With the exception of the cannellini beans and the Parm, nearly everything else in this soup is green. And delicious. And healthy.

I made this soup over Christmas – a big batch of it that my cousin Gary and I had several of the days he was visiting. There’s another green minestrone here on my blog that was equally as good. Since I’m watching carbs, I made this one with cannellini beans and no pasta, but you can add pasta to it and more beans too. I adjusted the proportion of veggies to broth, to make this a very thick soup with a lot less broth. I wanted chunky (I don’t mean chewy, just dense with vegetables). The original recipe, came from Bon Appetit, but I have no idea when. I don’t subscribe to epicurious, so I can’t look it up.

This soup has no meat in it – just a full vegetable repertoire, from flavorful leeks, Swiss chard, zucchini, green beans, peas (I omitted this time) plus the onions and celery (the soffritto). There’s a fair amount of prep work here with chopping a bunch of things, and if I’d used my food processor it would have been faster, certainly. The pesto here is made with pistachios and I altered it also, as the original recipe made a huge batch and called for an enormous amount of olive oil – far more than needed for a pesto (my opinion) and more than needed for this batch of soup. The soup is all gone, but I still have a lot of pesto left – it will be great in some future soups since I make soups frequently.

When serving this – ladle it out into wide bowls, then sprinkle with some freshly grated Parm and then drop a big, heaping spoon of the green, nutty, oozy pesto on top. Serve with toast if you’d like. But, I’ll just say, the soup is very filling, even if there’s only one can of beans in it! This soup is enhanced by making it a day ahead.

What’s GOOD: really delicious vegetable soup – thick with green veggies. Do use good, flavorful broth – vegetable broth might work here, but I used chicken broth for more flavor. Loved the pesto on top, and the grated Parm sprinkled on top too. You will get a bit of protein from the beans (very few) and the nuts (not much). You could add pancetta to the soffritto if you’d like some extra flavor.

What’s NOT: only that there’s a fair amount of chopping to be done.

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Delicious and easy fish soup, to warm your insides! Creamy too, but with some veggies as well. I used shellfish, but you can use any type of fish.

This recipe came from a master of soup cooking, Clifford A. Wright. One day some years ago I found myself killing time at a library in another city and perused the cookbook this recipe came from, The Best Soups in the World. Since clearly I’m a soup lover of the first order, I took a photo of the recipe. What wasn’t included in my pix were the headnotes, so I’m not sure about the provenance of the recipe, nor anything Wright might have imparted about its story – the Norwegian part of this soup. But never mind, it’s certainly a delicious soup, Norwegian or not. Haddock, cod, hake and/or shrimp would be traditional. So, I changed a few things – using mixed shellfish, perhaps some that aren’t native to Scandinavian waters, I added some carrots (for flavor, more veggies and for some color) and added chives as a garnish.

Perhaps the most significant flavor in this soup is from the salt pork. It’s not something I cook with very often, but gosh, it enhances everything about this recipe. I had to buy a big chunk, so once cut up I have more to use in a soup sometime in the future (I froze the remaining). The making of this soup isn’t difficult, but does take a bit of time (prep of the veggies) then add the time for the actual cooking of the soup. The frozen shellfish (that wonderful frozen blend of shellfish from Trader Joe’s) was added in at the end. I considered adding some more traditional fish, but there was sufficient using two packages of the TJ’s mix. If you wanted a more substantial soup, consider adding a potato or two, to make more of a chowder. This soup isn’t very thick at all, despite adding 3 tablespoons of flour to it. I might add more next time.

What’s GOOD: yummy, the flavor is just wonderful. Creamy, hearty (although no potato in it) with toothsome veggies and shellfish and the salt pork cubes. Really delicious.

What’s NOT: really nothing – it’s easy enough, probably takes about an hour to make it.

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What’s not to love about hot chocolate. It’s an extra special treat to me and I don’t have it often, but now, with this sugar-free dry mix, there’s nothing to it, to make myself a nice cup.

