Category Archives: Vegetables and Salads

Where the greens and the fresh crunch come in.

Soups and Stews, Vegetables and Salads

Green Bean Soup

Ingredients for Green Bean Soup

  • 2 cups green beans, diagonally sliced
  • 2-3 strips bacon or side pork
  • 2 T flour
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • pinch of cayenne
  • 1/2 t paprika
  • 1/4 t garlic powder
  • 1 T vinegar
  • 2 T sour cream

Preparing Green Bean Soup

Cook the green beans till tender. Fry the bacon until fairly crisp. Remove bacon from pan and add the flour to the grease and brown well, stirring constantly. Add a bit of bean juice to flour to moisten and make a smooth paste. Add flour mix to beans. Season.

Simmer till thickened. Add vinegar and cream just before serving. Servings: 4

Note: To convert this into a vegan soup:

  1. Omit the bacon or side pork and instead heat a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and add the flour to it and brown to make a roux, adding a pinch of smoked paprika to lend the soup a rich, smoky flavor.
  2. Substitute the sour cream with a simple cashew sour cream made by blending until smooth and creamy 1/4 cup soaked and drained raw cashews (soak for 1 to 3 hours), 1 T unsweetened almond milk or other plant-based milk substitute, 2 tsp lemon juice and/or apple cider vinegar, and salt to taste.
Soups and Stews, Vegetables and Salads

Potato Soup

  • 4 potatoes, cubed
  • 4 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • water as needed
  • 4 cups milk
  • 8 slices bacon, crisp, crumbled
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 T parsley

Cover potatoes, celery and onion with water. Cook till tender. Add milk. Stir in bacon. Season. Serve with parsley. Servings: 4

Eggs and Cheese, Meatless Main Dishes, Vegetables and Salads

Papas Chorreadas

  • 6 medium potatoes, boiled and peeled
  • 2 T oil
  • 1 T flour
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 2 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 3/4 cup grated fresh manchego or mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 cup milk plus 1 tbsp cream

Cut potatoes into large cubes. Saute onions in a little oil till soft and add tomatoes. Melt fat and add flour and a bit of salt. Add tomatoes, onion and cilantro. Cook 3 mins. Add milk and cook until thick. Add grated cheese and cream and stir until melted. Pour over the potatoes and combine gently.

Vegetables and Salads

Carol’s Potato Salad

  • 4 white potatoes
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 hard cooked eggs
  • 1 small zucchini
  • 1 small onion or 3 green onions with tops, chopped
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 4 radishes
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 3 tbsp chopped parsley
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp thyme or fines herbes
  • Mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp vinegar

Boil potatoes in their jackets with carrots till tender. Drain and cool. Cut potatoes into large cubes and carrots into small cubes. Steam whole zucchini until barely tender. Cool and cut into small cubes. In a bowl, combine finely chopped green pepper, celery and onions. Add seasonings, herbs and garlic. Toss together carefully with cooked and cooled vegetables, adding enough mayonnaise to moisten well. Sprinkle on vinegar (garlic or cider vinegar is best) and toss lightly. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours to let flavours penetrate. Serve topped with sliced or quartered eggs, parsley and radish slices.

Meatless Main Dishes, Vegetables and Salads

Porotos Granados

A Chilean white (cranberry) bean stew with fresh corn kernels and savory basil. This is the version Maria Teresa prepared on cold days in Santiago de Chile.

The Mapuche people, among others, have cultivated beans since pre-hispanic times and most of its ingredients are native to the Americas. The stew receives its name from its main ingredient, ripe harvested Cranberry (cargamanto) beans, originated in Colombia, but also is common among the Aymara people. The word poroto, unique to Chile, southern Peru and Argentina, originally comes from the quechua word for bean purutu.

Wikipedia contributors. “Porotos granados.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Feb. 2016. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.

Ingredients for Porotos Granados

  • 2 lbs. cranberry or other white beans
  • 2 bouillon cubes
  • 4 or 5 large fresh basil leaves
  • 1 lb. yellow squash, cubed
  • 1/2 onion, minced
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 t paprika
  • 1 t finely chopped parsley
  • 1/4 t oregano
  • 2 cups kernel corn (best freshly cut off cobs)
  • Salt and pepper

Cook beans in 6 cups water with the bouillon cubes and basil. When about half cooked, add the squash and allow to cook over medium heat until tender.

Heat oil in a separate pan and add paprika to release its fragrance. Stir for 1 minute and add onion, parsley, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Add the onion mixture to the cooked beans. Add the corn and simmer for 15 minutes.

