Unseasonably warm weather be damned, Thanksgiving panic has gripped New York City. An innocent trip to Whole Foods yesterday afternoon almost turned ugly when one crazed, 200 item-list-clutching-shopper and I reached for the same bag of fresh cranberries. There was fire in her eyes, so I backed off. Nothing good can come from standing between a cook with a deadline and her fresh cranberry chutney.

Besides, my cranberries are destined to sit in the fridge well past next week’s festivities. My only mission on this Whole Foods voyage was of the pumpkin variety; for dinner most definitely, and for next week’s pumpkin pie as well.

You may recall last year’s bourbon pumpkin cheesecake, which, in classic style, I left until the last minute and had no choice but to make using pumpkin from a can. This year, demonstrating more forethought than ever before, I now have containers of pumpkin puree that I made last night stashed in the freezer, ready for their debut on the Thanksgiving table (click here for my new “techniques” section entry on how to do this yourself).

More importantly, I had enough pumpkin left over to make this velvety and satisfying soup for dinner. The recipe belongs to Brian’s Aunt Karen, who makes it each year as the precursor to his family’s Thanksgiving feast. The broth is more fluid than what you’d normally think of for a squash soup, owing to the large chicken broth to pumpkin puree ratio. The addition of French lentils makes it just hearty enough for a light dinner, which is exactly how we enjoyed it.

Pumpkin Lentil Soup
Adapted from Aunt Karen’s recipe

I just created a new page on the site called Techniques Tips and Other Topics, and the inaugural entry is about making your own pumpkin and squash purees. Please click here to read about how to do this at home.

3/4 cup French lentils (or other lentils)

1/4 cup butter (1/2 a stick)

2 large onions, diced into 1/4 inch pieces

45 oz. chicken stock (plus approx. 8 oz. more for reheating)

1/4 tsp margoram (fresh is best, dried and crushed also works)

1/8 tsp thyme (fresh is best, dried and crushed also works)

1/8 tsp black pepper

18 oz. pumpkin puree (or 15 oz. if using canned)

dash of Tobasco sauce, plus more for serving

Soak lentils in a bowl of cold water while you melt butter and chop/cook onions. Place butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over low heat to melt, then add chopped onions, stir to coat with butter, and cook the onions over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the onions are shiny and translucent, add the lentils and chicken stock. Turn up the heat to bring to a boil. When the stock boils, add the pumpkin puree and herbs and stir until completely integrated. Simmer on medium low for an hour and a half, stirring every ten to fifteen minutes. Add additional chicken stock if the broth gets too thick (you may also use water). Finish with pepper and dash of Tabasco to taste. Serve with Tabasco.

If making the soup in advance, keep some extra chicken stock on hand to dilute the broth during the reheating process if necessary.

I’m not going to sink to the same level as this bout of premature winter that Mother Nature has tossed our way by complaining about it. Instead, I will silently voice my opinion by fighting back against the cold with this feisty, flavorful soup.

Tortilla soup defines comfort food for me – hearty, warm, and spicy, without lighting my mouth on fire. The rich chicken stock is underscored with a bit of heat, and cradles the sweetness of tomatoes – in this case, some of the last that we will be likely to see at the market until next August.

The shredded chicken is perfectly tender from hours of slow simmering, and gives the soup the guts it needs to stand on it’s own as a meal.

I staged a pathetic attempt at making my own tortillas for the first time and it was a miserable FAIL because I was unable to procure the necessary lard on such short notice. I tried to substitute with my all-natural, organic shortening and instead of flat, flexible pancakes, I ended up with mush balls that fell apart when rolled out. I fried up a few of those up to give the soup it’s signature flavor, but my hopes of topping the soup with gnarly strips of crispy tortilla were dashed.

That will have to be a project for another day.

Tortilla soup requires that you make your own stock (you need to do it anyway to cook the chicken to tender perfection), and therefore, you should plan to make the stock and set the chicken aside in the fridge the night before if the mood strikes for say, a weekday dinner. No matter how you get it done, it is well worth the effort, and the perfect end to our first blustery day that reminded us, cruelly, that winter is just around the corner.

