Friday, February 1, 2013

Soup Night

I should probably finish recapping the last cookbook project we did before A embarks on our next adventure.  I had a few options for the cookbook project but in the end decided to go with a soup that I thought would be great for January (if only the weather had been what I expected for January). I picked the white bean, escarole and meatball soup from the Eat Well cookbook, a recipe that I was fairly sure I wouldn't have time to make on any ordinary night (one of the things I consider in choosing a recipe for the cookbook project).


Ingredients (a lot more than the potatoes)*:

- Ground turkey ($3.99)
- One head of escarole ($1.81)
- 2 cans white/cannellini beans ($0.67 x 2)
- Plain bread crumbs ($1.50 for the can - didn't use much, hopefully can use it for something else, so $0.50)
- 1 large egg ($1.99 for the container - used the rest for omelettes, so $0.50)
- Grated parmesan cheese ($1.99 for the bottle - didn't use much and can use it for pasta, so $0.50)
- 2 cans low sodium chicken broth ($0.72 x 2)
- 1 yellow onion ($1.50)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.50)
- Dried thyme (already had this - $0)
- Dry white wine (already had this - $0)
- Olive oil (already had this - $0)
- Salt (already had this - $0)
- Pepper (already had this - $0)

* I adjusted the prices for whether or not I can use the rest of the ingredients for something else, to try to represent the "real" cost of the recipe.

The total for the soup is about $12, with adjusted prices. Not cheap, but not too bad considering they are made from scratch turkey meatballs.  It also made enough soup for some leftovers, so I was happy with the total cost.

Counter-clockwise from top left - chopped onions (forgot to take photos of all the other prepped items - wish I had at least gotten a photo of the escarole since it was my first time cooking with it); splitting up the turkey for the meatballs; meatballs chilling in the fridge; baked meatballs (yum); soup simmering on the stove.

Process:

The soup was just a bit more labor intensive than the potatoes. First, you need to make the meatballs - a combination of the ground turkey, eggs, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Once they're formed, they need to chill for about 30 minutes and then bake for 20.  I planned to spend that time doing prep for both dishes, but did I ever mention how slow I am? It took much more than 50 minutes to do all the potato prep, as well as chop the onions, mince the garlic, wash the escarole thoroughly, tear up the escarole, rinse out the white beans, and trim the fat off the meatballs. I. Am. Slow.

Once the meatballs were ready and the prep was done, it was time to make the soup. Onions first, followed by garlic and thyme, and then once those are done, add the white wine until it has evaporated.  Next comes the chicken broth, followed by the main ingredients of white beans and escarole, and lastly, the meatballs.  The actual soup making part of the project was fun and didn't take that long (compared to the prep). I just need to get faster at prepping.  Even if I had been quicker, the soup project would still have taken at least 1.5 hours from start to finish.


Taste:

We really liked this soup.  It tasted healthy and clean, full of hearty vegetables and meatballs but still light.  Even though there was only a small amount of Parmesan cheese in the dish, and it was only in the meatballs, the soup tasted like it had much more, giving it a bit of an Italian flavor. We really liked this and it would be a great winter soup to add to our rotation.

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