I had two ideas for mushrooms, a sort of mushroom spanikopita and soup. I'm glad I went with the soup!

Next question, a broth, a chowder, something thick? I decided on something thick and smooth (like a bisque) and was trying to figure out if I wanted to use cream, make it healthier and use evaporated skim milk, perhaps something else, when it hit me, why use cream at all? The next thought was to use a potato in the soup to act as a thickener but in the end I decided on cannelini beans. I always have canned ones in the pantry and they don't have a powerful flavor that will overpower the mushrooms (I actually use them in my guacamole too for this reason. Once you blend it, you don't even know they're there), and they'll add protein and fiber to the soup.

Okay - to start, my ingredients, let's just say cooking with mushrooms can be easy ingredient-wise because you probably have many of the listed ingredients already in your pantry. Other than the fresh mushrooms (farmer's market) and shallot (supermarket), I didn't need anything.

To satisfy my Flavors requirements I had:

• SHALLOTS, WINE, KOSHER SALT, OIL
• Chives
• Cognac

Ingredients - (mistake though, grabbed brandy not cognac)

Ingredients

• 1 oz dried porcini
• 1 C boiling water
• 1.25lbs assorted mushrooms (I used cremini and shitake)
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 1T Canola oil
• 1qt chicken broth (I used fat free)
• 1C canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• thyme (I used dry b/c I didn't feel like picking the leaves, so 1t dry or 1T fresh)
• salt, to taste (maybe 1/4 - 1/2t)
• pepper, to taste (a few grinds on the mill)
• 1/4C red wine
• 2T cognac
• Minced chives, parsley or a little sour cream - see below

Directions

Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in the hot water for about 20 minutes. Drain through a sieve lined with paper towels, reserving the soaking liquid. Chop the porcini mushrooms.

Clean (with a moist paper towel or brush) the mushrooms (don't wash b/c they'll absorb the water). Slice the mushrooms.

Heat the oil in a pot over medium to medium high heat, add the shallots and sliced mushrooms. Saute, cook until shallots are soft and mushrooms have wilted a bit (about 5-7 minutes). Add the thyme and porcini and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the red wine to deglaze the pan.

Add the broth, reserved soaking liquid, cannellini beans, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Pour half the soup into a blender, careful to remove that little insert in the top, leaving a hole. Cover that hole with a towel and puree. Set aside, and repeat with remaining soup. Return soup to the pot and stir in the cognac (warm the soup if necessary).

Serve one cup of soup in a bowl with garnish.

Okay - let's talk about the garnish for a second. Here's a problem with mushrooms (and if any of you watch Top Chef you know that which of I speak), mushrooms, when cooked, without other things well, let's face it they look like shit, or mud or whatever, so you want something there for contrast. The first night I served this, I snipped some chives from the garden to garnish it with and that was nice but I bet flat leaf parsley would work as well.

As we were eating the soup though, Chris (that's my husband, for those who do not know), suggested a bit of sour cream would be a nice addition. So two nights later, when I rewarmed some of the leftover soup, I did add a bit of fat free sour cream and it was good too. Which reminds, not using cream in the soup, I think that this soup will hold up in the freezer too but I need to try that out. It definitely didn't suffer being in the fridge for two days and I think the mushroom flavor was even more pronounced, so definitely something you can make ahead (I think this will be showing up on our Passover or Rosh Hashanah table in the future).

After I took the photo, I played and swirled the cream into the soup making a pretty pattern which was even nicer, should have taken a picture of that too.

And for those keeping track, the one cup serving came in at 3 Weight Watcher Points Plus. I think this with a nice salad, maybe a slice of good bread would make an excellent lunch or dinner.

This week our ingredient for Flavors is carrot. I had an abundance of carrots, because they're a vegetable that grows very well here in Alaska. I get lots of them in my weekly CSA box.

