Tuscan Vegetable Soup

I wanted a Tuscan Bean Soup. Google that.  Go ahead.  I bet you come up with about 500 soup recipes.  I was baffled so I sat on the floor with my ever increasing collection of cookbooks surrounding me and began my quest the old fashioned way…
Thank you Ellie Kreiger for your cookbook The Food You Crave

Tuscan Vegetable Soup (adapted from Ellie Kreiger’s The Food You Crave)

Ingredients

• 2 (15-ounce) can low-sodium canellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 2 carrots, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 stalks celery, diced, (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 small zucchini, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 32 ounces low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no salt added diced tomatoes
• 2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan, optional

Directions

In a small bowl mash half of the beans with a masher or the back of a spoon, and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, garlic, thyme, sage, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and cook stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the broth and tomatoes with the juice and bring to a boil. Add the mashed and whole beans and the spinach leaves and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes more.
Serve topped with Parmesan, if desired.
**This was a quick and delicious week night meal  I had some whole wheat macaroni left over in the fridge that I also threw in the pot.  A quick and versatile meal?  You know I’ll be making this again and again…

Grilled Pizza for dinner…

The first time I tried grilling pizza was when we were in Toronto visiting my family.  It was something we had all wanted to try but had just never gotten around to doing it. So out I went and bought some grocery store pizza dough (divide it into 4 servings when you get it home) and some fresh and yummy toppings and into the world of pizza grilling we dove!

Mine was simply olive oil, fresh garlic, mozzarella, fresh tomato and basil…

Our biggest concern was that the dough would drip through the grill plates but it cooks up so quickly that there is no real worry to it.  You need to have your grill heated up to about 350F to crisp it quickly.

The trick, I think, to this is to have all of your toppings ready to go on and to not overload the pizza.  You do need to work fast once the bottom which becomes the top is grilled nice and crispy.  We did individual ones for ease of preparation and they worked perfect.  No problem flipping etc…

The second time we made them was here at home and I used my bread machine pizza dough recipe.  We divided this one into 4 to make 4 individual pizzas for us.  This worked perfectly as well and was a bit easier to stretch and shape then the grocery store one…

This one was topped with garlic and herbed olive oil, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano and some homemade arugula pesto…simply delicious!

Grilled Chicken and Spinach.

Now I do know that most of your are deep into winter right now but I know for a fact that you can still grill in the winter. My Mom used to bundle herself up and head on out to cook us dinner on the grill. I'm from Canada so if she can do it so can you!!!

T. cooked this up but I threw the marinade together so it was already for him to throw on the grill.

Chicken Marinade

1/2 cup white wine
2 T olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 tsp orange zest
3 cloves garlic ( minced)
1/8 t ground ginger

We used thighs but you can use you favorite part of the chicken. Marinate for at least 30 minutes but longer is better.
Grill until cooked.



Spinach

1 bag of fresh spinach
5 cloves of garlic (sliced)
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in heavy bottomed pan. Add garlic and allow to toast slightly. Add bag of spinach. Cook until tender. Add salt and pepper and serve immediately.

We usually eat a meal like this several times a week. It is nice and fast and healthy to boot as long as you don't cover your spinach with butter and Parmesan cheese that is (see top picture!)!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com