Yummy Beet & Wine Vegetable Soup

One of my favorite things about the cold seasons is soup. Soup everyday! I love soup. I am indiscriminate.

“But, Alien Mind Girl, it is 70 degrees in Oklahoma!” you might say. This may be true, but it is still November, and November means I get to make soup. I made a soup last week that I was especially pleased with. There aren’t any pictures because… well, we ate it all. It might sound weird, but just trust me, k? We ate it. All.  And because the soup was wine-red, it looked so pretty and colorful dished up with a plate of greens and basil-and-cheese-sprinkled toast.

Beet & Wine Vegetable Soup

2 cups of chicken stock

½ - ¾ cup of red cooking wine

6 cloves of minced garlic

Half an onion, chopped

A cup and a half of beets, boiled and diced

A cup and a half of cabbage, diced or shredded fine

1-2 cups of fresh kale, chopped

Sprig of dill

Basically… throw it all in the pot together, and add water to cover, bring to a boil, then simmer it for as long as you can stand, stirring occasionally and checking the water level. By the time I had finished cooking it, the beets had mostly dissolved into the broth along with some of the onions. When you’ve decided it’s done cooking, find the sprig of dill and pull it out to discard. Then it is ready to eat!

I really enjoyed it. Super healthy, and I thought it tasted decadent with the rich broth, hint of wine, and garlicky-sweet flavor.

CSA and Cooking Beets and Zucchini Bread

This will be my last CSA recipe installment. I saved my favorites for last. I hope you enjoyed them!


On one fine zucchini-acquiring Saturday, I thought I'd treat myself and try this recipe for chocolate zucchini bread from the Prairie Homestead. And, my friends, it was one of the tastiest things I put in my mouth all month.  If you love chocolate, if you love bread, if you ever have a zucchini, YOU MUST TRY THIS! Go to the link. Then make this bread. Just do it.

Picture from Prairie Homestead

Beets are one of the vegetables that the CSA has taught me to love. During my first CSA, the uber-drought year, beets were one of the few crops that defied the drought and flourished. So despite having never touched a beet before, I had beets every week, for many weeks in a row. I tried very hard to like them alone; I simply don't. But, like tomatoes, while I don't eat them individually, I love to cook with them! They lend everything I put them into a natural sweetness and a pretty red color.

What follows is my favorite beet recipe. It is delicious, easy to cook, and filling. I love this one so much, I would say that 90% of my beets go into this. I have gleefully stored packs of chopped beets in the freezer, just so that I can whip out this spicy-cozy recipe on an icy winter day. It even made my hubby's list of favorite dishes.

Red Flannel Hash - One of our favorites!

Red Flannel Hash – adapted from Vegetarian Meatand Potatoes Cookbook

4 small red beets (or more to taste - I sometimes do 5 or 6)

3 medium size potatoes

1 large red onion

1 lb ground beef

1 tablespoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or more to taste)

Cook the beets in boiling salted water until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and cool. Skin, peel and chop. Set aside.

Peel and dice the potatoes. Steam over boiling water about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Brown the beef and drain.

Add onion, cover and cook, strirring a few times until softened, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and beets. Increase heat to medium high and cook, stirring frequently, until potatoes are lightly browned. Add soy sauce, salt, and cayenne and cook until flavors are blended, about 5 mintues.

CSA and Cooking Peaches

Of course the healthiest (and often most delicious) way to eat a peach is raw, but through my CSA I learned about peach varieties. Some varieties really ought to be cooked! Berry Creek has two varieties that I know of... one soft, ultra juicy, and very sweet, the other pale and crunchy. The crunchy one is great for cooking; it keeps its shape and gets sweet without getting *too* sweet. Here are the recipes we used most often for this particular peach.

From AllRecipes.com

Stuffed Peaches – shared by a coworker

Cut the peaches in half and deseed

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

Bake up to 30 minutes at 350 degrees

Let cool

Put a dollop of cheesecake filling in each

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and/or crushed graham crackers

Tipsy Peaches from AllRecipes.Com

Grandma's Peach Cobbler - This recipe is ubiquitous, apparently... but I did try a few recipes for cobbler and this was the only one I was any good at!

CSA and Cooking Eggplant

I learned that, generally speaking, my CSA eggplant would absorb the flavors of whatever I cooked it with, similar to tofu or potatoes. I couldn't see what the fuss was over until I tried to stir-fry it and eat it alone - then I tasted the bitterness and understood. But I also learned that if you plan to eat it without cooking it into a dish, you can slice it thinly, salt it, and set it aside for 15 minutes first. The salt will draw out some of the juices in the eggplant and it will taste less bitter. Another lesson is that the raw eggplant doesn't keep long (a few days), so it has to be one of my first meals of the week.

These are our two favorite eggplant recipes.

Baked Eggplant Pasta – adapted from VegetarianMeat and Potatoes Cookbook

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium size onion

1 medium size eggplant

4 garlic cloves, minced

one 28-can crushed tomatoes

about a half cup of extra tomatoes of choice: chopped fresh tomatoes, or more canned tomatoes or tomato sauce

½ cup red cooking wine

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 tbsp chopped fresh basil or 1 ½ teaspoons dried

salt and pepper

2 cups of rotini

½ cup

2 cups of any type of cheese (or more to taste)

Preheat oven to 375. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cover and cook, stirring a few times until softened, about five minutes. Add the eggplant and garlic, cover and cook, stirring a few times, for five minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, wine, parsley, basil and salt and pepper to taste and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bake pasta in another pot until just al dente, 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine cooked pasta with the sauce and 1 cup of cheese. Spoon into a large baking dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake until hot and lightly browned on top, 30-40 minutes.

Eggplant Pizza with Roasted Garlic and Tomato

For the crust I use Jay's Signature Pizza Crust recipe. I often will substitute or cut the white flour with whole wheat flour. 

For the toppings, I use this recipe from Pioneer Woman.