You are what you eat

Quick vegetarian meals, part one

This post is in response to a friend who asked for some fifteen-minute vegetarian recipes. I laughed and said, "Well, maybe 30-minute recipes ..." and she replied that even that would be helpful.

I was a vegetarian for nine or ten years, and believe me, it was no hardship (except, as my friend pointed out, in restaurants, which can be a problem in that you always end up having a pasta dish or the meatless pizza or some such). At the time I didn't object to soy-based meat substitutes, but today I'd balk at that, so I'm not going to include these in my menus or recipes.

Most vegetarians depend on legumes for much of their protein. I love beans, lentils, and split peas, and I relied on them for many of our meal plans. During my vegetarian years, I didn't have a pressure cooker, which was foolish of me. A pressure cooker makes fast work of dried beans, even if they're unsoaked.

But let's start at the beginning. (I want to state right here that my friend probably knows all this, and I'm just throwing it out there for anyone who hasn't stopped to consider these points.) I'm a believer in meal planning, and I plan meals covering one to two weeks. This simplifies grocery shopping, I never have to wonder "what's for dinner," and I don't rely on those nasty processed foods. I have all the ingredients I need to make dinner on a given night. It also ensures variety and gives me the advantage of being organized, so that I know I have to soak beans on Tuesday night for Wednesday's dinner. I'm not rigid about this stuff, but having a general plan works great for me.

So, the first thing to do is to plan your meals around your schedule. A busy day followed by an evening of work or social obligations is not the time for an elaborate dinner. Save that for weekends or whenever you have the luxury of time.

Second, I can't emphasize enough how much a pressure cooker can help. I can whip up split-pea soup in under half an hour, including chopping the veggies. In the smaller of my two pressure cookers, I make risottos whose taste cannot be differentiated from the time-consuming stove-top, constant-stirring-required version. Dried beans are cooked through very quickly compared to the hours of simmering they otherwise require, and they're far superior to canned beans (cooked dried garbanzo beans, in fact, seem like an entirely different vegetable from the canned variety). Vegetable broth is done in a matter of minutes.

The slow cooker (crock-pot) is also extremely valuable, especially for the working person. I had forgotten this handy tool until one summer when I had so much to do out in the garden that I never felt like cooking at the end of the day. Putting dinner in the slow cooker before noon meant that we were guaranteed a decent meal after the busiest (and grimiest!) of days. And it doesn't heat up the kitchen much, either. Among other conveniences, the crock-pot cooks previously soaked dried beans overnight so that they're ready for the next day's meal.

Next, let's consider the meal itself. Your meal should include protein, so if you're having, say, spaghetti with marinara sauce, it's a good idea not only to sprinkle your pasta with parmesan, but also to have a side salad that incorporates feta and chickpeas, or whatever cheese and bean varieties you like. To simplify putting a balanced meal together, it's helpful to have the following on hand:

• Washed salad greens. Either buy pre-washed salad greens, or wash the greens, spin them dry in a salad spinner, lay them on paper towels, roll them up in the toweling, and put them in a plastic bag. Don't add juicy veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers until you put the actual salad together, as they will cause wilting and sogginess.
• Cooked dried beans, or canned beans. These can be added to salads and pasta (and pasta salads!) and soups and casseroles ... you get the idea. Having a bean salad in the fridge is even better; use two or three kinds of beans for variety, throw in some scallions, tomato, bell pepper, sliced black olives, celery, or whatever, and toss with a vinaigrette, and you've got lunch or a dish to round out a dinner. Add cooked pasta for a great main dish salad.
• Hummus, if you like it. Spread it on a pita, topped with some fresh veggies and/or sprouts and some good yogurt, and you've got an instant lunch.
• Cheeses that you like. These can be shredded into salads, rice, pita sandwiches, quesadillas (I'll get to that), refried beans, vegetarian chili, etc. to complete the protein in a meal.
• Hard-cooked eggs. These add protein to a tossed salad, fit well in many pasta salads, and are good to eat out of hand or as deviled eggs. I love egg salad, which can be used to stuff a tomato as well as serving as a sandwich filling.
• Tofu, if you like it. I don't, but I wish I did. It can be used in all manner of dishes, including salads, soups, stir-fries, breakfast eggs or shakes, etc.
• Better Than Bouillon, vegetarian or mushroom type. This is somewhat expensive, but even a little really strengthens the taste of soups and stews. You can also make a good mushroom gravy using fresh mushrooms and the Bouillon.

