Calendula Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup sweet Vidalia onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup Granny Smith apple, chopped

1/2 cup raw peanuts, chopped in food processor

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cumin

2 pounds carrots, chopped

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoon dried calendula petals

In a large stockpot, melt butter over medium low heat. Add onion and garlic, sauté until they turn translucent. Add apple and peanuts, cinnamon, nutmeg and cumin. Continue to cook for 3 minutes. Add carrots and cook for 5 minutes over a low heat, stirring intermittently. Pour in stock, cover

and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Add calendula and simmer for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before pouring into a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Return to pot and stir in coconut milk. Cook over a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Do not let it come to a boil. Serves 4 - 6.

Calendula is a mildly bitter herb and therefore good for the liver. The flowers are medicinal and can be used as a spice to add color and a subtle, yet distinctive flavor reminiscent of saffron. Sometimes called poor man's saffron, or Egyptian saffron, it is similarly employed as a yellow dye for fabrics, cheese and cosmetics. Learn more in my book, Wisdom of the Plant Devas: Herbal Medicine for a New Earth.

You can also learn more in my work-at-your-own pace class, Love Your Liver: Spring and the Wood Element.

Morroccan Stew - Vegetarian

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Adapted from Monhegan Island Cooks:

Recipes, Art & Poetry

½ cup olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 yellow or red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large carrot, sliced

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes

2 large tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped or 1 (16 oz.) can diced tomatoes including juice

1 (16 oz.) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

½ cup raisins

½ cup vegetable broth

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

5 cups cooked quinoa

 Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet or soup pot. Sauté onion, bell pepper, carrot, garlic, coriander and cumin until soft and fragrant. Add remaining ingredients except for quinoa and simmer 15 minutes. Ladle stew over hot quinoa.

Learn more about healing the earth element in Indian Summer: Nourishing the Earth Element, an online, work-at-your-own-pace class at Wise Woman University with mentor Thea Summer Deer.

Miso Soup

  

A fantastically light, satisfying and healing soup for warming the digestive system.

6 cups bonito stock (dashi)

½ cup bonito flakes

5 inch piece of kombu

½ carrot sliced into half moons

½ cup daikon sliced into half moons

6 inch piece of wakame

1-2 scallions sliced

½ cup organic sprouted tofu chopped

¼ cup brown or red miso

Tamari to taste

To make stock:

Bring 6 cups water and a 5-inch piece of kombu to a boil. Boil for a couple of minutes then add bonito flakes, stir, remove from heat and strain.

Simmer bonito stock with carrot and daikon for 5-10 minutes. Soak wakame during this time. Chop and add to soup along with scallions and tofu. Simmer 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Dissolve miso in some stock and then add back to soup pot. Add tamari to taste.

Learn more about nourishing your Earth Element at "Indian Summer: Nourishing the Earth Element" an online class taught by Mentor, Dr. Thea Summer Deer at Wise Woman University. 

Cream of Potato-Leek Soup

 In the exuberance of spring this year I planted a raised bed vegetable garden.  Previously we had tilled the existing ground and planted what was most inclined to grow there.  But I wanted more.  I wanted things that grew deeper like carrots, potatoes, onions and leeks.  So I hauled a bunch of organic manure from Carpe Diem Farms, and hay bales to use as retaining walls. Hay bales compost at the end of the season, retain moisture during dry spells, keep the bed warm when it gets cold and protect the garden from wind and driving rain. My efforts were rewarded with a generous row of leeks that made their way into this fragrant and heart warming soup.  Leeks are frost tolerant and can be grown (organically of course!) in the early spring and late summer for a fall crop. They take approximately 95 days to harvest.

2 quarts organic vegetable or chicken stock

3 large leeks or 4-5 smaller ones including some greens

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

4 russet potatoes, scrubbed and quartered

freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

¼  teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

½ teaspoon granular kelp

½  cup heavy organic cream

2 tablespoons organic sour cream

Prepare leeks by cutting down the center lengthwise and wash thoroughly.  Remove the tough outer greens and trim the tops. Add leeks, caraway seeds, and bay leaf to broth and simmer for 20 minutes. Add potatoes, kelp, salt and pepper, cover and simmer another 20 minutes. Add parsley and simmer until potatoes fall apart.  Remove from heat and cool.  Puree in blender, return to pot, add cream and sour cream and heat through.  Serve with fresh baked bread and garnish with parsley and/or toasted ground caraway seeds.

