Top 3 Fall Soups

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Soups

 These three soups are the best comfort meal for the lunch in fall: it enegrizes, keeps you warm and boosts your taste buds. You can add lots of flavors to these soups by experimenting with herbs: basil, dill, parsley and others.

 

Vegetarian Pea Soup 

Vegetarian pea soup is good those days when you want a rich-creamy soup without any meat component in it. It’s a comfort food perfect right for the days when it’s chilly and drizzly outside. This recipe has simple ingredients and doesn’t require to be a skillful chef to prepare it.

All in all perfect autumn soup for the family. Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin crème-soup with shrimp, cream cheese and basil.

It’s autumn and it means that it’s time for a great pumpkin soup with shrimp that I just LOVE cooking.

It doesn’t require a lot of effort but it comes out perfectly smooth, bringing in the autumn flavors and colors into your kitchen.

I tasted this soup long time ago in Europe, brought it into my kitchen and my family just loves it. Hope, you will too. Read more

 Zucchini crème-soup

This is a very simple crème soup. It takes 40 minutes to cook and your family will enjoy this meal. It’s a great summer or fall soup for your to enjoy! Simple and flavorful! It takes little effort to cook and it’s a really light  dish. It gives you energy and makes you feel good. Read more

Vegetarian pizza (with zucchini, mushrooms, red bell pepper,carrot, garlic and onion)

This pizza is a “sister” of my “delicious 30 minute pizza.” It’s cooked from scratch in 30-35 minutes and I just Love this combination of veggies. You can use your combination, but this one is good for me!

 

The dough is the same:

2.5 cups of sifted flour

1 cup of hot water

0.25 oz. dry yeast

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

Filling:

1 zucchini;

1/2 small can of mushrooms;

½ carrot (medium);

½ red bell pepper (medium);

¼ of onion (medium);

½ lb. cheese (shredded);

1 teaspoon of tomato sauce

1 teaspoon of mayo

 Pinch of salt, pepper and oregano.

Sift the flour; add sugar, salt and yeast. Pour in hot water and olive oil, Mix well.

Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes (the oven shouldn’t be turned on)

Put on the shelf below the dough a bowl with hot water.

Chop the veggies:  zucchini should be midsized, slice the mushrooms or use canned, finely chop the onion, red bell pepper and garlic. (Garlic should be very well chopped, almost in crumbs)

Take out your dough. Divide into two parts. From this amount of dough you can get 2 pizzas and 5-6 hot pockets with apples or anything you like. (Read about the hot pockets- in my next post!)

Roll out one part of the dough cut it to the size of your pizza form.

Put it in your pizza form and cover the dough with mayo and tomato sauce. Spread it evenly over the dough, season with salt, pepper and sprinkle oregano on top. Put the half of your shredded cheese on top of the tomato-mayo layer, and then add your veggies one by one.

Set to bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. (The oven should be preheated to 375F)

Before taking the pizza out cover the pie with another cheese layer.

Take out in 3-5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Potato, zucchini, red bell pepper, with bacon and herbs baked in a pot.

This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Delicious fried veggies

 I was searching the internet for some time to find if this dish is prepared on North American continent, the closes I got was a recipe from allrecipes.com by Jana, but based on name I can say that the author is either from Europe of has roots from European countries. Please help me, if you know how this dish is cooked in North America. The potato baked with zucchini (squash), red bell pepper, onion, carrot, garlic and some meat is popular in Eastern Europe. (It’s cooked in Poland and Hungary, in Ukraine and Czech Republic) In each region it has different twist though. Even in my family it’s cooked differently. I like to experiment. I cook it with meatballs and sometimes with meat (beef, pork or chicken); I cook it even with bacon.

The beauty of this recipe that it’s impossible to spoil, seriously, if you aren’t the perfect cook or if you are just short of time (and guests are about to arrive) this dish will just save you.

For the recipe you’ll need:

6 big potatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 white onion

1 mid-sized zucchini

2 mid-sized carrots

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup of dill

1/3 cup of parsley (optional)

3 tablespoons of sour cream or mayo

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

¾ cup of sliced bacon

¾ cup of shredded cheese

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons of cooking oil.

Now: potatoes, red bell pepper, onion and carrots are the base of this recipe. Everything else – is a mix and match. You can substitute zucchini with squash or eggplant. You can put any meat or sausage in the pots, you can even cook it without any meat. It’s a win-win recipe.

Servings: 6 small pots. One pot for one person (It is one full plate of this summer deliciousness per each person)

Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Cooking time: 45 min -1 h (depending on your oven)

Preparation:

Peel potato, carrot, garlic and onion. Take the seeds out of pepper.

Wash all the veggies: carrot, onion, zucchini, potatoes, garlic and dill (parsley).

Shred the carrot, chop the onion and pepper, cut in mid-sized pieces potato, zucchini, chop the herbs

Set ½ of onion and carrot aside

Mix everything else: onion and potato, zucchini and carrot, herbs. Add salt and pepper.

Slice the bacon. (If you put the other meat: pork, chicken, beef- prepare it).

Take your baking pots: put bacon (or other meat on the bottom), then add your veggies.