Tortilla Soup

For the Stock:

1 (4 to 5 pound) whole chicken, innards removed and rinsed
Salt
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup medium diced carrots
1 cup medium diced celery
4 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
8 cups water

For the Soup:

8 (7-inch) corn tortillas
Vegetable oil, for frying
2 cups chopped onions
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 bay leaf
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded (about 6 to 8 Romas)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Garnishes:

1 large avocado, peeled and diced
2 fresh limes, cut into quarters
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

For the Stock: Season the chicken with salt. Place in a large stockpot and add the remaining ingredients. Season with a teaspoon of salt. Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the chicken is tender, about 2 hours.

Remove from the heat and cool completely. Remove the chicken and set aside. Strain the liquid into a another pan, discarding the vegetables. Remove the fat and bones from the chicken. Dice the chicken into 1/2-inch pieces. Set aside.

For the Soup: Preheat the fryer. Cut half of the tortillas in quarters and thinly slice the other half. Fry both cuts of tortillas in batches, until golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels. Season with salt and set aside.

In a stock pot, over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Season with salt, pepper and oregano. Saute until soft, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf and jalapeno. Continue to saute for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes. Crush the reserved fried tortilla quarters over the tomatoes. Stir to mix. Stir in the reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Using a hand-held blender, puree the soup until smooth or leave chunky (either way, be sure to remove the bay leaf). Re-season the soup. Stir in the reserved chicken and cilantro. Simmer for another 5 minutes. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls. Garnish with the avocados, squeeze of lime  lime juice, fresh cilantro and the fried tortilla strips. Serve warm.

I’ve arrived at the point in the winter season when I turn into a serious hater. I hate my coats, my scarves, and my gloves. I hate shoving my feet into boots and freeing my face off each morning as I make the trek to the subway. I hate the sad selection of root vegetables and apples at the greenmarket. And with the teeth-rattling wind chills that raged all week, the only place that I wanted to be (besides curled up in bed) was in the kitchen making soup, pretending that I’d never have to go outside again.

Butternut squash soup is one of my winter favorites for a few key reasons. First off, it has only a few ingredients that are readily available and quite affordable.

And then there’s the fact that it is almost impossible to mess it up. Even my cat could make this soup.

And lastly, despite it’s decadent, creamy texture and big flavor, it’s ridiculously good for you (low in fat, high in nutrients).

This particular recipe features a puree of roasted red pepper drizzled on the top. I found the flavor off-putting and say don’t bother.

I used a hand blender to puree the soup right in the pot. If you do not have this very awesome gadget, never fear – a regular blender or food processor will yield the same effect. For me, it was worth the 25 bucks to never have to clean my blender after making soup.

I highly recommend using fresh thyme for this soup, and don’t forget to add the zest. The recipe calls for orange, but I used lemon instead.

As I mentioned earlier, If you like the taste of biting garlic and slightly bitter pepper overpowering the lovely creamy squash flavors, then this puree is for you. Otherwise, steer clear.

I served this soup with some rosemary crackers that I will show you in my next post. The soup was entirely delicious and achieved the desired warming effect, briefly lifting my spirits, if only until I had to return out into the elements once more.

Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Red Pepper Purée
Adapted from Gourmet, December 2003 

For the soup:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 1/4 cups chopped onions

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 2 1/2-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch pieces

5 1/2 cups (or more) vegetable broth

3 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Thanksgiving is coming and in an effort to not feel too much like huge pigs, each year we try to eat pretty light during the days leading up to the big event. Some years we are more successful at it than others, but when this spicy and flavorful butternut squash soup is on the pre-game menu, we have a shot at staying on the wagon until Thursday evening.

There is no set recipe for this soup and I can only offer guidelines based on how I like to make it. You can’t really go wrong if you start with a very fresh, local butternut squash of medium size (will feed 4 as part of a meal, 2 as the meal itself). Peel, seed, and chop the squash into pieces that are roughly 1 1/2 inches.

The sort-of -secret ingredient in this soup is apples – for this recipe I use two of the Macintosh variety, peeled, cored, and chopped into eighths.

Bring a pot of water to boil and add the squash. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes, or until you notice that it has gotten soft enough to mash with a fork. At this point, add the apples and simmer for an additional three minutes. Remove from the heat and strain.

Puree the squash and apples in a food processor or blender until they are completely creamy and smooth with absolutely no lumps.

Once the mixture is smooth, dump the contents of the food processor into a large saucepan and add a cup of vegetable stock – homemade or store bought will both work here.

