Roasted Eggplant Soup

I love thick, pureed soups, and I love eggplant, so I think that's why this is one of my favorites. It's great in a bread bowl (and they have yummy sourdough bread bowls at Trader Joes for 99 cents!). It's a pretty simple soup with not that many ingredients, and smells great while it's cooking... as usual, I double it so I have lots of leftovers! I haven't tried freezing it but I would think it would freeze okay.

Ingredients:

• 1 Large Eggplant
• 1 Onion, peeled and quartered
• 6 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 Tomatoes, quartered
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil
• 4 cups Vegetable stock (this makes it pretty thin, though - I would recommend 2.5 or 3 cups if you like a thicker soup - you can always add more broth if you want it runnier but you can't really take it back out!)
• Salt and pepper, and additional seasoning like thyme or rosemary if desired. 

Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with foil. Trim the ends off of the eggplant, and quarter it lengthwise. Place the eggplant and quartered onion, tomato, and garlic in a bowl and toss with olive oil to coat. 

Place on the baking sheet, drizzle over olive oil, and sprinkle salt and pepper lightly. Roast until vegetables are tender and lightly browned, or about 40 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and scrape the eggplant from their skins. Add the eggplant and the other vegetables into a large saucepan. Cover the vegetables with your vegetable broth and bring to a rolling simmer until everything is very tender (about 15 to 20 more minutes).

Purée soup with a blender or food processor until smooth (let it cool down a little, first!!). Season to taste.

Beet and Kale Quesadillas with White Bean Garlic Spread

Again, it's been forever since I posted. Oops! I've still been cooking, just forgetting to blog and take pictures about it. Of course, finals and moving week probably isn't the best time to re-start this, but I made up something yummy last night and wanted to write it down before I forgot about it. 


I am moving in about a week and a half, having finished law school (woo!) and wanted to make something using up what I had on hand - a beet, some carrots, an onion, some kale, and tortillas. The wonderful farmers market quesadillas filled with sauteed veggies at Patty Pan in Seattle were my inspiration, along with a recipe I saw awhile ago for a white bean "cheesy" spread for a pizza as I had a can of white beans to use up, too. I thought I'd combine the two and see what happens... the result was pretty yummy!

Ingredients:

• 1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed (I used white kidney, but cannellini work too)
• two tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup water or veggie broth
• 1 beet, rinsed, peeled, and sliced into thin coins
• about 4 carrots, also sliced into coins
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup of kale, rinsed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• flour or corn tortillas 
• salt, pepper, other seasoning to taste

To make the spread, sautee the garlic and olive oil over medium heat until the garlic is soft. Add the beans and the water/broth, and some salt and pepper to taste. I actually threw in some Italian Seasoning too, but that's optional. Turn the heat a little lower and stir the beans until they gradually mash up into a spreadable consistency, usually takes about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. You could throw them in a food processor or blender if you wanted it even smoother, and feel free to add a small amount of water until you get the consistency you want (thick, but spreadable is ideal). 

For the veggie filling, just throw your beets, carrots, and onion into a saucepan/skillet and sautee with a little bit of oil or water/veggie broth (if you want lower fat). I covered it so it would cook faster, and added the kale for the last few minutes so it got soft, too. 

To make the quesadilla, just spread the bean spread on a tortilla, add as many veggies as you want, and cook on the saucepan or a griddle. Mmmmmmm..... I also made one with some pesto (pesto recipe is below) and some vegan cheese sauce mix from Pigs Peace, but the white bean was the best!