy cauliflower soup, chicken, Guinness stew, oriental beef & broccoli, stew

This past week has been somewhat challenging for me in terms of getting dinner on the table. If it were up to me, I’d be happy with a bowl of cafè-latte and some toasted baguette slices slathered with some salty butter to dunk into my hot drink. I’d even settle with a bowl of cereal topped with banana slices or berries. But what kind of mother would I be if that was indeed what I served my girls? Oh, not to mention hubby’s reaction! So, I turned to my blogger friends for some inspiration. The only criteria was that there were few ingredients involved, and it had to be simple and quick.

The week started off with this fast and simple Beef and Broccoli, thanks to Conor over at One Man’s Meat. This is a favourite of both my girls when we do take out. His recipe is actually called Easy Oriental part 8 – Take out the take-out with Beef and Broccoli. And Conor delivered. Served with fragrant Jasmine rice, it was easy indeed and oh-so-better than take-out any day!

The next evening featured Caramelized Onion Herbed Chicken from Bam’s Kitchen. I have to admit, Bam had me at caramelized onion! Served alongside some mashed potatoes, this chicken was tender, juicy, delicious, and so simple! How good does that look? And it tastes even better!

Hump Day was a real bummer. Being out and about most of the day, I came home with a chill I just couldn’t shake. A lie down under a warm and cozy blanket didn’t do it. So I turned to Sandra, over at Please Pass the Recipe, and her Cheesey Cauliflower Soup.  Served with broiled baguette slices topped with sharp cheddar, this flavourful soup was cheesy, velvety, comforting! Oh, that did the trick all right. All warmed up after that yumminess!

On the menu for last night’s dinner was Spezzatino di manzo alla birra, pere e mostarda. Oh all right! I’ll give you the English version, although I think it sounds fabulous in Italian. Beef stew with beer, pears and mustard. You will even find the French version of Margherita’s stew over at La petite casserole. I used that gorgeously black Guinness beer for this stew. Served with smashed red and yellow baby potatoes with a little butter, this out-of-this world stew was fantastic! Oh-so-flavoursome and just perfect!

So, thank you my friends for helping me feed my family in a proper manner. And now you must be wondering what I’ve got planned for dinner on this final day of a most difficult week? Why, left-overs of course. After all, it’s Friday! Have yourselves a wonderful weekend!

Orecchiette con Rapini e Salsiccia

Tags

homemade Italian sausage, Italian sausage, orecchiette and rapini, pasta with rapini, rapini

It’s been mad around here lately.  Has December been crazy for you too? Please forgive my blatant neglect with regards to your blog posts.  Between preparing foods for a dinner party of 24 people, cooking a light lunch for 100, baking cookies and goodies for bake sales, organizing a book fair and a holiday lunch for teachers and staff at my daughter’s school, planning a cookie exchange party, cooking and baking for gift baskets, and a health issue which sometimes leaves me bedridden, life has been somewhat overwhelming for me lately. And I’ve left out a number of things.  Who else has been suffering from all this craziness? My family.  Not being able to cook up some homemade goodness has left us all grumpy.  Oh, how I wish some of you lived close by!

Well, I did manage a meal here and there, and with a little help from my friend John over at from the Bartolini kitchens, I made Italian sausage for the first time ever.  And not just any sausage. Simple and yummy Bartolini Sausage.  It doesn’t get any easier than John’s recipe as there aren’t any casings involved.  How great is that?

I added strong pancetta rather than mild to the meat mixture, to give it a little zing.  And I also added whole fennel seeds.  I just love the taste of fennel in Italian sausage.  I used this recipe in two ways and in this post I will show you how I used it in my Orecchiette and Rapini dish.

First, rapini.  LOVE!  One of the most popular greens in Italy.  Also known as broccoli rabe in America, if you’ve never tried it, you really should!  Rapini comes to us from the mustard family, with some referring to it as mustard greens.  With spiked leaves and little green buds that resemble broccoli, it is not at all related to broccoli.  It is a close relative of the turnip family and its flavour is characteristically pungent and bitter.  Not only is it yummy, it’s good for you too.  It has amazing health benefits such as cancer-fighting properties, keeping bones strong, lowering the risk of heart disease, and improving insulin sensitivity.  A cool weather vegetable at its best in the Fall, Winter and early Spring, when buying rapini look for leaves and buds that are crisp and dark green.  You don’t want any yellowing leaves nor yellow flowers on the buds.

