A proper dinner (including dessert)

One night last week, I had 3 cookies for dinner. And a beer. In bed.

Clearly this had to change.

So tonight, I have soup simmering on the stove, flatbread rising in the oven, and frozen yogurt (the inaugural use of the ice-cream maker!) ripening in the freezer.

This soup, Sweet Potato Kale and Corn Chowder, is one of my all-time faves. Partly because it's pretty much entirely vegetables (in addition to those named, it also contains celery, red pepper, carrot, onions, and tomatoes...so much to love), and partly because I first made it with Kate's mom, who I mentioned earlier. It's not a chowder in the traditional sense, but then, I'm not from New England, so I'm not troubled by the fact.

Jean taught me to cook during the summer after my freshman year in college. I'd always been interested in the kitchen, and had made a fair number of batches of cookies and cinnamon rolls, but for some reason I was always intimidated by anything else. Maybe it's because I'm so good at following directions, and most recipes don't say exactly what I should do. Chop an onion? Okay, how? How many layers of the skin should I peel off? Should the resultant pieces be a half inch or a quarter inch? Wait, what color onion are we talking here? Sometimes there's the opposite problem, too: no matter how hard I try, there's just no way I can chop a butternut squash into uniform 1-inch cubes, even if a recipe says that's the way to do it.

Anyway, Jean taught me several lessons that got me over these apprehensions and have helped me ever since, and I think of her often, especially while chopping onions. First, her advice for how to chop the ingredients for this soup was into bits "the size you'd want to encounter in your soup." Clearly! The cookbook authors are not going to come to your house and measure, so you might as well do it the way you like it. She also told me it was okay to not slice and dice as quickly and accurately as you see on a cooking show; those people are professionals and you are not, so you might as well work carefully and enjoy the process. Jean was a believer in "cleaning up as you go" and I try to practice this, too. She always had a bowl reserved for peels and stems and other waste, which made it a lot easier to clean up (compost!) at the end - so what if you have to wash one more bowl? And finally, Jean taught me the value of sharp knives, which I now find to be kind of like running shoes - yes, you can run/chop without them, but it's much more pleasant if you have good equipment.

So, go make this soup, the way you like it, and take this spirit to all your cooking endeavors.











Sweet Potato, Kale, and Corn Chowder

1 Tablespoon canola oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped (I like thick stews so I used more)
1 sprig fresh thyme, minced
3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 medium tomato, chopped (I used canned diced tomato because winter tomatoes are sad)
5 cups vegetable broth or water
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
3 cups stemmed and chopped kale leaves (as you can tell by my photos I used a whole bunch of purple kale and I don't regret it)
Salt and ground white pepper, to taste (someday I will be fancy enough to have white pepper)
Cayenne pepper, to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (eh, I'm sure it's good but not really necessary)

Thickening options:
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon tepid water
or:
1/2 cup cashew pieces

Heat oil in a large nonreactive pot over medium-high heat. Saute carrots, red onion, celery, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes for 3ish minutes. Add the thyme and tumeric and stir it around so it's well distributed in the veggies. Add the tomatoes and broth, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add corn, kale, salt, and white pepper. Simmer 5 minutes. Season with cayenne pepper.

Thicken either of two ways: Combine cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water. With soup simmering, stir in cornstarch mixture. Continue to stir and simmer 3 minutes to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in parsley.

I used the cashews - it's really cool, if you're not allergic. Blend the cashews with a bit of the soup so you have a thick cashew soup slurry and then add it back to the soup, stirring it in. The color of the soup will lighten and it will thicken a bit. Then remove from the heat and garnish with parsley.

The flatbread and yogurt recipes are here.