Orange Soup - To Please a Paleo Palette (or should I use Palate?)

Orange Soup Paleo

No orange fruit is used to make this soup. You will use orange colored vegetables and seasonings. I threw in white onion, garlic, apple and red-brown bacon to give it some depth of flavor and hue. The color is significant only in that I had them on hand and the combo of ingredients sounded bright against the grey and snowy day… sweet, savory, salty and spicy. 

Ingredients

• ·      1 T Olive oil (or cook the bacon first and use the bacon grease - it would  work)
• ·      ¼ cup Onion (small) minced
• ·      2 Garlic cloves minced
• ·      1 Sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1” pieces
• ·      5 Carrots, peeled and chopped into 1” pieces
• ·      1 lb. Butternut Squash, chopped, 1” pieces (I bought it chopped)
• ·      1 Apple, chopped, 1” pieces
• ·      6 Bacon pieces, cooked crispy and chopped
• ·      2 t Black pepper
• ·      2-3 t Cayenne Pepper
• ·      1/2  t Ginger 
• ·      ¼ t Turmeric
• ·      32oz Chicken broth (I bought a carton of organic, but one could make it, or use water enough to cover the vegetables.

Equipment:

• ·      Stove
• ·      3 Qt. Pan/pot
• ·      Small frying pan
• ·      Soup wand (little weed wacker)
• ·      Vegetable peeler
• ·      Sharp knife
• ·      Cutting board
• ·      Measuring spoons
• ·      Paper towel
• ·      Bowls and spoons

Directions:

Heat the oil on medium and sauté the onion till translucent, add garlic making sure it doesn’t brown. Once it is translucent, add potato, carrots, squash and apple then add pepper, ginger and turmeric. Toss all in the onion and garlic and let the flavors begin to combine. In the meantime, separately cook bacon to crispy and degrease on the paper towel. Chop four pieces and add them to vegetable mix. Chop the other two and put aside. Pour in the chicken broth (or barely cover the vegetables with water.) Bring it to bubbly, turn the heat down a notch and all but cover it, leaving room for steam to escape. Stir the pot every few minutes to make sure nothing is sticking and burning on the bottom. Set the table, uncork the wine and light the candle. After 20 minutes, test the pieces of vegetable with a fork for softness.  Once you can easily push a fork through, use the soup wand, potato masher or fork to make the ingredients smooth and creamy. Pour into bowls and gussy it up with the rest of the bacon. Or, apple shreds, a teaspoon or so of orange zest or parsley would look nice and taste good too rather than more bacon (in case in the meantime it disappeared… speaking from experience.) Put salt on the table, it may or may not be needed depending on those eating and the flavor freshness of the ingredients.

From first chop to first spoon lifted -  50 minutes. Faster if you buy all the veggies chopped. 

Extraordinary Thanksgiving Leftover Cauliflower Soup

Thanksgiving Leftover Cauliflower Soup

I've revised this because I buried the lead i(n all the directions for the stock), as  journalists say.

I found this super easy way to make a great soup by mashing together  in equal amounts the left over cauliflower and the turkey stock I had made from the giblets, carcass and drippings. That's how simple. Below, in the rest of this posting, is just how I made the stock and some of the other ingredients I added to brighten the flavor of the cauliflower soup.  

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday when the whole family could gather together. For the most part I cooked a Paleo friendly meal using sweet potatoes and mashing cauliflower as another vehicle for an amazing mashed vegetable/turkey drippings gravy, I found when I looked up Paleo Gravy. 

Turns out, the recipe for the brined turkey in the article was already Paleo hacked from Epicurious, basically using ghee instead of butter for basting. Epicurious and the hacked one, didn't include bread stuffing, only veggies and lemon in the cavity and around the bottom of the pan. 

That recipe instructs you to gather the veggies and blend them for gravy adding some of the drippings.  No flow. It was thick and good.

So now It's Wednesday and I'm at that point of dreading another bite of turkey, and I still have a few leftovers and ingredients I didn't use up in the last couple days.  I don't like to waste food. Here's a really simple soup I made from the leftovers. t

First I made a turkey stock 

I turkey carcass in a big pot with enough water to cover it.
I added the following:

• The contents of the little bag i took out of the turkey cavity. 
• The other half of an onion used in the turkey brine
• Carrots cut up and left over from the crudite' tray about 3 whole or a hand full of baby nibs
• Celery cut up and left over from the crudite' tray
• Stem of rosemary chopped fine - that I didn't use in the turkey
• Stem of thyme chopped fine, also that I didn't use in my turkey
• 1 lemon cut in half I took the seeds that were visible out (I threw a lemon stabbed into the cavity of my turkey with the same veggies and herbs listed above - it was a huge help in keeping the meat moist)
• Black pepper (my turkey was brined and already was well salted)

I brought it to a slow boil and simmered it till rest of turkey fell off. I let it cool and spooned off the fat. 

Cauliflower soup

Put left over mashed cauliflower in a sauce pan. I had about 3 cups. Because I had some, I added a stem of thyme, a stem of chopped rosemary, a couple shakes of nutmeg and a few twists of pepper. If I hadn't brined the turkey, I would salt it too.

Pour an equal amount of the stock only into the cauliflower (no veggies or meat). You could use store bought stock. You won't know the difference.

Stir while it's heating till it blups and bubbles  Voila'! Really good, satisfying soup. 

6 cups 2 or 3 servings (it's really good, it's barely any calories. Don't judge)