As most of you know, I’m an avid reader. At any one time I have at least two books I’m reading – one on any of my three iPads (they have different purposes and are in different places in the house – I know, decadent to have three), and the other on my Kindle beside my bed. I read historical fiction by first choice, but also some nonfiction, some romances, some mysteries and spy novels and plenty of current day novels that don’t necessarily have a genre. The reason I’m mentioning this is that recently in some of the period novels I’ve read of life in England during the 1800s perhaps, in the aristocracy, ladies of leisure, in stately homes, had the maid deliver a breakfast tray each morning. After putting down the tray, she’d throw open the heavy velvet curtains, light the fireplace and on the tray would be toast, perhaps and a pot of hot chocolate, for the lady in bed. Not coffee. Not tea, either. I didn’t know this was a thing back then, hot chocolate in bed. I’m too ingrained to coffee to consider having hot chocolate first thing in the morning. Maybe a maid to deliver coffee to me in bed would be nice. Not sure I could stay in bed to do that as once I’m awake I’m ready to start my day, and that doesn’t ever include lounging in bed.

In 2015 a group of four girlfriends took a trip to Europe and one of our stops was in Paris. Darlene and I went to one of the famous hot chocolate shops to enjoy the very decadent, thick hot chocolate that’s actually made like a thin gravy – with flour – a very different species of hot chocolate. I wrote a post about it on this blog, if you’re interested.

So, back to dry hot chocolate mixes. Some years ago I made a mix similar to this, and thought it tasted awful. Just awful. Threw it out after one sample. A waste of good cocoa. But this one intrigued me because it also contains some bar chocolate that’s ground up into a fine dust in the food processor with the other ingredients. The other ingredients include some kind of artificial sweetener (I use erythritol, because that’s my fake sugar of choice), some dry collagen, cocoa powder, vanilla bean paste and a dash of salt.

The recipe came from one I found on the web, but I changed it a little bit –  by using erythritol, for one, by using dark cocoa powder, and by using vanilla bean paste rather than ordinary vanilla. I also used really good bar chocolate, Ghiradelli unsweetened. Not Baker’s or German. Having gone through that other iteration (above) I knew I wanted to use good quality ingredients. The recipe suggested using Dutch cocoa powder  – you can  – I just decided to use Guitard (dark)  cocoa powder. So intense. And I used a tad more sweetener than the recipe called for. Add more if you prefer a sweeter hot chocolate.

The only little caveat I’ll explain is that after you add all the ingredients in the food processor (I have one of the newer Cuisinart models that has a smaller workbowl that fits inside the larger one, for making smaller batches of things), drizzle the vanilla bean paste into the center (middle) of the dry stuff. If you pour it in on the side, much of the paste ends up smeared on the side of the workbowl and doesn’t get incorporated into the dry mix. Or at least you lose some of it that way. The bar chocolate I broke up into quite small pieces so the food processor would grind it into a dust. Running the processor for about 12-15 seconds seemed to do the trick. You can tell by the sound when it’s ground up all the bar chocolate pieces.

You’ll laugh, though – be careful when you unbutton the processor  – all that dry dust can fly all over everywhere. I held my hand over the feed tube as it ran, so I knew it would billow. That cocoa dust gets into everything. Just do it slowly and you shouldn’t have a problem!

When you’re ready to make a cup of hot cocoa, DO heat the milk to a very high temp, without boiling it, obviously. You need the heat to melt that bar chocolate (even though it’s a dust in the mix) or the hot chocolate will become a not-very-hot-chocolate. I heated it afterwards in the microwave (do it in very short few-second amounts), and I also used a whisk (they’re called a French whisk, with an up-and-down motion) to thoroughly dissolve the dry mix. No matter what you do there will be some chocolate sludge at the bottom of the mug.

What’s GOOD: I like this very much. Enough that the glass jar of it sits out on my counter waiting for the right moment for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Love the intense chocolate flavor. Yes, I’ll be making this mix again, using the same alterations and with very good quality ingredients.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of, really. It’s easy to make. Easy to serve.

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So tender, so apple-y, so special, and EASY.

