Mediterranean Eggplant Soup

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Eggplant soup

Eggplant soup…it’s not the prettiest but it sure tastes good! I had never eaten an eggplant soup before, but I was given a roasted eggplant in my cooking class and told to soupify it. So I did, and it was surprisingly delicious! Finished with basil, lemon, and Greek yogurt, this soup would be even tastier served with a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts.

Eggplant soup

To make this soup, begin by roasting the eggplant. Heat your oven to 400º F, poke 2 whole eggplants with a fork a few times, put the eggplants on a baking sheet, and then bake them for approximately 1 hour until they are shriveled and their flesh is fork-tender.

Eggplant soup

Cut the roasted eggplants in half lengthwise, and scoop out their flesh. Roughly chop the eggplant flesh into pieces.

Eggplant soup

Dice up 1 small onion and 2 garlic cloves. Add some olive oil to a pot, and sweat the onion and garlic over medium heat until they are translucent.

Eggplant soup

Add the eggplant into the pot, and lightly season the vegetables with salt. Get a piece of cheesecloth or a fillable tea bag, and enclose 1 bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon of whole peppercorns, and a few basil stems. Add the packet to the pot, and then fill the pot with enough chicken stock  to cover the eggplant. Bring the soup to a simmer, and let it cook until all of the vegetables can easily be pierced with a fork.

Eggplant soup

Remove the packet of seasonings from the soup, and then pour the soup into a blender. Put the lid on the blender, without its centerpiece so that steam can escape. Cover the hole in the lid with a kitchen towel, and then purée the soup. Taste the soup, and then season it with more salt. Also add in about 1/4 cup of greek yogurt, approximately 5 basil leaves, and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Purée the soup again, taste it, and add more of the finishing ingredients until you think it has reached its maximum deliciousness.

Eggplant soup

Pour the hot soup into bowls and garnish it in an attempt to pretty up its otherwise brownish-grey complexion. Some options: a dollop of Greek yogurt, some whole basil leaves, a thin slice of lemon, or some toasted pine nuts.

Shopping list:

  • Eggplant- 2
  • Onion- 1
  • Garlic- 2 cloves
  • Basil
  • Peppercorns- 1/2 teaspoon
  • Bay leaf- 1
  • Chicken stock- approximately 3 cups
  • Lemon- 1
  • Greek yogurt- approximately 1/4 cup
  • Salt
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Horizontal Wedge Salad with Miso-Sesame Vinaigrette

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Wedge salad

When I was a kid, I would always order a wedge salad. I loved iceberg lettuce because it is consistently crisp, unlike that limp and earthy romaine. Well, times have changed, and I couldn’t tell you the last time I ate a wedge salad, cut into a large triangle and doused with russian dressing. When I was least expecting it, I came upon these inspired wedge salads in the prepared foods section at Wegmans. The iceberg lettuce was sliced vertically so that it almost formed its own serving plate, topped with nice looking tomatoes and a balsamic dressing. The beautiful and unexpected presentation persuaded me to follow Wegmans’ lead and elevate the humble wedge salad into something special.

Wedge salad

To prepare a similar wedge salad, get a head of iceberg lettuce. Remove any damaged looking outer leaves, and trim off the bottom of the stem, without severing it from its leaves. Balance the head of lettuce vertically, with the stem resting on your cutting board, and use your knife to cut it into thick slices about 1.5 inches thick. Make sure that the stem and core are included in the center slice. Set the iceberg slices on salad plates.

Wedge salad

To make the miso-sesame vinaigrette, get out a blender and add in 1 tablespoon of grated ginger, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 tablespoons of white miso, 2 tablespoons of tahini, 1 tablespoon of honey, and 1/4 cup of rice vinegar. Cover the top of the blender with a piece of plastic wrap, and poke a hole in the center of the plastic wrap. This covering will allow you to add oil to the running blender without dousing yourself in dressing.

Wedge salad

Run the blender until the ingredients are combined, and, with the blender still running, slowly drizzle in 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Taste the dressing, and season it with salt if necessary. The blender should do an amazing job of emulsifying the oils into the dressing, and it should create a wonderfully thick and clingy vinaigrette.

