Quick, Fabulous Mushroom Soup for the 5:2 / Fast Diet

Well, having been under the weather for the last month hasn't exactly helped my waistline any. I haven't really gained, but having had shingles has greatly reduced my ability to exercise. Feeling flabby. What it has done, though, is given me a little time to think up ways to make my fast days tastier. Since I am a firm believer in the Fast Diet (aka 5:2) which allows me the eat nicely on the 5 days I don't fast for my health, I'm always looking for tasty and filling foods to have on the 2 days I eat less. Usually this is Meaty Monday, but since it is a Fast Day for me, you're getting what I'm having today...

I love this mushroom soup. I love mushrooms, actually. I wouldn't make this with plain white button mushrooms as they are a little too bland. If they're all you can find, I recommend making it much more highly seasoned to make up for it. It's delicious, nutritious and quick. You need a pot, and a blender.  And a microwave if you want to garnish with a few mushroom slices...You can use a regular or immersion blender, although I prefer the totally smooth consistency you'll get with a regular container blender. Makes 4 good servings at less than 50 calories each.

Quick, Easy, Fabulous Mushroom Soup for the 5:2 / Fast Diet

Note: for a vegetarian version of this soup, replace the chicken bouillon with vegetable or mushroom bouillon, and the Worcestershire with either vegetarian Worcestershire or Pickapeppa sauce. All of the products I used are gluten free, but please read the labels if you are eating gluten free.

Creamy Mushroom Soup for the 5:2 Diet

Serves 4

1 lb. cremini mushrooms, 2 sliced, the rest chopped coarsely
4 cups water
1 packet chicken bouillon (I like Trader Joe's)
2 crushed garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley or basil for garnish (optional)

1. Place the sliced mushroom in a small microwaveable dish, with a teaspoon of water, cover and microwave for 1 minute at high. Set aside. (you can omit this entirely if you don't want to pretty-up your bowl of soup.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine all the remaining ingredients through the Worcestershire, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook , covered until the mushrooms are softened, about 10 minutes.

3. Carefully puree the cooked soup in batches, or with an immersion blender. Taste for seasoning, and  add salt and pepper as desired. Serve garnished with the microwaved mushroom slices on top and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

Easy Carrots with Preserved Lemon, Garlic and Cinnamon

I don't know about your week, but mine has been total confusion with work sandwiched in between appointments and errands. Running from one thing to the next. We've spent more time in the car, and eaten more unplanned meals out.  I like to go out, but I much prefer to go to places where the food has a good chance of being better than what I fix at home. Quick pick-up meals usually just depress me, and I often end up eating things I wish I hadn't later. One more French fry and I won't be bathing-suit ready until 2014. Thank goodness the weekend has been quiet, and I actually had time to make a real dinner last night.

We had some beautiful strip steaks in the freezer, to thaw and cook, but I wanted something other that the usual steakhouse standards to serve as sides. Plus, I wanted to show you how to use some of the Moroccan style preserved lemons I showed you how to make last month. While these delicious carrot edge a bit towards Moroccan flavors, they have a sweet- savory taste with a little salty and lemony burst from the preserved lemons. Addicting.

Lazy is my middle name, and one of my main tasks this afternoon was a nice nap. Which didn't leave me a whole lot of time for slicing and dicing. And this dish takes absolutely none, if you buy baby cut carrots. I actually prefer the baby-cut over true baby carrots in this because they are generally sweeter. And you can plop the whole thing in one pot, put it on the stove and you are good to go.

Preserved lemons add such a burst of flavor, I don't know why you can't find them
in every supermarket in America.
But then, it's so easy to make your own.

Note: baby cut carrots, as opposed to actual baby carrots, are mature carrots that have been cut into the size and shape of immature, baby carrots. They have a richer carrot flavor, but do take a few minutes longer to cook. And we use a cinnamon stick, rather than powdered cinnamon so the finished dish of carrots doesn't look all muddy. I like to leave it on top as a decoration when serving. Silly, huh?

Dump and run, almost.

Easy Carrots with Preserved Lemon, Garlic and Cinnamon

Ingredients:

1 lb. baby-cut carrots
3-4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 small whole cinnamon stick
2T honey
1T unsalted butter
water
2 quarters of a preserved lemon, rinsed, pulp discarded, rind cut in julienne

Instructions:

1.Place everything through the butter in a medium ( about 3 quart) covered saucepan. Add just enough water to not quite cover the carrots and other ingredients.

2. Bring to a boil uncovered, then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook the carrots until just barely tender, about 15-20 minutes.

3. Remove the lid and add half of the julienne lemon rind, raise the heat and cook until the water disappears. Watch carefully so the carrots don't  burn. remove from the heat, stir in the remaining lemon  rind and serve.

Serves 4.

I promise the Broccoli Puree recipe later in the week.
It was a great steak dinner!

Easy Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup with Orange

Yesterday was snowy and cold, today...wet and chilly. I'm not sure which is worse, but when my favorite attire is my ratty red fleece bathrobe, and a pair of ancient Uggs, its time for soup. But since I have to work for a living (imagine a food blogger that doesn't hang around home all day writing about her cool life!), long cooked soups are left for days off. Easy Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup with Orange just tastes like you've spent all day cooking it. The tomato and pepper flavors are old friends, but the orange zest and juice lift it out of this world. 