The older I get the more I love apples. I buy them regularly, usually the lovely newer, sweeter types, Envy and Sugar Bee. But in this case, what you want are good-old Granny Smiths. Please remember – don’t use any of the newer sweeter varieties for this cake.

Surely this recipe has existed for a long time in the French cuisine, I’d just never heard of it until it was in Cook’s Illustrated awhile back. It’s made in a loaf pan and although you can slice it into regular slices, like you’d slice a thick piece of bread, the recommendation was to cut the servings into wedges (to look like a piece of apple pie).

One important thing here – you do need to cut the apples on a mandoline. Very exacting because to make this cake work, the apples have to be a uniform, thinness. 1/10th of an inch to be exact. At the cookbook club event my granddaughter hosted a few months back, she made this cake, and it was really well liked. I LOVED it. Especially with the cinnamon-enhanced whipped cream on top.

Once you peel and slice the apples, eighteen apple slices are kept aside for the top – to make the top layer extra beautiful. The remaining are mixed into a small amount of cake batter. The apples and the batter go into the loaf pan and it’s smoothed out flat. Then the remaining pretty slices are dipped one side into what’s left of the batter and shingled strategically on top, batter side up. Any leftover batter (a smidgen) is poured on top. The loaf is baked for nearly two hours – a long time. The cake is then glazed with a little bit of melted apple jelly to give the top a nice shiny tint.

The recipe suggests a parchment sling placed into the pan for the baking, but Taylor and I didn’t do that. The cake is cooled in the pan for at least 2 hours, then you need to get it out of the pan. We had no problem by using two long spatulas. The slicing of the gateau, however, was a bit difficult. Of course I was trying to slice it into 10 servings instead of 6 (suggested), but I used a sharp bread knife and very, very carefully held my fingers on either side of the knife as I slowly cut through. Everyone had a small serving, which was ample after our big dinner! Especially with that lovely whipped cream on top.

What’s GOOD: every little morsel of this was fabulous. Make it again? Absolutely I will. Taylor did 90% of the work, but I helped here and there. And I did the slicing! Maybe the hardest part.

What’s NOT: this isn’t something you can whip together at the last minute since it requires nearly 2 hours of baking and at least 2 hours of cooling as well as the prep time. Add it up = 5 hours.

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Easy preparation, high on flavor, even worthy of dinner guests.

Although this recipe comes from a very renowned chef, Samin Nosrat, I had to adapt it a little bit to my own taste, and it’s amazing. The beauty of it is that it can be made ahead (I didn’t, I cooked it and ate it right then) and served at room temp. The original had you fork apart the salmon into rough chunks when serving, but I was in a hurry, so didn’t do that part.

I’d made this a few years ago and don’t know why I didn’t post it – but I have an idea. When you roast food at 225 or 230°F, it’s not exactly “hot” when served. I won’t say lukewarm, but it’s definitely not sizzling. Part of the joy of slow roasting salmon is that it stays beautifully intact and doesn’t firm up (I think the term is “seize”). And in this case, you cook the salmon until it reaches 120-122°F. (The added broiling part will bring the temp up to 125°F in just that few minutes.) That wasn’t the accepted temp back some years ago – you always cooked fish to about 140-150°F. And it could very well have become too firm, overcooked. What I changed was adding one more step, after the slow-roasting time, I turned the oven on to broil and cooked the salmon about another 4 minutes until the top had barely begun to color. What that did was heat up the interior of the salmon but not “cook” it any further.

So, to explain, first the salmon is slow-roasted at that low-slow temp (I put it in a foil crimped-up pan, see photo). The salmon is oiled and seasoned with salt. Be a bit generous with the salt. I used an instant-read thermometer, and it was cooked through in 30 minutes. Then I turned the temp to broil and it was hot and bubbling within a few minutes.

