Thai Cucumber Soup

Hello, fellow herbivores. Long time, no blog.

At some point in time, I'll probably write a rambling muse on the therapy of cooking here in this journal--because, quite frankly, cooking is one of the few activities that I've found that truly relax me and can help cure a bad mood.

And I've had a lot of those lately--bad moods, that is. To sum it up, less than four months ago, I escaped nearly three years of an abusive relationship. And upon being on my own, I found myself more concerned with my favorite alcoholic recipes and constantly being around other people, rather than the joys of cooking for myself. So, several weeks, countless hangovers, and about ten added pounds of body weight later, I gave myself a kick in the ass. Well, a very gentle one--more like a pat. Simply put, I decided to stay in one night and cook for myself. After relishing in a capri salad and cheese ravioli, I remembered the peacefulness in cooking. The quietness of the kitchen, the ability to be alone but not left with thoughts of stress, just thoughts of...flavor. Relishing. As I'm writing this, two pop culture images come to mind. One, the 1999 romantic comedy Simply Irresistible and one of my favorite newer works of fiction, Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. In both, the female protagonist eventually realizes that whatever emotion she is experiencing ends up being "tastable" in her cooking product. In Simply Irresistible, the chef cries a tear and her customers all cry tears of joy when they eat her entree; in Lemon Cake, the main character has a repulsion to eating because she always experiences the emotions of the chef, until she learns to cathartically release her own troubles by becoming a chef herself. Indeed, just as artists experience emotion in their creativity, so does a chef, even an amateur like myself. There is an enjoyable solitude, a creative outlet, and a sense of playful fun in preparing food for myself--all feelings I have not been able to find, in any other activity, in the midst of my personal troubles.

So through the past couple of weeks, I have played with new recipes (which I will soon be sharing) and old favorites, modifying even standards like vegetarian chili. Also, yesterday I decided to take my health into better concern. For several weeks, I have been toying with the idea of leading a more vegan lifestyle. I'm sure I will post more on this in coming weeks. I don't have, necessarily, a more opposition to dairy or egg products, but I do wish to cut out as many unnecessary animal products in my life, such as gelatin. As I've mentioned this to my friends, I've been continuously cautioned about the health risks in becoming 100% vegan, which I don't think is ever going to be my goal. I see myself being halfway between vegetarian and vegan, hopefully, at some point. Still, it has made me reflect on my health. While in the cycle of an abusive relationship, my weight fluctuated from quite slender to quite plump--up fifteen pounds, down fifteen pounds, repeatedly. As my emotions plummeted when my self-rescue didn't prove to be quite as revolutionary as it could have been, my weight seemed to maintain at, well, plump. Not fat, but not in shape, not fit. I lived on greasy bar food like onion rings and jumbo pretzels, Taco Bell, delivery pizzas, and these irresistible walnut brownies I kept finding at the E.W. James bakery. So don't be surprised if you start seeing calorie-conscious entries in this blog, which formerly was focused on fattening comfort foods and sinful desserts!

So, now, let me share with you what I'm actually eating now while I'm writing this blog, because it's pretty damn tasty. Whoever said that vegetarian food is bland has evidently never tried any variation of Thai cucumber soup, because this is one of the most overwhelmingly flavorful dishes I've ever prepared. (Or is it just all of that emotion I'm finally allowing myself to experience, pouring itself out into the pot around the flakes of parsley?)

I grew my own tomatoes and cucumbers this year, a venture that has been overwhelming. Who could've guessed the amount of produce five vegetable plants would provide? Overloaded with cucumbers, I went to the trusty All Recipes looking for something besides a salad or hors d'oeuvre to create with them, and stumbled onto this tasty dish.

As always, I tweaked the original recipe somewhat. Rather than using two tablespoons of sliced green onion, I added a half of white onion (chopped) and one stalk of celery (chopped), which I think was a good decision--it added quite a bit of zest. I also added in chopped red peppers to add some sweetness, which is quite appropriate for a Thai-inspired soup. I more than doubled the amount of parsley, because it tends to balance out an extra-spicy dish. The biggest change I made to the recipe is that, before adding the sour cream, I put the entire mix into a food processor, just to make the chopped veggies a little less prominent, and the soup smoother. I didn't completely puree it, though, wanting to keep a little chunkiness to it. I added more sour cream than the recipe asked for, then let the soup thicken for about fifteen minutes before pouring my first bowl.

