Peasant Soup Anyone?

Make yourself a big batch of this soup and then throw it into the freezer in mason jars.  When you need something fast to eat for dinner, or something to bring to work for your lunch, look no further!  I skipped the pasta in mine this time, and used kidney beans as my bean of choice.  I also did not puree my beans this time around. But it doesn't matter.  Play with the recipe and have fun with it.

Pasta, cooked al-dente and set aside. (Use a small shaped pasta)

• Dried beans, soaked overnight in a large pot of water and boiled. (about 1/3 lb)
• 1 medium sized onion
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, smashed well
• 2 stalks of celery
• A palm full of parsley, chopped
• Tomato paste (a couple of tablespoons)
• One large peeled, chopped fresh tomato
• Olive oil
• 2 quarts of water (or more or less, its a preference thing)
• 1/4 to 1/2 a head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 large bunch of spinach, Swiss chard, or lambs quarters, roughly chopped
• 1 large potato, diced
• Some strips or hunks of ham, bacon or pancetta
• Small piece of parmesan rind (optional, but decadent!)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Roughly chop the onion, celery and parsley and sauté gently in olive oil. When they begin to turn golden, add the chopped greens, garlic and potato. Season with salt and pepper and add tomato and paste, to your taste, then add some of the water you used to boil the beans, or vegetable or chicken broth to obtain a soup consistency.

Puree (or don't) half of the beans, and add these with the other half (left whole) to the soup, along with the meat scraps (and parmesan rind if using). Allow to simmer further until vegetables are cooked, then, taking it off the heat, add your cooked pasta, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.  Garnish with fresh grated parmesan if desired.

A good "cold-as-hell" kind of winter day meal when served with fresh warm bread.  And those kind of days are just around the corner...

 

Time for a nap...

 

Ham and Bean Soup

 

A soup for when you are low on cash...
Or it's just plain cold and nasty outside.
Or because you have a lot of leftover ham.
Or because you just need something to go with cornbread...

 

In my case it was a shit ton of leftover ham from a family holiday gathering.

 

Farmstead Ham and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb dried great northern beans, rinsed, and then soaked for a few hours

4-6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1 large onion, chopped coarsely

1 large carrot, sliced thick

2 stalks of celery - sliced

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

2 bay leaves

1 lb smoked ham or 1 lb ham hock

6 cups homemade chicken or ham broth

Directions:

Sort and rinse beans.

Put the rinsed beans, the rest of the ingredients and the ham, chopped into large, rustic pieces (or ham hocks if using) into the crock pot along with 6 cups water or broth.

Cover crock, and cook on low for about 6-8 hours, or until beans are tender.

 

And the "Polar Vortex" continues...

Yep, its still c-o-l-d...  I know because I checked this morning, and the temperature read -23 degrees.  So it is true!.  This was the first time the big dog ever had frozen, stinging paws after running outside for a quick poop this morning. Poor Louie.  Because it was too cold to let the dog play outside, I took him along with me to the feed mill to pick up some grain.  He looked a tad concerned with my driving skills.  But in my defense it was snowing, and icy!



Louie riding" shotgun"

Snow and cold.  Cold and snow.  More cold, more snow. Cold snow. It appears never-ending. I'm going to loose my mind.  Have I already?



Heading to the Feed Mill

What have we been doing to get through all of this polar despair?  Drooling over spring seed catalogues and eating of course!  Lately we've just been hanging out in the kitchen, throwing ingredients together and playing around with our food to see what we could come up with.  So far the results have not been disappointing.



Perfect Seafood Soup



Red Skin Mashed Potatoes with Bacon



A little bit of everything omelet



French Toast and More Bacon!



Sausage Bean and Veg Soup (Spicy)



Simple Salad with Feta and Chickpeas

Lima Bean Soup

The WWFarmstead purse strings are pulled tighter than a frog's butt lately, due to the Vaquero (mexican for "cowboy")  being without work for the past three months.  We've been getting creative and trying to eat as low cost as we can stand. 

So tonight's dinner is a quick, satisfying, mostly healthy and mostly frugal dinner.  It's my own recipe, and is now a "keeper" in our farm house - Lima Bean Soup. 

Okay, I get it.  Most people hate lima beans.  I adore them.  And, if you don't, use some other bean.  You won't hurt anyone's feelings. It's also nice to have some homemade bread (which we all should be making anyway) to serve along with it. 

Lima Bean Soup  (Pressure Cooker recipe)
Serves 4-6, depending on how hungry your Vaquero is...

1 lb. smoked kielbasa or andouille links, sliced thick
1 tsp hot pepper flakes (or less if you're afraid)
2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
1/2 tsp coarse ground, black pepper
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced thick
2-3 celery stalks, sliced thick
1/2 half of a large yellow onion, chopped
5-6 cloves of fresh garlic, smashed and chopped
1 tbsp dried oregano
14 oz plain tomato sauce
6 cups of water
1 lb of Lima Beans, drained (must first be soaked for 8 hours!)

Do all of your peeling, slicing and chopping.  Drain off the soaking liquid from the Lima Beans.  Throw everything into the pressure cooker, secure the lid.  Pressure cook at 15 lbs pressure for 6 minutes.

Serve in bowls garnished with fresh cilantro or italian parsley, your choice.  Enjoy!