This brightly flavored soup is quick to make, and is one I fall back on when  I need something that is both sophisticated flavor-wise and filling enough to turn a sandwich or a slice of vegetable tart into a top notch meal. It reheats well, so it makes a real bright spot in an otherwise mundane work lunch. 

Now you could make this in early summer with the first peppers and tomatoes, and I have, and it's delicious. This mid-Winter soup is strictly off the shelf, and out of the crisper drawer. I always have small cans of plain organic tomato sauce in the pantry, as well as a few small jars of roasted red peppers.  A drained 12 oz. jar of peppers is perfect. Don't leave out the orange; it really boosts the flavors of both the peppers and the tomato.

Easy Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup with Orange

Easy Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup with Orange

Serves 2

Instructions:

1 cup jarred roasted red pepper, rinsed, seeded and rough chopped
1 cup plain tomato sauce
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 small leafy celery stalk, chopped small
1 smallish carrot, chopped or sliced thinly
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp. sugar or granular erythritol
salt and pepper
Crème fraîche or plain Greek Yogurt as garnish, optional

Instructions:

1. Place everything through the sugar in a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer, cover and let cook until the celery and carrot are tender, about 15 -20 minutes.

2. Puree with either an immersion blender, or carefully puree in a regular blender. Taste for seasoning and add salt and / or pepper as needed.

3. Serve hot, dolloped with creme fraiche or yogurt.

For Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner: Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Strata

Sometimes, I get lazy. Even though I love to cook, often I'd rather hang out with a cup of coffee in the morning, or with a glass of wine in the evening and not have to fuss much over a meal for the assembled family. This usually happens over the holidays or on vacation. Unfortunately, I also have a solid case of Italian Guilt, instilled most thoroughly by my mother years ago that I haven't been able to shake. Its forced me to find something delectable to serve the gang that won't force me to run around the kitchen at the last moment. Usually it ends up being a make ahead dish, and a good one. A strata.

In case you aren't up on just what a strata is, I'll explain. A strata is a layered dish, involving bread, eggs and usually cheese, plus whatever other goodies (generally pre-cooked) you want to add in. As it bakes, it puffs, almost soufflé-like and then settles into a rich, puffy, creamy dish that you can have for pretty much any meal. You can make them savory or sweet, both versions are great additions to your cooking repertoire.

The nice part is that a strata is much better if you assemble it hours in advance, or the night before, and let it set in the fridge until baking time. It bakes in about an hour, which gives the cook time for that second cup of coffee, or glass of wine. For breakfast or brunch with a savory strata, all you need is some fruit on the side, and maybe some pastry; for lunch or dinner, a good salad or a side vegetable, or a cold soup before the strata  is nice. If you choose to make a sweet one, it makes a wonderful breakfast  or a fabulous dessert for a light meal. I promise to give you a sweet strata recipe later into the Autumn.

I've been making this version for years, but I've adopted a technique from Cook's Illustrated recently that adds some weights on top of the casserole while it chills. I think it really does improve the texture. I always chill the assembled strata at least 8 hours before baking to be sure all the stale bread has had a chance to soak up the eggs and cream. I just make it up before I go to bed, and let it rest while I do.

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Spinach, Mushroom and Bacon Strata
Serves 6-8

Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon strata. Cheesy and easy to make ahead,
and so delicious1

Ingredients

8 slices of stale Italian bread, sliced 1/2" thick
4T unsalted butter, softened
6 slices of smoked bacon, roughly chopped
8 oz. sliced cremini mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 10oz. box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded
6 large eggs
1-1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup light cream
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. kosher salt
ground black pepper
cooking spray or butter for pan

Instructions

Spray an 8" square baking dish with cooking spray or butter liberally. Spread one side of each slice of bread with a half tablespoon of butter, and set aside. In a large non-stick frying pan, cook the bacon until just crisp, and then remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the onions and mushrooms to the fat, and cook until the onions are soft, about 5-6 minutes over medium high heat. Add the spinach to the pan and stir until heated through. Turn off the heat, and mix in the bacon. Set the pan off the hot burner.

Place 4 slices of the bread in the bottom of the prepared pan, buttered side up. Distribute 1/2 of the spinach mixture over the bread evenly, and then sprinkle over 1/3 of the shredded Gruyere. Arrange the remaining 4 slices on top of the cheese, more or less in the opposite direction from the bottom slices. Top with all the remaining spinach mixture, and then 1/2 of the remaining cheese.

Whisk together the eggs, the milk, the cream, the nutmeg, kosher salt and black pepper to taste, and por the mixture carefully over the top of the bread and spinach mixture in the baking dish. Place a large  sheet of plastic wrap flush on top of the top cheese layer, and place a small, heavy frying pan ( or as Cook's suggests 2 1-pound boxes of sugar) on top of the plastic wrap to weigh down the bread. Chill it weighed down for at least 3 hours, or overnight. When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 325ºF, remove the weights and the plastic wrap and sprinkle over the remaining Gruyere cheese and bake for 55-65 minutes, until browned and puffed.  Serve hot or at room temperature, and remember, it will deflate just about as soon as it comes out of the oven, and that's supposed to happen...