My dad always prepared rapini simply.  Sautéd with olive oil and garlic. Served with steak or liver sausage, or added to cooked orecchiette pasta. My fave!  So this time, because my caveman is constantly demanding where the meat is if I should present a meatless dish, I served it up with crumbled sausage.  Here’s how you can do it too.

Ingredients

1 package of Orecchiette pasta

1 lb. of sausage, casings removed if you haven’t made your own

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 package of rapini, rinsed under cold water

Salt

Cook the sausage meat in a fry pan until done.  Set aside.  Boil some water and cook the “little ears”.  That’s what they resemble, no?  And that’s exactly what orecchitte means in Italian.

Prepare the rapini.  The stems are rather tough and I remove about 1/3 to 1/2 of them.  With the remaining stems, I crush them with the side of my butcher’s knife, to bruise them all up and render them tender after cooking. Otherwise, the rapini will be perfectly done but the stems will remain tough.

Over medium heat, add olive oil to you frying pan and when hot, add the garlic.  Cook for about a minute and then add the rapini.  Your pan will be rather full, but only for a few minutes.  It will wilt down to almost nothing. That’s why I always prepare two batches.  Add some salt and toss. After a few minutes, once they’ve wilted down quite a bit, add a lid and allow the water from the rinsed rapini to help cook them.  If they begin to dry out, add a splash of water.  They should be done after about 5 minutes.

Once your pasta has been drained, return to the pot and add the cooked sausage and rapini.  Give the whole thing a good toss and serve.  Sprinkle some Pecorino Romano on top and Buon Appetito!

Baby Artichoke, Celery & Parsley Salad

Tags

artichoke & celery salad, artichoke salad, artichokes, baby artichoke & celery salad, baby artichokes, seasonal salads, spring salad

I do believe the Goddess of Spring has accepted my offering of the Pastiera Napoletana and blessed Montreal with spring! I awoke yesterday to sunshine and clear blue skies. Today was glorious! A repeat of yesterday, only much warmer. Connor, a fellow blogger over at One Man’s Meat, actually claimed that I had caused spring to be sprung all the way in Ireland! The arrival of spring will finally allow Ingrid, from now at home mom, to get outdoors and do what she does best: be crafty! And now I send this Spring Goddess over to Wisconsin, for Melissa over at Motherhood Is An Art (it truly is with her!), for I know it will make her quite happy!

Now, on with my salad! After the dinner I had last night, I was in dire need of a light, fresh and green salad today. I will keep the description of my extravagantly decadent meal for a future post. For now, suffice it to say that it was a caveman’s, or cavewoman’s, fat-laden, brimming with richness and maple syrup kind-of dinner! Enough said.

Ingredients  a salad for 1

slightly adapted from the book Simply Organic

6 baby artichokes

Juice of 1 lemon

2 celery stalks, thinly sliced

Sliced red onion, to your liking

Large handful of Italian parsley, about 1/2 cup, stems removed

1 tablespoon of capes, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Dash of Tabasco

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Begin by pouring the lemon juice in a bowl. Clean the artichokes. Pull away the outer leaves until all that remains is the very light and tender leaves inside. You’ll need to trim the ends as well until you reach the tender part. If the tips of the remaining artichokes are a tad sharp, just cut them off. Slice the trimmed artichokes thinly and add to the the lemon juice, tossing well. This will prevent them from turning brown, which happens within minutes. And in case you’re wondering, baby artichokes have no chokes to remove. The interior is tender enough to eat as is!

Add the celery, onion, parsley, capers, olive oil, Tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently. Allow to sit for 5 minutes and serve at room temperature. It truly is a springtime salad!

