Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Vegetables

I headed over to the co-op food store today, and came home with these wonderful colors. The tomatoes are from a regional greenhouse, but those peppers are from who-knows-where. Both are organic. I do love the notion of eating locally but if one lives where I do, there wouldn't be much food unless you had a big, big garden and a way of storing potatoes, etc. I'm doing my best, as I have for almost forty years, but it will never be perfect. The faraway foods I bought today are scallions, leeks, lettuce, olive oil, basil, bananas, garlic, and the peppers. The foods from much closer are those tomatoes, cheese, butter, apples, some bread for supper, and potatoes. Everything was organically grown. I was thrilled I could buy that much. The hundred-mile limit was probably broken but at least they are from the next state, and in the case of the potatoes, Quebec. Tonight we are having my variation of Gladys Taber's Leek Soup:

3 cups leeks cooked in 1 T. olive oil and 1 T. butter
4 cups chopped potatoes
5 cups water
a little salt

After the potatoes are soft, I put the soup through a food mill, and heat it again at a low temp.

Addendum May 4, 2009: Over this past winter, I've cut the amount of leeks down to maybe 1 1/2 cups. 3 cups seemed like too much. I even wonder if way back I used 3 leeks rather than 3 cups of leeks. Anyhow, we both like it better with less leeks. It still has great flavor but is not overpowering.

Addendum Two - March 31, 2010: I used just 1 T. butter instead of butter and olive oil. I also reduced the water to 4 cups to make a thicker soup.

The bread was toasted, and served with roasted garlic and roasted tomatoes.

7 comments:

  1. I use almost that identical recipe to make soup, only we call it potato soup! I don't use the olive oil but otherwise, it's the same. Mmmmmm!

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  2. Yum. These look so lovely. The soup sounds good too.

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  3. Doing the best you can ... that's all you can do, and it's pretty good if you're eating seasonal foods, then most of them are likely to be reasonably local. Bananas - they're always going to come from somewhere there's no snow ;)

    Love those colours

    Joanna

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  4. Dear Nan...

    The soup sounds delicious...perfect for a cozy evening meal. We've been enjoying more soups lately too. I think perhaps you're a trend setter Nan. :)

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  5. What gorgeous peppers and tomatoes.
    I can't wait for our local farmers market to start up.

    And who is that little cutie at the top of your blog today?

    Linda in Chapel Hill

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  6. I feel the same say about where I live. We wouldn't eat much for 8 months out of the year if we only ate locally. I have made a point this year to not buy food from outside the US at least. Okay, except for pineapple. And mangos. It's amazing how far some produce comes from.

    I love the quote above. Do you have any of her books?

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  7. Joyce, isn't it funny. I guess we really should say "leek and potato soup" :<)
    Kay, tonight we're having those beautiful peppers sautéed with onions and served with a pasta which is a favorite of Tara's and mine - Bionaturæ Tagliatelle, or Pappardelle. Great stuff.
    Joanna, that's right. We were saying last night if I didn't buy frozen strawberries (organic from Serbia!! - I hope they are really organic) we would eat them maybe three weeks a year.
    Shelley, me a trend setter?! I don't think so. :<)
    Linda, she is Esther, and there is more about her at the Tamasin quote comments.
    Tara, it is truly amazing how far stuff travels. As I said above, the strawbs are from Serbia. Is there really not a place in the US that can grow and freeze organic strawberries? I haven't read her books but I plan to buy a couple.

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