Like in much of the country, last weekend was a weather mess here in Oregon. It’s been about ten days since the ice storm decended on us and unfortunately there are still thousands of homes without power. We had lost power a couple of times, once for about 30 hours and then again for another 5 to 7 hours. That was long enough to melt and defrost the food in our freezer. What a bummer, since I’d frozen vegetables from our summer garden and also some soups for “take-in dinner”. I used as much of the usable freezer food as I safely could, but when a container of soup tasted funky, I knew we’d have to throw things out. Very sad! Fortunately the vegetables and fruits I had in the refrigerator held up nicely.
After ice, snow, cold feet and red noses this silky-smooth vegetable soup sure warmed us up.
In case you are unfamiliar with Miso, it’s a fermented paste usually made out of salt, a fungus and either soybeans, rice or barley. There are many varieties available and you can find this paste in the refrigerated section near the tofu and tempeh. It’s rather salty, but has a unique taste and is considered very healthy. It’s very popular in Japan and all Japanese restaurants serve some version of miso soup. If you’re vegetarian though, you might ask if the soup contains a dashi ( a type ofJapanese broth) made from kelp, a seaweed and bonito, a dried fish.
Silky-Smooth Vegetable Soup
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 or 2 leeks, washed and sliced
- about 5 or 6 carrots, sliced
- 1 or 2 parsnips, sliced
- several cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 large russet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
- vegetable broth or water
- a little soy sauce
- about a 1/4 cup of miso, preferably white
- fresh lemon juice
- salt if needed
- coarsely ground black pepper
In a large soup pot heat a little olive oil over medium high heat.
Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes.
Next add the garlic, carrots, leeks and parsnips.
Now add the cauliflower and potato.
Stir again and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the broth or water to cover the veggies by about 2 inches.
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, partially cover the pot
and simmer until all the vegetables are tender.
Turn off the heat and add the miso and a splash of soy sauce.
Puree with an immersion or in regular blender until smooth and creamy.
If the soup’s too thick for your taste thin it out a with a little more broth.
Squeeze a little lemon juice into the soup and then taste. Adjust the seasoning if needed.
When you reheat the soup bring it to a very gentle simmer.
Miso loses its health benefits if you boil it at high heat.
Serve with splash of soy sauce and some coarsely ground black pepper.
🙂
in cahoots with muddy boots 
Yum!
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It really is! I’m about to make it again.
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This sounds so delicious and warming! Save me a bowl?
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Comfort food without guilt! And yes, I’ll save a bowl for you! 😉
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Sounds perfect for a cold day. Have a great weekend, Sabine!
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Same to you Missy! 🙂
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sorry you lost some food Sabine but you made lemonade out of it!
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It’s never a good thing when food gets thrown away, but it’s not worth risking my health over bad food. I was just happy to be able to safe all the veggies and fruit in the fridge.
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My Crow friends would of had a field day with it!
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I’m sure they would have! 😉
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So sorry you lost all your freezer food, Sabine. What a great loss. Spring will come soon and planting for renewal will begin at your home, I suspect. Stay warm. Stay safe.
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I will and you stay warm and safe too, LuAnne!
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Perfect for the Wintertime Sabine. Sorry to read you lost your food … I worry about that happening in Summer and stopped stocking up as we had several instances of power outages and food not tasting right. We had a large power outage a few years ago after a volatile Summer storm. My friend Ann Marie told me had stopped at the grocery store where we both shop on the day the power went out. She had been out of town and walked into the store with dimmed lights and all the refrigerated and frozen foods had plastic tarps over them. She asked why – they said to preserve the food until the refrigerated semi-trailers got there to load them up. The power was out just a day, but I was concerned about shopping there and went two cities away to that Meijer store for the next few months, until they got all new stock.
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Sometimes there’s nothing one can do in these situations. If I lived somewhere with frequent power outages I would possibly get a generator. This is the first time we’ve lost electricity like this, so I really can’t complain. We had a store (Fred Meyer) in Portland toss perishables into several dumpsters right after the power went off. Some hungry local people showed up to take the items and the store called the police. Then several cops stood watch over the dumpsters. You’d think the police would have better things to do and that Kroger would have a more generous heart during rough times for so many. I was frankly somewhat disgusted and have not been back since. I do like their stores, but this incident really bothered me.
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That would bother me too Sabine. I remember years ago being at the grocery store deli and getting slices of cheese and the deli clerk got to near the end of the brick of cheese and tossed it into a can. She said “it’s going to take me a while to go in back, get a fresh brick and unwrap it – do you want to wait or have another kind of cheese?” I said I’d wait, but asked why she didn’t just slice the two remaining slices needed by hand. She said when we get to two inches left, we toss it. I thought it was wasteful. Now there is Second Harvest who picks up wasted food or recently expired food and and delivers it to food banks.
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