Minestrone Soup

A good soup for when the weather is just starting to get cold. Even better when reheated!

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 leeks, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 can of beans (I used kidney because it was all I could find)
• 1/2 a cup of parsley, chopped
• 1 bag of spinach, chopped
• marinara sauce
• water or vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of cooked pasta

Directions:

1) Heat 4 TBSP oil in a pot.
2) Add the onions and let sweat until they become soft (you may need to add more oil to prevent burning).







3) Add the leeks, carrot, potato, salt and pepper and cook for a few mores minutes, until they begin to soften.








4) Add the beans, parsley and spinach until the spinach wilts.








5) Add the stock or water (to cover), and add half as much marinara sauce.
6) Simmer until the vegetables are soft.
7) Add the Parmesan cheese and pasta and cook until the cheese has mostly dissolved and the pasta is warmed.

 So much soup...

Crusty Potato Fingers

The ingredients sound odd, but it was great, especially with lemon juice on top.

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes, peeled and cut lengthways into strips
• water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1/2 inch of ginger, chopped
• salt
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 TBSP corn starch or corn flour
• crushed corn flakes
• oil

Directions:

1)  Heat water and boil the sliced potatoes near to the point where you can puncture them with a fork.
2) Remove from the water and let drain. 
3) Mix the onion, green pepper, garlic and salt. Their directions say to a paste, but I'm not sure how to turn a onion into a paste without a blender, masher or something similar.
4) Add the flour, corn starch and 2 TBSP water.
5) Heat oil in a pan.
6) Dip the potato in the onion and flour mixture, then the corn flakes, then place in the oil.

7) Flip when it is starting to brown on one side if necessary.







8) Remove from oil and place on a paper towel to drain the oil.
9) Serve with sauces, or just lemon juice which had the perfect amount of acid.

 look at the crisp!

Potato Pakora

I've been wanting Indian food, and found this recipe on my phone. Probably should have cut the potatoes from circles into sticks, but now I know for next time! Also, I'll add more spice!

It didn't seem to matter that I used regular flour instead of chickpea flour either.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of water
• salt
• chili powder
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 inches of ginger, chopped
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 3 big potatoes, sliced thin
• Paper towels

Directions:

1) Mix the flour and water.
2) Add the salt, pepper, garlic and ginger and mix well.
3) Heat the oil in a large frying pan.










4) Dip the potato in the flour mixture and add to the frying pan.
5) Fry until brown.






6) Remove from oil and place on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Spanish Tortilla with Kale

 From the Boston Organics basket, this uses some of the kale, all of the potato and the onion from last week. Recipe taken from here, with a few changes.

Ingredients:

• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 lbs potatoes, sliced very thin
• 12-14 stems kale, stalk discarded and leaves chopped
• salt and pepper
• 6 eggs

 Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400F/205C.
2) In a large pan, heat 3 TBSP of the olive oil.
3) Add onion and potatoes, cook 10 minutes. You will have to stir it as the potatoes will stick a bit--not constantly, just every 2 minutes or so.





4) Add kale and salt and pepper, cook for 7-10 minutes.
5) In a large bowl, beat the eggs.








6) Add potato mixture to the sauce pan and stir to coat.
7) Add 1 TBSP olive oil to the same sauce pan, being sure that it coats the whole pan.







8) Add potato-egg mixture and bake for 20 minutes.

Grilled Corn and Potato Chowder

 In the final use of the Boston Organics box this week, I used up the corn and some of the onion. The recipe was taken from here (a Boston Organics recipe!) and changed a bit.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound red potatoes, chopped
• 1 TBSP salt
• 3 TBSP butter, softened
• 4 ears corn, shucked
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• dash of ground red pepper
• 3 cups low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 TBSP thyme
• 1/2 TBSP black pepper

Directions:

1) Place potatoes and 2 tsp salt in a saucepan and cover the potatoes with water.
2) Bring to a boil.
3) Cook for 2 minutes.
4) Remove from heat and let sit in the water for 5 minutes.
5) Preheat a grill pan to medium and put cooking spray on it.
6) Drain the water out.
7) Melt 1 TBSP butter and spread it over the corn.

8) Place corn and potatoes on the grill pan.











9) Grill for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally.
10) Cool the corn a bit, then cut the kernels from the cobs.











11) Place 1 cup of the kernels in a food processor (or blender) and blend until smooth (it won't get too smooth, at least it didn't for me...).
12) Melt remaining 2 TBSP butter in a saucepan.






13) Add onion and saute for 3 minutes. I used a spatula to stir, so I could scrap the sides.







14) Add 1 tsp salt and red pepper to the pan and cook for 30 seconds.









15) Stir in potatoes, corn kernels, pureed corn, milk, half and half, and thyme and bring to a simmer.







16) Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
17) Add black pepper.

Mashed Potatoes with Cheddar and Chives

 As my last post will tell you, we get a box of fruit and vegetables once a week from Boston Organics. This box contained chives, thus this recipe was followed and altered a bit.

These do not turn into potato pancakes well. I think it is the cheeses and cream.

Ingredients:

• 4 lb baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-in chunks
• 10 oz sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
• 1/2 cup low fat sour cream
• 1/3 cup low fat cream cheese
• 3 TBSP butter
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

1) Boil potatoes in a large pot in water for about 20 minutes, or until tender when stuck with a fork.
2) Scoop off 1 cup cooking water and reserve.
3) Drain.






4) Return potatoes to the pot and add the water and the rest of the ingredients.
5) Mash.

Potato Gratin With Pine Nut Crust

From: Veggie Feasts

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Spray oil
• 1 kg (2 lb) small waxy potatoes
• freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• 25 g (1 oz) butter, diced
• 200 ml (7 fl oz) milk
• 200 ml (7 fl oz) double cream
• salt and black pepper
• For the pine nut crust
• 50 g (2 oz) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
• 50 g (2 oz) pine nuts
• 25 g (1 oz) Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• 1 TBSP chopped parsley

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 190C
2) Lightly oil a 1 litre (1 3/4 pint) baking dish with spray oil.
3) Peal the potatoes.







4) Cut into wafer-thin slices.









 5) Arrange the slices in overlapping layers in the prepared dish, seasoning each layer with nutmeg, salt, pepper and butter.
6) Mix the milk and cream together.






7) Pour over the potatoes.
8) Cover the dish with foil.
9) Bake for 1 hour, until the potatoes are almost tender






10) Combine the breadcrumbs, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese and parsley in a bowl.








11) Remove the foil from the gratin.









12) Scatter the breadcrumb mixture over to form a crust.
13) Bake for another 25-30 minutes until golden