Vietnamese Pho Soup to chase away sniffles & sore throats

Tags

Asian soup, Pho soup, rice noodle chicken soup, rice noodle soup, soups, Vietnamese soup

Both my girls have been feeling under the weather of late. And it’s no wonder with the horrid weather we’ve been having! Just today, April 12, we had a little snow storm! Yes, really! So with both girls home from school the other day, I thought I would make them one of their favourite soups to chase away those sniffles and sore throats.

Vietnamese soup, also known as Tonkinese soup, or Pho in Vietnamese, is a wonderful rice noodle soup made with either beef or chicken. The broth is incredibly flavoursome, with a plethora of ways to make it. It can be a simple one with just chicken or beef, or it can be infused with spices such as ginger, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves, even star anise. You can also dress it up to your own personal preference with the addition of soy bean sprouts, freshly squeezed lime juice, red hot chili peppers (the fruit, not the band!), Thai basil and a variety of condiments such as soy sauce, hoisin sauce and, of course, sriracha sauce.

We love going out to Vietnamese restaurants for this soup, but every now and then I like to make it at home. I never make it the same way either. But I always make it with chicken. When I first made it, I used my own home-made chicken stock and therefore added boiled chicken meat to the soup. It was ok. I then decided I would roast a chicken and use that in the soup, looking for that little extra flavour. It was better. This time around, I thought I would marinate chicken breasts in some olive oil, lime juice and 5 spice Chinese powder and then grill it. With my indoor grill, of course, seeing as it’s still freakin’ cold here! And this time it was fabulous!

I didn’t venture too much with the flavour of the chicken stock. I hesitated with a star anise, holding it over the boiling broth for a few seconds, but decided against it. I didn’t want to take a chance experimenting with the flavour when what I really wanted was to sooth the girls from their colds. So instead, I stir-fried some vegetables that would go into the soup, giving them a bit of a char flavour. Not all Pho soups have veggies, but I like the idea of having most of our daily recommended food groups in one bowl. Grilling or broiling them in the oven is something I might try next time.

Pho Soup

Chicken Stock, I used about 4 litres for 1 package of rice noodles

1 package of rice stick noodles

3 chicken breasts

Fresh limes

5 spice Chinese powder

Broccoli, Carrots & Cauliflower, chopped into bite-size pieces

Thai basil

Green onions, about 5, sliced thinly

Soy bean sprouts, optional

Salt & pepper, to taste

Begin by marinating the chicken breasts with a little olive oil, fresh lime juice and 5 spice Chinese powder.

Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a large pot. Go ahead and use store-bought if you don’t have any home-made, or a mix of both. You can flavour it up if you like with any or all of the above-mentioned spices. If you don’t have any finicky kiddies to contend with, go ahead and add a piece of fresh ginger. If you’re feeling adventurous, add some star anise and coriander seeds, wrapped in a piece of cloth.

Grill the chicken and set aside, covered with foil wrap.

Empty the rice stick noodles into a large bowl and add boiling water, enough to cover noodles. Just let them sit there until your soup is ready, or until they have plumped up and are double in size. Drain the water.

Proceed with your veggies. Change them up if you like, using your favourites. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the carrots. Cook for 5 minutes and then add the broccoli and cauliflower. Cook for another 5 minutes, adding just a little salt and pepper to taste. Once your veggies are done, slice the grilled chicken into bite-size pieces.

Add the chicken pieces to your broth, along with the veggies and the sliced green onions. Taste for salt and adjust. Keep in mind that some will be adding soy sauce to their own bowl. Finally, add the rice noodles and just let the soup sit for 5 minutes, allowing for all the flavours to blend together.

Ladle the soup into bowls. In Vietnamese restaurants, these soups are served in ginormous bowls and of course, my girls will choose the biggest bowls they can get their hands on for this one. In the centre of your table, you can have the 3 bottles of condiments mentioned earlier, along with some Thai basil, fresh lime slices and soy beans. Each person can add their own personal faves. I like to add a handful of Thai basil leaves, torn into little bits so I can slurp them up with my soup, some still attached to the stem as an added flavouring. I squeeze a piece of lime and throw that in there, and I add a tad of soy, a little hoisin, and a nice squirt of sriracha to heat it all up. Fresh, red hot chilis are fun to add as well, if you dare. The girls love to dress their soup up exactly as I do, with the addition of fresh bean sprouts. Not only did this yummy, slightly spicy soup help chase away those runny noses, it also warmed us all the way down to our toeses!