Remember you set aside the onion and some carrot. Take it and braise it for 5 minutes in a frying pan. In 5 minutes add some sour cream / or mayo/ and add 1 cup of water, pinch of salt and pepper, braise for 2-3 min.

Pour the sauce you just cooked into the baking pots. (If you want to add the meatballs instead of bacon or any other meat put them on top of the veggies)

Preheat the oven at 375F. Set your pots to bake for 30-45 minutes. (Occasionally check the potato if it’s ready and check if there’s enough water in your pots).

15 minutes before taking the pots out- finely chop the garlic and put a little bit of garlic in each pot. When you turn the oven off add the cheese on top of your baked dish and close the lids let the cheese melt.

Be careful when taking the pots out as they are hot.

I serve the dish directly in the pots, but give the guests a spoon and a plate, if the guest wishes to eat from the plat and not the pot.

***Tip from Helen*** You can cook this dish in a baking dish, but I like separate small baking pots more, they are just more authentic and fun!

Enjoy your summer delicious baked veggies!

 

Fried zucchini with mayo-dill sauce and tomato

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Delicious fried veggies

This is a traditional recipe in my family, as well as in pretty much any Ukrainian family fried zucchini with tomato and mayo-dill sauce. It’s resembles a lot the eggplant recipe, but, zucchini, as a base component gives it a different twist. For the recipe you’ll need

1 midsized zucchini

1-2 tomatoes

2-3 tablespoons mayo

½ cup of finely chopped dill

1 clove of garlic (optional)

1 egg

2 tablespoons of flour

1 tablespoon of water

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

5 tablespoons cooking oil

Wash zucchini, cut it in full round slices (they shouldn’t be thick- about ¼ inches) and rub in salt and pepper, let it stand for 5 minutes. Take an egg, mix it with some water and pour the flour on a separate dish. Set a frying pan on medium gas and add some cooking oil, then: cover zucchini slice in flour then put it in egg-water mixture and put frying. Repeat with all the slices. Fry zucchini from both sides until soft inside and has golden brown crust.

Meanwhile: wash your tomato, dill. Cut tomato in slices or half round slices (depending on how big the tomato is). Mix mayo with finely chopped dill and add a little bit of salt.( you may add pressed garlic to the sauce, if you wish). Put the fried zucchini on the plate, cover it with mayo dill sauce and put the tomato slice on top. Repeat with all the zucchini slices. You may put zucchini in layers , as I did.

The dish should be served warm and may be served cold; is good with mashed potato and meat, or with salad, also the dish is very good when cold; in sandwiches.

Enjoy!

Quick and delish omelet with squash, tomato and onion (and with lemon basil, of course).

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Breakfast fast!

So this is my favorite Saturday morning breakfast/brunch meal.

It’s very fast to cook and you can add pretty much any vegetable you like and it will be gorgeous.

For this one I added:

3-4 slices of snow white squash you can use zucchini);

½ of white onion;

4 eggs;

½ tomato;

Lemon basil leaves;

Pinch of salt;

Pinch of pepper;

At first peel, wash and finely chop onion.

Wash and cut in slices, then chop squash (zucchini)

Preheat at medium heat and add cooking oil, start frying onion with squash, until soft, but still crunchy. Add the eggs and fry until cooked (5—7 min @ medium heat).

To all this beauty add tomato cut in slices (or chopped, you choose) and then add basil leaves. Fry for 2 min (so that tomatoes will be slightly soft, but not braised).

You can add cheese on top of your omelet.

And enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** you can also add bacon or ham with squash, mushroom, it will be delicious***

 

Zucchini crème-soup

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Soup

This is a very simple crème soup. It takes 40 minutes to cook and your family will enjoy this meal. It’s a great summer soup for your to enjoy! Simple and flavorful!

For this recipe you will need:

2 mid-sized zucchini

1 mid-sized white onion

1 big carrot

1 green bell pepper

4 oz. crème cheese

1 tbsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. cumin

1/3 cup of chopped lemon basil

2 cups of dry homemade bread

2 quart of stock (vegetable, chicken etc.)

Pour the stock into the 4 quart pan,

Peel carrot and onion.

Wash: carrot, onion, zucchini and belle pepper. Clean the seeds of green bell pepper, and cut in quarters, cut into medium pieces zucchini. Cut the onion in halves.

Put the veggies into the sauce pan with stock, add salt, pepper, cumin and set the gas on medium.

Boil the veggies for 30-40 minutes until soft.

When your veggies are cooked, put them into the food processor or blender and finely blend ( you can add the veggies with a little bit of stock, but not all of it).

Put the blended veggies into the fridge for 5-10 min to cool off. Contrary, take the crème cheese out of the fridge to soften a bit.

When the veggies cooled off a little bit cut the crème cheese in slices and add to the blended veggies. Puree everything.

Add the puree into the stock left in the sauce pan.

Chop the lemon basil and add to your soup.

On a frying pan, add some cooking oil and fry some bread, cut in medium sized pieces.

Your soup is ready to serve.

When serving Either put the bread onto separate plates or put the fried bread into the serving plates and then pour your soup.

Enjoy!