Roasted Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato & White Bean Soup

As the weather cools down and fall slowly creeps up on us our food thought turn to foods like soups. Why it dropped all the way down to the mid 80's this week.  My wife got out her insulated underwear. Although I am not really sure she ever put it away, I have never seen anybody who is as cold as she is. She wears a hoodie to the grocery store because she has to go in the refrigerated section.

Here is a a very simple soup I came up with that features pantry items Roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, white beans and pasta. You can make this in 20 minutes.

Roasted Red Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato and White Bean Soup
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes finely chopped
1 tbs of oil from sun dried tomatoes (you can use olive oil)
1/2 jar (15 oz) jar Red Peppers, finely chopped (about 3 whole peppers)
1/3 cup of small pasta, like orzo
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
Fresh basil

Heat a pot with the oil in it. Add the garlic and heat until fragrant. Add the broth and the sun dried tomatoes. Let the broth come to a boil and leave it for a couple of minutes. Add the peppers and the pasta. Let it cook until the pasta is al dente. Put in bowl and heavily garnish with basil cut into ribbons. I originally just put some basil on as a garnish but we liked it so much that I added additional basil to the soup.

Barbecue Baked Beans

This is my favorite summer side dish. I originally posted it in January. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do

This is a recipe that I modified, the original came from Healthy Cooking Magazine. Annette and I love the tangy quality of these beans. They seem like they should have a lot more fat and bad stuff in them. I am making some Carolina Pulled Pork today and these would make a good side dish for that. I think I included this recipe in the notebook I made of healthy recipes and gave to some of you. This recipe uses barbecue sauce, I use KC Masterpiece original, I like the smokiness. If you don't have a smokey barbecue sauce you can skip it or add liquid smoke, just be careful not to add to much.

By the way this recipe is so easy Annette made the beans for a church pot luck, I just photographed them.

Barbecue Baked Beans

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup Canadian Bacon, diced
¼ cup tomato paste
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup barbecue sauce
14 ½ ounces pinto beans, 3 cans rinsed & drained, I use white beans if that is what I have on hand
3/4 cup water
¼ cup cider vinegar, I like mine tangy so I add a little extra
salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pot, combine olive oil, onion, garlic and Canadian Bacon. Cook on medium-high for 4 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 3 minutes. Add brown sugar, barbecue sauce and beans, mix well. Cook for 4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasonings before serving, if desired.

Cod with White Beans and Chorizo

People are supposed to get wiser as they get older, but I just did a dumb thing. I signed up to run a 10K race with my daughters on April 2. I have never ran more than 2 miles until a couple of weeks ago. Wish me luck or at least send me a card when I am in the hospital.

Cod with White Beans and Chorizo
4 oz Chorizo sausage, crumbled
1 shallot, diced
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1 15 oz can white beans, I used Great White
1/2 pound cod fillets
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat a grill to medium heat. Heat oil in pan.
To the pan add the chorizo and the shallot. Cook until shallots are soft, then add the tomatoes and wine. Cook until tomatoes start to shrivel and pop and wine is reduced. Add the beans and thyme. Cook until beans are heated through.
While the chorizo is cooking put the cod on the grill, but first sprinkle the smoked paprika on it. Cook for about 3 minutes per side.
Plate the bean mixture and place cod fillet on top of it.

Easy Cassoulet

One of my favorite cookbook authors is Pam Anderson, no not that Pam Anderson, this one is married to a minister. The reason why I like her is that in most of her books she just doesn't give recipes, she gives formulas. So a recipe for a stir fry maybe use 1/2 pound of protein, 1 pound vegetables, etc. Then she will give a list of suggested proteins and vegetables. Then she will give you a list of sauces you can use for stir fries. Finally she will finish with some recipes for her favorite stir fries. I usually recommend her books to people who are just getting into cooking, you will learn how to cook not recipes like you do from Betty Crocker or some of the other beginning cookbooks. Pam just came out with a new book, Perfect One-Dish Dinners, so I had to try a recipe. As usual it was delicious. I am looking forward to trying some more of her recipes from Perfect One-Dish Dinners.

Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans

2 1/2 punds sweet Italian sausage links, I cut mine into 1/4's as they were large
3 pints cherry tomatoes
1 medium onion, cut into 1 1/2" chunks
4 large cloves garlic, sliced
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tsp dried thyme
3 bay leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cans (around 16 oz) white beans, undrained I used Great Northern and Cannellini

Serves 8

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix sausages, tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, thyme, bay leaves and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper in a large heavy roasting pan. Set pan in oven and roast until sausages are brown and tomatoes have reduced to a thick sauce, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in beans, and continue to roast until casserole has heated through, about 10 minutes longer. Fish out bay leaves and serve.

Seared Salmon With White Beans & Spinach Topped With Olive-Lemon Relish

Last week I received 4 cookbooks in the mail and then went away for the weekend. So this weekend I had to put the first one to the test. This week's book is Stir Mixing It Up In the Italian Tradition by Barbra Lynch. Since Annette wanted salmon for dinner I had to select from 3 recipes. Two of the three recipes called for ingredients that I did not have on hand. I had to make a few changes to put my own spin on this recipe because I thought it was kind of bland and there was a lot of fat where none was needed. Also Annette is not a big olive fan so I adjusted the Olive-Lemon Relish so the olives flavor wasn't so strong.

Seared Salmon With White Beans & Spinach Topped With Olive-Lemon Salad

White Bean and Spinach
1/4 cup chicken/vegetable broth (the original recipe called for 1/4 cup olive oil)
8 oz fresh spinach, tough stems removed cleaned and dried (I used frozen)
1 15 oz can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper, add more if you like heat

Salmon
2 tbs olive oil or Canola oil

Olive-Lemon Relish
1/4 cup Picholine olives, pitted and chopped (I only had Kalamata so I used those)
1/2 Lemon juiced, cut the other 1/2 into segments and finely dice
1/2 Lemon peeled and pith removed fruit cut into small pieces the size of the olive pieces
1 tbs parsley, finely chopped, original called for 2 tbs
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp honey, more if needed original called for 1/2 tsp
splash of white wine vinegar, original called for 1/2 tsp
1/4 tsp kosher salt, I left this out brined olives took care of the salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

White Bean & Spinach
In a frying pan, over medium heat, add 1/2 the broth, the pepper and the garlic, bring to a simmer. Toss in the spinach and cook until it cooks down (if all of the spinach doesn't fit cook 1/2 then add the rest once the first batch cooks down). After the spinach is cooked down add the beans and the rest of the broth. Cook until the beans are heated though. This will be the the base the salmon sits on.

Salmon
In a frying pan , over medium high heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot add the salmon and cook until the salmon is golden, then flip over and cook until the second side takes on some color. Sit on the spinach and beans.

Olive-Lemon Relish
Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Taste and add pepper, honey, vinegar or whatever is needed to make this taste how you like it. Spoon over the top of the salmon.

Shrimp, Sausage and White Beans

Shrimp, Sausage and White Beans

1 tbs Olive Oil
1 tbs Onion, finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 Italian Sausages, casings removed
1 15 oz Can White Beans, drained and rinsed
1 28 oz Can Diced Tomatoes
24 shrimp, peeled and deveined
Drizzle of Olive Oil, for garnish
4 Basil leaves, rolled together and cut to make ribbons for garnish

Add the olive oil to a large saute pan and heat over medium high heat. When hot add the onion and cook until translucent.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add the sausage and stir it to make sure it get broken up.
When sausage is browned add the beans and tomatoes. Cook until they heated through.
Add the shrimp and cook until they are pink.
Plate and garnish with basil and a drizzle of olive oil.