by on January 9, 2013   •   22 Comments Dinner

Keeping warm with Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Parsley Cream via SimpleBites.netWritten by Shaina of Food for My Family.

The newness of the New Year is wearing off. The holiday glitz and glitter is starting to fade into the background, replaced by the long days of January: cold and crisp. Bodies shuttling around from house to car and back again, icicles forming on the tip of your nose in the time it takes you to escape the heat-filled car and run to the door. Glasses fog relentlessly as you try to run errands. Sun streams over bright white snow, and then it collapses in the West as a dark blanket of night settles on the landscape.

It’s the nighttime in winter that seems to swallow me whole, forcing us inside to the lit areas of the earth. The sun long gone, we huddle together and stay warm under our tiny roof. It’s a season that has me looking to collect those around me and keep them close.

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by on October 22, 2012   •   16 Comments Quick Bites

5-ingredient Butternut Squash & Apple Soup (sous vide recipe)


Long ago, in the kitchen of one of Montreal’s finest restaurants, I was taught that a truly fantastic soup can be made from a mere handful of humble ingredients.

What made the soup exceedingly good was the quality and freshness of the ingredients, and the method used for cooking. Over the long, frigid Montreal winters, we cooked batch after batch of sous vide butternut squash, and pureed them with a splash of cream for a velvety soup with vivid color. Night after night, I filled bowls with the rich potage, and topped it with delicacies such as seared foie gras, sauteed wild black trumpet mushrooms, and a pomegranate juice reduction. Sublime.

Today’s recipe is inspired by those upscale bowls of soup: a simple combination of apple, squash and onion, seasoned with salt, and thinned with a little cream. Garnished with diced apples, it’s fall in a bowl; and yes, it was cooked sous vide.

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by on February 27, 2012   •   30 Comments Dinner

Soup from the Pantry (Recipe: Sausage, Bean & Pasta Soup with Spinach)

What could be better than opening the doors of your cupboard and finding everything you need for a hearty soup? Thanks to a well-stocked pantry, I recently did just that with this recipe.

Okay, I also used up some sausage links, and finished the soup with a handful of tired spinach I had on hand. The results? Our new favorite soup.

Inspired by Julie’s latest cookbook, Spilling the Beans (a recent Bite This Book! feature), this hearty winter soup features beans, pasta, protein, and greens. It comes together in under 20 minutes, just the ticket for family week-night meals.

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by on November 14, 2011   •   30 Comments Dinner

Eat Well, Spend Less: One Turkey, Four Meals

Perhaps you head to your parents’ or the in-laws’ for Thanksgiving and other holiday meals, where someone else cooks and carves the turkey. Maybe you’d also like to cook a whole turkey at home (and have a few leftovers to play with), but it’s way too much meat for your little family.

Here’s my proposed solution: go ahead and purchase a fresh turkey and then make four or five recipes with it.  When properly sourced from a reliable butcher (and not shot up with strange chemicals and salty brine) turkey is a delicious, lean meat, and should definitely be taken advantage of in its season.

We’re talking turkey and holiday meals for our Eat Well, Spend Less series this month and my method for serving one turkey for four (or more) meals is one way to get the most bang for your buck. Fresh turkey isn’t cheap, but by following two key rules to savvy shopping: buying in season and buying bulk (in this case, a whole bird), as well as using every scrap of your purchase, you’ve got yourself a frugal way to eat this holiday season.

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by on October 17, 2011   •   28 Comments Dinner

Eat Well, Spend Less: Seasonal Soups (Recipe: French Onion Soup)

How is it mid October already? Oh, right, first there was our jump into October Unprocessed, then Thanksgiving, and just last weekend, Blissdom Canada in Toronto. The month tends to fly by when one is busy.

After four days of conference snacking, hotel food, road food (we drove home from Toronto), and yes, missed meals, I am so ready for some seasonal comfort food and for me that spells S-O-U-P. Another reason to add soup to the weekly menu plan is because the food budget is hurting a little after two high-end (but oh-so-memorable) dinners out at Pangaea and Luma with dear food blogging friends over the weekend.

Yes, it’s time to bring out the Le Creuset French Oven, hit up the market for those incredibly cheap root vegetables, onions, and late-harvest tomatoes and simmer some soup.

Here is a round-up of a few of my favorite recipes, as well as my family recipe for French Onion Soup with a Canadian twist!

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