Carrot Ginger Soup

This year, I am teaching a home school culinary class. It’s a great joy for me to pass on to the younger generation all the tips and skills that I learned. We loved making this Carrot Ginger soup together. When making soup, I always start by sautéing the vegetables. Sautéing caramelizes them and brings out the very best flavor of the vegetable – never start by boiling them in liquid, or you’ll produce a very tasteless soup! Carrot Ginger freezes well, so make a big pot of it, cool and freeze flat in zip lock bags. Once they are frozen, the bags can then stand upright in your freezer or be stacked. This soup can be made completely dairy-free, just substitute olive oil or coconut oil for the butter. Enjoy!

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Carrot Ginger Soup
SERVINGS
8
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
45
PREP TIME
20
READY IN
1hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. In a 6-quart pan, over medium-high heat, add butter and olive oil. Sauté onions and carrots and cook until the vegetables begin to caramelize and become golden and tender.
  2. Add the ginger and 6 cups of the broth, cover and simmer. Reduce heat and cook until carrots are tender when pierced with a fork. Add the coconut milk.
  3. Remove from heat and transfer to a blender (don’t fill the blender more than halfway). Pulse the blender to start and then purée until smooth.
  4. Return to the pan and add more broth or coconut milk to reach desired consistency. Reheat over medium heat, adding salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Grilled Ceasar Salad

Merry Christmas from Bethany Convent! This year, the Sisters enjoyed this lovely Grilled Ceasar Salad with our Christmas meal. It was so easy and delicious, we wanted to share it with you. Our prayers are with each one of you as we close out 2019 and look forward with hope and expectation to a new year together!

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Grilled Ceasar Salad
SERVINGS
4
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
20
PREP TIME
20
READY IN
40

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Prepare the dressing: In a bowl, add the mayonnaise, Worcestershire, lemon juice, Dijon, vinegar and garlic and whisk until combined. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Add the Parmesan and continue to whisk. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. This can be made ahead and kept refrigerated until ready to use
  2. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat.
  3. Brush olive oil on the romaine hearts and season with salt and pepper. Place the romaine cut-side down on the grill and cook until nicely marked, 2 to 3 minutes.
  4. Brush the lemon halves with olive oil and grill cut sized down until you have grill marks on the lemons and they are soft and golden
  5. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees. Prepare croutons: tear up the bread into bite sized chunks and drizzle with olive oil. Toss until the oil is well distributed. Toss with Italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt until well seasoned to your liking. Spread on a baking sheet and bake until crispy and golden about 10-15 min. Remove from oven and let cool.
  6. With a vegetable peeler, flake your Parmesan cheese into large pieces.
  7. To assemble: lay your grilled romaine hearts on a platter, drizzle with the dressing and finish off with croutons, flakes of Parmesan cheese and the grilled lemon halves. Enjoy!

Shakshouka!

On a recent pilgrimage to Israel, I encountered the cultural phenomenon that is the traditional Israeli breakfast: Fresh vegetable salads, an abundance of fruit, creamy bowls of hummus, smoky eggplant baba ghanouj, borekas, and pastries of every description. The pièce de résistance, however, was the warm and savory shakshouka. Featuring delicately poached eggs, spices and vibrant herbs, I knew I needed to make this when I returned home.

Fun to say (shak-SHOO-kah) and even more fun to prepare, this delicious souvenir from the Holy Land warms me from the inside out!

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Rating: 5
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Shakshouka!
SERVINGS
6
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
20minutes
PREP TIME
15minutes
READY IN
35minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Warm the oil in an oven-safe skillet (I used cast iron) over medium heat. Once oil shimmers, add onion, bell pepper, and salt. Cook until the onions are translucent.
  2. Add garlic, tomato paste, cumin, and paprika. Cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
  3. Add crushed tomatoes with their juices and cilantro. Stir, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
  4. Off the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Make a well near the edge of the pan with the back of a spoon and crack the egg into it. Spoon a bit of the tomato mixture over the whites to contain the egg. Repeat with remaining eggs, and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Put the skillet to the oven and bake for 8–12 minutes, checking often after 8 minutes. Cook until the egg whites are an opaque white and the yolks have risen a little but are still soft.
  6. Take the hot skillet out and place on a heat-safe surface. Garnish with fresh cilantro or a crumble of feta and enjoy!