I didn't want to try to come up with some oddball recipe here. I made Carrot Soup. This is something that I make quite a bit, and never follow a recipe for. I made this one a little different than I usually do, using some complementary ingredients that I normally wouldn't use. The result was delicous. Fresh carrots are usually quite sweet, and with the addition of maple syrup in my soup, I wondered if it would be overly sweet. It was not. I think the orange juice cut the sweet, maybe because my orange was more tart than sweet. I garnished my soup with a swirl of plain Greek yogurt, which also added a nice tang. Another keeper as far as I'm concerned.

The complementary ingredients I used were onions, olive oil, thyme, ORANGE JUICE, MAPLE SYRUP,and allspice.

CARROT SOUP
5 cups carrots, sliced
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper, to taste
4 cups chicken broth
Juice of 2 oranges
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Greek yogurt, plain (optional)

1. Heat olive oil in large saucepan. When hot, add diced onions, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft.
2. Add sliced carrots and chicken broth. Cook until carrots are tender.
3. Puree soup. I used a hand immersion blender. You can leave it a little chunky if you'd like.
4. Add juice from 2 oranges, maple syrup, and ground allspice.
5. Return to cooktop and reheat to serve.
6. If desired, garnish with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

If you have ever had Italian wedding soup you'll understand what I mean when i say that this soup could be called 'Asian Wedding Soup'. There are some real similarities - delicious broth, tiny meatballs, and healthy greens all show up in the bowl.

I figured that everyone would be doing roast pork or pork chops in some form or another so I really wanted to go outside of the box. The Flavor Bible listed ginger, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and garlic as good flavours that pair with pork so I started working on an Asian themed dish.

Paul and I made this soup for dinner last night - we were glad that we had doubed the recipe because it was delicious. The ginger and sesame oil in both the meatballs and the broth added a wonderful depth of flavour to the dish.

Sesame Ginger Soup with Pork Meatballs

Meatballs
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 clove of garlic minced
2 T minced fresh ginger
1 T low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 lb ground pork (NOTE: I had some pork chops that had been in eh freezer for awhile so I thawed them out and minced them in the food processor to make my own lean ground pork)

Soup
1 T canola oil
1 tsp sesame oil
4 carrots, peeled, diced
2 T minced fresh ginger
6 cups low sodium broth (I was out of chicken so I used beef - chicken would be better I think)
2 cups water
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 T Sirracha sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
2 cups thinly sliced bok choy leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Mix all of the meatball ingredients together so that all of the ingredients are well-distributed throughout. Shape into small meatballs (about 1 tsp of the mixture per meatball) and place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes. Set aside. Note if your meatballs are larger you may need to bake them for longer - check the largest one, if it is cooked inside then they are done.

Drizzle the canola oil and second amount of sesame oil in the bottom of a large soup pot. Heat over medium heat. Saute carrots for about 5 minutes. Add ginger and saute for 1 minutes. Stir in broth, water, soy sauce, and Sirracha sauce. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes (the carrots should be tender by this point) and flavours blended.

Add the meatballs and rice wine vinegar. Bring the soup back to a boil.

Stir in bok choy and cook until wilted.

I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do with this week’s Brussels Sprouts. I wanted to make a pureed soup that would taste decadently rich without being heavy. I wanted it to be thick and creamy without using cream.

At first I thought I might somehow include chestnuts in the recipe, which is why they're in this picture. But, then as I imagined how it would taste, I realized they would not add to the bright flavors I was trying to capture. So disregard them.

Ingredients: (for 4 servings)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts (2 cups or so)
1 – large sweet (not tart) apple, peeled and diced
2 stalks - celery, peeled and diced
2 – shallots, diced
1 - clove garlic, minced
3 teas. - unsalted BUTTER
2 teas - fruity olive oil
1-2 cups - chicken broth (use vegetable broth if you prefer)
4 slices - mild aged provolone CHEESE
salt & pepper to taste
8 strips - extra crispy BACON

In a sauté pan, melt butter and add olive oil over medium heat. Add celery & shallots, cooking until very tender. Add garlic and cook long enough to mellow the flavor, but not burn.
Add diced apple and continue cooking until they begin to break down and get mushy.

Transfer mixture to a 2 quart sauce pan. Chop the roasted Brussels sprouts and add to pan. Place over low heat.

