Provencal Chickpea Soup (p. 141)

Raleigh is so cold right now. Normally this time of year it's in the mid 50s, but this past week it's been hovering around 35 (with an overnight low of 17 on Wednesday!) When I was a Yankee this might not have been so cold, but now I live in the South and I'm freezing. Anyway, wherever you are, its totally soup weather.

I set my chickpeas out to soak overnight so that I was ready to start soup-making once I got home from work yesterday. The drained chickpeas go in a stockpot with water and are brought to a boil. Then lower the heat and continue simmering until the chickpeas are losing their skins and are tender.

Put half of the chickpeas into a food processor to make a thick paste and stir this back into the rest of the chickpeas.

Leave on low heat, just to keep the soup warm.

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft and then add in chopped tomato, slivered orange zest, and crushed fennel seeds. Cook until jammy and stir in with the chickpeas.

Add salt and pepper and serve!

This was good but the soup I made yesterday was better, so I wasn't wowed by this one. Matt liked the flavors that the orange and fennel provided, and it (along with Christmas music and some chicken nuggets) definitely kept us warm on a cold night.

tomato -- $2.01

I had everything else left over from other recipes!

Total Cost of Provencal Chickpea Soup: $2.01

($.50 per serving)

Fassolada (p. 136) and Moroccan Carrot Salad with Orange and Lemon Juice (p. 83)

Fassolada is Greek White Bean Soup and it's a great hearty soup that's pretty easy to make.

In a stock pot, cover white beans (that have been allowed to soak overnight) with water. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for about a half an hour.

Meanwhile, sauté onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil. Once they have softened, add in diced green peppers.

Add this combo, along with tomato paste, into the pot with the beans and cook until the beans are done, about another half hour. Add in lemon juice and salt and pepper and serve.

Matt and I both really liked this. It's kind of like meatless chili and was definitely filling enough to be dinner. And we liked dunking crusty bread into the juices, too.

Since I was already buying carrots for the soup, I also made a Moroccan Carrot Salad with Orange and Lemon Juice. The carrots are supposed to be grated on the smallest holes of the grater but my smallest holes are super small, so it basically just gave me carrot juice and a bloody knuckle. After bandaging I chose a larger hole, with much success.

Mix the grated carrots with fresh-squeezed orange juice (yum), lemon juice, and a tiny bit of sugar. Top the salad with roasted walnuts (with their skins removed.)

I loved that the carrots weren't cooked in this recipe, and I liked the flavor of the orange. I don't need to make it again but I'll be good with tomorrow's leftovers.

beans -- $1.55 (the bulk are left)

onions -- $1.37 (half an onion left)

pepper -- $.99

celery -- $1.99 (most left) 

Total Cost of Fassolada: $5.90

($1.48 per serving)

carrots -- $.99

lemon -- $.69

oranges -- $1.20

Total Cost of Moroccan Carrot Salad with Orange and Lemon Juice: $2.88

($.96 per serving)

Artichoke Parmigiana (p. 292)

For those of you who have followed my failures with artichokes (Failure #1 and Failure #2) you'll know that every time I cook them they're tough and chewy. I flew out to Salt Lake City this past weekend to visit my mom who is an excellent cook and went to the Culinary Institute, and asked her to cook Artichoke Parmigiana with me to see where I was going wrong.

This recipe was kind of fun to make because it involves frying things, which always make them delicious. The artichokes are cleaned up, cut into pieces, and doused in a batter of flour, salt, water, and olive oil and then lightly fried in more olive oil. And the exciting part about cooking at my mom's house is that she actually owns a candy thermometer so that we could get the oil to the right temperature. I always just guess at home.

Once the artichoke pieces are golden place them on a piece of paper towel to dry.

The dish is assembled with layers of fried artichoke, mozzarella, tomato sauce, parmigiana, and a little pepper.

Cook for about a half an hour and then serve.

This looked and smelled beautiful, but can still be officially considered Failure #3 on the artichoke front. Mom decided that American artichokes just aren't up to the standards of their Mediterranean counterparts and aren't edible in the way that the cookbook has them prepared. As in, the leaves aren't even digestible. From now on I'll use frozen artichoke hearts in any recipe calling for whole artichokes. At least I know it's not my fault.

tomato sauce -- $2.11 (I only used about a quarter of the jar)

mozzarella -- $1.99 (about half left)

artichokes -- $8.97

Total Cost of Artichoke Parmigiana: $13.07

($2.18 per serving)