Of course, I never had all these things on hand at all times, but having some of them, at least, does make things easier when time is at a premium.

Other things to consider:

• When you cook dried beans, cook more than you'll need, and freeze the rest in some of the cooking liquid for another recipe down the line. Toss cooked beans into salads, rice dishes, pasta, soup, etc. for a protein boost.

• Cook more rice than you need for a recipe, and plan to use it as fried rice in the next day or two (more on this to come).

• Freeze leftover soup, or dishes like lasagna or eggplant parmesan, in amounts suitable for lunch or for another dinner. The freezer is your friend!

• Make veggie stock when you have time and freeze it in amounts you're likely to use for your favorite recipes.

• Think about how to use one recipe two ways. For example, leftover vegetarian chili is great as a burrito filling (just simmer the excess liquid away) or even an omelet filling.

Neither of the above lists exhausts the possibilities, of course, but it should give you some ideas about planning, using ingredients efficiently, and so on.

Next up, I'll post some ideas and recipes for quick meals.

Butternut squash soup, two ways

We grew some really good butternut squash this year--maybe butternuts like dry weather, I don't know (the pumpkins didn't!), but the texture and flavor are excellent. I've roasted, mashed, and frozen the squash, and much of it will be used for soup.

If you haven't tasted squash soup, you're in for a treat. Here are two ways to transform the humble winter squash into a silky, delectable soup. While you can use any kind of winter squash for these recipes, I like butternut because the skin is thinner than that of other squash and thus easier to peel.

I tend to use these as first-course soups, but there's no reason they couldn't be the centerpiece of a lunch with some good bread and a green salad on the side.

The first is the soup I made for Thanksgiving instead of the ordinary baked squash I usually serve. We had a smaller crowd this year, so a first-course soup was doable. It garnered raves. (My son-in-law liked it better than the Carrot-Ginger Soup in this menu.) I adapted the recipe from one The Cafe Brenda Cookbook, a collection of recipes from the kitchen of a fine restaurant in Minneapolis.

Contrary to the recipe directions, I baked the squash, as I was cooking a large quantity for freezer storage. You can do it either way.

Ginger-Butternut Soup

1 medium butternut squash
2 T. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 T. peeled and chopped fresh ginger root
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
juice of 1 orange
1 to 2 T. fresh lemon juice

Wash and peel the squash; scrape out the seeds and strings from the cavity. Cut the squash into one-inch pieces. You should have about 4 1/2 cups of chopped squash.

In a large soup kettle, saute the onion, garlic, and ginger in the oil. When the onion softens, add the squash and saute for 5 more minutes. Add the stock, cover, and simmer over medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes.

Add the salt, pepper, and orange juice. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth. Now add the lemon juice to taste, adjust the seasonings, add more water or stock if the soup is too thick, and serve.

Butternut Squash Bisque with Hazelnut Butter

(This recipe actually appears elsewhere on the blog, but I'm putting it here for your convenience.)

An avowed squash-hater once ate this soup and liked it! How's that for a testimonial? Well, vegetarian chef Ken Bergeron gets the credit. This is from his excellent book Professional Vegetarian Cooking, a book I highly recommend.

I had to make my own hazelnut butter, which I did by processing hazelnuts (also called filberts) in the food processor until they became nut butter. You need a workhorse of a motor for that--don't try it if you have a smaller or less sturdy processor. Health food stores are said to carry hazelnut butter; I can't say yea or nay to this. I believe you could use peanut butter--the natural kind ONLY!--and get a very similar result.

Be forewarned: the recipe serves TEN, so you'll usually want to cut it in half.

1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
3 or 4 T. minced fresh ginger
1 T. canola oil
6 cups large cubes of winter squash
7 1/2 cups water or light chicken or veggie stock
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 T. soy sauce
1/3 cup hazelnut butter
1 T. or more maple syrup
lemon juice
few grinds black pepper

Saute the onions, carrots, celery, and ginger in oil over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the squash and saute 5 minutes longer. Add water or stock, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until the squash is tender (very tender). Remover soup from heat and add hazelnut butter, maply syrup, and pepper. Puree in a food processor until smooth. Taste; add more maple syrup if necessary. The syrup really brings out the taste, but don't overdo. I had to use more--it just depends on the squash. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice, taste, add more to your liking, and so on. Adjust salt. If you are making this in advance, cover and store in refrigerator. Warm over low-medium heat before serving. It shouldn't be overly hot or the flavor won't quite be there.