Meanwhile, make the salsa. The original recipe called this French, but I didn’t have chervil (definitely a French herb – and I’ve not seen chervil in my grocery stores for decades, nor do I grow it), so I substituted my own fresh herb combo (sage, basil, Italian parsley and cilantro). The herbs are chopped up fine and set aside. Shallots are minced and left to sit briefly in the vinegar (which cuts the sharpness of the shallot). I chose to use the seasoned rice wine vinegar (not a French ingredient, for sure) but I didn’t want the higher acidity of apple cider vinegar. I’d made a note previously on the recipe that it was pretty puckery. There’s a fine line of enough vinegar and too much vinegar. At the last minute you combine the shallots (carefully removing them with a slotted spoon) with the herbs and oil, but holding out some of the vinegar to add in if needed. I did.

I also made some green beans – using some of the leftover shallot, sauteing it in butter, then adding the green beans to the pot and stirring while they flash-fried just a few minutes. Then add water, a lid and let them steam until they’re cooked to your liking. Season with salt and pepper. You don’t have to use green beans – it would probably be great with broccoli or asparagus or even Brussels sprouts (they’d take longer to cook).

When I ate the first bite I tasted the herbs and the salt, and it was the salt that made my mouth sing. I try to cook with very little salt, but in this case I’m glad I was generous with it.

What’s GOOD: this salmon is just delicious. Succulent because of the slow-roasting, and loved the herb salsa which includes the rice wine vinegar and EVOO. Liked the combo with green beans. This recipe is a keeper.

What’s NOT: only that the roasting time will add to your kitchen time, but use the time making the herb salsa and your veggie of choice.

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I know, I know, you may not think sardines are worth considering for an appetizer. 

You may come from the camp that says there are no good sardines, period. But there are, if you’re willing to try them and to seek them out. More and more markets are carrying a wider selection of canned fish. I never buy the cheapest little tin of anchovies, or sardines. If you buy a more expensive one you’ll have a much better tasting dish. Usually the fish are larger, easier to handle, easier to remove bones and just better tasting. And did you know that sardines are super-healthy for us to eat – good protein and Omega-3’s. Some of the better sardines come in jars – that’s what I usually buy for both sardines and anchovies.

Now I’ll counter that with the fact that if you make this spread you won’t be eating all that many sardines since they’re mixed in with cream cheese and butter. But still. Think of this as a way to get some Omega-3’s.

Do let the cream cheese and butter come to room temp before trying to mash them together – it’ll be so easy if you do. Prep the sardines a little by removing the bones, then mash up with green onions, capers, lime juice, pepper and maybe some salt. Chill a few hours to meld the flavors, then bring the spread to room temp (about an hour) before serving with your choice of crackers, baguette slices (my favorite) or toast or toasted pita bread triangles. At the cookbook club dinner I attended at my granddaughter’s home, her friend Alex brought this. It’s also from David Lebovitz’s book, My Paris Kitchen. I think everyone liked it – I sure did. Yes, it tastes fishy, but in a good way. Nothing like tuna, in case you wondered. I’ve made tuna into a spread also – this isn’t like that.

What’s GOOD: providing you like sardines, it’s that flavor that prevails  here. So good. I kept going back for just one more.

What’s NOT: only that it helps to let this chill in the frig for a few hours to let the flavors meld. Make it the day before, which would be even better.

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My apologies to any of you readers if you tried to leave a comment and it said nope, no can do! Some switch somewhere was in the on position (not by me, of course). I’ve wondered why I haven’t received a single comment from anyone in months and months. Now you can. Thanks to all of you for being my readers.

Carolyn T/tastingspoons.com

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If you’re a lemon lover, as I am, you’ll love this couscous salad. If you’ve never used Israeli couscous (it’s larger than what we normally buy in our supermarkets) it makes for a nice side salad.

I’m still sorting through the recipes everyone made at the cookbook club event at my granddaughter’s home, when I was invited to attend. Taylor’s friend Laura made this salad. What’s unique here is preserved lemon and pistachios. You can use any kind of dried fruit (dried cranberries are called for but Laura used raisins), or use dried apricots or prunes. Notice the 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. An unusual addition, and you couldn’t really taste it, but the flavors in this just blended beautifully. The other interesting element is butter. It’s added to the hot couscous (so it will melt) and it rounds out the flavors too. Since the preserved lemon is salty, you may not need additional salt, but definitely add pepper.

