Tomato Basil Soup with Green Beans and Beet Pesto– Secrets of Skinny Cooking

Membership in a local CSA (community supported agriculture) presents a pleasant challenge—to eat fresh that which is in season. As a relatively new Louisiana gardener, I am on the steep and ascending edge of the learning curve. So far this year I’ve struck gold on Creole tomatoes, okra, limes and jalapeno peppers. They say eggplants are heat tolerant and do great here—we shall see.

Meanwhile, turnips and beets and potatoes and green beans are coming in by the handful.

The new cookbook Secrets of Skinny Cooking by Victoria Dwek and Shani Taub is beautiful.

This is the first publication I’ve reviewed from Artscroll Shaar Press, the photography is mouthwatering. There is an index sorted by vegetable, and now when I get my CSA delivery, I turn straight to those pages and pick a recipe featuring my bounty.

Over the last two weeks, I very much enjoyed the following:

Basil Soup with Carrots and Tomatoes

Essentially for this, you don’t even need a stock pot. Just roast at 425 or 450 degrees four quartered tomatoes, two or three peeled and diced carrots, one diced onion, several garlic cloves, a chopped bell pepper, and then teaspoons of salt, pepper, dried basil, oregano, and thyme. Roast for 40 minutes. Then transfer all these veggies to a blender, add 1 ½ cups of chicken stock, and a tablespoon of fresh basil. Delicious.

I made this soup with a side of two pounds of green beans.

Glazed Green Beans

Steam and char the green beans. Then whisk together a tablespoon of minced fresh ginger, two tablespoons of tamari, two teaspoons of sesame oil and honey, and salt and pepper to taste. Top with sesame seeds and crushed red pepper as you like.

Last week I made the Beet Pesto.

All I can say is its all good. There are snazzy techniques for sparing oil when roasting vegetables. To saute onions without oil? Possible. And there are desserts. So. Take yourself out for a delicious steak dinner to celebrate all the vegetarianism going on during the week.