Friday, March 26, 2010

What do dietitian's eat - menu #9

After unexpectedly finding some stray parsnips in my refrigerator that were still just fine, I made this recipe way back in mid-February for a potluck dinner with my dietitian friends.

Curried Apple Parsnip Soup
An easy, hearty soup-all in one pot!

Ingredients:
• 6 parsnips (scrub, cut out tough inner core, chop)
• 8-10 cups water or home-made vegetable broth
• 2 large roasted red pepper (cut into large chunks. Make yourself from fresh peppers, purchase in jars, or I have these already made in my freezer.)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 7 large Granny Smith apples, fresh (I used 1 pint unsweetened applesauce)
• 1-1/2 cup red lentils (wash and pick over to remove any stones)
• 2 tbsp salted butter (or olive oil)
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• 3 tbsp sweet curry powder
• 1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce, or add a few shakes of hot curry powder to taste
• Fresh parsley, cilantro, or other green herb, chopped, for garnish if desired

Directions:
(1) Wash and cut apples, parsnips and red pepper into rough pieces and put in 4 qt slow cooker, leaving skins on all veggies.
(2) Combine all recipe ingredients in slow cooker with water (omit or add some water depending on volume of ingredients in pot).
(3) Cook on high until all ingredients are soft-about 2 - 3 hours.
(4) Then, using a hand blender very very carefully, puree all ingredients in cooker until smooth.
(5) Continue cooking on low until all flavors have combined and you're ready to eat!

Easy as pie. :-)

Makes 4 qts soup, about 14 servings.

Use a large soup pot for stove-top cooking if these ingredients will not all fit into the size of your slow-cooker. Make sure the lentils are cooked and not still chunky before you use the hand blender (also called an immersion blender).

(Photo: Curried Apple-Parsnip Soup in the big pot)

(Photo: Curried Apple-Parsnip Soup ready to eat!)

Here are a few other dishes that my friends brought, too. I don't have recipes and I don't even know exactly what some of these dishes were called, but it is still just fun looking at the photos. The evening was fantastic, filled with good (no GREAT!) food and friends. No one wanted to leave........Ahhhhh, life is good. :-)

(Photo: Home-made hummus, toasted pita chips, and roasted cauliflower with sumac)

(Photo: Bread selections with salmon-bean dip - I made this too)

(Photo: A delicious red lentil recipe)

(Photo: Rice with hot green peppers - spicy!)

(Photo: Roasted potatoes with blue cheese - to die for!)

(Photo: Meal overflowing my plate!)

(Photo: No, this is not Zingerman's delicious black olive bread as one person thought - surprise!, but Date - Walnut bread that I made too, a family favorite. I will post the recipe separately.)

I think the following blessing is the one I read that evening. If not, it is completely and utterly appropriate anyway, as I am so grateful for my friends (near and far, present and absent) with whom so much love and support are shared.

A circle of friends is a blessed thing.
Sweet is the breaking of bread with friends.
For the honor of their presence at our board
We are (I am) deeply grateful, Lord.

Thanks be to Thee for friendship shared,
Thanks be to Thee for food prepared.
Bless Thou the cup; bless Thou the bread;
Thy blessing rest upon each head.

~~ Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918)

Pleasant and delicious memories............ :-)

"Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row"

Diana Dyer, MS, RD


3 comments:

Kateri said...

Any chance that you have the recipe for the blue cheese potatoes? That sounds so good! (everything sounds and looks good!)

Jen said...

So, look, Diana, if all dieticians ate this way, we'd all become one!

Jen said...

Er... obviously I need more vegetables. My spelling gene has gone to sleep for the evening (along with the rest of me).