Recipe 9: Butternut Farro Risotto with Beans, Spinach, and Mushroom

Butternut Farro Risotto with
Beans, Spinach and Mushrooms.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’ve been neglecting my blog of late...it’s been a super busy overworked, overbooked, overtired kind fall until recently, and I’m not quite sure how that happened.  My goal was to do as much reading, cooking, and updating as possible, and I’ve met approximately zero of these goals.  The beginning of the school year always seems nuts, but this was like every kind of nut, crushed together, rolled in more nuts, roasted with more nuts, and served on top of nuts.  I also cleverly started upping my mileage for an upcoming half, and while my talents do include travel to South Beach occasionally, they do not include cooking and running, reading and running, copying and pasting links and running...running and running is about as much of a motor skill challenge as I can handle at a time.  

Some of the terrible sights to see
while running in my hometo

This has meant that I’ve also been fairly lazy in the kitchen, mostly doing quick sautes of veggies for dinner when I’m getting home late, along being a gym nerd and trying to up my protein intake.  I was feeling kind of bad about not cooking almost anything of substance in a while, and uninspired to boot, until my good friend Bean had me and some other lovely ladies over for dinner on Friday.  Bean is an awesome cook, and made a really fabulous recreation of a butternut farro salad from the Smitten Kitchen.  I have been intrigued by using alternative grains, because they have a lot more nutritional value than normal rice, grits, or pastas.  I’m especially excited about farro because it has a ton of fiber and protein (perhaps I should have thrown up a nutrition nerd alert?), and it actually tastes good - almost nutty.  I should also note that Bean is a former roomie from the Kilsyth days, and is responsible for bringing a delicious butternut risotto into our lives that became a frequent recipe request.  It was tweaked and recreated from and original recipe in the Vegetarian Food For Friends cookbook.  I was so inspired by both that I thought I’d try and see if I could turn out a similar risotto using farro, and perhaps adding some extra goodness to it to see if I could make it a meal in a bowl.  

A Cooking Light recipe for Farro Risotto with Mushrooms confirmed I could, so I added mushroom in its honor, spinach because we're questing for delicious here team, and then figured some beans would be a tasty source of protein - so I added the beans for Bean!  This turned out to be what I think might be one of my greatest ever creations.  It’s warm, warming, filling, and delicious.  It’s hard to put down your utensils.  Eat it all fall and winter, preferably with good friends and awesome wine (it seems to pair well with Chianti and Montepulciano)!  

Caps off to you if you make this delicious dinner!
Butternut Farro Risotto with Beans, Spinach, and Mushroom

Butternut Farro Risotto with Beans, Spinach, and Mushroom

Serves 4-6

Recipe 9: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

 I don't know when, where, or how this recipe idea came into my head, but I do suspect why. This summer started sweaty, and suspect that may have had something to do with it!  But what sane person is all "yeaaaah, sweet potatoes cold!" Can you think of any other one thing that is a regular and also cold sweet potato based dish, because all I'm coming up with are things that are not good served cold: sweet potato casserole, sweet potato fries, baked sweet potatoes, soups, etc.  You get the idea.  As a disclaimer, I'm really not a huge fan of the humble, servicable pot-a-toe.  I appreciate it.  I'll eat them, sometimes.  Thanksgivingtimes.  The same goes for things with cream included.  But I've grown increasingly fond of throwing sweet potatoes into things, and rather like them. And I did really want a cold soup that wasn't a gazpacho. Good thing I'm not sane though, amirite?!?

Where it all starts: the glamorous kitchen sink.

Somehow, somewhere, sometime in July, while probably lying in my bathtub for my 10th freezing shower of the day, inspiration struck: what about a cold soup with something I like - sweet potato?   In fact, as I started to explore options and do research to find out if it would be possible (I really hate wasting food), I was surprised that not too many sources had tried something like this.  My only two solid leads were Marcus Samuelsson and Design Love Fest.  It may have taken way longer to actually get around to making this soup, but it was worth it when I did, and I'm glad that I've got enough frozen that I can defrost and easily make a quick lunch or dinner of it.  I'm fairly certain it'll taste pretty good hot, but why mess with a good thing? 

 
It's filling, mild to spicy, and easy to adapt as you want.    I really loved it with a garnish of scallions, a dash more of cayenne, and a hearty dash of soy.   Consider this your base, and get creative for other iterations of it (chipotle? peanuts? WHY NOT), or with toppings.  I've already been mentally cooking up version 2.0.   We're getting close to the tail end of it, so why not try this lovely orange hued soup during the dog days of summer in September?

Notes: I planned to freeze and keep it, so I immediately ruled out using cream, despite it being a vichyssoise; cream just gets disgusting when frozen and defrosted.  Nobody wants to eat baby vomit!  This mostly vegetarian (if you use vegetable stock, or 100% vegan if you use oil instead of the butter) recipe does freeze and keep well.  

First blend: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Second blend: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Recipe:

Recipe 9: Asparagus, Ricotta, Lemon Soup

Spring is still springing, and I can’t stop thinking about green, and bright things, like sunshine.   I realized last week that I hadn’t had nearly enough asparagus this spring, and was fixing to just get some and roast it, when I met some friends at a local watering hole with nibbles on the menu, saw a chilled asparagus ricotta soup on the menu and promptly failed to order it.  I mean...what was I thinking?  Huge fail.  I should probably also add that sometime in the past month I also developed an overwhelming, inexplicable, and insatiable craving for ricotta.  Double what was I thinking, right?  

Not ordering it was probably the best thing I did all month.  Why?  Because I had to have it, guys.  I just had to.  You know how it is!  I promptly started recipe plotting in the background of my life, and realized that this recipe would be a real winner.  It is super easy.  It is super quick.  It is super simple.  It is (probably) super healthy, being comprised primarily of vegetables.  And, amigos, it is a super celebration of a lot of the things that are the most delicious parts of spring: the green colors, the bright flowers, the sunshine, the spring vegetables, the crisp and warming air, the ricotta (okay, fine, this one is an every season thing).  

Prep probably takes longer than cooking (if you have maybe just tripped over a root while on a run, skinned your hand, and rage cried your pain out in a public place; this will, I assure you, slow things down considerably), but the rest of the process is probably a 30 minute cooking and blending window.  If you are a fast chopper, you’ll probably disagree with the previous statement.  All in all, I give it an over under of about an hour well spent on the road to springtime delight.  The best part?  This soup tastes great hot or cold.  That is to say, it is a rare soup that tastes the same hot or cold.  It just depends on how you want to eat it!  Options!

I have only two other tips besides be careful out there runners; roots can be real witches with a b.  Tip the first is to start with 5 cups broth, and add a bit more, up to 6 cups if you feel you need it for the soup to blend well, or want it to be more liquid than solid.  Tip the second?  I used store bought ricotta.  If you use fresh ricotta, I have a sneaking suspicion this will blow your mind.  If you are able to use fresh, and then are able to form a sentence, do tell me if my suspicions are sound.  Bueno?  

Asparagus, Ricotta, and Lemon Soup