The Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year, is a rich time to gather and mark the turning point when the dark gives way to the light. This symbolic time of rebirth and renewal is a magical opportunity to cook up traditions that will see us through our darkest season.

Soup Muses

Cooking meals that infuse warmth elevates the spirits. I like to evoke the muses of soup making, and return to the basics of root vegetables and legumes with greens to make chunky and pureed soups. A house with a bubbling pot of soup is a home. You know it’ll be filled with stories around the table, a crusty sourdough from the oven, and tapers dripping wax.

Solstice Vibe is Cozy

A Solstice soup simmers, not quick or flashy, taking its own sweet time. While I watch the falling light through the windows, my husband at his crossword and finally take up my crochet hook. It’s a satisfying lazy way to cook. There’s a respect for the simple pleasures that live in the winter kitchen. It allows us to doze, and fall deeper into the mystery of how the green shoots of spring, abundant growth of summer, and harvest sustain us now? It’s all about resting and cozy warmth. We support this vibe by slowing down, making soup and connecting with the austere beauty of the season.

Herbal Teas and Citrus 

Peppermint tea has powers, as does a hot herbal chai or a zingy ginger hibiscus punch with citrus slices. Cradling a mug of tea and chatting on the sofa heart to heart, with a bowl of satsumas to peel and savor between friends not only warms the tummy, but supports the relationship by creating sensorial memories and bonding.

Midwinter Greens with Splashes of Scarlet

Winter salads are on the solstice menu! Use lots of fresh greens like romaine, curly endive, arugula, baby kale, beet greens, chicory, radicchio and parsley. Grate, steam or roast turnips, celeriac, beets both red and golden, carrots, parsnips and cabbages both red and green. Use fruits like apples, pomegranates and citrus to add sparkle. Don’t forget the dried fruits— cranberries, blueberries and figs are indispensable. Walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and pistachios lend a crunch. Here’s an easy dressing: 4 tablespoons oil to 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon minced ginger, 1 clove garlic crushed, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil and 1 teaspoon miso paste. Blend in a mini food processor.

Food and Fire 

Food and fire belong together. Maybe this solstice you’ll light an inside or backyard fire, and toast tiny bread and cheese sandwiches on skewers. It’s one of my family traditions, so yummy and fun. Try them with apple slices and sharp cheddar between rye. How about making a luminary, and reading aloud the Native American story “Raven Steals The Light”, a version illustrated by Bill Reid is at the library. Even a digital fire on the screen is fine, as long as you cuddle up, sipping your tea, eating a gingerbread cookie or two, with a book that takes place somewhere chilly, so you’ll appreciate where you live. To build an atmosphere between the fire and ice of the season, I search out images, books and oral stories about midwinter bonfire traditions, open hearth cooking and perhaps read aloud “Yule Poem‘’ by Raven Willow Rune. All my research adds to the ambiance cultivated between food, mood and gathering.

From my kitchen to yours, I wish you a Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May your holidays be filled with yumminess, peace, good health and joy. 

 

Winter Solstice Wild Mushroom and Tomato Bisque

Serves 4

Mirepoix

2 medium onions chopped

2 carrots cut into a small dice

2 celery ribs cut into a small dice

4 cloves garlic minced

¼ cup olive oil

Bisque

1 ounce dried wild mushrooms, or combinations of porcini and shiitake

28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

6 oz. can tomato paste

2 cups boiling water

1 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste

1 ½ tablespoons sugar

Freshly ground black pepper to serve

Mushrooms

Soak the mushrooms in 2 cups of boiling water. When you finish the mirepoix, strain the mushroom broth and reserve the mushrooms.

Mirepoix

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over a medium heat. Saute the onions for 10 minutes, add the carrots and celery and continue to saute until they’re soft and sweet about 10 minutes more. Add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes or until it loses its bite. Turn off the heat and let it cool.

Finishing the bisque

1) In a blender, add the diced tomato, tomato paste, mirepoix, mushrooms and broth. Blend everything until velvety smooth.

