October 11, 2012
I’ve not been “preserving” in the traditional sense lately, that is canning, making jam etc. My harvests are small now. Though I have too many green beans and peppers to use myself, there are not enough to make freezing worthwhile. My solution this week was to make a “green soup” that I could then freeze for a cool winter evening.
I started with larger green beans that were picked after their prime. I like them small and tender–filet green beans. These did not meet that standard. So I chopped them into small pieces.
I had several green peppers that I diced and sauteed in olive oil along with onions, garlic, a bay leaf and the green beans. Then I covered the soup pot and let everything steam until very tender.
From this point I loosely followed the Moosewood Cream of Broccoli Soup recipe. The genius of the recipe is the blending of the the above vegetables. I added 3 cups of stock, a few leaves of basil, pepper and blended everything until very smooth. No evidence of over-sized green beans now and I had a velvet-textured light green soup in my blender.
Now broccoli, left from the weekend’s farmers market adds the final green. In the soup pot, I sauteed thinly sliced broccoli florets in olive oil. Meanwhile two cups of milk and some half-and-half was heated to scalding in the microwave.
The broccoli, milk and pureed vegetables were combined and seasonings adjusted. (The strong light mutes the pale green color). No need to thicken the soup, since the blended vegetable mixture makes it just right.
A little feta cheese and nutmeg top the soup. Scallions would have been nice. And now you know how I “preserved” my green beans and peppers.
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