Category: Stews

Crockpot Mushroom Barley Stoup

It was Rachel Ray who first coined the phrase stoup, and this is a perfect example of what it is: thicker than a soup but thinner than a stew. It’s surprising that I’m posting a hearty dish like this when the weather is finally starting to warm up, but when I made this on a cold and chilly day earlier in the week, my Facepage page went gaga over it. I don’t know if it’s the whole slow cooker thing, but I definitely wasn’t expecting this soup to go viral. Not that it’s not delicious. Because, my, is it ever. With fall-off-the-bone flanken, two types of mushrooms and hearty root vegetables simmered in a thyme-scented chicken broth, this is good enough to make purely for the smell that will waft through your house for hours.

Serve with crusty bread for a whole meal in one bowl!


Crockpot Mushroom Barley Stoup

2 pieces flanken (short ribs)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 parsnips, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 container button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 container baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
5 sprigs thyme
1 tbsp soy sauce
10 cups beef or chicken broth
3/4 cup barley
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

In a hot pan, sear the flanken, browning it on all sides. Add it to the crockpot. To the same pan, add oil and saute the onion, garlic, celery, parsnip and carrots, scraping up the bits of the flanken as you go. Add to the crock pot. Saute the mushrooms (add more oil, if needed) and add to the crockpot. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

VARIATION: To make this soup pareve, omit the flanken and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

SUBSTITUTIONS:  If you don’t like thyme, you may use 2 bay leaves instead.

SHABBAT OPTION: to make this for Shabbat lunch, just add 2 cups of water or stock and cook on low overnight.

Note: If you don’t have a slow cooker, you may cook the soup in a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and  simmer for approximately 2 hours, until barley and flanken are tender.

Related Recipes:
fire roasted tomato rice stoup
wild mushroom barley soup

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Minestrone Soup

I don’t just live in Brooklyn. I was born here too. In fact, I live around the corner from my childhood home. Why am I telling you this? Well it’s got something to do with the weather. Most of the time, the cold doesn’t bother me. Really. I grew up making snow angels in my front yard every winter, and having snowballs thrown at me from the big boys down the block. The cold is just in my blood.

I have to admit though, that every now and then comes one of those bone-chilling winter days where even I want nothing more than to snuggle up under a cozy blanket and wrap my hands around a warm cup of soup. Last week, we had one of those days. As bundled up as I was, the wind just crept it’s way in, stinging my fingers and toes. My kids came home all red-nosed and shivering and I just knew I had to put up a big pot of soup.

And not just any soup. It had to be a stick-to-your-ribs kind of soup that’s a meal in itself. I decided on minestrone because #1, it’s awesome and hearty. #2, it’s pretty quick, and #3 with all the veggies in there, there’s at least something each of my finicky kids will eat. Plus, it’s got pasta, and who doesn’t love pasta?!

Minestrone soup is basically a thick soup of Italian origin, usually consisting of vegetables (especially tomatoes), beans and pasta. You can use whatever beans you like and play around with the veggies to suit your taste. With beans, veggies and pasta, it’s a whole meal-in-one that comes together in no time. Serve with some crusty bread to really take it over the top! It’s sure to keep you warm all winter long.

Minestrone Soup

1 onion, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery sticks, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 large zucchini, diced
3 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1  russet potato, diced
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 28oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
6-8 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper, to taste
1 bag baby spinach
1/2 box ditalini pasta, cooked according to package directions

Method:

Saute onion in olive oil until translucent and add garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Add celery, carrots and zucchini and continue to saute. Add tomato paste and stir into the vegetables, continuing to saute until the vegetables are well coated. Add potato, beans, tomatoes, basil, oregano, chicken stock and salt and pepper. Stir to combine the ingredients and bring the soup to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes-1 hour, until all the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary. Stir in in baby spinach and cook until wilted. You may also add the pasta or serve individually in each bowl.*

*I prefer to add the pasta to each bowl as I’m serving the soup because I like my pasta to have a “bite” to it. Leaving it in the soup with make it extremely soft, and it will lose it’s texture.

Related Recipes:

white bean minestrone with zoodles
spinach matzo ball minestrone soup

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Melt-In-Your-Mouth Veal Meatballs

I’m a huge fan of veal. It’s got a lovely flavor and that tender, melt in your mouth quality. It’s also much lighter than beef, so you don’t feel as heavy when you eat it. One of my favorite veal recipes is for these delicious meatballs. I don’t call ’em melt-in-your-mouth for nothing. They really do melt. in. your. mouth. While this recipe uses few ingredients, it’s chock full of flavor, mostly due to the bay leaves. They give the broth and meatballs a delicious flavor while imparting the most heavenly aroma. You’ll wanna make them just for the smell!

Having little kids, meatballs are definitely a staple in my house, but the plain old beef meatballs in marinara sauce does get kind of boring. My kids gobble these down like you can’t imagine. And yours will too!

Have you seen my veal shepherd’s pie with celery root mashed potatoes? It’s another great veal recipe that you must try!

Veal Meatballs

2 lbs. ground veal
2 eggs
1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
salt and pepper, to taste
1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cups water
5 bay leaves
1/2 cup brown sugar
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

In a bowl, combine the veal, eggs, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Form the mixture into balls. In the meantime, saute the onion in olive oil until deeply golden and caramelized. Add the water, sugar, bay leaves, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add meatballs. Simmer, covered, for 1-2 hours.