2) Pour the bisque into a soup pot. Add the salt and sugar. Taste the soup and correct the flavors. Add the cream. Simmer the bisque on low until the flavors meld, making sure not to boil the cream.

It’s delicious right away, but the mushroom flavors develop with time and will be at their best the next day.

I was recently asked to create a soup and salad combo to help celebrate the Winter Solstice. Immediately images of Garnet sweet potatoes and corn came to mind, as I’ve often made a delicious sweet potato and corn chowder for Christmas Eve. When I compose a recipe, I start by imagining its flavors mingling and melding in my mind. For “Solstice Soup” I began with star anise—  a star of course! Some tart lime juice to offset the sweet, and how about a deep fruity ancho chili, dark like Winter itself? I wanted a velvety smooth soup but with corn kernel surprises. Most of all, the soup should look and taste as bright as the sun we’re all longing for. I used locally grown root vegetables for the salad, because they’re all about waiting underground and Winter. Bright citrus, whose season is just starting, was perfect to create a sunburst of sweet to sour with just a hint of bitter. The Sunshine Salad’s dressing: bright with lemon, ginger, and turmeric. I hope you enjoy these recipes, and if I see you around let me know how they turn out. Happy Solstice!

Solstice Soup

Makes about 4 quarts/4 liters

sweet potato, star anise, corn with negro chilies and lime

Ingredients

Stock

2 quarts/2 liters water

2 star anise

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

4 generous slices fresh ginger

4 generous slices fresh turmeric (2 teaspoons dried)

1 head garlic crushed

1 dried negro or ancho chili

all of the sweet potato peels

Soup

4 lbs/1.8 kg garnet sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

8 medium onions diced and caramelized in ¼ cup/60ml coconut oil

1 can/13 oz/1 ½+ cups/400ml whole coconut milk

½ teaspoons cayenne pepper

2 ½ teaspoons sea salt

4 cups/ 700g fresh or frozen corn kernels

2 limes for serving

Instructions

Simmer stock ingredients for 1 hour and strain

Caramelize onions with coconut oil in heavy bottomed skillet

Cook sweet potatoes in stock, when soft blend onions, sweet potatoes and stock together until velvety Pour puree back into soup pot, add coconut milk, bring soup to low simmer, add corn, cayenne and salt Taste and adjust as needed.

Serve with fresh lime juice

I caramelize a lot of onions, and have a technique that breaks culinary rules but ends up with melty sweet onions every time:

Heat a large cast iron skillet on low

Slice up 8 medium yellow onions

Bring heat up to medium and add ¼ cup butter or coconut oil. Add onions and put a lid on the skillet. Reduce the onions by steaming for about 10 minutes. Stir and adjust the heat as needed. They shouldn’t burn but don’t fuss with them. Once they’re translucent take the lid off and start cooking off the moisture. Give them a stir every few minutes but don’t babysit them. You’ll know they’re getting close to ready when they start demanding more attention. You’ll have to stir them more often and their color will change to a caramel color. When they’re sweet, thick and melty then they’re done. I know they’re done when I can’t stop snitching.

 

Sunshine Salad

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Salad

2 cups/250g grated carrots

2 cups/250g  grated celeriac root

1 sectioned Ruby Red grapefruit cut into bite sized pieces

1 sectioned juicing orange such as Valencia cut into bite sized pieces

1 large fennel bulb trimmed and  finely diced

Seeds from one pomegranate

Dressing

⅔ cup walnut oil

⅓ cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 clove garlic finely minced

1 teaspoon fresh minced finely or ½ teaspoon dry turmeric powder

1 teaspoon fresh ginger finely minced

Instructions

For Salad: mix grated root vegetables and fennel together and lay sectioned fruit on top in a sunburst design. Let the diners individually dress their salads at the table.

To make dressing in a food processor: pulse ginger, turmeric and garlic together into a paste. Add lemon juice, zest, mustard, salt and spin. While the machine is running slowly add the walnut oil until emulsified.  

