A very green, healthy, filling soup in not too much time! If someone you’re dining with thinks that “it’s not dinner without meat” you could easily add some shredded or small-chopped chicken, but thanks to all the vegetables and beans this is plenty of filling without. On the other extreme, you could easily ditch the cheese and have a vegan soup!
This recipe calls for white wine. I don’t drink, and don’t need most of a bottle of wine sitting around, so I was going to go with one of the normal substitutions (grape juice or additional broth) but I decided to use this as an excuse to get a bottle of sparkling grape juice. The bubbles cooked out, but I thought it added a nice tangyness I enjoyed – maybe wine would do this as well, I don’t know – I really don’t ever drink!
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving
- 1 cup dry white wine/grape juice/sparkling grape juice
- 32 ounces low-sodium vegetable stock
- 1 15 ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup sliced zucchini, cut into half moons
- 2 cup peas
- 3 cup baby spinach
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
I definitely rounded up on my vegetable amounts…
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 2 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Add the carrots, salt, and pepper, and cook an additional 2 minutes, continuing to stir occasionally.
Add the wine and stock, increase the heat to bring the mixture to a boil, then bring it back down to simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the beans and zucchini and simmer another 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
Add the peas, spinach, and Parmesan, and cook until they are warmed through and the spinach is wilted.
Serve with additional black pepper on top. Actually, or extra Parmesan? Why not.
Spinach and White Bean Soup
From Delish.com.
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving
- 1 cup dry white wine/grape juice/sparkling grape juice
- 32 ounces low-sodium vegetable stock
- 1 15 ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup sliced zucchini, cut into half moons
- 2 cup peas
- 3 cup baby spinach
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 2 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the carrots, salt, and pepper, and cook an additional 2 minutes, continuing to stir occasionally. Add the wine and stock, increase the heat to bring the mixture to a boil, then bring it back down to simmer for 5 minutes. Add the beans and zucchini and simmer another 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Add the peas, spinach, and Parmesan, and cook until they are warmed through and the spinach is wilted. Serve with additional black pepper on top.
Ingredients:
Add the butter and sugar and pulse until evenly combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie pan and press evenly into the sides and bottom of the pan.
Bake for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
Once the pie crust and strawberry mixture have been cooling for a while (10-15 minutes), cut the remaining strawberries into slices, then set aside. Beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Transfer the cream cheese mixture into the crust. Although the crust is pretty sturdy once it has chilled, I found it better at this point to drop the cream cheese in small blobs to distribute it widely, rather than trying to smear the cream cheese evenly and messing up the crust in the process.
Scatter the sliced strawberries over the cream cheese mixture.
Spoon the cooked/cooled strawberry mixture on top.
Refrigerate for 1 hour. Melt the chocolate chips, drizzle the chocolate over the top of the pie, and refrigerate a further 15 minutes. Then slice, serve, and do your own shouting about your pie prowess!
Ingredients:
Add the egg and vanilla, and beat again until combined. Reducing mixer speed to low, gradually add the flour mixture until just combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
Transfer the dough to the prepared tart pan. Spread the dough evenly to cover the bottom and sides of the pan – if you don’t spread it up the sides too, you’ll have so much in the bottom that there’s nowhere for your filling to go!
Refrigerate the crust for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Remove the chilled crust from the refrigerator, and use a fork to poke holes all over the surface of the dough covering the bottom of the pan, but not the sides. Bake 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned, then set aside to cool.
Add approximately 1/2 cup of milk and whisk until combined. Stir in the remaining milk and the cream, then place over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking frequently.
Boil, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, then remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. Pour the hot pudding into the prepared crust, then cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly down onto the surface of the pudding. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. If you have the freezer space, in this time freeze the bowl and beaters you will make the whipped cream with.
When the pudding and crust are chilled, make the whipped cream. Using your chilled bowl and beaters, if possible, beat the cream on high speed until it begins to thicken. Add the sugar and vanilla, if using, and beat until soft peaks form.
Spread the whipped cream over the pudding layer, and serve.
While the ideal is certainly to share this with friends and eat it all in the first day or two, I was pleasantly surprised to find that even 5 days in (I need more friends, clearly), neither the pudding nor whipped cream had started to seep liquid – this stayed in great shape until the whole thing was gone. Yum!
Ingredients:
Stir the sugar and vanilla into the browned butter.
Add the white chocolate and stir until just combined. The still-warm butter will probably melt the chocolate chips some – I was fine with this, if you don’t want it to happen you can just let the butter cool some. Spoon the dough onto the prepared sheets in roughly golf-ball sized portions.
Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the pans and switching racks half-way through.
Cool on the pan briefly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Combine the chocolate and butter (and coffee, if using) in the bowl of a double boiler over just-simmering water (or just in a pot over very low heat, if you don’t have a double boiler). Cook until both butter and chocolate are completely melted and can be stirred together totally smooth.
Gently fold 1/3 of the beaten eggs with a rubber spatula, stirring gently until completely combined. Repeat with each of the other two thirds, again stirring gently to not deflate the eggs.
Gently pour the batter into the prepared springform pan, and smooth the top with your rubber spatula.
Pour the boiling water into the outer pan until it comes up to about half-way up the sides of the springform, then carefully transfer the whole thing to the oven. Bake 22-25 minutes, then remove from the oven, take the springform out of the larger pan, and let it cool on a wire rack. At this point the center of the cake will still seem VERY jiggly and uncooked, but as it cools it will firm up.
Once it has reached room temperature*, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least four hours before serving.
Process until smooth.
And you’re done! The perfect level of effort!
Ingredients:
Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and chill in the refrigerator 30 minutes or until cold. When the marshmallow mixture is cold, in a separate large bowl, beat the heavy cream to the soft peak stage. Beat in the vanilla, then add the marshmallow mixture and beat until combined.
It’s the perfect summer version of the Slam!
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, vanilla, and orange zest.
Pour the mixture over the berries, cover with saran wrap, and refrigerate 3-4 hours.
After the wait, in a small saucepan combine the sugar and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar melts and the mixture becomes light golden. This feels like it takes forever, but when it does melt it happens very quickly, so do pay attention and take it off the heat before it burns!
This may be only the 3rd time I’ve cooked shrimp, but it’s really easy!
Add the crushed tomatoes and Italian seasoning and stir together, cooking until the tomatoes are warm.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, then add the shrimp and cook 5 minutes, until shrimp are cooked through. Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the basil, cover, and set aside.
Remove the cooked spaghetti squash and scrape out the strands, transferring them to a strainer to drain any extra liquid. Pat dry with paper towel if they still seem pretty watery, then transfer to a bowl and stir in the salt and pepper.
Ingredients:
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes, or until they are well browned and firm.
…and that’s it! Nice!
sparecake 