Radish Top Soup

Source: allrecipes.com

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 medium potatoes, sliced
• 4 cups raw radish greens (I used the greens from 5 radishes, and that was plenty)
• 4 cups chicken broth (I used 3 bouillon cubes to 4 cups of water)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (I used almond milk)
• 5 radishes, sliced

Directions
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and saute until tender. Mix in the potatoes and radish greens, coating them with the butter. Pour in chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Allow the soup mixture to cool slightly, and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Mix in the heavy cream. Cook and stir until well blended. Serve with radish slices.

6 servings
Amount Per Serving Calories: 167 | Total Fat: 9.3g | Cholesterol: 32mg

Comments: This soup is so good! It's a lot like cream of broccoli, but so much more flavor, and since it's not cream based, I'm sure it's lower fat (even lower than it says if you use milk instead of heavy cream). But it does not really make 6 servings. It made enough for two hungry adults to have dinner and a tiny bit left over for the next day.

Cheese Soup

Source: Sacha Bikhazi (not sure where she got it)

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup carrot finely diced
1/2 cup celery finely diced
1/2 cup onion finely diced
1 Tbs butter
2 cups cheddar cheese (regular, sharp, or extra-sharp; and you can use a bit more cheese than this)
Dash of sour cream

Saute veggies in the butter until tender. Stir in 1/4 cup flour. Blend in 2 cups milk, 1 1/2 cup chicken broth. I like to use a milkshake blender, but you could put the soup in a food processor or a blender. Once the soup is thickened a bit, add the shredded cheese. Serve immediately, with an optional dash of sour cream or paprika. Do not let cool too much after you add the cheese. However, it is good leftover the next day.

Comments: Not fat free or low calorie, but so worth it! Really good with biscuits or bread bowls.

Swiss Chard

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of fresh Swiss chard
• 1 small clove garlic, sliced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp water
• Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon butter
• Salt

Directions
1. Rinse out the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly. Remove the toughest third of the stalk, discard or save for another recipe (such as this Swiss chard ribs with cream and pasta). Roughly chop the leaves into inch-wide strips.

2. Heat a saucepan on a medium heat setting, add olive oil, a few small slices of garlic and the crushed red pepper. Sauté for about a minute. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Flip the leaves over in the pan, so that what was on the bottom, is now on the top. Cover again. Check for doneness after another 5 minutes (remove a piece and taste it). Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the swiss chard to a serving dish.

Comments: Our first experiment with our Roxbury Farm (CSA) veggies that we got Tuesday. Incredible! Seriously, friends! We read online that it's important to use only the freshest chard, so bear that in mind. Ours was great---lovely flavor, not bitter at all. We also loved how quick this recipe (as well as the pasta one was). Unfortunately, we only had half a bunch of chard (we split our veggie share from the farm with someone because we didn't think we could eat all the veggies in one week, but now we're regretting that), and it cooks down a lot.

Sautéed Swiss Chard Ribs with Cream and Pasta Recipe

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 lb swiss chard, yielding 2 cups of chopped ribs
• 1/4 cup (half a stick) butter
• 3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream (we used almond milk; not as good, but passable)
  
• Enough dry pasta to make about one quart of cooked pasta (use rice pasta if gluten-free is required)
• Salt and pepper

Directions
1. Separate the ribs from the greens. Cut the ribs into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces. Blanch the ribs in lightly salted boiling water for 3 minutes.

2. Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the drained, blanched ribs and simmer for 4 minutes. Add heavy cream and cook until cream reduces by two-thirds.

3. While the cream is reducing, cook up your pasta according to the pasta's package directions.

4. Mix creamed chard with pasta. Season lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Comments: Our first experiment with the Roxbury Farm (CSA) veggies we got on Tuesday. This recipe was good, but a little bland. It would be better with some kick (a la crushed red pepper, perhaps). Also, we read online that it is very important that the chard be very fresh. We got ours yesterday and it was great today. We love the flavor (not bitter at all!).

Oatmeal Cake

Oatmeal Cake
Kim Blanchard

Source: from a woman in our ward in Portland over 30 years ago!

Total prep/Cook time about an hour

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon cloves
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups very hot water
1 ½ cups oatmeal (I use the regular oats, not the quick cooking)
¾ cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 ½ cups white sugar (sometimes I use all brown sugar instead of half and half)
3 eggs (separate one egg and use the white in the cake and retain the yolk for the topping)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Place oatmeal into hot water and let sit for about 10 minutes to soften
Separate one egg- retain yolk for topping
Mix all dry ingredients
Mix wet (oatmeal/water mix, eggs, vanilla and oil)
Mix together wet and dry ingredients
Pour batter into buttered 9 x 13 pan

Bake 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean

Topping:
1 cube very soft butter
1 egg yolk
¼ cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup walnuts
1 cup coconut

Mix all ingredients and spread over hot cake
Broil in oven until browned - watch carefully

Comments:
This cake has been a family favorite for years! One great thing is that this cake freezes beautifully! I usually make a double batch and put batter into smaller pans and freeze a few.

Creamy White Chili

Source: Tori M. (I don't know her; I got it from my friend Sacha Bikhazi)

Servings: 4-6

Total prep/cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon oil
2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
2 cans (4 ounces each) chopped green chilies (if you like less kick, add just one can)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions:

In a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream and cream. Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired. Serve immediately. This is especially good served with tortilla chips. Makes about 6 servings.

Comments:
My friend made this for me when I visited her in Albuquerque, NM, and I have made it at least 4 times in the two months since then. Ry loves it, and we even made it for Kim when she visited and she loved it too! We're thinking of making it for everybody this summer at Fairview. Plus, it's so easy I don't mind making it. Oh, and definitely use fresh cilantro with it---it makes such a difference!

Split Pea Soup

Source: Jessy Madsen (a friend from Church)
Serves: 6-8
Total prep/cook time: about 8 hours in slow cooker, or 2-3 over the stove

Ingredients:

• 3 cups dried green split peas, rinsed and picked over
• 8 cups water
• 1 small (1 to 1 1⁄2 lb.) boneless ham
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 4 new potatoes, diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1⁄2 tsp fresh thyme (or 1⁄2 tsp dried thyme)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Place split peas, water, ham and bay leaves in the slow-cooker. Cover and cook on low until tender, about 7 hours on low. (Or, put in pan on stove for about 2 hours on medium, but you need to watch it and stir often.)

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Sauté onions, carrots and celery until softened, about 6 minutes. Add vegetables and diced potatoes to slow-cooker. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 2 hours (or less in a pan on the stove). Remove the ham from the slow-cooker, shred the meat, and add it back to the slow-cooker. Add the thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Serves 8 to 10

Comments:
Things we love about this soup: 1) It's super tasty (even though it doesn't look appetizing, it's really great!). 2) It's super cheap. 3) Perfect cold weather comfort food, but my friend brought it to us in the summer after Katie was born and it tasted great then. 4) You can leave the ham out to make it even cheaper/vegetarian and it still tastes good. I've experimented with making it on the stove, and can do it in about 3 hours without compromising the texture/flavor, but it requires a lot of babysitting, so I think I'm going to do it in the crock pot next time. (I don't use my crock pot much for some reason.)

Jessy's note: I just bought pre-sliced ham b/c it's way cheaper and threw it in the crockpot sliced and then when it says to shred the meat I just cut it up and dice it. I only used at minimum a pound and then would just either freeze the meat or use it for another meal the next week)