Jamaican Black Bean Soup

Jamaican Black Bean Soup

From Thea’s Kitchen

Adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for a Better World

2.5 cups dried black beans

1 quart veggie stock or water

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons oil

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 potato, diced or grated

1 carrot, diced or grated

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

¼ teaspoon savory

¼ teaspoon fair trade cinnamon

dash allspice

¼ teaspoon fair trade black pepper

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

2 tablespoons tamari

1-2 limes

garnish: yogurt and chopped onion

Wash beans and soak overnight in water in a glass, clay or enamel pot. Transfer beans to covered saucepan (or leave in enamel) add bay leaves and cover with water by about 1 inch. Bring to a full, rapid boil and then simmer for 1 hour. Meanwhile, sauté the celery, potato, carrot, onion, garlic, and fresh grated ginger in oil until the onion is tender. Add along with remaining spices to the beans and continue simmering for another hour or until beans are done. Add salt when beans are tender. Remove bay leaves, puree ½ the soup and return to saucepan. Stir in lime juice and tamari just before serving and warm through. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and chopped onion.

Rancho Gordo is a great resource for learning more about cooking beans or for ordering the best in heirloom beans. Check out this video on how to cook beans:

Diggin' Burdock

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I learned so much about burdock this past weekend as spring is being heralded in, waking me from my winter slumber. A long time friend and I made our way to another friend's homestead where burdock was happily growing in one of her favorite places -- the barnyard. We were both drawn to the back entrance of the barn where one was just beginning to raise her first leaves. Zealously we began to dig to see just what it was that we had here. We caught ourselves in mid spade having forgot to ask permission of the plant to remove this beauty from her barnyard. We paused, asked forgiveness, sang to her, made prayers, asked if she was the one who wanted to come with us and then plucked a few silvery grey hairs to leave as an offering. What we discovered was a second year root that had most likely been cut off at some point, producing two roots that grew entwined together like lovers. Two women, digging two roots joined together as one. My understanding is that as long as some part of the root is left in the ground when harvesting, it will grow back. I suspect this one got cut back because it was in the entrance to the barn, and then married with a first year root. That might also explain why the color of their respective leaf tops was different and one was woodier than the other.

First year roots are the most desirable because they haven’t given up their medicine to make flower stalks and seeds. They contain the most inulin and are sweeter. My feeling that burdock is best consumed fresh in the fall was confirmed upon doing further research. You can dig it anytime during its first year between fall and spring, but first year roots dug in the fall are the best. The leaves on a first year plant are a rosette, stay closer to the ground and don't produce a flower stalk. Burdock is biennial. If you pay attention and mark the first year plants, then you can dig ‘em up in the coming fall!
I have made an herbal vinegar tincture with almost all of the root(s) and cooked the remaining with rice. Special thanks to my husband, Chuck, aka The GreenMan, for taking these pics, to Joyce for her adventuresome spirit, and to Susun Weed for reminding how much more potent wild roots are compared to domesticated ones.

Burdock root, fresh roasted

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Food as Medicine: Thinly slice and coat in olive oil. Toss with a pinch of tarragon. Spread on a preheated baking sheet and bake at 400º until tender, turning frequently. Sea salt to taste and for a nutritional boost toss with dulse flakes.

Fabulous Fennel Salad

While visiting with Stuart Munro, my friend and former band mate in Victoria, BC, he made us this fabulous fennel salad. Stu and The GreenMan drank dark home brewed ale, while the women drank sweet local white wine of the Gewurztraminer variety. We were on our way back from Alaska and had a blast eating, drinking and jamming with Stu and friends in Penelope's back yard. Even friends who would never consider eating raw beets have been raving about this salad. Thanks Stu!

1 fennel grated

1 apple grated

1 beet grated

fresh chopped mint (to taste)

2 cloves fresh minced garlic

chopped pecans and maple syrup - bake the pecans covered lightly with maple syrup at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until crisp.

crumbled Stilton cheese

Celtic sea salt (to taste)

toss in olive oil and balsamic vinegar