{"id":3172,"date":"2011-01-10T18:33:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T02:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=3172"},"modified":"2011-01-11T14:50:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T22:50:58","slug":"nordic-winter-vegetable-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=3172","title":{"rendered":"Nordic Winter Vegetable Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finally had time to look through my January 2011 Food & Wine magazine over the weekend. It was CA cold outside (Not compared to the weather for you east coast peeps) but cold for me.<\/p>\n

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I knew I wanted to make some soup\u00a0and Food & Wine magazine\u00a0and Trina Hahnemann – author of\u00a0 The Nordic Diet<\/em> <\/a>– provided me with the perfect solution. In the article, Trina calls the root vegetables in her Nordic Winter Vegetable Soup<\/a> the “gold of Nordic soil”\u00a0 – They’re high in nutrients and grow well in cold climates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The soup recipe\u00a0sounded delicious. I wanted healthy lunch options for the week, so I headed to the store to gather the ingredients.<\/p>\n

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Link to the Ingredients and Recipe on the Food & Wine website.<\/a><\/p>\n

My only substitutions to the recipe were to use one box of low sodium chicken stock and one box of regular – I already had the full sodium version on hand. I also used some Garlic Gold Nuggets to top off\u00a0my finished soup. So this made the original recipe non-vegetarian, next time I will use veggie stock to make it authentic.<\/p>\n

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I started with prep – I chopped up one large white onion, then I got my leeks washed and ready for slicing.<\/p>\n

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I\u00a0started on\u00a0the celery root next.\u00a0 I’m familiar with celery root, I tackled it over the summer with\u00a0Williams-Sonoma’s Cheese Toast w\/Celery Root and Carrot Salad<\/a> recipe.<\/p>\n

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I’ve discovered that I waste a lot less by using a peeler instead of trying to remove the skin with a knife.<\/p>\n

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I got the celery root cut into 1\/2 inch\u00a0pieces – they were supposed to be cubes, but that didn’t work out so well.<\/p>\n

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The next star of the recipe was 1 lb. of parsnips. I’ve eaten parsnips before, but I’ve never purchased and prepared them. I keep seeing parsnip fries on lots of healthy living blogs – just have never tried them on my own.<\/p>\n

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I got my parsnips peeled and ready for chopping.<\/p>\n

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Not much different than the celery root in photos.<\/p>\n

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I heated up 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in my dutch oven and then added the onion, leeks and garlic and cooked over medium\/high heat – stirring occasionally until tender. I ended up adding several more splashes of olive oil – it seemed to dry out pretty fast. Probably could have just\u00a0saut\u00e9ed\u00a0over medium heat. It took about 10 minutes to get the ingredients tender.<\/p>\n

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I added my cup of pearl barley and then stirred the mixture together. Pearl barley excites me – there, I said it. My Mom has used pearl barley in soups since I was a kid. I think that is why I love it so much, it reminds me of kitchen counter time with my Mom.<\/p>\n

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I then added the two boxes of chicken stock – one low sodium, one regular.<\/p>\n

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4 cups of water was next on the list.<\/p>\n

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I added fresh thyme and bay leaves and then brought the soup to a boil.<\/p>\n

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Once I achieved a good “boil” – in went the celery root and parsnips.<\/p>\n

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I then added salt and pepper to taste. It seemed like it needed a lot of seasoning – but I later realized the flavors developed more as the soup simmered. I’m glad I didn’t over season early on. I let the soup simmer on low heat\u00a0for more than the recommended 40 minutes. It took 50-60 minutes before the root vegetables and barley\u00a0became tender.<\/p>\n

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I then added the spinach and freshly ground nutmeg.<\/p>\n

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I continued to stir. I let the soup simmer for another 5 minutes before serving. My kitchen smelled wonderful. I could not wait to grab a spoon.<\/p>\n

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I topped my\u00a0soup with some Garlic Gold Nuggets before eating.<\/p>\n

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This soup easily makes my top 5 in taste and texture. I couldn’t be more excited that I have a freezer full of the stuff. I love that I have another (almost) vegetarian option for lunch and even a main course. I’m so excited about this soup – I will definitely be purchasing\u00a0The Nordic Diet <\/em>cookbook so I can get my hands on more of\u00a0 Chef Trina Hahnemann’s amazing recipes.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I finally had time to look through my January 2011 Food & Wine magazine over the weekend. It was CA cold outside (Not compared to the weather for you east coast peeps) but cold for me. I knew I wanted to make some soup\u00a0and Food & Wine magazine\u00a0and Trina Hahnemann – author of\u00a0 The Nordic … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[133,10,19,21],"tags":[729,134,135,136],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3172"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3172"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3225,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3172\/revisions\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}