Garnish with chopped toasted hazelnuts and chopped chives. If you put the chives on the soup first, the nuts won't sink immediately, I discovered.

Bon appetit!

Not-your-ordinary cauliflower cheese soup

Last weekend we went to a farm stand with the goal of buying broccoli so I could freeze some, since our once-thriving broccoli had been completely devoured by a groundhog and the second planting didn't germinate for some reason. I wasn't planning to buy cauliflower, but the size of the heads completely changed my mind: they must have been almost 12 inches across! I had to buy some, and I immediately thought of cauliflower cheese soup.

I gave part of one head to my mother-in-law, who was visiting that weekend, and still used only half of the remainder for this soup. (Guess I'll be freezing some cauliflower, too.) The recipe is something I came up with in my quest to do something a little different with this classic veggie-and-cheese combination.

I used a roasted poblano that I had in the freezer, but you could use an Anaheim for a milder flavor, or go with jalapeno for something zestier. The roasted pepper didn't make the soup spicy-hot, but it did add flavor and zing. If you need to roast a pepper, instructions can be found here.

It's the bacon and the roasted pepper that make this a little bit special, so if you're afraid of them, you might want to find another recipe! (For a completely different, non-cheese, lower-calorie soup, try this curried cauliflower soup.)

Cauliflower cheese soup

1 medium head of cauliflower, broken into florets
3 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups milk
8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
roasted poblano, diced
salt and pepper to taste
pinch cayenne or dash of Tabasco (opt.)

In a soup pot, fry the diced bacon until crisp; remove with a slotted spoon. Saute the onion and garlic in the bacon fat. Add the cauliflower and the chicken stock. If there doesn't seem to be enough liquid, add water or a little more stock (the liquid should almost cover the cauliflower). Partially cover the pot and cook the cauliflower until very tender. Puree the cooked cauliflower and stock; I used an immersion blender. If it seems very thick, add a little water or chicken stock, but remember, you'll be adding milk so you want it somewhat thick. If it's too thin, allow it to simmer, uncovered, until it reaches the desired thickness. Add the milk to your liking, using less or more as desired. Now stir in the cheese and keep stirring until it melts. Allow the soup to cook on low heat, very gently, for a few minutes. Add the cooked bacon and the diced pepper, salt and pepper, and the cayenne or Tabasco if you're using it. Heat until the pepper and bacon are thoroughly warmed and serve.

What's for dinner?

"What's for dinner?" will be an occasional feature here on the blog that will, I hope, give you some ideas for recipes or whole meals. I'm sure the recipes (and meals) will range from simple to, well, less simple (I'm not too big on elaborate). I'd also like them to be seasonally appropriate, but I know me, and that won't always be true.

Last night's dinner, however, was very much in keeping with the season. We had warm asparagus-parmesan salad, lovage and potato soup, and freshly baked bread (part whole wheat flour, part unbromated, unbleached white flour). I had felt the need for simplicity, lightness, and a non-meat menu. We hadn't been eating as healthily as we should, so an antidote was badly needed.

Both asparagus and lovage are part of the exuberance of spring, and asparagus is now at its peak (at least in our garden). There is nothing quite like eating asparagus you have just cut. It cooks quickly and stays bright green, and the flavor is incomparable.

You can find the lovage and potato soup recipe here. The asparagus salad recipe is below. It serves four to six people.

Note: When I cut the asparagus into pieces, I set the tips aside and add them to the boiling water after the stem pieces have been cooking for two to three minutes. They take only about a minute or so longer. Take care with cooking the asparagus, testing it sooner than you think it will be done; if very fresh and placed into rapidly boiling water, the stems will be crisp-tender in just three minutes total, including the final minute during which the tips cook.

Warm asparagus-parmesan salad

2 lbs. fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
4 oz. parmesan cheese--do not grate!
4 to 6 cups mixed spring greens (depending on number of diners)

Get a large pot of salted water boiling.

Whisk together lemon juice, oil, and pepper. Taste and add more lemon juice or pepper if necessary. Set aside.

