White Bean and (Asparagus) Avocado Soup

When no one in the family likes asparagus, what does a girl do,with all those wonderful recipes featuring asparagus?  I think, this may be the in-season for asparagus since it appears each time, I click on a recipe.

Here it is again,in our weekly recipe for The Food Matters Project, selected by Adrienne of Adrienne Eats, where you will find the recipe for White Bean and Asparagus Soup.  I may not love asparagus but I do admire this blog, which has its stress on healthy eating with delectable recipes.    Check out her Friday Favorites, bloggers of note.

Usually, I select some green vegetable replace the asparagus such as broccoli or spinach.  My darling husband had just brought me a box of avocados and a few of them were ripe and that is the moment, I knew this was going to be a White Bean and Avocado Soup and it did work well.  I did use regular sized tomatoes, rather than small ones.  We like the flavor it brings to soups.  Instead of chicken soup as a base, I used an organic vegetable broth.

With the cooler weather returning, I have been making soups, on a regular basis.  This fit right in. 

Thanks to Adrienne for a good pick.  Go on over to the Food Matters Project and see who else has participated and what they have come up with.   If you are a Mark Bittman fan, you just might want to join us in cooking his yummy recipes.

This is linked to Homemaker Monday    Real Food Wednesday      Tuesday Talent Show        Allergy Free Wednesday      Hearth and Soul

Pasta E Fagioli – Olive Garden Copy Cat

I enjoy making Copy Cat recipes, whether they are true to the source or not.  Since, we are kosher, I have not eaten these meals, in the restaurants they come from and this is the closest, I get to come to eating them.    In this case, I did not have red kidney beans so that is a change in the recipe and I didn’t even see, there were carrots in the recipe, so this is a deviant copy cat recipe.  Despite this, it is a delicious dish filled with a mixture of flavors that blend into a warm and cozy meal.  Serve with a salad and you will be full.

Pasta E Fagioli - Olive Garden CopyCat

•  1 pound  ground beef
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion , chopped
• 4 stalks celery , chopped
• 2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes , undrained
• 1 (16 ounce) can white kidney beans , drained
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoons oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons fresh  parsley
• 1 teaspoon cayenne sauce
• 2 cups Marinara sauce
• 8 ounces pasta

Directions

Brown chopped beef in a skillet.

Add to crock pot, olive oil, onion and celery and cook on high for 1 hour.

Drain fat from beef and add chopped beef to crock pot with everything except pasta.

Cook on low 4-5 hours.

During last 30 min on high or 1 hour on low, add pasta.

 Treat yourself to a hearty dinner, made with a minimum of effort.

This is linked to Full Plate Thursdays    Newlyweds Recipe Linky     Tastetastic Thursday    Friday Food    Gallery of Favorites

Southwestern Hash – Ellie Krieger

I love Ellie Krieger and have made numerous dishes from her cookbooks.  I should make a lot  more.

  This is one, I made a long time ago and hope to make again soon.  Another meatless wonder…..  This is a hearty recipe and nice and warming in cold weather which is now.  Ellie is known for her healthy cooking and it is healthy but healthy is proven not to mean boring in these dishes.  She simply cooks well so we can also do a good job in our kitchens.

Tonight, we had Ellie’s hash which fortunately for me, had lots of potatoes and I love potatoes.

It called for black beans but I only had Aduki beans.  It called for green pepper; I only had red.  It called for fresh cilantro; I had parsley.  Yep, I substituted.

It called for 1 tablespoon oil in the entire recipe plus a spray of the pan.  I used one pan, as suggested for three different acts, just wiping it down, before changing.  It went well.  It tasted better.  I thought the beans would take away from the whole but they didn’t.  Every ingredient blended with the others.  The egg on top was the right finishing touch.

This was an Ellie success.

Southwestern Hash    2007, Ellie Krieger, 

Ingredients

• 1 pound small red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 1 red pepper, diced (about 1 cup)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon  chili powder 
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 1 can no-salt-added adzuki beans, drained and rinsed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 4 eggs
• Hot pepper sauce, for serving

Directions

Place the potatoes in a large non-stick skillet. Cover with water, bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes. Drain and set potatoes aside.

Dry the skillet with a paper towel. Add the oil and heat over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and peppers and cook until vegetables have softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the potatoes,  cumin, oregano, and chili powder. Add the tomatoes and beans and simmer for 5 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in parsley.

Transfer the hash onto serving plates. With the heat off, wipe out the pan again. Spray it withcooking spray, turn heat on to medium-low and cook the eggs, sunny-side up, or over-easy. Put an egg on top of each mound of hash. Serve with hot sauce.

Ingredients

Chop onions

Chop red pepper.

Potatoes cooking in boiling water in electric Skillet.

This is linked to Recipe of the Week      Five Dollar Dinners       This week’s Cravings