Servings: 6

If prepared with vegetable broth, which, traditionally, it often is, this recipe is vegetarian/vegan

 

Vegetables and Salads

Lecso 2

Another Lecso  … also spelled Letscho.

  • 8 oz. tomatoes
  • 1 lb. green peppers
  • 1 large onion
  • 1-1/2 oz. bacon fat or drippings
  • salt and pepper

Slice the onion into thin rings and cook in the hot fat till they shrivel, but do not turn brown. Wash the green peppers, take out the seed cases and the inside veins. Slice them into rings and add them to the onion in the saucepan. Fry lightly and then add the quartered tomatoes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put the lid on and cook very slowly till the tomatoes get – mushy and the peppers are tender. Serve hot.

Although this has no meat in it, to make it truly vegetarian and vegan friendly, substitute vegetable oil for the bacon fat or drippings! Add a sprinkle of smoked paprika for extra flavor.

Misc Recipes, Vegetables and Salads

Salad Dressing a la Danziger

Discovered at El Castillo, Xilitla, Mexico and shared by Gabriela B.

Just outside of Xilitla, at Las Pozas in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is a singular garden created by Edward James, an English poet and great supporter of the Surrealist movement. The gardens and structures encompass over 80 acres of subtropical coffee-growing rain forest. The structures and winding pathways are magical, sometimes appearing like ghosts swirling out of the humidity-laden air, half-hidden by verdant ferns and dense vegetation. There are crumbling spiral stairways, arched bridges, gigantic painted concrete flower fountains, and sinuous paths overlooking waterfalls and jumbles of moss-covered boulders. 

Las Pozas Xilitla

El Castillo, now a guest house in the town of Xilitla, was Edward James´ home during the construction of his dream. This salad dressing is a creation of the El Castillo kitchen and the Danzigers, who were managing the property at the time that our friend Gabriela visited and discovered the fabulous gardens..

Ingredients for Salad Dressing a la Danziger

  • ½ cup olive oil (extra virgin)
  • ½ cup balsamic or wine vinegar
  • 1 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp powdered chicken broth
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • fines herbes

Shake all ingredients together well and drizzle on a bed of mixed lettuce.

Vegetables and Salads

Matchstick Potatoes

Simple matchstick potatoes. The trick is really getting the potatoes to matchstick size, easiest done with a mandoline slicer.

  • 4-5 potatoes
  • 1/4 Ib butter

Peel and cut potatoes into thin matchsticks. In deep frying pan, melt 1/2 of butter. When hot, put potatoes in pan to form a layer about 2″ thick. Add salt and pepper. Cover pan and let simmer until done, forming a crust. Turn over in one piece. Use remaining butter in pan, salt and pepper. Cover and continue on slow fire until other crust is formed. Servings: 4

Soups and Stews, Vegetables and Salads

Burgonyaleves (Hungarian Potato Soup)

This Hungarian potato soup is such a basic, simple soup. My grandmother used to make it regularly.

Burgonya=potato, leves=soup in Hungarian. Krumpli is another word for potato in Hungarian, and potato soup can also be called krumplileves.

Recipe from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)

Grandma's Potato Soup

Ingredients for Hungarian Potato Soup

3/4 kilo (1-1/12 lbs) potatoes
Salted water
Flour
Oil or lard
Chopped or grated onion
Paprika
Sour cream for serving

Peel, cube, and cook the potatoes in salt water until tender.

Make thin browned flour roux with the flour and oil or lard and add to soup to thicken.

Lightly fry the chopped or grated onion and paprika and add to the soup.

Serve with sour cream.

Soups and Stews, Vegetables and Salads

Five Onion Soup

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 3 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 1 small onion, yellow, thinly sliced
  • 2 green onion, sliced
  • 1 leek, white part, thinly sliced
  • 1 T garlic, minced
  • 1/8 t cloves
  • 4 cups beef broth
  • 4 slices cheese, Swiss
  • 4 slices mozzarella cheese
  • 2 T butter, melted
  • 1 t garlic, minced
  • 4 slices french bread
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 4 T sherry, dry
  • 2 T chives, chopped

Melt 1/4 c. butter. Add all onions except chives. Saute till golden. Add garlic and cloves. Saute 1 minute. Stir in broth and sherry. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Combine melted butter and garlic in bowl. Brush on bread, using 1/2 of mix. Broil about 2 minutes.

Turn over and brush on rest of mix. Broil. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Preheat oven to 500°F. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with bread and 1 slice each of Swiss cheese and mozzarella. Bake till melted and bubbly. Sprinkle with chives.

Servings: 4