Roasted Vegetable and Mushroom Soup

Everyone knows Kitchen Sink Soup. You just gather up all the vegetables you have that you have too little of to make a real meal or that are on their way out and you dump them into a giant vegetable soup. It's always yummy and perfect for those rainy days where it's too gloomy to consider leaving the house. Well, today was one of those days for me, but mon dieu, I had no such odds and ends veg-wise to make a Kitchen Sink Soup!

All I had were a sweet potato that began to sprout pretty little purple vines, a 12 oz. box of baby bella mushrooms, two scallions, a kohlrabi, and a golden beet. I also had froze some of my homemade vegetable stock that I made over the weekend (instructions coming soon!) I really wanted to try out the stock so I started to formulate an idea.

I roasted all the vegetables, threw in some seasoning, melted down the frozen bag of stock, and pureed them together into a soup, leaving the mushrooms whole. At the last minute, I threw in some spaghetti I had already cooked and kept in the fridge. I expected a meh soup. Nothing to write home about but still edible. When I was done, I was kind of shocked. This soup was actually good. I mean, really good. A nice complex flavor. One vegetable wasn't overpowering the others. Everything melded really well. Best of all, it tasted nice, cozy, and warm. Perfect for this gloomy August day. 

Now, let's hope that these rainy days we've been having this August isn't the norm. I've been angling for another beach day this weekend and the weather better cooperate!

Get together:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 large golden beet
• 1 alien-looking kohlrabi (purple or green, it doesn't matter)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup olive ol
• 2 scallions, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• A couple sprigs of oregano or 1/2 generous tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 quart of vegetable stock
• 1 12 oz. box of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 mushroom bouillon cube (optional) 
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 a lime, juiced
• Enough spaghetti for 2, prepared

Now, to make 4 servings of soup:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
• Peel and coarsely chop the sweet potato, golden beet, and kohlrabi into 1/2" cubes. Add them to a large roasting pan, salt and pepper generously, and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 35-40 minutes, tossing the vegetables halfway.
• Meanwhile, prepare and chop the scallions, garlic, and oregano. Set aside.
• Clean and slice the baby bella mushrooms.
• Add the scallions, garlic, and oregano to the roasted vegetables in the last 10 minutes of cooking, tossing well.
• Remove the roasting pan from the oven but do not turn it off.
• In a blender, add cilantro and all the vegetables, scraping every last bit out of the pan. Pour in about half a quart of vegetable stock or enough to cover the vegetables. 
• Move the mushrooms to the roasting pan, season lightly with salt, and drizzle with more oil if needed. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
• While the mushrooms are roasting, puree the vegetables in the blender. Pour the puree into a pot and add more stock to thin it out. Don't make it watery, just make it slightly thick enough to have texture.
• Add the mushroom bouillon cube and season with cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt. Bring up to a gentle boil over medium heat. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
• When the mushrooms are roasted, soft with slightly crispy edges, remove from the oven and add to the soup. Squeeze 1/2 a lime over it. My lime was particularly juicy so it was enough, yours may be stingy so use a whole lime if needed.
• Ladle into individual bowls and add spaghetti whole. Cut up the strands with your spoon and enjoy.

This is super easy to double up to have a larger pot. Even though it sounds labor intensive, it's really not. A short cut I did was roasting the mushrooms with the other vegetables and just picking them out when they were done. It allowed time for the vegetables to slightly cool so I could handle them in the blender. Alternatively, you could add the stock and the vegetables including the cilantro to the pot and use an immersion blender to puree. Then, add in the mushrooms and continue as directed. 

I know it sounds like a weird soup, but it's well worth it. The sweet potato's sweetness played really well with the kohlrabi's cabbagey turnipy flavor and the beet's earthiness. The roasted mushroom added that "final" punctuation that ends the play of flavors on your tongue. The spice from the cayenne pepper, the smokiness from the cumin, and the tang from the lime really helped bring it together. This is definitely a soup I'd make again!

Sweet Summer Corn Spaghetti

I wanted to go all alliteration-y on you and call this Sweet Summer Squash Spaghetti, but there's proportionately more corn than squash in this dish and I cannot tell a lie.

Since we're not telling lies, I'm going to tell you that this dish was pretty simple to make and surprisingly good. Though, it shouldn't be surprising when you get all your favorite produce at this awesome farm off the Towpath Trail named Szalay's Sweet Corn Farm. Guitar Boy and I bike, pick up some goods, and bike back home. It's the good life.

(Photo Credit: http://www.summitmetroparks.org/parksandtrails/TowpathTrail.aspx)

So, here's what you need to have. (This will serve 2 big portions):

• Enough spaghetti for two (I prefer whole wheat for its taste and health benefits, so why not?)
• 2 shallots, sliced thinly
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 zucchini, cut into half and sliced into 1/4" pieces
• Splash of dry white wine (optional, see method below)
• 1 - 1 1/2 tsp Mediterranean, Greek, or Italian seasoning (or your favorite)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 a pint of grape tomatoes (give or take depending on your preference,) halved
• 2 sweet corn, kernels cut off the cob
• 2 garlic scapes, minced (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Basil and a handful of Parmesan cheese for garnish

And here's how you make it:

• Prepare a pot of salted water to boil the spaghetti while cooking the vegetables.
• In a large pan, warm up some olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add the shallots, carrots, and celery and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook until softened as well, another 4-5 minutes. 
• Here, I added a splash of white wine because I was getting some burned bits at the bottom of the pan and wanted to deglaze it. This is purely optional. If you're doing this, let it cook down to about 1/3 the amount. 
• Season with your preferred seasoning and garlic and cook about 30 seconds until you can smell the garlicky goodness. (Mmm, I'm a big fan of garlic. The more, the better, but adjust to your desired garlicky level.) Then, stir in the halved grape (or cherry) tomatoes with the corn and the optional garlic scape, and salt and pepper to taste. Let the tomatoes release their juices and the corn warm through, about a few more minutes. Reduce to low.
• Using tongs or whatever else you'd like, transfer the cooked spaghetti to the vegetable pan. Add a few spoonfuls of the spaghetti water to help create a sauce. Then throw in as much cheese as you like, I used about a palmful, and let the dish meld together. Serve with shredded basil and cheese on top.

This dish can really be made with any sort of vegetables you like. Use peas instead of corn, add broccoli, swap zucchini for eggplant, whatever you like. Most of my recipes are variations of other recipes I've done, read about, or been told about. It's pretty tough to go wrong with a dish like this!

What's your favorite summer produce to pick up at the farm or the market?