Rustic French Greens & Buttermilk Soup
Thanks for following along with our new adventures! We recently moved from Pittsburgh to Haiti where we are starting a 5 year volunteer assignment with a non-profit relief and development organization. We will be in transition for the next few months as we complete our in-country orientation, language study, spend time living with host families in both the countryside and capital... and lest we forget, have our first baby somewhere in there as well! Please bear with us as we will not have ready access to internet or a kitchen throughout this time. We will continue to share new recipes that we've prepared in advance, and updates on our new life in Haiti as often as we are able.
This Rustic French Greens & Buttermilk Soup is a simple, green, and earthy foil to the button-busting days of Christmas feasting. This recipe is inspired by a watercress soup Paul came across when we were on a French cooking binge, and we find that it adapts well to any hardy green you have on hand. A surprising hit with guests, this soup has a lovely mellow and subtle sweetness that is truly delicious.
Yield: Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 2 large bunches hearty greens (watercress, kale, spinach, collards, etc), about 2 pounds
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large potato, cut into small chunks
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth (low sodium or unsalted)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk or creme fraiche
- 1/2 cup milk or half-and-half
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (less if using salted broth)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated)
Steps:
- Wash greens, and remove stems. Chop all greens roughly
- In a large pot, melt butter over high heat. Add the greens, and stir for 2-3 minutes until they turn a vivid bright green. You may want to use tongs to stir the greens to ensure they cook evenly.
- Add the potato and broth, bring to boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked through (about 15-20 minutes).
- Puree the soup until it is smooth and add the remaining ingredients (buttermilk, milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg). Taste and adjust both seasoning (salt & pepper) and consistency (adding additional milk to loosen if necessary).
- This soup can be served hot or cold. Keep the soup below a simmer after the dairy is added, as boiling can result in the dairy curdling.
Roasted Garlic & Buttermilk Potato Leek Soup
It’s a soup day here in Indiana Northern Indiana. While Madeline and I count down the weeks until we return to warmer weather and our home Haiti, we are eating for the cold weather with the toasty flavors of roasted garlic, tangy buttermilk and mellow nutty leeks. This Roasted Garlic & Buttermilk Potato and Leek Soup is a winter winner!
Rustic Sausage Lentil Stew
This week our toddler Madeline added the word 'brrr' (accompanied by exaggerated shivers) to her vocabulary. What frigid chill inspired this? When we got up yesterday morning in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, it was 69 °F (21 °C)...serious cold in her Caribbean world. In the spirit of enjoying this cooler weather, Rebecca requested a hearty lentil stew with the local sausage we had on hand. This Rustic Sausage Lentil Stew is straightforward to make and easy to adapt. This stew avoids the thick heaviness of many traditional lentil stews by using green French lentils that remain whole and al dente during cooking. While hearty, the stew is surprisingly light and bright.
Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Soup
Yesterday was our last day of work, a bittersweet time in many ways. We left after saying reluctant goodbyes to many wonderful co-workers. It was an unusually silent car as we drove away, each of us lost in our own thoughts, until a loud rumble and clanking sound broke our melancholic lull. Our pensive quiet was replaced with a resigned amusement and a jolt back to practicality; we had managed to get a flat tire before we even left the parking lot. A tire change, careful drive home, and a trip to our local garage later, we were famished by the time we finally made it home. We heated up some Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Soup we'd made earlier in the week and dunked some of Paul's sourdough bread into the sweet goodness while we talked through our next life step. This soup is a master at capturing the nuanced sweetness of natural caramelization and the subtle nuttiness of roasted onion, garlic and butternut squash. While Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Soup tastes rich and complex, it is in reality just a very simple roasted vegetable puree turned into a velvety fall soup. We have adapted this recipe from James Peterson. For more information on his soup cookbook and others, check out our bookshelf.
French Cabbage Soup, Garbure Gasconne
Blustering snow and icy rains found us craving a hearty soup this week. Gazing down the steep cobblestone hills winding down from our house, we opted for caution, and a pantry raid, in favor of driving. For our winter-storm-fare, we dunked homemade sourdough bread in aromatic bowls of French Cabbage Soup, and dreamed of beaches! Our recipe for French Cabbage Soup, Garbure Gasconne, is a modified version of this delicious cabbage soup from the French region of Gascony. This soup smartly employs steaming and simmering techniques to gently extract the delicate flavors from winter root vegetables. French Cabbage Soup is a warming vegetable soup with a depth of flavor that far exceeds its humble ingredients.
Sweet Pea Soup
Sometimes, we get a little absorbed in enjoying food, and forget the broader context of our speech. We had our good friends Beth and Justin over for dinner this weekend. Our spoons stopped mid-slurp, and we all did a double take when Rebecca enthusiastically proclaimed: "I love this soup, the pea-ness really shines through!"
Allow me to say it another way, this is great, quick sweet pea soup. The gentle cooking lets the subtle and sweet pea flavor star. Sweet Pea Soup is a dish I request often (usually with Rebecca's awesome Buttermilk Biscuits). There’s nothing as satisfying as a vibrant green soup to fight the rainy grays of March.
