The week so far in soups...

I've been holding out and not buying a blender for the past year and a half. I kept thinking I would find one at a charity shop or at auction or that someone leaving the community might bequeath us one, but we've had no such luck. So, while Rowan got bibs for his four month birthday Mama got a new blender! Oh, it has been such fun. I've made homemade rice cereal, avocado and avocado/banana puree (I know I'm adding things a little fast, but oh, it is SO fun to make baby food and I promise I'll slow down now!) But, as there is only so much baby food one can make in a week I thought I'd try a soup, or two, or three, or... well, you get the picture.

Monday - Artichoke Soup. The organic delievery came with a pound of jerusalem artichokes this week and luckily the field notes had a recipe for Artichoke soup. It is one of the best soups I've ever made. It was rich and buttery, but not overwhelming and the garnish of almonds was a perfect touch. We still had fresh bread from the farmer's market and it was a yummy meal.

So here is the recipe (with my changes - I didn't have fresh herbs and I changed double cream to milk to make it a bit more healthy)

1 large onion chopped

2 Tbsp Butter

1 lb Jerusalem artichokes, scraped and diced

1.2 litres vegetable stock

1 tsp dried parsley

Salt and White Pepper

60 ml whole milk (the original recipe calls for double cream)

Several hand fulls of flaked almond slices slightly toasted in the oven

1. Fry onion in butter - 2 min. - add artichoke and cook 2 more minutes.

2. Add next 3 ingredients - bring to boil and then simmer for 30 minutes

3. Puree the soup, return to pan and stir in milk.

4. Sprinkle with almonds before serving.

Tuesday - cheesy broccoli soup (with a potato thrown in for good measure) I made this recipe up as I went and it turned out well. I'd write out the recipe, but I don't remember it exactly and I'm sure that there are recipes easy to find around that are just as good. The boys were big fans of the homemade biscuits that partnered with the soup.

Wednesday - Squash and Parsnip soup with apple cinnamon muffins

This was probably the most stunning flavor of the three. The recipe is here and is originally from Southern Living. The cumin and paprika give it a bit of a kick - quite yummy.

And tonight Jim is working super late so we'll all be eating left over soups in our respective locations. Here's to beating the winter chill with warm soup!