Spicy Carrot Soup

Photo by Karsten Moran for the New York Times.


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Hail got Glade Road Growing's chard this week (sigh), but there will still be carrots and onions in the farm share.  With the cold weather, I though soup would be good.  (And when the warm weather returns, this one is also good chilled.  If you would like this to be heartier, for a main course, you can add two cups of cooked white beans or garbanzos. 

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Serves 4


Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil,  coconut oil, or ghee
2 medium onions, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 cloves of fresh garlic, smashed, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon turmeric
½ ground coriander
⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 pounds young carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 cups of water
1 cup of dried white beans or garbanzo beans, cooked (optional)
1 bunch or hakurei turnips or one small daikon radish, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 2 cups) (if using turnips, reserve the greens for another use)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Cilantro or basil leaves, chopped, for garnish (optional)
Lime wedges, for serving
Greek yogurt or tofu sour cream for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1.  If you are adding beans to make this a main dish, the night or at least two hours before, in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover 1 cup of beans with 2 cups water, and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time.  Add two cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour with 2 bay leaves.



2.  In a heavy-bottomed, lidded  soup pot, over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of the oil.  When it is hot enough that a drop of water turns to steam, add onions saute, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add ginger, garlic, turmeric, coriander and cayenne and cook for one minute more, or just until fragrant. Season with salt.

3.  Add carrots and water. Raise the heat and bring to a brisk simmer, then put on the lid and turn heat to low. Cook until the carrots are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from stove and let cool slightly. If you would like this to be a main dish, add two cups of cooked beans.  Purée in a blender in batches, then return to soup pot.  Thin with water as  necessary, as the soup should not be too thick. Set aside.

4.  While soup is cooking, steam the turnips or daikon until tender, about 5 to 6 minutes. Drain and keep warm.

5.  Reheat the soup over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, heat remaining tablespoon of  oil in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and red pepper flakes. Cook for one minute, or until spices are fragrant and beginning to pop. Pour the entire contents of the pan into the soup and stir to combine. Taste for salt and adjust.

6.  Divide daikon pieces among four bowls and ladle over a cup or so of soup. Garnish with cilantro or basil leaves, if using, and give each bowl a squeeze of lime.   Add a dollop of yogurt or tofu sour cream, if you desire.  

Bok Choy, Hakurei Turnip Greens and Red Peppers with Garlic and Ginger

Photo from Bev Weidner (bio) from her recipe at her blog Bevcooks.com.  Her recipe  uses spinach and omits the salad turnips.

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Serves 4

Sally tells me that the farm share from Glade Road Growing for September 15 will include two salad turnips, garlic, one head bok choy, a sweet pepper, one pound of tomatoes, salad greens and an eggplant.  Here's a simple recipe for the bok chok, turnips, sweet pepper and garlic that I like.  If you want to use it as a main course, you can add thinly sliced tempeh or cooked chicken.

Serves 4



1.  Wash the red sweet pepper, bok choy, and turnips and greens  in cool water.  Prepare the vegetables and keep separate as they require different cooking times.   Remove stem and seeds from the pepper and slice into thin strips.  Trim the ends off the bok choy and separate the leaves in a separate pile.  Cut the root end off the turnips and reserve for a separate use.  Remove the stems and reserve for soup stock.  Thinly slice the leaves. (The turnip bulbs would be  great in a salad with the tomatoes and salad greens.  If the turnips come without greens this week, thinly slice the bulbs for this recipe and use along with an onion quartered and thinly sliced and 2 stalks of celery thinly sliced on the slant, to make up the volume of vegetables you'll need.)

2. In a dry skillet toast raw sesame seeds until they begin to pop and are light tan.  Remove from heat and when cool, store in a lidded glass jar.  You will use about a tablespoon or more for this recipe.

3.  Cut the ends off four  fresh garlic cloves, smash, peel and mince.  Mince enough fresh ginger to make one tablespoon.

4.   Cut two sheets of nori paper into thin strips.

5.   In a saucepan, bring water to boil and cook eight ounces of sorba noodles until al dente, about five minutes.  Drain and set aside.

6. In a medium skillet heat four tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil over medium high. Add the garlic, ginger and a sprinkle of crushed red pepper and let bloom for about a minute. Add the red bell pepper (and onions and turnip bulbs if you are using) and saute for about 3 minutes. Add the baby bok choy along with two tablepoons of mirin or other sherry and saute to wilt, an additional 3 or 4 minutes. Lastly add the turnip greens (and celery if you are using) about 1 minute. Add the soba noodles to the skillet and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, top with cilantro, nori strips, sesame seeds and a squeeze of lemon.