With a vegetable peeler, shave thin slices of parmesan and set them aside.

Add asparagus pieces to a large pot of boiling, salted water (see my note above). Cook until barely crisp-tender, 3-5 minutes. Rinse briefly under cold water--briefly enough that the asparagus pieces are still warm--and drain. Give the dressing a quick whisk and toss it with the asparagus.

On each serving plate, make a bed of greens, mound asparagus on top, and top each serving with the parmesan shavings. Serve immediately.

Lovage, with recipe

I've had a lovage plant ever since we planted our first herb garden, something like six or seven years ago. I'd read about it in an herb encyclopedia and was intrigued. But for some reason, I'd never used the herb until I found a recipe in Barbara Kafka's Soup: A Way of Life and, last night, made a batch of lovage and potato soup.

I can confidently predict that I will be using lovage all summer and fall, and that I'll be drying its leaves to use in winter.

Lovage is a perennial that can be started from seed or by division from an established plant (I just gave my daughter a plant from division). I started mine from seed, not having even heard of the herb, let alone known anyone who had some in the garden. (You can get seed from Richter's.) It grows to be a bushy, tall plant, up to two feet wide and five feet tall. After the first year, we moved it from the herb garden to our vegetable garden.

It's one of the first perennials to come back in the spring, and a welcome sight it is after winter. The leaves are reminiscent of celery leaves, which is appropriate, since lovage has a celery-like taste, though more concentrated--or as my daughter said, "It's celery on steroids!" Others have noted the presence, too, of a taste similar to parsley, but lovage also has a deeper underlying flavor that's hard to characterize. Every part of the lovage plant can be used, from the roots to the seeds. Its stems are hollow, and I found a recipe here for bloody marys in which the stems are used as straws.

Lovage can be used anywhere celery is used, with the caveat that it doesn't taste exactly like celery, and that a light touch is probably advisable. As we sat down to dinner last night, my husband inhaled the aroma of the soup and said, "It smells just like celery." He ate a spoonful and said, "Yep, it tastes like celery." And then after several more spoonfuls: "I was wrong. It's better than celery." That, I think, is due to the complexity of flavor that you don't get with celery.

I haven't been to a farmer's market in a while, so I don't know if you can find lovage there or not. I never saw any when we used to go regularly, but that may have changed by now. I do hope you can find some!

Here's the recipe I adapted from Kafka's.

Lovage and potato soup

2 T. unsalted butter
1 cup thinly sliced leeks, or two onions, chopped
2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 cup loosely packed lovage leaves, chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the leeks or onion and saute at a fairly low heat until very soft and beginning to brown, which could take up to twenty minutes, probably less for leeks.

Add the potato slices and stock. Simmer the soup, uncovered, until the potatoes are very soft, 20 to 30 minutes. With a wire whisk, gently whisk the potatoes to break them up (how much is up to you). Now add the chopped lovage leaves and simmer until they are tender. Smaller, younger leaves take less time than larger, older leaves, so how long this will take is variable. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Two fast, off-the-beaten-track soups

It's April 5, and here in Michigan, it's snowing. And it's been snowing most of the day.

That's probably what made my thoughts turn to soup. I recently tried two soups new to me, both of which were quickly made, a little different from the usual, and quite delicious. Don't be put off if they sound strange--just give them a try.

African Chickpea and Spinach Soup

For this one, I'm going to use a little more peanut butter next time. If you want a spicier soup, simply add more cayenne.

2 tsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup smooth unsweetened peanut butter
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth. divided
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1  15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1  14-oz. can diced tomatoes
2 oz. (about 2 cups) fresh spinach, chopped (remove any tough stems)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft and golden.
Add garlic and cook another 2 to 3 minutes.

Blend peanut butter and 1/2 cup of the broth in food processor to make a smooth paste. Blend remaining broth into the paste.

Add paprika, coriander, and cayenne to onion/garlic mixture; saute for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Stir in peanut butter mixture, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Simmer for five minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in spinach and simmer just until spinach is wilted but still bright green. Serve at once.

Green Chile, Chicken, and Navy Bean Soup

The recipe calls for canned mild green chiles, but I'm lucky enough to have roasted chiles in my freezer, some of last summer's bounty, so that's what I used. Next time I'll use hotter chiles; the roasted Anaheims I used didn't give it quite enough zing (I used more ground chipotle to compensate).