Wedge salad

Pour the dressing over the wedges of iceberg lettuce, and then top the wedges with tomatoes and cucumbers. Sprinkle the salads with some sesame seeds for an extra garnish. Then, cut into your crisp and refreshing salad, and feel slightly sophisticated because you left the russian dressing behind.

Shopping list:

  • Iceberg lettuce- 1 head
  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumbers
  • Sesame seeds
  • Ginger- 1 tablespoon, grated
  • Garlic- 1 clove
  • White miso- 2 tablespoons
  • Tahini- 2 tablespoons
  • Honey- 1 tablespoon
  • Rice vinegar- 1/4 cup
  • Sesame oil- 2 tablespoons
  • Vegetable oil- 2 tablespoons
  • Salt
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Crusty Cranberry Walnut Bread

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Walnut bread

I’ve had a hankering for cranberry walnut bread since I ate a delicious slice out of Le Diplomate’s bread basket. My requests to buy a loaf were rejected, and I immediately began scheming up how to bake my own. But I never imagined that it would be this easy. Really, baking this utterly delicious and impressive loaf of bread required practically no work, other than exercising my patience muscle. But when it comes to eating this bread, I’ll gladly exercise my jaw.

Walnut bread

Because this bread requires an overnight rise, start preparing it the night before you plan on eating it. I started mixing my batch up around 9 PM. Begin by toasting 1 cup of walnut halves in the oven until they are lightly browned and fragrant. To a large bowl, add 3 cups of bread flour, the toasted walnuts, 1/2 cup of dried cranberries, 1.25 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of yeast, and 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Don’t worry about the cinnamon- it provides only a subtle, but welcome, warmness.

Walnut bread

Mix the ingredients together so that they are evenly distributed, and then mix in 1.5 cups of slightly warm water. The dough should come together into a very sticky mass. That’s it! Leave the dough in the bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap. Set the bowl aside on the counter to rise overnight.

Walnut bread

The next morning, anywhere from 12 to 18 hours later, the dough should have risen a lot. Generously flour your counter and hands, and then scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. 

Walnut bread

Use your hands to shape the dough into a ball by stretching the edges of the dough and tucking them in towards the center of the ball. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour over a kitchen towel, and place the dough in the center. Drape the corners of the towel over the dough, and then set it aside to rise for another hour or two.

Walnut bread

When the dough has almost doubled, put an oven-proof pot with a lid inside the oven. Pre-heat the oven and the pot to 475º F. When the oven reaches that temperature, remove the pot from the oven (using potholders, of course!), and use the towel to flip the dough into the pot.

Walnut bread

Cover the pot, and return it to the oven for 30 minutes. After that time, remove the lid from the pot. If your bread is toasty and golden brown, it’s done! If not, continue baking the bread without the lid for another 15-30 minutes until it reaches the toasty and golden brown stage. Use a spatula and your kitchen towel to lift the bread out of the pot, and set it on a rack to cool. As my loaf cooled, I could hear its crusty exterior crackling away!

Walnut bread

When the bread has cooled, slice into that baby! The golden, crusty outside gives way to a very soft and tender inner bread that is beautifully studded with shapely walnuts and jewel-toned cranberries. Even more than being beautiful, the bread is DELICIOUS! I like it toasted and spread with butter and apple butter.

Walnut bread

This bread is also delicious to eat on its own, but if you’re really excited about it, you could slice it thinly, return it to the oven to crisp up, and use it as crostini to eat cheese. Or you could toast some slices, cut them into spears, and use them to scoop up a soft boiled egg. Or, you could use it to sop up a bowl of squash or pumpkin soup. Or you could sneak a piece to a hungry pup…but I’m selfish and haven’t wanted to part with a single morsel. Sorry, Stella!

This recipe is adapted from Jim Leahy’s My Bread.

Shopping list:

  • Bread flour- 3 cups +
  • Walnut halves- 1 cup
  • Dried cranberries- 1/2 cup
  • Salt- 1.25 teaspoons
  • Yeast- 1 teaspoon
  • Cinnamon- 3/4 teaspoon
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