Super Simple Soup

It’s “put all ingredients at once, done in 10 minutes” suggestion. It is healthy, very satisfying and chip!

The ingredients can differ, you need:

Some basic roots and vegetables, fresh or frozen – carrots, parsnips, celery, sweet pepper. Cauliflower, broccoli, frozen peas and/or corn to add later as garnish, they need very little time to cook.
Grain: rice, barley, orso, cuscus to thicken your soup. You can always use potatoes or lentil for the same purpose.
It can be pure vegetarian, chop and fry a sausage and add it to your soup to make it more substantial. Use canned salmon, clams or several shrimps with “old bay” spice to be on a seafood side.

That’s it! Just bring water to a boil, salt it, add all ingredients at once! In 10 minutes you have home made bowl of hot soup!

Ingredients (sample):

Can of clams
Carrots
Celery stick
Parsnip
Sweet pepper
Corn
Frozen peas

Directions:

Chop all vegetables to quoter inch size
Pour about a liter of water into the pot, add some salt
Bring to a boil
Add all the ingredients into the pot
Cook for about 7-10 minutes

Green Borsch

It’s more unique than regular “red” borsch, or at least less known. Back in Russia it was cooked with sorrel, which is not easy to find. But spinach works and for a little extra acidity I squeeze some lemon juice on top of spinach mixture.

Let me introduce this delicious, healthy and super easy to make soup with total cooking time under 30 minutes. And very versatile – from pure vegetarian to beef of chicken broth based. Can be served hot, but the best way to eat it during summer – cold with lots of herbs on top.

Ingredients: (the amounts of every ingredient may vary)

Spinach (2-3 cups)
Green onions (only green part of one bunch)
Potato (red or Yukon gold) 2-3
Carrot – 1 medium
Celery – 1 stick
Parsnip – 1 small or half of medium size root
Dill
Parsley
Yolk of one egg
Yogurt (kefir or buttermilk) ~1/2 cup – cup
Hard boiled egg and/or radish, cucumber, parsley, sour cream for garnish

Directions:

Put pot with water on medium high heat, add half tsp of salt. Allow enough room in the pot for all the ingredients.
Chop the spinach, put into a bowl, add half tsp of salt, squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on top (about tbsp) and mix well.
Finely chop all other greens – tails of onions, dill and parsley (it’s ok if you have only dill or parsley, can be cilantro too)
Prepare vegetables: chop carrot, parsnip, celery into very small pieces, cut potatoes into half inch cubes
When water came to a boil – add all vegetables except for greens
Let it cook for 7-10 minutes
Add your greens to the pot, bring to a boil
Separate egg yolk, put into a bowl, break with a spoon.
Temper the yolk, by adding one spoon of liquid from the pot into the bowl at a time, mixing well after each spoon until liquid in the bowl is hot (otherwise you will have lonely hard boiled yolk swimming in the pot)
Slowly add tempered yolk into the pot. The soup in the pot will change the color to white
Pour yogurt or kefir into a bowl
Temper it the same manner – gradually add liquid from the soup, spoon by spoon into yogurt, mixing after each spoon till yogurt in the bowl is hot.
Slowly pour yogurt back into the pot
Let the soup come into a boil again and turn off the heat
Check for salt, add as needed, add 1/2 tsp of pepper

Solyanka – Russian Minestrone

The commonality with minestrone is sausages and pickles, and sort of utilize of the leftovers type of soup. But solyanka is more about meats. It’s like adding a minestrone on top of a very intense beef broth. All meats should be cut into bite size pieces and put back into the soup. Back in Russia chicken gizzards were added too, but it’s very optional. Though it does add some extra richness and along with sausages different texture of the “meat” bites.

