Day 11 of 31 days of vegan soup! Yay Posole!!!!

I mentioned to my daughter that I was going to make posole and she did a happy dance like she was at a Oprah's favorite vegan things taping!! Posole is a family favorite and in the winter we have it at least once a month. It is fairly easy, versatile, cheap and tasty! Here's what I did:
1 lb red potatoes large diced, leave the peels on!
Put in pan and cover with water, simmer for about 10 minutes
put the following in the pot with potatoes:
1 small white onion, chopped,
2 teeth of garlic, pressed
2 cans posole (hominy)
1 can green chili enchilada sauce
1 vegan no chin'n bouillon cube
A couple dashes of cumin
Simmer for 10 more minutes
Garnish with chopped poblano peppers, jalapeños, cilantro, salsa casera, and a squeeze of fresh lime. Serve with warm corn tortilla and vegan butter and salt! Muy bien!

Day 10 of 31 days of soup - Pea Soup - Lookin Good!!!

WOW that is a bad picure!!!! The pictures did provide some comic relief to our evening. I took about 15 photos of this pea soup, and could not get it to look good, maybe that is why pea soup gets a bad rap!!! I love pea soup, it has always been one of my favorites. I was one of those weird kids who loved pea soup, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, but not everyone is of the same opinion.
This was a simple soup:
1 pound dried peas
8 cups water
2 teeth garlic
a dash of liquid smoke
fresh cracked pepper
1/2 Rapunzel vegan broth cube
1 big tablespoon sweet white miso
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 carrots diced
put peas and water in pot and simmer for 25 minutes, then add everything else and cook til the carrots are soft.
I took some back bits(that is supposed to read "baco" thanks iPad auto correct) and added water so that they were reconstituted and added them to the top. I made the kids some noodles, because they are not peas soup fans, I added the noodle to the soup for the next photo, and it made the soup better. It was pretty good soup, not going to win any beauty pageants, but it hit the spot!!!

9 of 31 days of soup - Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

This will not be a soup to remember, but it was not terrible either! Today was a snow day for the kids, 5 inches of snow and Kansas grinds to a halt!! The snow was pretty, but I did have to do quite a bit of shoveling. The late afternoon got away from me a bit and I got a late start on dinner(which as you know was soup)
Heres what we had:
Cream of Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup
1/4 cup of raw cashews
2 vegan no chic broth cubes
1 tablespoon curry
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
put all of the above with 4 cups of water in the blender and process until smooth, I would have added 1 boiled potato to the blender if I had one, makes "cream" soups a bit thicker.
After blending I put the base in my soup pot to simmer.
I took a head of cauliflower rinsed and cut into bit size pieces and did the same with some broccoli.
I tossed the cauliflower and broccoli with a bit of oil and some curry and salt and baked in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes.
Once the cauliflower and broccoli were cooked I ladled the the soup base into a bowl and placed the roasted veggies on top. For a garnish I took 2 x 2 puff pastry squares and put a dab of olive tapenade on top, pinched them up and baked for about 15 minutes.
All in all not my best effort but hearty and edible none the less!!!

Day 8 of 31 - Recycled Soup -

I am sorry that I had to break from the January soup program, but I helped cater a vegan wedding for 125 people and I did not have time to make soup!!! This is a repost of a lentil soup challenge from last year, it did have a happy ending.....
I am always amazed how in sync Nikki and I are, she did not know what I had in mind for dinner and suggested a lentil and sweet potato soup recipe she had found this afternoon. This morning I pulled a bag of lentils out of the cabinet and set them out because I wanted to make lentil soup. I have never made lentil soup and I thought it was a good idea because lentils cook in 20 to 30 minutes. I also had a couple of sweet potatoes that needed to be used up so I thought I would roast those and put them on top.
I figured this would be quick and easy.... pop the potatoes in the oven, go get Carter from school the potatoes would be done when we got home... cook the lentil soup and we would be eating by 5:30 Wham Bam Thank You Man!!!!
I got a work call right as I was starting on the potatoes so I did not get them in the oven before I had to go get Carter. I rushed home finished, up cutting the potatoes, seasoned them with cinnamon, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper.. and slammed them in the oven!!!!!
Meanwhile the lentils were coming to a boil.... Seasoned them with a couple of bullion cubes, salt pepper, lime juice.
I put some baby carrots, garlic and onions in the microwave with a bit of water for a few minutes to soften. After that was done I pureed the veggies in the vita mix, and added them to the soup.
In the dream scenario the lentils would have been tender and ready to blend, because they had cooked for 35 minutes, but they were still tough.... ten more minutes... fifteen more minutes....starting to question the liar who wrote the instructions on the lentil bag. The lentils took about an hour to cook, so much for quick!!!
Then it was time to process the lentils and finish up and get the hungry family fed!!!! Put the lentils in the vita mix and in about 15 seconds I had what resembled sickly colored mashed potatoes......!@#$. Keep your cool!!!!
Once I added 8 cups of water it was closer to real thick soup/paste. The color was not right, but it tasted ok. The kids shuddered when they saw what I had created, and I was right there with them.... it is not always perfect!!!!! Addison was a trooper eating a bowl full and Carter had noodles with tomato sauce. Carter will not eat soup!!!!!! YET!!!!
Once we added the green onions and jalapenos it actually tasted pretty good.

The sweet potatoes are one of my favorites savory, salty and sweet. Some pumpkin seeds would have been a nice addition too. Next time I will cook half as many lentils in advance, and I might even use the recipe Nikki found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 7 of 31 days of vegan soup! Sweet Potato Ginger with Roasted Sweet Tomatoes!

I am working on catering a big, 125 people, VEGAN wedding this weekend, and one of the items we are doing is a substantial roasted veggie platter. We decided to buy a case of sweet potatoes and a few of the sweet potatoes are the size of small dog, which is pretty big for a sweet potato!!! Since we have more than we can use I brought one home to use for dinner.

Here's the recipe:
Take 1 gigantic sweet potato or equivalent small sweet potatoes large dice, add 3 teeth of garlic cover with water and boil gently till soft.
In your blender place a thumb of fresh Ginger, minced add 1 cup of water, blend till smooth. When the sweet potatoes are done cooking put in blender and process till smooth, you may need to add some hot water to make it smooth, add salt to taste.
While the potatoes were boiling I took sweet little tomatoes, and cut them in half and tossed with olive oil, garlic, crushed Rosemary, salt and fresh ground pepper. I placed the tomatoes on parchment on a baking sheet and baked at 425 until the tomatoes looked charred, about 20 minutes.
This is so simple yet so freaking awesome, the sweetness of the potatoes goes nicely with the tang of the tomatoes, the Rosemary is essential for some reason. We also used some chutney that my mom made and sent in an a Christmas goodie box, which added a nice texture and some intenseness!

6 of 31 days of Vegan Soup - Green Curry

This one of our standard favorite Tofu Green Curry, we used to get green curry at a small place in a strip mall not to far away, but after we went vegan we could not get total assurance that it was vegan, language issues. I started making the my own shortly there after!

Here's the recipe:
5 medium yellow potatoes, cubed
2 teeth of garlic, pressed
6 cups water
2 carrots peeled and chopped
1 white onion chopped(if your kids like them)
Boil till potatoes are just starting to soften.
Add one can of lite coconut milk
Stir in 2 tablespoons of green curry paste, (I like the Thai Kitchen, labeled vegan!), and salt to taste.
We made rice noodles for the base, and added roasted Brussels sprouts, and baked tofu that was dusted with smoked paprika.
A pinch of cilantro, pickled jalapeños, and sqeeze of lime and we were good to go.