Pour about 1/2 cup of broth into pan and begin blending with a stick blender. Continue to add broth 1/2 cup at a time until your soup is the thickness you desire. (I like mine very thick.) Once you've added the desired amount of broth, taste for salt and add as needed. Heat through, but don't boil.

Line individual soup bowls with one slice cheese each and ladle hot soup on top.

Garnish with two bacon strips for each bowl and a generous grinding of pepper.

Roasting the Brussels sprouts takes away any hint of bitterness. The cheese slice adds just the right amount of creamy texture as your spoon digs out bits of it with each bite. The salty bacon balances the sweetness of the apple and celery. A chunk of rustic whole grain bread alongside is all you need to complete the meal. The is definitely a home run.

Y'all know by now that the 'flavor' of the week is Cabbage. Well, this is the perfect time of the year for a heaping bowl of stew. As you are rushing around with the flurry of holiday shopping, a pot on the stove is comfort food. This recipe is chunky and hearty... with a combinatin of all the perfect flavors.
It lasts well in the fridge, and may even get better!
I have capitalized all the flavors that are recommended in 'The Flavor Bible'.
Hearty Cabbage Stew
1 tablespoon extra virgin OLIVE OIL
a big pinch of SALT
1/2 pound POTATOES, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves GARLIC, chopped
1/2 large yellow ONION, chunked
2 CARROTS, chunked
5 cups CHICKEN STOCK
1 can beer
2 Tbs THYME
1 can white beans (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons
more good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
1/2 cup PARMIGIANO CHEESE, freshly grated
In a large soup pot over heat olive oil, Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender. Add the thyme, garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Keep the vegetables chunky for texture. Add the beer and reduce. Add in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and beans and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve drizzled with a bit of olive oil and a generous topping of cheese.

Y'all enjoy ~
Sandi

I know, I know, this is a strange colored soup. This is what happens when one of your ingredients is fresh beets. The color doesn't bother me, but if it bothers you, just use golden beets instead of red beets. That's what I did the second time I made this soup and it was a nice golden color.

The ingredient for this week is PARSNIPS. I love soups of all sorts, and with this winter weather we've been having, soups are perfect. This is also a very healthy soup. You can alter this recipe in many different ways. I'm going to just describe what I did here rather than give you an actual recipe. Any way you adapt it, it always turns out good.

The complimentary ingredients I used with parsnips are NUTMEG, carrots, olive oil, pepper, potatoes, salt, chicken stock.

Here's what I did. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel and cut into small pieces about 4 parsnips, 4 carrots, 3 potatoes, and 3 beets. You can use any variety of root vegetables in any quantities you want. Place all on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Toss to mix together, then spread out. If the vegetables can't all lay flat, place half of them on a second pan. I also peeled 1 medium onion, sliced it in half, and layed in cut side down on the baking sheet. If you'd prefer, you can dice it instead and toss with the other ingredients. Roast the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender. The time will depend on how small you cut your vegetables, but probably 30-45 minutes. Remove from pan, and place in a large saucepan. Add about 1 can chicken broth or stock. Use an immersion blender to then make a pretty smooth soup. I like some chunks still, but not too large. You can also use a blender. As you're doing this, add more broth until it's the right consistency. I think I used 3 or 3 1/2 cans for the above quantity of vegetables. When the soup is pureed and the consistency you like, place the pan on the stove to heat back up. You can add any spices you might want also. I used a little freshly grated nutmeg, because I needed to have this as a complimentary ingredient. It tasted good, but the second time I made it I only used salt and pepper. Fresh herbs like thyme or sage would be good also. Place in a bowl, and serve with fresh croutons or slices of bread.

That's it. I love this soup, love that it's healthy, easy, and adaptable to whatever root vegetables you want to use. Turnips, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunchokes, even winter squash and cauliflower work well.