Once the stock is stirred in, begin to add curry to the soup, a little bit at a time. I used a Tikka Masala blend that I got from an Indian grocery, but red Thai curry would also work fine here. Slowly add spice and then taste, stopping when it has reached your desired level of spice.

Once the soup is spicy to your liking, add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Also, you may choose to add a tablespoon of butter, although I thought it was just fine without it.

Stir and simmer for a few more minutes, then taste again and add more seasoning if needed. Spoon the soup into bowls and add a pinch of nutmeg to the top for presentation and aroma. This soup is perfectly complimented by a multi-grain roll or piece of sourdough toast.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium to large sized butternut squash

2 Macintosh apples – the food, not the computer

1 cup vegetable stock

approx 2 tablespoons Thai red curry or other curry (red colors are recommended for presentation)

salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon butter (optional)

Pinches of nutmeg (optional)

I just started a new job and I’m thrilled to not be working downtown for the first time in almost four years! For a long time I had been dreaming of the day that I would not have to brave the crappy commute, the depressing streets surrounding the stock exchange, and most of all, the lack of decent lunch options. In fact, I ate at the same soup counter day after day, and I only got one type of soup – the three lentil chili. you’d think I’d be sick of it after four years, but I found myself missing it yesterday, and decided to whip up some chili of my own.

Chili is a superfood – full of vegetables and protein and very filling, but without a lot of fat and absolutely vegan (unless you add some dairy later). I like mine tangy, spicy, and just a little sweet – all at the same time. A good chili begins with a large, sturdy pot with onions and garlic caramelizing in some olive oil on the bottom with some salt and ground black pepper.

My chili involves a few types of peppers. I like bell peppers (I used red and green, but any combination works great) because they provide nice flavor and balance to the chili, and I use Jalapeños for the heat. Be sure to remove the seeds of both before chopping. The bell peppers need to be cut into larger pieces (no bigger than an inch on any side,  and the jalapeños should be diced as small as possible.

Add the peppers to the pot with the onions and garlic and sautee for 15 to 20 minutes on medium to high heat. The goal is to get the peppers nice and soft without burning anything.

I prefer veggie chili to be very heavy on the tomatoes. I use two large cans of organic chopped tomatoes and I highly recommend the Muir Glen brand (the ones in the picture) if you can find them, since they are fire roasted and add a lot of flavor.

On the issue of corn in veggie chili I am emphatically pro-corn! I am also, however, very much anti-canned corn. For this batch, I decided to use two ears of hot house corn, which frankly, sucks. Maybe frozen corn is the answer? What a paradox that chili – a delicious winter food is enhanced by corn – a food that  is only at its best during the month of August (at least for on the East Coast).

Once the tomatoes and corn have gone into the pot, be sure to add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. This is also the time to add the spices and white basalmic vinegar, which is the secret to tangy, yet not overpoweringly acidic chili.

Once the tomatoes and corn have gone in, it is time to add the spices. I opt for a whole lot of chili powder because it gives it flavor without bite and lends a nice color to the chili. I also like cumin in my chili, but that is a personal preference. Add the ground red pepper a little at a time depending on the heat that you are going for. Adding beer only helps if you want more liquid and nostalgia or testosterone – in veggie chili, I really don’t see the point and didn’t actually added it to this batch – it just looks badass in the picture.

In my recipe, the beans come last. This time, I used a can of Goya black beans and a can of Goya chickpeas. Under usual circumstances I would have planned ahead and soaked dried beans overnight, but that was not in the cards. Either way you should end up with approx. 1 and 3/4 cups of each type of bean. Be sure to rinse them (especially if they come out of a can) and then add them to your chili pot. Let the whole thing simmer for at least ten minutes (or longer if you want to cook off some of the liquid).

And there you have it. Delicious, protein rich, vitamin heavy, delicious, and vegan – until you add the sour cream and cheddar, which are optional (no really!). This one pot will provide about 8 meals. It did the trick and made me stop craving the chili that I used to get at my job downtown, and now I happily commute to Brooklyn.

