here's his favorite soup. it is extremely easy - only a few ingredients, and most of the time, it is hands-off cooking. he can eat it straight until it is gone. not me. i don't want any part of that.
while he had this, lillie and i had sausages and lillie-made spaetzle. lillie had such fun doing this. she's such fun in the kitchen - she wants to make something every day. we make this a few times a month. she loves to get her hands in the dough, on the big chinese strainer thing we use to pull the spaetzle out, to play with them in the ice water, to toss them in the butter to warm. oh, and to eat them, too, of course! yum, yum. we ate the spaetzle all up.
here are the recipes:
creamy roasted cauliflower soup
2 heads of cauliflower, broken into smaller tree pieces
2 onions, quartered
1-2 T thyme
some olive oil
some chicken broth
line a huge baking pan with foil and spray it with pam. easy cleanup. put in the cauliflower pieces and the onions, and sprinkle them with thyme. drizzle olive oil over it, toss to make sure it gets around. roast at 400 or 450 (if you're baking something else, just throw it in with that) for a while, stirring occasionally. it is done when it starts to smell REALLY good in your house. the edges of the cauliflower will be browned, and the onions will be limp and carmelized.
have a big stockpot of chicken broth boiling. scrape the cauliflower and onions out of the roasting pan, into the stock pot. try to get the little browned bits, esp the thyme. these are what give the soup such a great flavor. in my stockpot, i have enough chicken broth to cover the cauliflower. it is pretty tightly packed. if you'd like runnier soup, put more chicken broth in.
turn heat to barely simmering, and cook the soup for 20 min. when the cauliflower is tender, turn off the heat. process in batchs in the food processor, or use your immersion wand to cream the soup. if you'd like to add more protein, puree some cooked cannellini beans in with it (i put in 2 cans for 2 heads of cauliflower). it adds protein and doesn't change the flavor much. heat back up on the stove.
voila!
lillie's spaetzle for 2
2 eggs
3 T water
nutmeg and cinnamon, just a tiny shake
2 t olive oil
pinch salt
1 c flour
whisk wets, add spices. add flour slowly, mix with hands til combined. our dough is sticky, that is a good thing. let it rest for 15 min or so.
boil a pot of salt water. prepare a bowl with ice water.
ways to make spaetzle shapes:
chop into tiny pieces
push through a sieve
drop pieces in with your hands, just pinching the dough a little bit to make tiny shapes (lillie's favorite method)
drop into the boiling salt water. boil until they float, then scoop them out and put them into the ice water. continue this until all the dough is gone.
drain the spaetzle and put on a paper towel-lined plate.
at this point, you can refrigerate it for a little bit, or continue to make it (if your sausages are almost done, and the mustards are already scooped into the cute little mustard dishes, and the table is set).
heat a little butter in a frying pan, add the spaetzle. toss around until they are all coated with butter and are warmed up. serve immediately, with sausages, roasted beets, and steamed beet greens. yum!
copyright 2006, jessica voigts
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Comments: 16
Yum
cathy - lillie's never had fast food - well, except once, with her grandparents. i am adamant about that one! sorry for your dinner. we're lucky that we can eat this way, but it is a conscious and time-consuming choice!
beryl - we'll come. lillie will rile up those birds, that's for sure! but she'd love your nature hikes. when you 2 got back, you'd have feasts waiting. yum, yum!
Good stuff Jessie
stephen - come on in!! you can help us laugh, too! thanks!
heather - lillie will be 4 in july. she's always cooked with me, from when she was in a sling when she was a baby until now, when her stool gets priority near the counter. train 'em young, i say! ha! thanks!
I'm going to try the soup.
nancy - i hate to measure, too, except when i'm baking (i know the importance of that!)....isn't it fun?
karen - we should have our playgroup on gather. sigh. where are you again? probably a LONG way from central MI....it is sad! drat!