I am a little bit of a picky eater, and while looking through the list of ingredients we will be preparing throughout this project, there were 11 foods on the list that I have either never cooked before, or don't eat! Parsnips was the first of these. Then I browsed through a few Italian cookbooks, and never saw parsnips in any of the indexes. Hmmmmm... are there no parsnips in Italy? While I don't always cook Italian, those are the ingredients and flavors I am most familiar with, and the foods I grew up on.

I bought parsnips...LOTS of them, not having the slightest idea what to do with them, or how many I would need, OR what they tasted like. The leeks at the market looked beautiful, so I also bought three large leeks, and soon decided on a parsnip-leek soup. I began peeling and chopping the little suckers, and ended up with a mountain of chopped parsnips!

The Flavor Bible said fresh ginger, so I began my soup in a BIG pot, with some butter, garlic, ginger and the chopped leeks (white and light green parts only).

I added the mountain of parsnips and 8 cups of chicken broth. I was not excited about how my hands smelled, so I threw two peeled, cubed potatoes into the mix along with some salt. I brought the mixture to a boil and let it simmer. 20 minutes later, the parsnips and potatoes were soft, so I let the "mess" cool slightly, and then attacked it with my immersion blender. The consistency was good, but it tasted like a huge pot of NOTHING! I added salt. Now it tasted like saltier NOTHING. I added a cup of cream. You got it: SALTY, CREAMY NOTHING! Brad tasted it, and was not impressed. When it had cooled slightly, I poured the contents into a smaller pot in order to refrigerate it over night. I was done with parsnips for the day! (Picture me wrinkling my nose and saying "YUCK, who eats these things?")

If I had a rating scale between 1-10 for the food we eat, with 1 being inedible and 10 being fabulous, I would say we eat at least a 7-10 every night, even if it is a simple meal, or leftovers, or a salad. Our food TASTES good. This soup was a 2 (edible) at best.

The next day, I heated up the soup, hoping the taste had improved over night. Ixnay!
The Flavor Bible said parmesan cheese goes with parsnips. I decided to fry some chopped leeks in butter to garnish the soup for our Sunday lunch. I poured a bowl, topped it with the crunchy leeks and some shaved cheese. It LOOKED delicious...

The leeks and cheese were great, but the soup was at best a 2.5! I had a fleeting thought of adding a kilo (that's what it would take) of my stash of 30 month Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, but decided that would be blasphemous, and a huge waste of great cheese. I thought, maybe if someone was STARVING in a cold, war-torn third world country, they would like this soup. I thought, if we had a prison or other institution nearby, I could donate it, but instead...

I will NOT be cooking parsnips again any time soon. We had a delicious fritatta for our Sunday lunch. It was a 9!

My friend Betsy Stone brought her husband John's beautiful orange soup to school one day and it was love at first taste for me. Velvety smooth and with just enough kick, it makes a perfect small first course. You could easily add some shrimp to make a full meal.
Flavors from the Bible include: ONIONS, OIL, coconut milk, garlic, ginger celery, carrots, jalepeno, curry and cilantro.
I've made it four times and here's the recipe I've come up with.

2 small to medium Butternut squash
2 medium onions, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
1/4 cup canola oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 inch piece of ginger root, chopped
6 cups water
1 TBS. Red Thai curry paste
1 14 oz. can Coconut milk (not low fat)

Salt and pepper
Juice of fresh lime (or wedges)
1/3 cup shopped cilantro
Siracha

I used 2 smaller butternuts; I think the flavor is nicer in the smaller ones.

Cut them in half, the long way and roast them at 400° until your knife goes in easily. Let them cool, remove the seeds, skin and reserve the flesh, cut into cubes.

In a pot, sauté the aromatics (onion, carrots, celery and red pepper) for a while—about 8 minutes.

Add the garlic and ginger and continue to cook another minute.
Add the Thai seasoning, salt and about 6 cups of water.
Cook it, on low heat, for about an hour.
Add the coconut milk and squash cubes.
Simmer another half hour and puree with an emersion bender (jar blender would work fine, I’m sure).

Garnish with chopped cilantro—I forgot and mixed it all into the soup but it looks prettier on top. Squeeze in some fresh lime and a little Siracha, to taste.