Ingredients:

Beef/veal bone for the broth
Chicken gizzards (optional)
Carrots
Parsnip
Sausages
Smoked sausage
Small or medium onion
Sweet pepper
Chili pepper
Tomato sauce/paste
Pickled cucumbers, olives, capers
Salt, pepper, parsley

Directions:

Cook the broth: place your meats into a pot, pour cold water, bring to a boil.
Scoop the foam
Season with salt and continue cooking the broth on a low heat till meats are fully cooked.
Add you flavorings – chopped carrots and parsnips.
When meat is cooked through fish it out of the pot, let it cool down, cut into about half an inch (bite size) cubes and put back into the pot.
Season with salt and pepper, keep it a little undersalted, because pickles are coming
In a separate pan start frying thinly diced onion, then add diced sausages.
Fry sausages till golden brown stirring occasionally
Add chopped sweet peppers, chili peppers
Add tomato sauce and/or tomato paste
Mix to combine, bring the mixture to a boil and take off the heat and add it to the pan with your broth
Slice thinly pickled cucumbers, olives, capers – add them to the pot.
Wait till your soup comes to a boil (still on low heat) and taste for seasoning
Serve very hot, garnish with parsley, fresh tomato slices and enjoy!

White Cabbage Salad

Great winter time salad, very seasonal, satisfying and refreshing!

Ingredients:

White cabbage
Cucumber
Boiled eggs
Dill

for the dressing (it can be both sour cream or mayonnaise in any proportion or either one):

sour cream
mayonnaise
mustard

Directions:

Chop cabbage into half or 3/4 inch pieces
Slice cucumbers
Chop eggs
Finely chop dill
Dress the salad by adding all dressing ingredients to the bowl
Mix well

Marinated Cabbage Salad

It may not look much, but this salad is just wonderful – flavorful, juicy and super healthy!

It’s a very refreshing side dish for any meat, chicken or fish. Another good news about it – it can stay in the fridge for weeks, and be ready for your family and guests at any time.

Ingredients:

White or green cabbage 1 kg (2 lbs)
Carrots – 2 medium
One medium size apple, peeled
Cranberries – 1/3 cup
Grapes, about 10-12 berries, depending on size

Marinade:

Water – 2 cups
Vinegar, preferrably apple cider – 1/3 cup
Salt – 1/2 tbsp
Sugar – 1/4 cup
Light olive oil (without strong taste) – 1/3 cup

Directions:

Prepare marinade by combining all marinade ingredients in a pot, bringing it to a boil and boiling for 2 minutes
Chop cabbage into 1/2-2/3 inch square pieces
Chop carrots and apple into the same size pieces
Cut grapes into small pieces
Place all vegetables into a big bowl
Pour hot marinade over cabbage
Mix well, cover with a lid or plastic wrap
Keep the bowl in room temperature for about 2 days, mixing occasionally (~every couple of hours during a day)
Taste it from time to time, the cabbage should become very soft and will change color. It will look like swimming in it’s juice.
Place into a jar and off to fridge.

Pilav (Plov) – simple and delicious.

It’s a meal in a pan – one grand main dish, no sides needed. Feeds a crowd and can be served in a pan, makes a great centerpiece.

Ingredients:

Lamb ~ 1-1.5 lbs
1 big yellow onion
Carrots – 1-1.5 lbs
Rice parboiled is better, but jasmine or baldo rice will work: 2.5 – 3 cups. It is shorter grain than basmati and cooks longer.
Head of garlic (at least, 2 is better)
Salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, chili pepper, thyme

Directions:

Cut lamb into half inch pieces, remove extra fat, but keep some.
Finely chop onion
Carrots have to be cut, not grated to retain it’s juice. I used food processor this time, but regretted it.
Use big heavy pan (dutch oven is the best). Pour 2-3 tbsp light olive oil into the pan.
Start frying onions. If you have extra time it’s better to start with frying your meat, getting it seared, then removing from a pan and then fry onions. But to make it simpler…
When onion is golden brown add meat, mix to combine and keep frying on high heat to get it seared, stirring occasionally. Spice your meat.
When meat is seared and browned (it should actually be cooked, pieces are small) add carrots, mix with meat and onion, keep frying all together for 3-5 minutes.
Rinse rice with cold water, add to the pan, mix with onion and vegetables
Pour cold water over rice, bring it to a boil on high heat, check the sauce for salt and spices and adjust as needed.
Reduce the heat to very low, cover your pan with the lid.
In about 5-7 minutes when rice absorbs water place full head of garlic (or two) inside the rice.
In about 10 minutes start checking rice for being cooked. Turn the heat off when rice is fully cooked.

Simple Satisfying Soup

It’s a meatball soup, but meat can be replaced with ground chicken or turkey or veal, based on what you like or what you happen to have in your fridge. Dumplings will work too. Adding some vegetables will make it very flavorful, colorful and fragrant. You can make it heartier by rolling more meatballs or spicier with several drops of sriracha directly into the pan.