Rainy Day Lentil Stew

Instant Pot

Makes 2 quarts

1 hour

This recipe takes Instant Pot cooking to the next flavor level, by sweetening the onions under pressure, and making a roasted spice mix. 

Ingredients

For Instant Pot

¼ cup olive oil

2 lbs yellow onions (2 large onions), chopped

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 stalks celery, cut into a medium dice

2 medium carrots, cut into a medium dice

1 medium red bell pepper, cut into a medium dice

2 teaspoons whole cumin seed, toasted and ground

2 teaspoons whole coriander seed, toasted and ground

1 pasilla dried chili, seeds and top removed, torn into pieces, toasted and ground

1 ½ cups dry pardina lentils, rinsed  

1 quart water

1 teaspoon fine sea salt (to cook with lentils)

To finish

1 tablespoon fresh marjoram, finely minced

28 ounce can diced tomatoes

1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt, or to taste

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions

Read through the recipe and gather all of the ingredients. If you’re unfamiliar with toasting and grinding your own spices, you might want to do this step ahead of time, to make the process less stressful. It’s a natural part of my routine, and there is plenty of time to do it while the onions are reducing under pressure. Your choice. 

To toast and grind the spices

Set a small skillet on medium low and toast the cumin and coriander until they begin to brown and smell fragrant. Watch them and don’t let them burn. Add them to a spice or coffee grinder. Break off the head of the dried pasilla chili, open it and take out the seeds. Break the chili into pieces and toast in the same skillet after the other spices. Toast until you begin to smell the chili. Grind the chili and spices together into a rough powder. Using the Instant Pot, warm the olive oil on the medium saute setting. Add the onions and stir. Put on the lid, checking that the sealing ring is in place, and set to high pressure for 10 minutes with an instant release. Prep. the other Instant Pot ingredients. After the onions have been under pressure for 10 minutes, release the pressure, open the lid and push cancel. Reset the Instant pot to high saute and cook off the onion juices for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and continue to reduce the onions for 2 more minutes. Add the other vegetables, spice mix, salt, lentils and water. Stir together, put the lid on, checking that the sealing ring is in place, and set to high pressure for 10 minutes with a 15 minute natural release. After you’ve released the pressure, stir and add the tomatoes, marjoram, vinegar and salt. Stir and let it settle for a few minutes before you taste. Check and see if the flavors pop. If not, add salt a little at a time until they do.

Serve hot with crusty bread. 

Chana Masala

Curried Chickpeas with

Instant Pot and Oven

Makes 2 ½ quarts

This is my version of the classic Indian dish and is a guest favorite. It’s a delicious main dish chili, full of flavor with a sour-sweet pop. Serve it hot with rice or naan and a side salad.   

Ingredients

Instant Pot

2 cup raw chickpeas

6 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1 dried ancho chile

1 dried pasilla chile

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, ground into a paste

1 teaspoon turmeric powder or 1 tablespoon fresh turmeric paste

Oven

2 large onions, chopped

8 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup olive oil or ghee

Oven spice mix

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoons black peppercorns

¼ teaspoon decorticated cardamom or 5 whole green cardamom pods

5 whole cloves

1 tablespoon whole cumin seed

1 tablespoon whole coriander seed

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon sea salt

To Finish

2 tablespoons tamarind paste

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, or 2 ½  cups fresh tomatoes

Directions

Add unsoaked chickpeas, salt, chilies, ginger, turmeric and water to the Instant Pot. Set it to the bean cycle, or for 45 minutes at high pressure with a natural release. You may also use the stove top using the conventional method for cooking chickpeas.

Preheat the oven to 425 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. As the chickpeas cook, prep the oven ingredients: Using a spice grinder, reduce the spices to a rough powder. Mix the onions, garlic, oil or ghee and spices together on the baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes and stir. Continue to roast for another 15 minutes or until the onions are sweet.

When the chickpeas have finished, put the cooked chilies, with tops removed, into a blender jar with the chickpea liquid, the oven ingredients and tamarind paste. Blend until smooth and stir the sauce into the chickpeas. Add the tomatoes and serve hot.