Kale, Sausage and Cannellini Bean Soup – A Special Autumn Treat

When end-of-summer kale comes in by the armload from the garden, “kale soup” becomes a familiar sounding menu option.  But can’t we make it really different and flavorful for our guests, as the chill of Autumn sets in? And so it develops: browned Italian sausage chunks, lots of fresh thyme, a splash of white wine, potatoes and cannellini beans.  Delicious served with a salad of fresh sliced pears, toasted almonds, and shavings of Parmesan Cheese and a basket of warm dill bread!

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Kale, Sausage and Cannellini Bean Soup - A Special Autumn Treat
SERVINGS
4
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
30minutes
PREP TIME
45minutes
READY IN
1hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan; add chopped onion, thyme and sausage chunks, browning over medium heat for about 10 minutes, adding a splash of wine for enhanced flavor. Drain off excess fat.
  2. Add chopped kale, potatoes, garlic, cooking for a few minutes before adding chicken broth, bringing soup to a boil, then simmering for about 20 minutes.
  3. To achieve a thicker consistency, strain out some of the cooked potato pieces, thoroughly mash and then add back to the soup.
  4. Add cannellini beans and simmer for another 10 minutes, then serve!

Stuffed Mushrooms: Practically Perfect in Every Way!

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Stuffed Mushrooms: Practically Perfect in Every Way!
Recently, we had the joy of celebrating the 80th birthday of one of our Sisters. What better way to celebrate this milestone than a Mary Poppins-themed party? Beautiful table settings, colorful flower arrangements and fanciful kite decorations added to the festivities, and the food was not far behind! Among the offerings that evening was a favorite of many of our Sisters: stuffed mushrooms. Warm and savory, this appetizer is reserved for special occasions and doesn’t last long on the plate!
SERVINGS
4-6servings
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
servings
COOK TIME
20mins
PREP TIME
15mins
READY IN
35mins

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Gently clean mushroom caps by wiping black dirt off with a paper towel
  3. Remove mushroom stems, and finely dice.
  4. Coat the bottom of a skillet and sautee the garlic until tender. Add the diced mushroom stems and cook until soft.
  5. Remove skillet from heat, and set aside to cool.
  6. In a mixer or hand mixed, combine cream cheese, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. Once mushroom stems are cool, add to bowl and thoroughly combine.
  7. Grease a 9x9 glass casserole dish, and arrange mushroom caps hollow side up.
  8. Using small spoons, gently fill the mushroom caps with the cream cheese filling and bake for 20 minutes in the oven, or until moisture begins to form in the cap.
  9. Remove from oven, garnish with chive and serve alongside other hors d’oeuvres.

Overnight Slow-Cooker Ribs!

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Overnight Slow-Cooker Ribs!
With the return of warmer weather, we also welcome the return of guests to our community either for retreats, workshops, or events that we host. As hospitality is a hallmark of the Benedictine life, these events offer us an opportunity to put this monastic practice in place! Hosting guests will sometimes limit our time spent in meal preparation, and our solution to providing our sisters with a delicious home-cooked meal and caring for our guests can be found in a vital (and in our case, under-used) kitchen appliance: the crock pot! We made these slow-cooker ribs recently for our main meal, and it was a hit! Even our sisters with restricted diets just had to have a taste. Simple, easy and delicious, this is a recipe that we will be using again this summer.
SERVINGS
4-6
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
7-9hrsplus 2hrs
PREP TIME
20mins
READY IN

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Brush the bottom of the crockpot with olive oil, just enough to coat
  2. Place the sliced onion in an even layer on the bottom of the pot.
  3. Sprinkle the ribs with salt, pepper and brown sugar. Top with the minced garlic, and place in the crockpot.
  4. Pour the apple juice over the ribs and set the temperature on the crockpot to the lowest temperature setting. Place the lid on the pot and let cook overnight or 7-9 hours.
  5. After 7-9 hours, the ribs should be very tender and falling off the bone. Remove from crockpot and place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Liberally cover the ribs with barbecue sauce and cover the pan with foil.
  6. Cook in a low oven (200 degrees) for another 2 hours and enjoy!