I’ve been under the weather, and so it’s been All Soup All the Time around here. I wanted a change from my usual chicken-vegetable, and a sturdy lentil soup sounded appealing. Red lentils have a milder flavor than their green or brown cousins, and are frequently used in Middle-Eastern soups because they soften fast and make a thick, homey soup. I’ve had red lentil soups in Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants, usually with rice or bulgar which boosts the protein. For this soup, I used red lentils; with chicken stock, onion, garlic, tomato, mint, Aleppo chile pepper and lemon from the Flavor Bible. Aleppo pepper is a medium-hot chile often used in Middle-Eastern cooking for its good flavor and gentle heat. I adore it, and buy it in flakes from Penzey's. I got the idea for the chile-mint drizzle from a restaurant in Boston that tops it's soups with something similar.

You must, must not forgo the drizzle of paprika-Aleppo-mint butter, it adds a sexy swirl of flavor and richness.

Red Lentil Soup with Mint
6 servings--freezes well

1 tsp. olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1 tomato, diced
1 Tbs. sweet paprika
1/2 tsp. ground red chile--I used Aleppo, which is subtly spicy
1 cup red lentils
1/4 cup rice
7-8 cups chicken broth
1 Tbs. dried mint (make sure your mint is good quality and fragrant)
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 1/2 lemon

Topping:
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 tsp. dried mint, crumbled
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. Aleppo Pepper

Lemon wedges

In a heavy medium saucepan, heat the oil. Saute the onion until just golden, then add the garlic, tomato paste, tomato, paprika, and chile pepper. Mix well, then add the lentils and rice, then stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, and cook for about an hour, or until the lentils and rice are very soft. Let cook some more if the lentils aren't dissolving into the broth. (older lentils may need additional time).

Add the mint, salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, add more broth or water. Let cool, then puree the soup with an immersion blender or other device. Squeeze in lemon to taste. Refrigerate until serving--it tastes better the next day.

For the topping, melt the butter in a skillet, add the mint and paprika and stir well. Pour the soup into bowls, and drizzle a bit of the flavored butter on each. Swirl with a knife, add a lemon slice, and serve. Nice with toasted pita or hearty bread.

This week's ingredient was beans. My first thought was what am I going to come up with that is unique. But then I throught of something that was unique to me. (I've decided it's next to impossible to come up with totally unique ideas, so who knows if others have done this.) I had a bag of Cannelini beans that I had brought back from our last trip to Italy. I decided to make a pureed bean soup, top it with roasted cauliflower and drizzle it with truffle oil. It came out delicous. If you don't have cannelini beans, you could use any dried white bean.

Puree of Cannelini Bean Soup with Roasted Cauliflower and Truffle Oil 6 Servings

1 1/2 cups dried cannelini beans
Sprig fresh sage
Sprig fresh rosemary
1/2 onion, peeled
water or part water and part chicken broth (I used 1/2 water and 1/2 chicken broth
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Rinse beans, place in large pot, cover generously with water, and soak overnight.
2. After soaking, drain and rinse the beans. Put the beans in a large pot and cover (with a couple of inches above the beans) with water or a combination of water and chicken broth. Add the sage, rosemary, and onion. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook until beans are tender. (I forgot to pay attention to how long this took. Sometime between 1-2 hours.) Season with salt and pepper.
3. Using a hand immersion blender or a regular blender or food processor, puree the beans along with their cooking liquid until smooth. If too thick, add a little water.
4. While the beans are cooking, roast your cauliflower. Just cut the cauliflower into small pieces, toss with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread out on a baking sheet. Roast at 400 degrees until cauliflower is soft and nicely browned.
5. Serve by placing soup in a shallow bowl, top with cauliflower and drizzle with a little truffle oil. If you don't have, or don't like, truffle oil, just drizzle with a good olive oil.

Y'all know by now the flavor for the week is Lamb.
When ever I am trying to come up with a 'new' recipe for our weekly challenge, my first step is to google the ingredients I think I want to combine. (In an effort NOT to recreate somone else's recipe)