If you wish to thicken the cooking liquid, you may continue to cook it over high heat until reduced to desired consistency.

1 year ago: wild mushroom barley soup
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Veal Shepherd’s Pie with Celery Root Mashed Potatoes

I love shepherd’s pie, especially in the fall, when the weather is turning cold. Warming up to a hearty one-dish meal is the perfect end to a chilly night. I was getting a little bored of the classic beef sherpherd’s pie, so I decided to reinvent it with lighter and tastier ingredients.

For inspiration, I went to my local produce store and looked around for some seasonal ingredients to help take my shepherd’s pie to the next level. The knobbly celery root (also known as celeriac) caught my eye and I was determined to find a place for the humble root vegetable. Celery root adds a delicious hint of flavor to mashed potatoes, and lightens up it’s texture. Of course, it also helps deguiltify the whole mashed potato thing altogether :)

To go along with my lightened up topping, I replaced the beef with veal – a tender calf meat that’s lighter and lower in fat than beef.  This nontraditional shepherd’s pie recipe turned out extraordinary. It might be even better than the original!

Check out the creative uses of other root vegetables in the Kosher Connection October Link-Up below!

Veal Shepherd’s Pie with Celery Root Mashed Potatoes

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 lb. ground veal
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups beef or chicken stock
1 dried bay leaf
2 tbsp dry red wine
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large celery root, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp margarine (I used smartbeat light)
1/3 cup pareve milk (I used almond milk)
pinch of nutmeg
salt, to taste
Melted margarine or olive oil, to brush

Method:

Saute onion, carrot and celery in olive oil until golden. Add veal and stir to break up the meat. Cook until veal changes color. Add flour and stir for about 2 minutes, until combined. Add stock, bay leaf, wine, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for approximately 30 minutes, until thickened.

For the topping, add potatoes and celery root to a pot of salted water. Bring the water to a boil and cook until fork-tender, about 20 minutes. Strain in a colander. Return the vegetables to the pot and mash well over a low flame. Remove from heat and mix in margarine, milk, salt and nutmeg. Taste and adjust to desired consistency and flavor.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spoon veal mixture into a greased baking dish (or individual baking dishes) and top with mashed potatoes. Brush with margarine or olive oil and bake until golden, about 25 minutes.

1 year ago: leftover turkey pot pie

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{Mechshie} Meat & Rice Stuffed Vegetables

Growing up in an ashkenazic home, it just wasn’t succos without my mother’s holishkes (stuffed cabbage). I had never even heard of sephardic dishes like stuffed grape leaves or eggplants until I married into a sephardic family. My mother in law loves to prepare authentic Syrian dishes like mehshie (pronounced mechshie). She stuffs everything from artichokes to onions, each with it’s own unique twist.

After being married for a few years, I finally decided to learn how to prepare some of her signature dishes, so I could make them for my husband. She lovingly shared her family recipes, teaching me how to prepare each and every dish. When two of the recipes seemed similar, I asked her why I couldn’t combine them. I soon learned that the mere thought of combining two types of stuffed vegetables was deemed sacrilegious!

Of all my mother-in-laws mehshi recipes, stuffed zucchini’s is my favorite. It’s simmered along with dried apricots in a sweet tomato broth. The apricots become melt-in-your-mouth soft, and together with the zucchini pulp, create a delicious sweet and tangy sauce. Tomato mehshi is treated in the same way, and being my husband’s favorite, I decided to combine the two in one pot. I also opted out of the dried mint, because in my world, mint and meat just don’t mix. Although this dish is a heresy to my mother-in-laws traditional culinary roots, it is a delicious modern twist on a old world custom of eating stuffed foods on the holiday of Succos. So lets get stuffing!

{Mehshi} Meat & Rice Stuffed Vegetables

2 large zucchini, cut into thirds
6 plum tomatoes

Filling:

1.5 lbs ground meat
1/2 cup rice (I prefer basmati)
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c water

Sauce:
1 15oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 can water
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cups dried apricots

Method:

To prepare the filling, combine the meat, rice, allspice, salt and water in a bowl and mix well to combine (I like to do this by hand, using gloves). Try to handle the meat gently, don’t squeeze it too much as this tends to toughen it up.

Using a paring knife (or a long vegetable corer, known as a ma’vdeh), core the tomatoes and zucchinis. Place all the pulp from the insides of the vegetables in the bottom of a greased wide saucepan. Stuff the vegetables with the meat filling, taking care not to fill them too tightly as the rice will expand during cooking. Place the stuffed zucchini’s and tomatoes in the pot, and place apricots all around.

In a bowl, combine the sauce ingredients. Pour the sauce over the vegetables. Cover the pot and bring the liquid up to a boil over high heat. Lower the flame and simmer for 1-2 hours. If the sauce is still liquidy, uncover the pot and cook on high until it reduces to a thick sauce.

NOTE: If you have leftover meat filling, roll it into small meatballs and place in the pot alongside the vegetables.

VARIATION: For a sephardic version, add 1 tsp of dried mint to the ground meat mixture, as well as 1/2 tsp mint to the sauce. Alternatively, you can use a few tablespoons of tamarind paste instead of the tomato sauce.

Watch me make mechshie with TorahCafe here:


Watch on TorahCafé.com!

Related Recipes:

globe zucchini mechshie with tamarind and prunes
savory baby eggplant mechshie

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