Spoils of War

It was a long an arduous battle, heat and stream and lifeless bodies... Do carrots have bodies per say? Eeh who cares... they add goodness to stock and thats all I need to know.

So what do you do with over a gallon of fine homemade beef juice.
Item number one on the menu post Stock Making Day is non vegetarian vegetable soup.

I started with a basic mirepoix (carrots, celery, and onions) sautéed in a little butter and peanut oil, about a tsp of each.

For some pizazz I added Parsnip... Which begs the question. What in the name of all that is holy is a parsnip? White carrot? No... Rock hard root vegetable my sharpest knife barely was able to cut? Maaaayybee... Wikipedia says it is a relative of the carrot with a stronger flavor and the closest relative to parsley. I must not got a good one. This one, pictured below, was not stronger flavored than my carrots but was tougher. The Chuck Norris of the root vegetable world.

So once the "mirepoix + one" started to sizzle,I turned my attention to the crisper drawer to see what else was available. Radishes? no, broccolini? na, cucumbers? no way, corn on the cob? yeppers. But removed from the cob and sautéed in the leftover butter/oil from the mirepoix.

Four cups of "The Stock" in a pot with the carrots/celery/onions/parsnips (mirepoix is getting over used in this blog) make the base for my lunch. One bay leaf +


one quarter tsp of my new planted Lemon Thyme (yes it smells like lemon) +

one tbsp of flat leaf parsley + salt and pepper round out the spices.


Or so I thought until I added 2 smallish russet potatoes, and a can of sweet peas, then it needed something.

What to add, what to add? Turns out that the home grown, home made, home canned salsa that I was gifted by Luis on my last road trip to Charlotte, is an ideal additive to vegetable soup. Nice little tomatoee/pepper kick.


Bring it to a boil for just a minute, then reduce the heat to a simmer cover with a lid and leave the room for 25 minutes. Looks like this when you come back.


Service? In a bowl, with a couple slices of not half bad store bought "Ugly Tomato" with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper.



Lessons learned. My mother makes better vegetable soup, don't shave the corn so close to the cob, half as many peas would have been enough, and corn bread goes better with veggie soup than tomatoes do. But it was a good meal.

I especially like the fact that the only thing from a can was the peas. I don't consider the salsa as "from a can" cause it was homemade, just not made in my home.

Cheers

J.A.F.A.R.