*If you should have left-overs, as is always the case with us, you really need to separate the broth from the rest of the ingredients and store separately. Otherwise, the rice noodles will disintegrate, turning your soup to mush.*

Charlotte’s Ultimate Soup: Broccoli Cheddar

Tags

broccoli, Broccoli Cheddar Chowder, Broccoli Cheddar Soup, broccoli soup, cheddar, kid friendly soups, Vegetarian

Although in theory Spring arrived last Wednesday, March 20th, Mother Nature played a wicked trick on us here in Montreal. We were hit with a blizzard on Tuesday, with a record-breaking 36 cm/15 in of snow falling upon our city. And while some people thought it looked very pretty outside, all white and picturesque, I’d like to remind them that we are in the third week of March and NOT December! The ONLY good thing about the snowfall was that for a brief couple of days, the pot-hole-laden streets of Montreal were actually pleasant to drive on. Instead of feeling like I was driving through the Australian Outback, I actually felt like I was driving through the streets of a developed, industrialized country. Don’t get me wrong. I have driven through the Australian outback in a 4 x 4 and LOVED it! But I am in a city with supposedly paved streets, and my Mojita is not built for the Outback. In case you’re wondering, Mojita is my car and she is named after my favourite Summer cocktail, the Mojito. Only it’s Mojita because my baby is a she.

The other good thing about it still being Winter? Broccoli Cheddar Soup. Although it’s more of a chowder, really. Just last Monday, Charlotte mentioned that I had not made her ultimate favourite soup since last Winter. So last night, with the weather screaming for soup, I made this for her. For all of us. So yummy, I wonder how I got by this Winter without making it! And as I sit here writing this post, I’m staring out the window and watching pretty little snowflakes fall upon our city once again! Oh joy!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

4 tablespoons of butter

1 large Vidalia, Spanish or sweet onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup of flour

6 cups of chicken stock, or vegetable stock for a vegetarian version

4 potatoes, peeled and cubed, about a 1/2 inch size

2 bay leaves

3 cups of milk, I use 1%

2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets, about 6 cups

3 cups of grated Cheddar cheese, I use strong or aged

Salt & Papper, to taste

You can use regular onions if that’s what you have, I like to use the sweeter onions because of their milder flavour. Same thing with the milk. I use low-fat because that’s what we have in our home, but feel free to use whatever milk is in your fridge.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Add your stock, the potatoes and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, stirring often. You need to stir often otherwise the flour will settle on the bottom of the pan and the potatoes will stick to it. Trust me on this one! Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the broccoli and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.

Stir in the milk and cheese and just give it another 3 minutes or so to get hot. Do not let it come to a boil or it may curdle.

Turn off the heat and remove the bay leaves. Give it a taste and season with salt and pepper. Some cheese may be saltier than others so you really need to give it a taste and adjust to your liking. Ladle soup, or chowder, into bowls and serve with some nice crusty bread. Mmmm, perfect on a cold winter’s night!

Moroccan Lentil Soup for Bone-Chilling Weather

Tags

African, lentil, Moroccan, Moroccan lentil soup, soup, Vegetarian

We have had bone-chilling weather these past 3 days. Arctic-like weather. It was -25 degrees Celsius today, -38 C with the wind chill factor! In case you’re wondering, that’s -36 Fahrenheit. Yes, really! We needed more than just a soul-warming soup for dinner. We needed a soup that would warm us to our very core. One with fiery spices which would make its way right down to our bones and set them ablaze with heat. Not necessarily hot spices, but spices with warmth. Spices like cumin, ginger, cinnamon, pepper and turmeric, a spice in the ginger family which is widely used in curries. How about a lentil soup with Moroccan heat?