Veggie Chickpea Chili

2 cans of organic, fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

2 Jalapeño peppers

4 cloves of garlic

1 large onion (white or yellow)

2 ears of corn cut from the cob (or 1 12 oz package of frozen corn)

olive oil

salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons ground red pepper (or to taste)

4 tablespoons chili powder (or to taste)

1 tablespoon cumin (or to taste)

1 and 3/4 cups chickpeas

1 and 3/4 cups black beans (or other bean of your choice)

1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar

Sour cream (optional)

cheddar cheese (optional)

The arrival of my November 10^th installment of NY Magazine elicited squeals of delight from yours truly – a whole spread of holiday foods featuring local ingredients (and the farmers who grow them!) written by a few of my favorite chefs. Given that I’ve been in a soup-y mood lately and that I love love love fennel, deciding to dive in with Dan Barber’s recipe for a fennel soup was a no-brainer (stay tuned for other gems, including Ed Brown’s Roasted Oysters with Leeks & Bacon – drool).

This soup is simple once you move beyond the stock, which is just slightly more complex than an average vegetable stock with it’s fennel, garlic, coriander seeds, and thyme. I recommend that you prepare it in advance, otherwise you are looking at 4 hours in the kitchen. 

Alas, I did not photograph the stock-making process, but the instructions are straightforward – apologies for being a bad blogger. 

There are few things more satisfying that chopping into a big bulb of fennel – it’s dense and crisp and your kitchen is instantly filled with fresh, anise aroma. Well, maybe there is one thing more satisfying – peeling an apple clean with just a single insertion of the blade. When chopping the fennel, be sure to use only the white parts for the soup and hold the greens for later.

The rest is simple – sweat out the onions and shallots in a tiny bit of olive oil, add the apples and fennel, then the stock, season, and simmer for half an hour. Come back in 30 minutes and you will have a saucepan of mush – fennel, apples, and the rest all cooked down and ready to become creamy soup.

Contrary to Dan Barber’s instructions, I pureed the mush in the food processor as I tend to avoid cleaning my blender at all costs. I let the food processor do its job for about three minutes and got the desired effect – a creamy, dense fennel soup that tastes so rich that you’ll never miss the stick of butter that you’ll swear is enveloped in that fennel-apple goodness. This soup is a vegan’s dream.

Dairyless Local-Fennel Soup
From New York Magazine, November 10, 2008
THE RECIPE:
For the Vegetable Stock:

• 
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil 

• 1 1/4 cups medium-diced onion 

• 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots 

• 1/4 cup medium-diced leeks
•  
1/2 cup medium-diced carrots 
• 
3 1/4 cups medium-diced fennel 
• 
Salt

• 1/8 teaspoon coriander seeds 

• 1/8 teaspoon black peppercorns 

• 6 sprigs parsley 

• 3 sprigs thyme 

• 1/2 head garlic

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the vegetables and a pinch of salt, and sweat over low heat. Add the coriander seeds, peppercorns, parsley, thyme, garlic, and 6 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 50 minutes. Strain and chill.

For the Fennel Soup:

• 
3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 
1 onion, chopped 
• 
3 small shallots, minced 
• 
3 1/2 cups diced fennel, white part only, reserving green fronds for garnish 

• 1 apple, peeled and diced 
• 
Salt and ground black pepper 

• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, crushed 
• 
4 cups vegetable stock (recipe above) 

• 1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and shallots, and sweat until translucent. Add the fennel and apple, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes before adding the fennel seeds and stock, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add thyme and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer to a blender and purée, adding the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Return to saucepan and heat gently. Garnish with fennel fronds.

THE CHEF:
 Dan BarberBlue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Instead of the traditional pumpkin or squash soup, Dan Barber prefers the anise-flavored fennel. “It’s so silky and rich, you don’t need to add dairy,” he says. “Which means it’s hearty without being filling, so you can enjoy the rest of the meal.” Barber has experimented with many varieties for flavor, but Ken Migliorelli’s oversize bulbs, he’s says, “are the sweetest.”
THE FARMER:
 Ken Migliorelli(Migliorelli Farm) Tivoli; 845-757-3276 or migliorelli.com Ken Migliorelli comes from a family of Italian farmers—when his grandfather emigrated from Italy in the thirties, he brought broccoli-rabe seeds with him and planted them on his farm in the Bronx. That same strain of seed is now grown on Migliorelli’s farm in Dutchess County, which is one of the largest regional farms specializing in Italian products—broccoli rabe, arugula, and dandelion, among 140 other items. “The fennel’s grown in a sandy loam soil,” says Migliorelli. “That’s what makes it sweet.”