The original recipe called for cooked and cubed chicken breast, but I had leftover roast chicken and this was a great way to use some of it.

The recipe is adapted from one in Penzey's One magazine.

2   15-oz. cans navy beans, drained, but with liquid reserved
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup butter, divided
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. ground cumin (or more to taste)
1 and 1/2 tsp. chili powder
ground chipotle to taste
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 tsp. Tabasco (opt.)
1/2  tsp. salt, or to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2   4-oz. cans mild green chiles, drained and chopped
1 cup cooked and cubed chicken

In a large soup pot, melt the butter and saute the onion until softened. Whisk in the flour, cumin, chili powder, and chipotle. Cook, whisking constantly, 3 minutes. Gradually add broth, milk, and reserved bean liquid, whisking constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until thickened. Stir in hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Add beans, chiles, and cubed chicken. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring gently, about 20 minutes.

Mushroom Barley Soup

Yes, yet another soup recipe.

Not only do I really, really love soup, but winter definitely calls for steaming bowls of it. Last night I looked at a couple of recipes and then came up with my own version of mushroom barley soup. Once again I called on my trusty pressure cooker to deliver the goods, and it did.

Mushrooms and barley just seem to go together (for instance, I like these ingredients in stuffed cabbage rolls). For this recipe I used about 12 ounces of mushrooms and half a cup of pearl barley. My husband would have liked a little more barley, and in truth, the soup could have taken a bit more.

I used Better Than Bouillon mushroom base in this. If you still haven't bought Better Than Bouillon--and I'll admit it's a little pricey--what are you waiting for? This stuff gives a flavor boost to anything you use it in.

2 T. vegetable or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large celery ribs, sliced
12 oz. mushrooms, sliced
6 cups water
1 1/2 T. Better Than Bouillon mushroom base
2 to 4 T. red wine
1 bay leaf
2 T. minced fresh parsley
two or three good pinches dried thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker or soup pot. Add the onions and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes. Add in everything else. Lock the lid in place and, over high heat, bring the pressure up to high. Keep at high pressure for 18 minutes. Allow the pressure to come down naturally. Voila!

If using a soup pot, saute the onions and garlic as above. Add barley, water, mushroom base, wine, and bay leaf; cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Then stir in the mushrooms, parsley, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, uncovered, until the barley is tender, probably another 15 minutes or so.

It sure isn't Campbell's: cream of mushroom soup

I forgot that I'd purchased mushrooms and so bought more, and now I have to use them up. What better way than in a luscious soup?

This is not the recipe that's in the cookbook I wrote for my family and friends--it's one I've been using for the past couple of years. So if any friends are reading this, let me just say that this recipe is far, far superior.

It's based on one in Deborah Madison's encyclopedic Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, or as I call it, the Orange Bible (and actually only the spine and her name on the cover are in orange; go figure).

The soup is pureed, and in my experience, a stick blender won't do the job (maybe I don't have the right one). Fresh herbs enliven the appearance of the soup.

If you don't have mushroom stock--another great way to use up mushrooms--then substitute Better Than Bouillon mushroom base.

1 pound white mushrooms, cleaned
3 T. butter, divided
1 cup chopped leek, preferably, or onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped from stems, or 1/4 tsp. dried
1/4 cup water
sprinkle of salt

1 T. flour
1 quart mushroom stock, or 1 quart water and 1 T. Better Than Bouillon mushroom base
1/2 to 1 cup cream
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
chopped parsley, chives, or tarragon

Set aside a few mushroooms for garnish and coarsely chop the rest. Melt 2 T. of the butter in a soup pot and add leek, garlic, thyme, sprinkle or two of salt, and the 1/4 c. water. Cover and stew over medium heat for 5 minutes, then raise the heat, add the chopped mushrooms, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, add the stock, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Puree the soup, return it to the pot, and stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm over low heat.

Slice the reserved mushrooms. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet, add mushrooms, and saute over high heat, stirring constantly, until they begin to brown, about 4 or 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Garnish soup with the mushrooms and herbs, and serve.

Minestrone

Yes, there are a hundred minestrone recipes out there, but this one came out so beautifully that my husband couldn't stop commenting on it.