Ingredients for a big batch of soup, about 12 servings

Olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced or grated

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 tsp salt

1 tsp each of pepper, ground cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, turmeric

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 to 2 tsp harissa, depending on your taste, optional

2 cups vegetable broth, or water

6 cups water

2 cups red lentils

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 can (28 oz/798 ml) whole, peeled tomatoes

Chopped parsley or cilantro for serving, optional

Sour cream for serving, optional

Heat olive oil, enough to cover bottom of soup pot, on medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Add celery and cook another 5 minutes.

Add all of the spices, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in harissa and cook for 1 minute.

Add the liquids, lentils, tomato paste, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, mashing the tomatoes after 20 minutes.

And that’s it, as simple as that. You can, if you like, top your soup with chopped parsley or cilantro, or sour cream. Or both. I did. Serve with crusty baguette and salted butter. It’s numbing cold out there, we need foods that will stick to our ribs. Enjoy and keep warm!

Peter’s Comfort Soup

Tags

French-Canadian pea soup, pea soup, Quebecois-style pea soup, soup, yellow split-peas

Seeing as the temperature here is still bone-chilling, I continue with the comfort foods to warm the soul. This is actually Peter’s comfort food. He loves pea soup. I, on the other hand, do not. It isn’t so much the taste that I’m not fond of, but the texture. I’m not a big fan of chunky soups.  And that is precisely what Canadian pea soup is. Or rather, Québécois-style pea soup. Here in Quebec, this very traditional ‘Soupe aux pois’, made with yellow split peas, is the ultimate comfort food when it comes to soups.

A funny thing about pea soup. During World War I, General Sir Arthur William Currie ordered his French-Canadian troops to be fed with pea soup, believing that it was the most consistent food and that soldiers would improve their performance on the battlefield. Found to be very funny from the English soldiers’ point-of-view, the French-Canadian soldiers were then called “Pea Soup”, or “Pea Soupers”!

We had a left-over baked ham on the bone. We threw it into a pot, added enough water to cover it, an onion and some parsley. We boiled it down for about 2 hours, until we got a nice brown stock. If you don’t have a left-over baked ham, no worries. Just follow this step using a fresh ham hock, smoked or not. That’s up to you.

In another pot, I heated some olive oil on medium heat. I added a finely chopped onion, 2 diced carrots, 2 diced celery stalks, 3 or 4 bay leaves, some salt and pepper. I let that cook for about 5 or 6 minutes. I then added about 2 cups of yellow split peas and toasted them for a couple of minutes.

Then I added the ham stock. And here is where my pea soup differs from the traditional French-Canadian pea soup. Instead of adding the usual 5 or so cups of stock per 2 cups of split peas, I must have added at least 10 cups of stock. My soups need to be filled with steaming hot broth. Lots and lots of broth. That’s what warms my soul. And after cooking the split peas for about 1 hour, that is exactly what I got. Traditional French-Canadian pea soup? Maybe not. Fantastic split-pea soup? Oh, absolutely!

Italian wedding soup with a little history

Tags

barefoot contessa, chicken meatballs, dinner, italian wedding soup, soup, spinach

I just love the name of this soup. It evokes a big Italian weddings set in an Italian country side, perhaps on an ancient farmstead, or on a hill overlooking some centuries- old Etruscan village.

A few years ago the girls and I went to the Jersey Shore with my brother and nephew. Good ‘Ol Wildwood! We went out for dinner one evening and were informed that the soup of the day was Italian Wedding Soup.  Italian Wedding Soup? Both my brother and I were baffled.  Being of Italian origin (my brother is actually Italian, he would have me note!), we’d never had nor even heard of this soup. We had gone to many Italian weddings and served many a soup, but never this one.  We’d even been to Italy on numerous occasions and never came across Italian Wedding Soup.  I was intrigued! What was this soup? Was it really Italian?