The chile peppers I used, by the way, were also homegrown, given to me by a favorite customer of mine from bartending. If you ever have a chance to grow your own vegetables, do so; it's quite rewarding and relaxing, much like cooking. If you just don't have the time or capability, at least seek out fresh produce from friends who garden, or at the very least, a farmer's market. Without any additives, fruits and vegetables have more flavor. And honestly, there's few things in life that smell quite as wonderful as a fresh tomato, just picked off the vine. My homegrown cucumbers made this recipe.

While certainly hot, this isn't an overwhelmingly spicy dish, although you could certainly make it so. You could also tone it down, as I did with the added red peppers and parsley. This is an excellent soup to whip up for a seasoned vegetarian, who's sure to appreciate the flavor, or to shut up a mouthy meat-eater who likes to complain that vegetarian food is gross and bland.

Cream Cheese and Herb Soup

Dear readers, I am sharing with you right now my secret weapon--the dish I make when I want to give myself some gratification at the end of a long day, and especially when I want to wow my boyfriend or anyone else cooking dinner. If I had to pick one dish I've learned to cook as my absolute favorite, it may just be cream cheese and herb soup, which I found in The Cook's Library Vegetarian. (Does it surprise readers that my favorite dish doesn't contain chocolate? It does me.)

First and foremost, do not cheat and used a premade vegetable broth. This cookbook offers you an extremely awesome vegetable bullion--make that before you make the soup. You'll savor every drop of effort with each bite of this amazing, tasteful soup. Another tip: the recipe recommends whisking the cream cheese after blending the soup in a food processor. If the whisking isn't working, don't feel guilty about combing the cream cheese with the rest of the soup in a food processor. This recipe makes four servings; consider how minimal that really is. With all the work involved in making this soup, you may want to increase portions of each ingredient so you'll be able to enjoy leftovers (and this does reheat well, trust me). I recommend serving it with fresh vegetables and saltines, as pictured above.

I love cooking this as a precursor to a romantic entree for dinners with my boyfriend, but I also prepare it for myself often when I crave fine cooking, because this is excellent cuisine. Imagine hearty, warmed milk and cornstarch, with the tang of cream cheese, shrouded perfectly in an array of parsley, thyme, basil, and oregano, topped with zesty chives. Finely flavorful, this soup belongs in a five-star restaurant--or in front of your most hard-to-impress dinner guests.

Soy Chicken/Vegetable Dumplings Soup

On mornings like this, I can't help but to wake up wondering, "Why can't adults get snow days off of work?"

There's four inches of snow on the ground, and I've got to be at work in less than two hours for a marvelous twelve hour bartending shift. All I want is to stay inside, snuggle in my pajamas with the dogs and Ty, and over-divulge in brownies, silently hoping all those calories won't resurface before New Year's Eve likely tight dress.

A long double shift with no break looms over my head, and I know, as I always do on such mornings, that I'm not going to cook today. I'll enjoy some leftovers, frozen soy products, or, at worst, canned soup. But, ahh, soup. Soup doesn't actually sound that bad. Soup actually sounds...delicious.

There are many people, I'm discovering, who aren't "soup" people. I don't know why, or how, one would not be a "soup" person, as it seems like such a basic part of a meal to me. I, on the other hand, love soup. My mother gave me the Cook's Library Vegetarian Cookbook, which contains dozen of vegetarian and vegan soup recipes and has allowed me to master the fine art of vegetarian soup concoctions, cream cheese and herb soup being my favorite. Trust me, you'll be hearing about this book quite a bit in this blog.

But today's soup recipe actually comes from Betty Crocker's "Quick and Healthy" mini-cookbook. I think this came free with some aerobics merchandise, but it actually ended up being more valuable than the workout gear. When I saw a recipe for chicken-vegetable soup with dumplings, I couldn't resist attempting it, although I used two cups of cut-up Morning Star Meal Starters soy chicken and four cups of a homemade vegetable bullion instead of chicken broth. Betty Crocker has this soup and dumplings recipe on their website. This was the first time I'd ever made dumplings, and I couldn't believe how simple they were to make. I offered this to two meat-eaters, Ty and his best friend, Chris; Ty turned it down, being one of those mysterious non-soup-eating members of society, and Chris actually ate it, and once getting over the fact that he was eating soy chicken, said it was pretty tasty. Personally, I thought it was a little too watery; next time I'd make it with maybe two cups of bullion.

So, as I look outside at the snow this morning before work, sipping my generic brand canned potato soup, I remember that hearty, homemade soy chicken and dumplings vegetable soup and sigh wistfully. Oh, to have a snow day off work...