If this is what you see out your bedroom window when you wake up -

This is what you have for lunch.

Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup with Fig Compote

I don’t know if I’m gilding the lily with the compote or not, but whenever I see sausages I think of figs, and I liked the richness a dollop of it added to the soup. Mr TBTAM thought the soup was perfect without it, but then he spread the compote on warm bread and ate it along with the soup. You can make and eat it either way. Or not at all. Because the soup really is delicious all on its own.

There are lots of recipes for this soup out there out there – this one is modified from Epicurious, found via Smitten Kitchen. We used Italian sausage, but I’d love to try it with Kielbasa or the more traditional Portuguese Linguica sausage. Smoked sausage will slice up easier than Italian, and would add a wonderful flavor. If you use linguica, you may not need the herbs since the sausage is spiced nicely. You can use white potatoes, sweet potatoes or both – I used what I happened to have around. Not sure why I added the carrot, it was probably not necessary.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ( 2 medium) sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1 inch slices
1 lb (2 medium) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1 inch slices
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots – peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves,  peeled and diced
1 coil sweet italian sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp dried
1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried
1 large bunch kale, washed, middle spine cut out and leaves torn or chopped into bite-sized pieces
6 cups chicken stock
Salt, pepper and a pinch of hot red pepper flakes for seasoning.

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add sausage and saute till browned on all sides.

Remove sausage and set aside. Try not to eat any. (You can drain them on paper towels and remove some of the fat from the pot if you want at this point.)

Add onions and carrots to the pot and saute till onions are transluscent, about 8 minutes.

Add potatoes and saute, stirring often, about 10 minutes or until they start to soften.

Add garlic and cook for one minute. Add broth, thyme, oregano and bring to a boil, deglazing pan as it heats. Turn down heat and simmer covered, till potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

Mash the potatoes in the pot with a potato masher, just enough to thicken the sauce a bit, but leaving plenty of potato chunks (this step is optional, and I may not do it in the future.)

Add the kale and the sausage

and heat till kale is wilted.

Season and serve hot, with fig compote on the side. You can stir a spoonful of the compote into your soup, or spread it on warm bread and eat alongside the soup. Or not.

Fig Compote

10 dried mission figs, stems removed and diced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper

Combine ingredients and simmer in a small pot over low heat, mashing the figs with a fork as they soften, until thick and rich. Serve either as a dollop in your soup or spead onto warm baguette slices.

I’ve been waiting for this soup for weeks. Eleven weeks, to be exact. That’s how long I was enrolled in a research diet study, and unable to eat anything other than the food they provided me, which was nowhere near as delicious as this soup.

The study is designed to compare the effects of three different diets – the American Diet, the AHA low fat diet and a maintenance Atkins-type Diet – on weight loss and cardiovascular disease risk. I randomized to the American Diet, meaning that Thursday’s lunch was a slice of pizza with potato chips and an afternoon snack of oreos and chocolate pudding, Saturday’s lunch was hamburger and fries, and the most veggies I ever saw at one sitting was a measly stalk of broccoli. Despite this, I lost 30 lbs over the 11 weeks of the study, primarily because my caloric intake was only 1200 cals per day, carefully calculated based on my basal metabolic rate.

The best part about my diet was that they supplied me all the food, free of charge. Since the research kitchen is located on the floor above my office, that meant stopping in on the way to work for my breakfast, then having lunch delivered to my desk at 1 pm, and dinner dropped off late afternoon for me to take home. Easiest diet I’ve ever undertaken. Not to mention knowing they’d kick me out if I was caught cheating….

I don’t know yet how my cholesterol fared during the diet, but if the pilot data are right, it will be lower simply because I lost so much weight. The big question, of course, is how well I fared compared to my cohorts on the other diets. That, my dears, will have to await publication of the final results.

Before you go congratulating me on my weight loss, let me tell you that much of the weight I lost was poundage I had already shed last year on a Zone Delivery Diet and subsequently regained. This makes me quite typical, a fact that I now understand and have stopped feeling guilty about since reading David Kessler’s book “The End of Overeating“, which I highly recommend for anyone struggling, as I have, to lose or maintain their weight.   Now that I am finished the research diet, however, I intend to be anything but typical. I plan not only to maintain my weight loss, but to keep it going until I reach my wedding weight. What’s different this time?

I’ll be sharing this over the weeks as I continue this new phase of my life, but will give you one major difference. I no longer think of foods as “good’ or “bad” when it comes to losing weight. After all, I lost a lot of weight eating potato chips, pizza, bacon, pancakes, sausage, cookies and french fries.  While I am not advocating a diet composed primarily of these kinds of food, I now inherently understand that I can enjoy previously “forbidden” foods and still lose weight, provided I am conscious of portion control and calories.

I have lost 3 more pounds in the week on my own since finishing the research diet, and have no sense at all that I am dieting. I am just eating the way I ate for the past 11 weeks, which is consciously, slowly and at around 1200 calories per day. Breakfast most days is steel cut oats with chopped dates and a side of turkey bacon or sausage. Lunch today was one of my all time fave sandwiches – part skim mozarella on a sourdough baguette with pesto and tomatoes – and an apple. And dinner? Well, that brings me to this marvelous Rustic Shrimp Bisque.