The ingredients and their amounts are so flexible, you can even change them as you go – if it seems a little watery – add some rice or orzo. Or just pour more water if it starts to remind you of a stew.

Ingredients:

Ground meat (turkey) – about a cup for 5-6 cups pan.
Carrots – 2 medium
Parsnip – half of a root
Celery – 1 stick
Sweet pepper – 2 small
Lentil – 2 tbsp
Rice – 1 tbsp
Tomato sauce or paste – 1 tbsp
Frozen peas – 2 tbsp

Directions:

Pour ~5 cups of water into a pan, bring to a boil
Add 1 tsp of salt
Make small balls from the ground meat (about half inch in diameter) and put them into a boiling water.
If you use lentils – add them at the same time with the meatballs, they cook a little longer than vegetables.
When meatballs come to the surface of the pan reduce the heat to medium/low
Add finely chopped vegetables, let them boil for about 5 min
Add rice or orzo (all optional)
Check for salt, adjust as needed, add freshly ground black pepper.
Optional – add some tomato sauce or paste (even in the form of ketchup), about a tbsp, or even sriracha sauce if you want to add some heat
When vegetables and everything else is cooked – add some frozen peas for a nice crunch
That’s it – the soup is ready in 15-20 minutes!

Super Candy

Here is synergy in it’s best! Two antioxidants combined, can even be taken as a vitamin. Very energizing and absolutely delicious!

Ingredients:

Pomegranate seeds
Chocolate, the darker the better. Even 100 % cocoa works.

Directions:

Place pomegranate seeds on flat plate covered with parchment paper
Melt the chocolate in double boiler
Pour the chocolate over the seeds, trying to cover all the seeds
Allow to cool and put into a fridge

Skinny Focaccia

My takeaway from the latest trip to Rome – pita thin, but not flat focaccia. Chewy, spongy and delicious!

Ingredients:

Active Starter – 100 gr
Water (room temperature) – 430 gr
Molasses – 1 tbsp
Bread Flour – 512 gr
Salt – 10 gr (more to sprinkle on top)
Olive oil – 2 tbsp (more to sprinkle on top)

Directions:

Pour water into a big bow.
Add active starter
Add molasses, mix well
Add flour and salt
Mix all ingredients together with the spatula
Put in a warm place for 4-6 hours
Add olive oil, fold it into the dough, cover and keep in a warm place for another 8-10 hours. The dough should raise at least twice and be full of bubbles (total time depends on the room temperature)
Unload the raised dough onto a well oiled baking sheet (you can cover baking sheet with parchment paper)
Spread the dough evenly with your hands
Sprinkle with olive oil, rosemary, sea salt, red pepper flakes (all optional, can be any herb you like)
Bake in preheated to 450°F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown crust.

Put all ingredients except olive oil into big bowl

Wonder Bread

What makes this bread wonderful is a combination of flours – bread, spelt, rye and amaranth. Makes the crumb very soft and silky and crust – thin and delicious. And VERY HEALTHY!

Ingredients:

100 gr of active starter
Water (room temperature) – 350 gr
Bread flour – 350 gr
Whole wheat or spelt flour – 50 gr
Rye flour – 20 gr
Amaranth – 30 gr
Salt – 10 gr
Optional: seed mix (flax, sunflower, pumpkin) – 60 – 80 gr or finely chopped olives

Directions (mostly the same as here https://stellarkitchen.net/?page_id=747):

Pour water into a big bowl
Add your active starter, mix well
Add flour, salt and garnish (seeds or olives)
Mix well, cover and put in a warm place ~75 °F
Repeat 4 foldings every 30-45 minutes (using the technique shown here: https://stellarkitchen.net/?page_id=747).
Let your dough sit for 3-4 hours, it should raise ~ 70%.
Form the bread and place to the raising basket or towel covered form ( sprinkled with flour).
Let it proof for another 2-3 hours, depending to your room temperature, it should raise about 20-25%.
Put the formed bread into the fridge for cold fermentation overnight.
Bake in preheated to 500 °F oven in dutch oven or some other bread vessel with lid for 20 minutes
Remove lid, reduce temperature to 450 °F and bake another 20-25 minutes till you see golden crust.
Remove, cool completely and enjoy