Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Smoked Sausage & White Bean soup (Instant Pot)



     It's finally winter time in Northern California.  After an unseasonably warm fall, the weather is starting to get chilly and the days are growing short.  It makes one want to curl up next to a fire with a good book, comfy clothes, and, of course, a nice hot bowl of soup.
     I first discovered this recipe when somebody shared it on the Instant Pot community Facebook group (I have, of course, joined that group!).  It looked wonderful and delicious and just the thing for lovely winter weather (it almost makes me wish that we had snow here).  After saving the recipe for weeks, I was finally inspired to make it this week as the weather turned cold plus I had most of the ingredients at home.  Here is the recipe:

Smoked Sausage & White Bean Soup, Instant Pot from https://frugalhausfrau.com/2017/11/05/smoked-sausage-white-bean-soup-instant-pot-or-stove-top/

Servings: 8
Time: 1 hr 15 min + time to soak the beans 

Ingredients: 

1 pound white beans, soaked overnight or quick soaked, see notes, below
1 tablespoon olive oil
14 ounces smoked sausage, sliced on bias into 3/8” slices
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, peeled & diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
6  to 6 1/2 cups broth; low sodium vegetable or chicken preferred
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions: 

1) Turn the Instant Pot on to Saute. Add a tablespoon of oil. When hot, add the sausage and cook until slightly browned. Remove sausage from pot and set aside.

2) Add onions and saute until softened, then add in the garlic and stir until garlic is fragrant, a minute or two. Add the carrots & celery.

3) Rinse the beans and add them to the pot, along with thyme, oregano, parsley, bay leaf, broth, salt and pepper and the reserved sausage.

4) Set to Pressure and cook on high for 25 minutes, using the quick release when the time is up. Test several beans; if not tender, replace lid and bring back up to pressure and cook an additional five minutes, again using the quick release.

5) Thicken the soup, if desired, by mashing some of the beans in the pot or remove about a cup of beans and mash to a paste, then stir back into the pot.

Notes:

To soak the beans overnight: Rinse and sort through beans, discarding any damaged beans or debris. Cover with at least two inches of water and let soak for 12 hours or more. Drain and rinse, proceed with recipe.
To quick soak in Instant Pot: Rinse and sort through beans, discarding any damaged beans or debris. Add to Instant Pot along with 2 teaspoons salt and 8 cups water. Set to saute (high) and bring to a boil. Immediately place on lid and lock, use the manual function to set to high pressure and two minutes of time. Drain and rinse, proceed with recipe.

     I mostly made the soup as is.  We used a Kentucky Bourbon sausage instead of a smoked sausage.  This worked just fine and was absolutely delicious.  I did pre-soak my beans overnight in the fridge.  Unfortunately, I put them in what I thought was an adequate sized mason jar but turned out to be too small.  Who knew that the beans would absorb all the water and lodge themselves in the jar?  I've never had such a difficult time getting anything out of a jar!
     The soup, however, was simply amazing.  Savory, hearty, and flavorful.  I loved the contrast between the squishy but not too squishy beans (at the perfect texture) and the firmer sausage.  It goes wonderfully with some bread.  Yum yum yum!  A perfect soup for a fall/winter night!

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Fruit and yogurt popsicles

     Popsicles are one of the things I've always wanted to try making but never quite got around to. So, when I went to Sur La Table to spend a gift card last month, I was very happy to see a popsicle maker. We've been enjoying popsicles ever since!

Yogurt and mango popsicle

Fruit and yogurt popsicles from http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/food-drinks/recipes/a12330/fruit-yogurt-swirl-pops-recipe-wdy0714/

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh or frozen fruit
2 tbsp. granulated sugar (only if using fresh fruit)
2 c. vanilla yogurt
Ice pop molds (see Note)
10 ice pop sticks
Procedure:

1) Using a food processor, purée the fruit (and sugar, if using fresh fruit) until smooth. Pour into a resealable bag or squeeze bottle.
2) Spoon the yogurt into a resealable bag or squeeze bottle. If using resealable bags, snip off a corner from each. Alternately squeeze the yogurt and purée into the molds to create swirls. Insert sticks according to directions and freeze overnight.



Popsicles in the freezer

     This recipe is super easy.  We've enjoyed popsicles with fresh cherries, strawberries, etc. etc.  What a delicious and healthy snack!!

Homemade yogurt in an Instant Pot


Homemade yogurt with granola and fresh fruit
     This is a recipe that Scott and I have been making for many many months but one which I never blogged: Homemade Yogurt. As I'm sure I've said before, I absolutely love my Instant Pot! One of the things that attracted me to it initially was its yogurt feature, which makes making homemade yogurt an absolute breeze. Read on to find out how much of a breeze:


Homemade Yogurt in an Instant Pot


Ingredients:

Half-gallon whole milk (note you can make yogurt with any quantity of milk, just keep the proportions the same)

2 tablespoons Yogurt starter (either leftover yogurt or whey from your previous batch or store bought yogurt that says "active cultures")


Equipment:

Instant Pot (I have an Instant Pot DUO60 which has the yogurt feature)

Thermometer (I use an Infrared thermometer)

Yogurt strainer, optional (I use a Euro Cuisine Greek yogurt maker)


Procedure:

1) Add half-gallon of whole milk to Instant Pot. Put the lid back onto the Instant Pot. If using the original lid, don't worry about having the knob on "sealing" or "venting." I'm pretty sure you could also do this with a glass lid.


Adding in the milk

2) Push the Yogurt button and then quickly hit the Adjust button. Your Instant Pot now should saw boil.


Heating the milk

3) Let the Instant Pot do its thing. It heats the milk up to 180°F. This helps to make a thicker yogurt.


4) Let the hot milk cool until it reaches 110°F. This is the perfect incubating temperature. I often times remove the pot and put it outside to make it cool faster.


112°F. Close enough...


5) Once it reaches the perfect temperature, add two tablespoons of your yogurt starter. Mix well. If you removed the pot to let it cool down faster, put it back into your Instant Pot. Put the lid on and hit the yogurt button. It will initially show "Yogt" and then it will start counting up. It incubates the yogurt/milk mixture for eight hours. I often times start the yogurt making process before I go to sleep and let it incubate overnight.


Pushing the Yogurt button will initially show "Yogt"


6) Eight hours later, remove the lid and stir. Voila! Fresh yogurt! You can either enjoy it straight from here (I usually like to cool mine down first!) or perform the optional step of straining it if you like thicker yogurt (i.e., Greek style yogurt).  I like to put mine in a mason jar with fruit and granola as an easy on the go breakfast.


Fresh yogurt the next morning



















Optional yogurt strainer




Yummy!!