Mr TBTAM had the nerve to make this soup my first week on the research diet, and all I ever got was the tiniest taste. Talk about torture! Naturally, the minute I was let loose again in the kitchen, the first thing I decided to make was this soup. I calculated it to have about 270 calories a cup – an amount which is plenty filling, especially when the soup is served with a side salad and a small piece of bread. Total cost for the meal – around 540 calories.

It’s still only my first week on my own, and as the growing season arrives, I expect that I will be increasing the fruit and veggie components of my diet. But for now, I am very happy with what I am accomplishing. And loving this soup…

RUSTIC SHRIMP BISQUE

You can go to the NY Times website for the recipe, but let me tell you a few things first -

1. The recipe calls for one fennel bulb, and does not specify a size. I used one half of a large bulb with three stems, and ended up with 6 cups of soup total.  I think if you want to use a whole large bulb, the fennel flavor would not overpower.
2. I pureed my soup much more finely than the original recipe. I found the shrimp, if cooked properly and not too long, get a funny shred if you go for a coarser puree.
3. I would love to try this soup using olive oil instead of butter – if anyone tries it before me, do post a comment and let us know how it tastes.
4. The shrimp stock alone is to die for.
5. This is not a quick soup, but don’t try to shortcut it. In every step, you’ll see marvelous flavors building – just thinking about those shrimp shells browning in the butter, or the tomato paste carmelizing in the bottom of the pot gives me goose bumps.  Take your time, have a glass of wine while you cook if you need it to slow yourself down, and enjoy the experience.
6. The lemon juice and cayenne at the end are critical. You could also pass a little hot sauce at the table if you’ve kept the cayenne to just a pinch.

Enjoy!

Driving home from Brooklyn Sunday afternoon, trying to figure out what to have for dinner, Mr TBTAM recalls a recipe for Butternut Squash Ginger Soup that he heard that morning on Weekend Edition. Using the google app on my new I Phone, I find the recipe and consult it at the supermarket, where I buy the ingredients we need. Then, still using my I Phone, I consult the same recipe in the kitchen and cook up the soup. Never once heading to the computer or printing anything out.

Now if someone could just write an app that does the dishes…

Butternut Squash Ginger Soup

Modified from the recipe on the NPR website. I made my own 5 spice, and found it quite strong, so I reduced the amount by half in this recipe. I also did not do the whole fried ginger and orange peel topping in the original, but it looks like a fun idea. I also decided to cube the squash before roasting it, both to speed up the process and to get additional carmelization. Finally, depending on the size of squash you use, you may find you need to add addtional broth to thin the soup a bit.

Soup

1 medium-size butternut squash
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 -3 cups of vegetable broth
2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice
1 cup white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping

1 cup creme fraiche
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and cut butternut squash in half lengthwise, remove seeds and then cut into 2 inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on baking sheet for about 30 minutes, tossing halfway through so it evenly browns. Put in food processor and process with ginger and spices till smooth. Add one cup of the broth into the feed tube, process a few seconds then transfer to a medium sized stock pot and whisk in remaining 1 cup broth and wine, adding more broth if soup seems to thick. Heat through until simmering. Salt to taste.

Mix creme fraiche and orange juice together.

Serve soup in bowl with creme fraiche swizzle on top.

Once again, vegetarian dinner guests have challenged my culinary creativity. This time, rather than turning to the Moosewood or other veggie tome, I decided to cull a meatless dinner from a more classic source – Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This Provencal vegetable bean soup has everything one could ask for in a meal. Add a sourdough baguette and a salad and it’s more than enough for dinner for eight.

Soupe au Pistou

3 quarts water
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups diced leeks
2 cups diced potatoes
(I also added about 1/2 bulb fennel, diced )
1 tbsp salt
2 cups canned white cannelloni beans, rinsed and drained.
1/3 cup broken spaghetti or vermicelli
2 cups diced green beans
1 slice stale white bread, processed in the food processor to make crumbs (I used a stale pita)
pepper
pinch of saffron (I used turmeric)
1/4 cup chopped parsley (my addition)

For the Pistou
4 cloves mashed garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 t 1/2 cup fruit olive oil
4 tbsp tomato paste or 6 tbsp fresh tomato puree

I used 3/4 cup prepared pesto (without pine nuts) instead of the first 4 ingredients and just blended in the tomato paste by hand.

Add potatoes, leeks, and carrots to 3 qt cold water with 1 tbsp salt in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes.

Twenty minutes before serving, so the green vegetables retain their freshness, add the beans, spaghetti or vermicelli, bread and seasoning to the simmering soup. Simmer another 15 minutes or until the green beans are just cooked. Correct seasonings.

Prepare the pistou while the soup is cooking. Blend garlic, tomato puree or paste, basil and cheese either by hand or in the food processor till smooth. Add the olive oil gradually. (If using prepared pesto, just blend in the tomato paste to the pesto). Place in the bottom of the soup tureen. When the soup is ready for serving, beat a cup gradually into the pistou. Pour in the rest of the soup. Serve with hot french bread or with hard-toasted bread rounds basted with olive oil

Makes 6-8 servings.