I discovered that it is one of the most classical dishes served in America – as in U.S.A. – and with us being Canadian, that could very well be a reason why we’d never heard of it. Digging further, I came across a soup in the region of Naples called “minestra maritata”, meaning “married soup”. As in green vegetables (minestra) marries well, or blends well (maritata) with meat. Apparently it is a very old dish. Some say it was brought over to Naples from Spain, while others claim it could date as far back to the Romans. It was a much heavier soup in its day, a mix of endive, escarole, kale or cabbage with lots of different meats. It wasn’t until pasta became more affordable that it was added to the soup. The recipe came to America via Italian immigrants from Naples, replacing the meat with meatballs. Somewhere along the way, the name was lost in translation and became known as Italian wedding soup. In Italy, the soup went out of fashion around the time the immigrants took their recipe with them to America.

There are many versions of Italian wedding soup. I came across one by Ina Garten in her “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics” cookbook where she uses chicken meatballs.

In a large bowl I added and mixed together:

• 1 pound/450 gr. ground chicken
• 1/2 pound/250 gr. chicken sausage, casings removed
• 2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs (I used white toast bread)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Don’t be shy to use your hands to mix it all together. It really is the best way to ensure all the ingredients get mixed thoroughly. I used 2 coffee spoons to make the meatballs, one to scoop some of the mixture and the other to roll it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. I left them in for 35 minutes.

Set the meatballs aside. For the soup, you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 cup minced yellow onion
• 1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 10 cups homemade chicken stock (I used 12 because after the pasta had cooked, much of the broth had been absorbed by it)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I wasn’t sure about the wine… so I added a splash, tasted, liked it and added another splash)
• 1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars
• 12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Heat olive oil in a soup pot on medium heat. Add onions, carrots and celery and cook for 10 minutes.

Add chicken stock and wine.                                                                                   *If you don’t have homemade chicken stock, you can use store-bought or even the cubes/powder. I used 6 cups of homemade stock, 4 cups of store-bought stock and 2 cups of water with a cube.

Bring to a boil and add 1 cup of small soup pasta. My girls just love ball soup (pastina), or little stars. You could use whatever tickles your fancy, little o’s, little shells… Cook pasta according to package, usually 6 to 8 minutes for small soup pasta. Add meatballs and baby spinach and cook for 1 minute more. Taste for salt. Serve and enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup…Italian Style!

Tags

roasted butternut squash, soup, Vegetarian

I was in the mood for butternut squash soup.  What I was not in the mood for was  something rich.  I’ve only ever had rich butternut squash soup.  Very rich.  So I thought I would try roasting the squash in the oven with olive oil. You know, bring out its  natural caramelization, making it more flavourful and thus omitting the need for butter and cream.  Where does the Italian style fit in?  That came later, as I started tasting the soup.  You’ll see.

I started out with cutting the squash into chunks.

Into a roasting pan they went, along with olive oil, salt, pepper, a few sprigs of thyme and… garlic.  I thought that just maybe, roasted garlic would be a nice touch.  4 unpeeled cloves.  Unpeeled because I would be roasting the squash at a high temperature and did not want it to burn.

I popped it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Depending on how big you cut up the squash, it could take longer.  Just test with a fork for doneness.

Remove the garlic from it’s husk and set the whole thing aside.

Slice an onion. Heat olive oil in a pot, or butter for a richer tasting soup, and add the onion. Cook for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat.

Add the roasted squash and garlic to the onions and give it a stir.

Add chicken broth, enough to cover the squash. You could add vegetable broth for a vegetarian version.  Cook for about 5 minutes, just enough for the broth to absorb all the flavours.

This is where I decided to add a little Italian touch to my soup. Instead of adding salt, I thought I’d grate some Parmigiano Reggiano into it.

I added some cold 1% milk, about 1 cup, maybe 1 1/2. You could adjust the amount to how thick, or thin, you like your soup. Start with 1 cup. Purée the soup with an immersion blender if you have one, otherwise carefully pour the soup in batches into a blender and purée. Return pureed soup to the pot.  If you think it’s too thick,  add more milk. Or cream for a velvety-rich soup. After giving it a taste, I decided to add a touch of Mascarpone cheese. Just because I had it in the fridge. And for yet another Italian twist to it.

It was ready to serve! Don’t you just love that colour?

And because it’s that time of year, how about a few pumpkin seeds to give it some crunch!

Oh, that was good!