Winter Veggie Soup

I like to stick to fruits and vegetables that are in season as much as possible, which can be tricky when a) it's the dead of winter and b) you can get just about any kind of produce at the store.  But here's a great soup made from winter root vegetables.

Recipe:
4 tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and chopped
5 carrots
2 parsnips
1 rutabaga
2 potatoes
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
Garlic
Salt, pepper, spices

In a large stockpot, melt butter and cook onions until translucent.  Meanwhile, peel and chop all vegetables and add to the pot.  Add about a cup of water, cover and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add stock, garlic, salt, pepper, and spices (I like thyme and sage).  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and puree using either a regular blender or an immersion blender.  Add more stock or water if soup is too thick.  Season to taste and serve.

This soup was great!  Very mild and earthy, perfect for a cold, blustery day.

Spaghetti Pie

This is such a fun dish to make, and super easy.

Recipe:
8 oz. Spaghetti
3 tablespoons Butter
2 Eggs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 1/2 cups Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

Cook spaghetti until almost done, drain and stir butter into hot pasta, set aside.
While pasta is cooling, butter a 9 inch pie pan.  Heat oven to 350.
Beat eggs with parmesan cheese.  Stir into cooked pasta.  Transfer pasta to pie pan and arrange into a crust.  Spread ricotta cheese into the center of the spaghetti crust.  (At this point you can add spinach, cooked sausage or ground beef, or anything else to the pie) Top with spaghetti sauce.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and bake an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted.
Cool 5 minutes and serve.

This is so delicious, the flavor is like lasagna, but much easier to make.  I like to add spinach to mine.  When I have fresh spinach, I just steam it for a few minutes to wilt it, and then pat it dry before putting it on top of the ricotta.

Spaghetti pie is one of my favorite comfort foods.  Mmmmm...

Spinach Soup

This is a new recipe for me.  I had a big ol' tub of baby spinach in the fridge and keep thinking of things to do with it.  I thought a pureed spinach soup would be good, but couldn't really find a recipe that sounded like what I was imagining, so I took this recipe, and modified it.

Recipe:
3 cups Stock (Chicken or Vegetable)
3 stalks Celery
1 small Onion
Fresh Spinach (I'm not exactly sure how much I used, I filled up a big colander and used about half of the container of spinach)
Salt, Pepper

Bring stock to a boil, roughly chop the celery and onion and add to the stock, cook 15-20 minutes.
Remove the biggest stems from the spinach and rinse.  When the celery is tender, add the spinach to the soup.  Cook for 5-10 minutes, remove from heat.
Puree the soup, using either an immersion blender or regular blender.  Return to medium heat, add salt and pepper to taste.  (I also added a bunch of basil and lemon juice)
If desired, stir in 1 cup of cream, half and half, or milk.

I threw some little spinach and cheese ravioli in mine, which was delicious.

This soup, with it's fresh green spinachy goodness, tastes like summer and sunshine, which is perfect for this time of year.

P.S. This doesn't keep well, so don't let it sit around for more than a couple of days.