Cooking for lunch: Tomato and White Bean Soup with Lots of Garlic

It's rare for me do any real cooking for lunch. Standards are things like pouring boiling water into a container of dry soup, maybe a peanut butter sandwich or tuna fish, or if I'm feeling ambitious, matzah fry (scrambled eggs with a piece of matzah crumbled in). But when I saw this recipe in the NY Times, it sounded really good to me, and so simple and quick to make that I decided to try it for lunch. I highly recommend it!  This is basically tomato soup, but with much more substance/depth than opening a can of Campbell's. I had the soup with an apple and some nuts, and found that to be a very satisfying meal.

(Sorry for the extra spaces between the lines before the instructions--something odd going on, making it impossible for me to make them single spaces.)

TOMATO AND WHITE BEAN SOUP WITH LOTS OF GARLIC

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020733-tomato-and-white-bean-soup-with-lots-of-garlic

4-5 servings

10 garlic cloves

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 (14-ounce) cans white beans, such as cannellini or great Northern, including their liquid. Drain one can but use both beans and liquid from the other can.*

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 cup stock or water, plus more as needed

 Kosher salt and black pepper

 Heavy cream, for serving (optional)

 

Peel the garlic, then smash the cloves using the flat side of a chef's knife or the bottom of a heavy skillet until wispy and flat.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat the olive oil, then add the crushed garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the white beans and the liquid from one can, crushed tomatoes, stock or water, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then partly cover, reduce heat, and let simmer until thickened and fragrant, 15 to 20 minutes.

Using an immersion or regular blender, purée the soup until smooth. Add stock or water to thin as desired. (I did not thin.) Season to taste with salt and pepper. (I did not use any salt.) Option: Drizzle with heavy cream before serving. (I happened to have cream on hand, so drizzled some on the first time I served the soup. I forgot about it the next day when I had the soup for a second lunch, and didn't notice any difference. So, no need to add cream!)

*This is what I did, following advice from one commenter. The original instructions were to not drain either can, and use the liquid from both cans. I might try that the next time, as it makes it that much easier to leave out a step and not have a colander to wash.

A Salad for the End of Summer

My friend Susan and I share many interests, one of which is food and cooking.  She has often introduced me to new cookbooks, going back to the Moosewood Cookbook in the late 70s.  She recently mentioned to me cookbooks by Ellie Krieger, someone I hadn't heard of.  I looked at one of her books in the library and then purchased a used copy of Weeknight Wonders: Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less.  I have been enjoying trying recipes from this book, and this salad is especially wonderful.  It's definitely seasonal though, so make it soon!  It's a great way to enjoy garden tomatoes and fresh peaches--a combination I had never tried before.  The recipe calls for arugula.  The first time I made it, I couldn't find any in the store, so made it without.  Tonight I made it with.  Excellent either way!  I was dubious about how little oil and vinegar was called for in the recipe, and I put cruets on the table thinking I would need more, but it was fine as is.

MOZARELLA, TOMATO, AND PEACH SALAD

adapted from Ellie Krieger, Weeknight Wonders: Healthy Dinners in 30 minutes or Less

serves 6

2 medium garden tomatoes, cored and cut into about 10 wedges

2 medium ripe peaches, halved, pitted, and cut into about 10 wedges

8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, part-skim, sliced into about 20 half-moon slices

1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced (a mandolin is helpful) and then cut in half

about 3 oz. baby arugula

1 T. plus 2 t. olive oil

1 T. balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

handful of fresh basil, cut in largish pieces

Place a bed of arugula on a large platter.  Arrange the tomato, peach, and mozzarella wedges on top, alternating them.  Sprinkle the red onion over the top, and then the basil.  Drizzle the salad with the oil and vinegar and sprinkle on the salt and pepper.

(The original recipe called for constructing the salad on individual plates, but I found it easier to do it all on one platter.  The leftover salad was also good  on the second day.)

Tomato Soup with Coriander

A couple of years ago, my friend Natania was going away for several months and lent me one of her favorite cookbooks to use while she was gone--a great idea for sharing a beloved cookbook.  Of the recipes I tried, my favorite is this one for "Soupe à la Coriandre."  Last night, I made it to bring to a New Year's Eve dinner, and everyone loved it, so here's the recipe.  It's one of those recipes that I look at each time and think, "It looks too simple to be as special as I remember it."  Then I make it again, and re-discover that simple can be special too.

TOMATO SOUP WITH CORIANDER

adapted from Martha Rose Shulman, Mediterranean Light

6 servings (for a first-course soup)

2 bunches cilantro
1 T. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. ground cumin
1-1/2 t. paprika
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, with juice
28 oz. water
4 T. tomato paste
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 c. vermicelli or angel hair spaghetti, broken into pieces--about 1"
juice of 1 lime
sprinkle of cayenne
2 T. cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)

Heat oil in a soup pot and sauté the onion over medium-low heat until tender.  Tie the bunches of cilantro together with a string, so that they can be easily removed after soup simmers. 

Add the garlic, cumin, and paprika to the onion and sauté for a minute.  Add the tomatoes with their juice, the water, tomato paste, the 2 bunches of cilantro, and salt/pepper to taste.  Bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer 30 minutes.

Turn off the heat.  Take out the cilantro and discard.  Blend the soup (using an immersion blender makes this easy).  Bring the soup back to a simmer and add in the pasta.  Cook until the pasta is al dente, adjust seasonings, and stir in the cayenne and lime juice.  Garnish with additional cilantro (if using) and serve.  (It's nice to have the garnish, but you do need the full two bunches in the soup, and sometimes I don't feel like buying a 3rd bunch just for the 2 T. of garnish.  The soup is still great, even without the garnish--just a matter of appearance.)

Shulman emphasizes that the soup should be served at once, and that if you make it ahead (which is fine) or freeze it, that you should put in the pasta only later, when you are going to serve the soup.  But last night the soup sat for an hour or so before we ate it, and it was just fine.  And this morning I ate the leftovers, and that was fine too.  So don't worry about how long it sits with the pasta already cooked!

Enjoy--
Penny