Scraps Soup. 100 Days of Recipes: Day 6

Finishing up what was started last night, and a lovely, therapeutic morning puttering in the kitchen. Here's what became of my pot full of scraps:

I think I'll just call it "Scraps Soup", as I doubt it will ever be the same twice, and I think that may be what I like most about it! Because this is intended to be 100 days of recipes, here it is, more or less:

Scraps Soup

In my large stock pot, I tossed leftover scraps of cauliflower stalks, bits of sweet potatoes, onions, fennel bulb,and a few cloves of garlic. I covered it in some open containers of vegetable and chicken stock from the fridge, threw in a handful of crushed thyme leaves (dried out from last year's herb garden), a generous toss of salt, and several grinds of pepper.

That simmered, covered, on a med/low heat for several hours. That's probably not necessary, but I fell asleep watching a movie. Luckily there was enough liquid, and the heat was low enough, that it didn't dry up and burn off. I turned it off and left it to finish this morning, when I put it back on that heat to warm it while I scoured the kitchen for any more scraps. I found two little ends of fresh-but-drying-out turmeric and ginger, so they were grated into the pot along with a bit more salt after tasting. In the fridge, I found the leftovers of a small tin of chopped up mushrooms and truffles*- in they went. I picked up some ramps at my favorite tailgate market yesterday, and added the tender leaves to the pot as well.

As it heated up under cover again, I saute-ed the ramp bottoms with some trumpet mushrooms, also collected at the tailgate, in a bit of olive oil.

Once the goodness in the stock pot was heated again, I went at it with the immersion blender, melding all the good flavors into a velvety, thick soup. 

The result - a soul-warming soup base to hold the seasonal goodness of the ramp/mushroom saute. And plenty in jars, ready to nourish throughout the week!


*I love shopping at Hopey & Company! It's on my daily route, great selection of organic produce, lots of local products, and then the occasional, random find that pops up. The little tin of chopped truffles and mushrooms in oil was one such find - I grabbed it on a whim to top some of the sweet potato toasts at the annual meeting. The finishing flavor on this soup is a nice blend of the ramps, melting into a soft truffle sweetness.