What’s GOOD: lovely, piquant flavors, from the preserved lemon (and its juice), the crunchy pistachios, the sweetness of the dried fruit. Really delicious. Would go well with a plain grilled meat, chicken steak, even a burger.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Easy to make, a bit of chopping.

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Delicious lentil salad (served at room temp) that could easily be a main dish. The walnuts and goat cheese add texture and plenty of flavor. 

Lentils are such a versatile legume (actually I think it’s called a pulse). It can be hot in a soup, cold as a salad, or a main, or a side dish, either hot or cold.  My dad’s lentil soup is still one of my favorite things to make during the winter months. And many years ago I fell in love with dal, the Indian version of lentils as a side dish. I can even remember where I had it that way, in Christchurch, New Zealand, of all places. We were on a wonderful tour, had a day to ourselves, and we gathered a group of us and I found an Indian restaurant on the main street of Christchurch. None of the others had ever had Indian food, so they allowed me to order for everyone. Amongst all the other things I ordered, I asked for vegetables – the waiter gave me a little tilt of his head – no, they didn’t have any vegetables to order. Really? Odd. But okay, I ordered dal. It was the most flavorful lentils or dal I’d ever had. And I have no idea what they did to it – maybe it had some meat broth (if anything it would have been lamb because New Zealand is a lamb-raising country) that enhanced it. It was memorable, that’s all I’ll say.

So, here, we have a lovely salad that can be made ahead of time. At my granddaughter Taylor’s cookbook club that I attended, her friend Ashley made this salad. It also comes from David Lebovitz’s cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. Everyone loved it. Of course, you do have to cook the lentils first, but they generally take 20-25 minutes. Or use an Instant Pot and cook them for just a few minutes – I don’t remember how long. Don’t overcook them – you want them to remain whole, not falling apart. While they’re cooking, make the salad dressing (vinegar, salt, Dijon, olive oil and shallots). The dressing is added to the still-warm, drained lentils and allowed to rest. Then add in the pepper, parsley, walnuts and goat cheese. Done. If you have leftovers, add a few more walnuts and goat cheese to the top, along with some newly chopped parsley – it’ll make it look like you’ve just made it.

What’s GOOD: easy, make-ahead salad. It’s filling (could be a lunch entree for sure) and will keep for several days.

What’s NOT: only that you do need to cook the lentils ahead of time. And allow them to cool to room temp before serving, so at least an hour or so before.

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Just take my word for it, this scalloped potato dish is so delicious. What’s not to love about creamy, garlicky and a little blue-cheesy potatoes layered with cream or half and half. 

At the cookbook club event I attended a while back, Taylor’s friend Jasmin made these scalloped potatoes. Also from David Lebovitz’s cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. What makes them unique is some blue cheese added into the layering. There’s no other cheese in it, just the blue. Not a very common ingredient to add to potatoes, and trust me, it isn’t overpowering at all. The blue cheese was just a hint, which was just lovely in this dish. Then you add in the soft confit’d garlic (roasted then added to the cream to meld there to add a subtle flavoring), and the flavors just blend so well.

There’s nothing unusual about the preparation of this dish – do use a mandoline here, because you want the potatoes to be a uniform thickness. If you’re off-put by using so much heavy cream, split it between cream and half-and-half, or use all half-and-half. Give yourself ample time for the potatoes to cook through – every oven is different – and seems like every time I make scalloped potatoes they take just a tad longer than the recipe indicates. They’ll stay very hot for at least 30 minutes if they do happen to get done early. Ideally, allow the casserole to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving, or you’ll have some guests who will burn their mouths on that bubbling cheese!

What’s GOOD: the flavors in this are just spot-on. The blue cheese and garlic are both subtle. Unless a guest was allergic to blue cheese, you’ll not find it overpowering at all. And the garlic is also subtle – delicious. Worth making.

What’s NOT: only that the prep takes about 30-45 minutes and the baking is about an hour+.

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