Simple Split Pea Soup

I've been neglectful of the blog for quit a while it seems. I don't even know what I've been doing to take up my time but I do know what I wasn't doing -- a lot of interesting cooking! The semester kicked my butt. On the bright side, I got the next dissertation chapter DONE and discovered that teaching 4 classes won't kill me.

So now that it is a break period, what is a little vegan to do? How about cook and eat and test some sweet recipes for my friend's new cookbook that will be coming out soon. I'm not sure if I can introduce you to these recipes yet, but I will tell you about this split pea soup I made. YUM. So simple. As you can see, you see carrots and celery. There are also peas in there. I ate a bowl and went back for another and realized I was stuffed!

Tom Kha Tofu

I went though a few ideas for dinner tonight before stumbling across this recipe in the March '09 Vegetarian Times. I was on the hunt for a quick and easy noodle stir fry dish and discovered that the one I was thinking about making involved things I didn't have. I'm pretty flexible in subbing out veg and whatnot, but not so great at subbing out key condiments that don't have a viable sub. I ran across this soup and commented that it met the dinner requirement: used the veggies we had and tofu, which DR had started pressing while I was coming home from work. I've always been a bit iffy about coconut milk based soups, but I gave it a whirl. It was good! DR ate two bowls and kept making happy sounds. I better not loose this--I'm sure we'll be making it again. This reminded me of why I like VegTimes - lots of really quick recipes. I should be better about making recipes out of them more often!

Curried Carrot Soup

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Things have been a bit nuts in the homestead, with the semester coming to an end and the dissertation "coming along" in a real way. I haven't been cooking as much as normal, so posting would be pretty lame and repetitive (ha! boca burgers again! ha! pizza again!). But I did find this jem that I made and apparently didn't report on. It's the curried carrot soup from one of the Kramer books (who knows, I have a couple of them). It was very easy and very good. Coconut milk, carrots, curry powder, some other stuff and love. And it looks good too!

Potato and Leek Soup

We got leeks in our CSA box this week. Leeks are a nice treat, since they are expensive and we don't buy them on a regular basis. So I hunted down a recipe on vegweb that was easy, fast, and used what I had available in my kitchen. The winner was this soup, which came together in a flash and tasted good.

Corn Potato Soup

Haven't I made this before? Another "invented" soup (one of the things I like about knowing how to cook - I don't need recipes for most stuff!) that has potatoes, corn, and vegan bacon bits added for some adventure. I used some chickybaby seasoning from my homie's upcoming cookbook. I will have to talk about that when it comes out. I helped test a mess of recipes and it will be good!

Summer Corn Soup

Today we had the Summer Corn Chowder (or whatever the whole name is) from Vcon. I don't know what made me think it was a good idea to make soup, since it was 10000 degrees out, but I did it anyways. Actually, this started with a fennel bulb I got in my weekly CSA box. I don't like fennel (or anything with a licorice taste) so I was looking for a recipe that might hide it well. This recipe did the trick! It was pretty quick and easy, seeing that I even got really badass and made my own broth in the pressure cooker. I was going to get fresh corn but it was mega pricey at the store (3 for 2 bucks!). So I said "screw that!" and used frozen. Yumm, corn. DR and Cammers were pleased, to say the least, as they sweated their way though a couple bowls of the stuff.