French Onion Soup with Cheesy Bruscheta

Last week I was at the airport and for the first time ever wasn't in a rush to get to my next flight, so my husband & I ate at one of those sit-down terminal restaurants. I don't remember it's name, but it was french-themed. I ordered a bowl of french onion soup to go with my veggie panini. The soup was really good. I think I've only had onion soup a few other times and probably rarely home-made. I remembered seeing a recipe for it in my slow cooker book, but had been waiting to get a bunch of onions from my garden or grub box. That didn't happen this fall, so I never made it. So yesterday, I got a bag of sweet Vidalia onions from the grocery store & started slicing.

The recipe was super easy. I prepped the onions last night which only took me 10 or so minutes. And then this morning added them & olive oil to the slow cooker, set it to low & went off to work. Ten hours later, I added veggie broth & brandy to the fully caramelized onions. While it all got warmed together, I made cheesy bread in the toaster oven. Then served the soup with the bread on top, squishing it down in the bowl if need be to soak up the hot soup. The whole household enjoyed it. There were some onions that were a little past caramelized along one section of the slow cooker's bottom - maybe stirring it towards the end of the cooking would avoid that, not sure. Next time I think I would add some mushrooms to caramelize with the onions for a little more flavor. And serve with a green salad. I would definitely make this one again!

Pumpkin-Pecan Bread

12.28.10

I used the slow cooker twice in one day! (See below for cabbage rolls.) I cooked our Halloween pumpkin and ended up with 9 cups of pureed pumpkin, I tried this bread recipe from Katie's Vegetarian Slow Cooker book. The bread ended up being a little too dense and needed spices (it didn't call for any!). The pecan to pumpking ratio was nice though. I wonder if the the fresh pumpking had less flavor than canned.

Cooking bread in the slow cooker is interesting. It's more like steaming. We have a perfect loaf pan that sits about an inch off the bottom of the slow cooker. Otherwise you'd have to use a trivet or rack to hold the loaf pan up so it doesn't rest on the slow cooker. You put about 2c of boiling water in the bottom and you're ready to make tea bread.

Tempeh & Barley Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

12.28.10

My sister Abbey made this dish and had this to say:

Our People's Grocery Grub Box/CSA has regularly supplied our house with cabbage this winter. Sometimes we even end up with two heads in the fridge. I made fermented sauerkraut, but still there was more cabbage. So over the winter holidays, I had more time to cook and decided to make this stuffed cabbage. It was time consuming but very tasty. First I made barley which I'd never done before: 1c barley to 3.5c water simmered for 1hr yields about 4 cups cooked barley! I used half in this recipe and froze the rest for a future dinner. I then sauteed grated carrots and onion and then added tempeh. To soften the cabbage, steam in a steamer basket. Peel the soft outer leaves and then stuff with about 1/3 c filling. Roll up leaf and place stem side down in the slow cooker. If needed, re-steam inner leaves of cabbage. When all stuffing is used or you run out of cabbage, cover rolls with crushed tomatoes and cook on low for 6 hours. If the cabbage on slot continues long enough, I will try the recipe again using vegetarian burger crumbles.

Maple-Almond Granola with Cranberries and Dates

2.7.10
I found my notes from a few months ago when I tried out the granola recipe. I had a cold that week, so they don't totally make sense, but here goes. Some almonds were definitely kinda burnt. It didn't really taste burnt, but some of the sliced almonds were really hard & made a "scary cracking noise against my teeth." The book doesn't really tell you how often to stir, but I think it would have been better to stir every 15 minutes. I tried to do that, but didn't want to get out from under the blanket on the couch, so sometimes it was more like 25-30. I was going for crunchy though because lots of other efforts in the oven have been more chewy.

My housemates & I tried to figure out if it was cheaper to make our own granola then buy it from the bulk bins at the grocery store. So far it seems to be cheaper to buy it even with getting a 25 lb bag of oats from the natural food distributor. Mostly because maple syrup is so expensive. But I want to make it and have it be a good deal, so I will have to experiment on sweetener - honey, agave nectar, molasses.

Indian Cauliflower and Kidney Bean Stew with Coconut Milk

4.26.10
My sister prepped & made this dish for our dinner. It was perfect comfort food after a tiring Monday at work and a trip to the gym. My husband came home and immediately said "It smells good in here" before he had even shut the garage door. We ate it over brown rice and used a whole can of coconut milk instead of just one 1 cup 'cause -- why wouldn't you? Didn't drain the tomatoes either. It was pretty sweet from the cardamom & allspice, but the savory spices & beans & variety of veggies evened it out. You can totally add a larger amount of potatoes & cauliflower if you have a 6-quart cooker and add in the extra liquid. Then you'll have more leftovers!

Something that came up over dinner - the crockpot smell. First you smell the dish you are making and then there is always the underlying same smell, not sure what it smells like. It kinda made me think of my mom cooking potroast in her slow cooker back in the day. But it doesn't quite smell like meat, just hours & hours of cooking. We'll see if it keeps coming up.

Veggie Stock

4.1.10
It was going to be a cold & rainy week and I had been saving some some random veggie stalks to make into veggie stock, so I started to throw some items into the pot.

1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 bunch swiss chard stems, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch beet green stems, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch carrot tops, leafy parts only, torn into 1-inch pieces
2 fennel stalks, feathery parts only
1/3 c parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled and crushed
1/2 tsp celery seed
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
8 c water
2 tsp soy sauce or braggs
1 tsp salt

Drizzle olive oil into slowcooker. Add veggies & spices. Pour in water. Add soy sauce & salt. Cover & cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Let cool for a little while. I then used a sieve to squeeze the juices out of the cooked veggies. This didn't really get me a ton of extra liquid, but I bet it was some of the strongest and didn't really take me very long, so might as well try it. I left the carrot & onion chunks in the pot and used a stick blender to blend it all up. I ended up with over nine cups of broth. I had enough to make lentil soup for dinner the next night, cook up a giant pot of potato broccoli soup to share with my friends who just had a baby and freeze some for the next rainy week. And it was super yummy!

Perfect Hominy White Bean Chili

1.15.10
Hominy is always a strange bean/corn/veggie to me. Although it got really soft after cooking all day long, this dish wasn't all that great. It was super easy to get together, was spicy, but just okay. Maybe it needed more cilantro. Or cheese on top. It called for white beans, but it might be better with kidneys.