Salad of Shredded Pears, Watermelon Radishes and Hakurei Turnips Served with Asian Dressing and Greens

This photo accompanied a  Sanura Weathers recipe in Frugavore. Check out her blog, My Life Runs on Food (at the link for her name) for more of her creations. Weathers used kohlrabi and a balsamic vinaigrette, but I adopted the recipe for a more Asian flavor, using the October 7 farm share from Glade Road Growing, which is slated to include: tat soi, bok choy, a watermelon roasting radish, cilantro, red onion, salad turnips, and arugula.

Weathers and I both like to combine something sweet such as pears with  the sharp taste of greens like arugula (last year's recipe) and brassica root crops such as turnips and radishes.  If you find the turnips and radishes too sharp for your taste when raw, you can make them milder by lightly sauteing with the onion and letting them cool before adding to the dressing.

1.  Wash tatsoi, bok choy, arugula, and cilantro and dry using a salad spinner or by setting in a colander lined with a clean kitchen towel.   Remove the cilantro from its stems and reserve stems for another use, such as a vegetable broth or pesto.  If arugula is mature, wilt in a lightly oiled skillet and set aside to cool.

2.  Smash, peel and mince a couple of cloves of garlic.  Peel and finely mince fresh ginger root to make 1/2 TB.  Combine in a covered jar with the juice of one lime, 2 TB of extra virgin olive oil, 1 TB of miso,  a dash of freshly ground black pepper, a small pinch of crushed red pepper

3.  Separate turnips from greens, reserve greens for another use. Trim root end.  Peel red onion and discard peel or save for making a vegetable broth. Cut in half and reserve one half for another use.  Trim ends from watermelon radish and peel. (If the greens are included separate and reserve as you did for the turnips.) Peel one under ripe bosc pear, trim ends, cut vertically in half and use spoon or melon baller to remove tough center and seeds.  Using a box grater, coarsely grate the turnips, onion, radish and pear into a large bowl.

4.  Lightly toss the grated salad and dressing. Let marinate for at least an hour at room temperature.
Toss again before serving.

5.  Prepare a bed of shredded tatsoi and/or bok choy either on a large platter or in individual bowls.  Top with grated salad and garnish with arugula and cilantro.  If you like, you can also top with  crumbled goat, feta or blue cheese and nuts such as walnuts, pecans or almonds.

Tatsoi is one of my favorite greens. You can use just the bok choy for this salad and save the tatsoi to make my tempeh recipe from last year.  The tatsoi would also be nice in a salad with clementines, bell pepper, red onion and almonds in a dijon vinaigrette, similar to the one shown in this photo from Shabnam Arora Afsah's Flavor n' Spice blog post:

Or, Martha Stewart has a nice recipe for poached sweet potatoes and tofu with tatsoi  photographed by one of my favorites, Romulo Yanes.

Cucumber and Hakurei Turnip Salad

Photo of hakurei turnips from Glade Road Growing.  The June 17 farm share is slated to include summer squash, turnips, bok choy, carrots, parsley, bunch onions, spinach, and sugar peas.

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Hakurei turnips are crisp and a bit sweet.  You can eat them just about any way:  raw, roasted, pickled, steamed, sauteed, glazed, candied, in soups and roasted.  The greens are edible raw or cooked and taste similar to mustard greens.  There's no need to peel the turnips, just trim the root end (which can saved and used in making a veggie stock.)  The globes keep well in the fridge in a sealed glass container, if you separate the greens and store them separately.

I thought I'd give you a recipe for a simple salad with an oriental flair, since these turnips were first developed in Japan during the 1950s.  The photo is from Elly Says Opa on Flckr. I've adapted her 2011 recipe below.

At the bottom of this page, I've linked to some recipes from last year the bok choy and for the carrots and summer squash.


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Serves 4

1. Thinly slice 1 medium cucumber and 4 hakurei turnip globes. Sprinkle with salt and place in colander and let drain for about 20 minutes to remove the excess moisture.

2. Lightly oil a small cast iron skillet and heat on stove until a drop of water sprinkled evaporates.  Add a thin layer of sesame seeds and toast until they start to pop.  Transfer to a glass jar and cool before you screw on the lid for storage.

3. Grate or finely mince 1/2 t fresh ginger

4. Wash, drain and chop 4 T fresh parsley.  (You can ensure that the parsley stays fresh for as long as possible by removing all the leaflets from the stems and storing in an inverted wide-mouth mason jar  towards the front of the fridge.)

5. In a pint jar combine ginger with:
1 1/2  T balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. demerara sugar
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. miso paste

6. Transfer cucumbers and turnips to a serving bowl or 4 individual salad bowls.Pour the vinaigrette over the cucumbers and turnips and toss to coat.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

7. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and chopped parsley, keeping any extra for other recipes. 

To make this a main meal, you can toss in 1/2 cups of cooked beans or feta cheese and 1/3 cup of  walnuts. You can serve over a bed of fresh spinach or cooked quinoa  or toss with 2 cups of cooked wheat berries.

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Additional recipes for this week's farm share:

Bok Choy Slaw
Tzatziki with Carrots and Summer Squash