I really believe the pressure cooker makes a difference. It seems to concentrate all the taste into the broth. I can't believe I did without one for so long, especially once I went vegetarian.

In addition to using homemade vegetable stock, which I had in the freezer, I used my time-tested "secret ingredient"--Better Than Bouillon vegetable base. Every vegetarian needs to keep this stuff on hand, I'm telling you. If you use the stuff, do not add salt until you've tasted the finished product. (Their mushroom base is also excellent.) If you don't have vegetable stock, commercial or homemade, then just substitute water.

I used home-grown frozen tomatoes, romano beans, peas, and zucchini; fresh celery, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, and parsley; and home-grown dried leeks, oregano, and basil. And canned beans--I hadn't planned ahead enough to cook up my own.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you'll need to cover and simmer the soup for 45 minutes, or until all the veggies are tender.

My husband dislikes pasta in soup, so I usually omit it. I did not end up using any added salt, due to the bouillon and the pecorino romano I used for garnish, which is quite salty.

2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium leek, thinly sliced
3 large carrots, sliced (not wafer thin)
3 stalks celery, sliced
14-oz. can plum tomatoes with juice (you may need extra tomato juice)
1 cup romano or green beans, raw or frozen, cut in thirds or so
3 cups shredded cabbage (core removed, of course)
1/4 cup or so minced parsley
2 or 3 T. crushed dried basil
1 tsp. crushed dried oregano
3 cups water
3 cups vegetable stock
2 T. Better Than Bouillon

1 large zucchini, halved and sliced
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup small pasta (mini-shells, orzo, etc.)
1 can kidney, garbanzo, or navy beans, drained and rinsed
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

grated fresh Parmesan or Romano to taste

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker (or soup pot) and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add carrots, leek, celery, tomatoes, romano or green beans, cabbage, herbs, water, stock and bouillon. Locke the lid on, turn the heat up to high, and bring to high pressure. Maintain at high pressure for 20 minutes. Let the pressure drop naturally, or use a quick-release method. Remove the cover.

Add the zucchini, peas, pasta, and beans. If the soup seems to thick, add a little water (or, if you think it could stand to be more tomato-y, some tomato juice). Cook until the zucchini and pasta are tender. Serve, garnishing bowls with grated cheese.

Vegetable stock

Lots of us just use commercially packaged vegetable stock, especially now that organic is available, but making your own is a good way to use leftover vegetables. It's good to keep in the freezer in half-pint or pint containers.

There are lots of candidates for the stock pot. Here are a few, though, that you should avoid:

• beets and beets skins
• turnip skins (bitter)
• most members of the cabbage family (they can overpower the stock)
• eggplant, green peppers, and leafy greens like mustard and collard (can be bitter)

Just about anything else will work. Mushrooms will impart a "darker" taste, which might be lovely for certain kinds of soups. And do use those annoying tiny cloves of garlic that you don't know what to do with--throw them into the pot skin and all.

I like to use a pressure cooker for stocks, because, as I read somewhere once, "The flavor is IN the food, not ON the food"--as good a way as any to describe the enhancement of taste. But you don't have to--just simmer gently for about an hour

I suggest leaving your stock salt-free. Then if you want to use it in a bean soup or other bean dish, you don't have to worry about salt toughening the beans and lengthening cooking time.

You can, if you like, roast the vegetables first, tossed with vegetable oil, in a 400-degree onion, stirring occasionally until they've developed some lovely brown spots. This will darken the stock and impart extra richness via the oil. This is a step I often omit, but when I'm making a vegetable barley soup that I would have used some beef bones in during my carnivorous days, it's nice to take the time.

Consider this recipe a guideline only. You can be very flexible and use up bits of this and that, including lettuce and spinach.

8 cups water
8 cups chopped mixed vegetables
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic (whole, halved, or finely minced, depending on the intensity of flavor desired)
3 large carrots, cut into a few large chunks
3-4 large celery ribs, cut into a few large chunks
2 bay leaves
parsley stalks/leaves, left whole
sprigs of fresh or dried oregano or thyme

If you have a pressure cooker, put the ingredients in the pot, secure the lid, and bring to high pressure. Maintain at high pressure for 10 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally (if you're in a hurry, use a quick-release method).

Allow the stock to cool slightly. Strain into storage containers, pressing the vegetables against the side of the strainer with a large spoon.