Jon Gorman's White Bean Soup

Here's another piece from Jon's series on cooking vegan as a non-vegan. This recipe sounds like the perfect early fall soup to be served with a hearty slice of toasted Sourdough. Give it a whirl, and tell us what you think. 

White Bean Soup

Ingredients
2 TB palm oil
2 small leeks or one large leek, sliced
2 shallots, diced
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 medium potato, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced (about two teaspoons)
3 cups white beans, cooked
6 cups vegetable stock
3 cups white beans
1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Cook the beans ahead of time.  You can probably get away with canned beans, but since they’re the main focus of this dish I prefer to cook them ahead of time.  I just cook a 1 lb pound bag of white beans by putting them in the slow cooker to soak overnight and filling the slow cooker with water, then setting the slow cooker on low during the day while I work.  We have a cheap light timer we use with our slow cooker to set it to cook for about 8 hours.  The beans should have a bit of snap when you first bite it, but otherwise be soft.  I scoop out three cups for the recipe and freeze half-pound amounts of beans in sandwich bags for other recipes.

Chop up the leeks and shallots.  Put two tablespoons of palm oil into a soup pot.  I’d say at least an 8 quart pot is needed, but if you’re neater than me you might be able to do it with less.  Once the solids have melted and the pan is hot, add the leeks and shallots. If you don’t have leeks and shallots, two or three onions will do. Cook till the leek and shallots become translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes.  And add the carrots and celery and a dash of salt.  Cook until the carrot starts to become tender, about another 5 to 8 minutes or.  Add the garlic for about 30 seconds.  

Then add the stock, another dash of salt, beans, and potato and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for about 40 minutes to an hour.  Make sure that the potatoes are soft.  Once they are, puree the soup with a blender and then add the lemon juice.  

This recipe is a merger of a couple of recipes I’ve seen for white bean soup.  One, from a cookbook I’ve mentioned before on Season of the Vegan, is “Extending the Table”.  The other is a cookbook I got recently from the library, “Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food”.  Both recipes are similar, but both use pork fat in the dish.

I didn’t want to use olive or vegetable oil, but I’d thought about trying vegetable shortening or palm oil.  I’ve had some packets of palm oil in ramen before, a curious thick shorting-like fat that I’d never think to call oil. In a moment of odd coincidences, a book I was reading had on a flight back from a recent conference gave me the motivation to get off my duff and try palm oil more seriously.

The essay that gave me the motivation was, ironically enough, “An Ode to Pig” by Bethany Ewald Bultman in “Corn Bread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue”.  The essay mentions how lard ended up being a substitute in many African dishes for palm oil.  That lead me on a quest to one of our local international grocery stores, World Harvest Food.  They didn’t have the block form of palm oil, but they had a less refined and very red bottle of the lumpy red palm oil. It is a wonderful, slightly nutty and sweet fat that I’ve been enjoying.  I am now using it in many dishes instead of butter or pork fat and in some cases mixing it with another oil or fat. I’m curious to try it in an avocado-centric dish, but haven’t yet. You can probably use olive oil or shortening in this recipe, but it’s worth seeking out palm oil if you can.

                  
In Jon's professional life he combines a love of books and computers by working as part of Library IT for a large academic library. At home, he explores another love, cooking. Not a vegan himself, he's striving to become a conscientious eater, eating more vegetarian and vegan cooking in his normal diet. An avid cookbook reader, he'll share good vegan recipes he comes across on this blog.

Its alive....ALIVE.....

So, my laptop died a horrible death over the course of the last few weeks. Huge thanks to Carl, who was able to switch out my hard drive and bring my "sweet mathilda" back to life. I was able to save a text copy of my book, but I lost all of my pictures for the book, and the info for the three (yes three) posts that I was working on for here and the one for This Dish Is Veg. Hopefully, over the course of this next week I can rehash what I was working on and get some content up for you lovely folks.

I've only got three weeks left here in South Dakota. I'm hoping to post a "What and Where I'm Eating" log while I'm on the road. It'll be sort of along the same line as what Kristen over at Will Travel for Vegan Food is doing, but without reviews. I've managed to keep up with my travel blog My Journey Back To Me a little better over the past month. It's currently about how I'm in the process of preparing for my adventure to North Carolina. So, if I seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth, you can find me over there. I'll have another delish recipe from Jon's series of Vegan Cooking from a Non-Vegan for you in a day or two.

Have a fantastic week!

July Vegan Food Swap

I feel like a slacker, I haven't posted in almost a month. This heat wave and lack of air conditioning have left me feeling uninspired. I've spent most of the month hiding in the basement reading, since its the coolest part of the house. Luckily its the part of the year where a big fresh salad makes the perfect meal. This has saved us from further heating up the house.

I once again participated in the monthly vegan food swap put together by Cat over at The Verdant Life. This month my giftee won't be receiving hers until almost August, as she is currently on vacation. I didn't want to send it and have it languish in the heat as it awaited her arrival home. My box arrived about a week ago from Gina at Vegan Strong, filled with great stuff. Unfortunately due to some technical difficulties with my camera, I can't post any pictures right now. As soon as I get that fixed I'll post them in the comments. My box included an assortment of teas with a Cuppow to drink them from. I'm loving my canning jar to go cup! Gina also included a bag of Somersaults, which I'm now hooked on, and a couple of snack bars. Thanks so much Gina!

Getting it together....

Sorry I've fallen off the face of the earth this past month. Life has been crazy. I'm planning to get my July Food Swap post up later today and hopefully a recipe or two posted by the weekend. I have however been posting over at My Journey Back To Me, its my new blog about my upcoming trip across the US. I also have a new post up at This Dish Is Vegetarian, if you need a recipe fix. Thanks for reading, folks! Vegan Love!

June's Vegan Food Swap

Once again, I participated in the monthly Vegan Food Swap that Cat over at The Verdant Life has put together. I'm really enjoying sending and receiving boxes of great vegan products with other bloggers. I hope that I'll still be able to be a part of it while I'm at JCCFS. I'm not sure what my resources for tasty bits to ship out will be though. This month I shipped a box of citrus themed goodies to Shelby at Everyday Vegan Girl. My box of treats came from Veronica at Short Silly Vegan. Carl and I snacked on the Primal Jerky before I could get the picture taken. The Sweet Potato chips and Cinnamon Thin Cookies from Lucy's are two of my new favorite things. We still haven't tried the Hot Cereal, because we haven't wanted to eat anything hot for weeks due to the heat. We'll save it for cold South Dakota mornings this winter.

Weekly Ramblings and Pineapple Mango Salsa...

It's been a busy week thus far, which makes me even happier that I have a three day weekend to look forward to. This past Saturday's Bountiful Basket brought with it lots of amazing fresh fruit. We got bananas, a pineapple, and a watermelon from small farms in Mexico, and plums and apricots from California. We also received a five pound bag of potatoes from a small farm in Idaho as well as many other goodies. Though I know it would be better for the environment for us to buy local produce, there still hasn't been much at the farmer's market. I plan to go down this weekend and see if we've moved past the jams, meat, and crafts portion of the year and on into the veggies and fruit portion. It would be nice to buy local every other week and from BB on the off weeks, so we could support both while still getting good variety.

I started my travel blog that will document my journey to John C. Campbell Folk School. You can find it at My Journey Back To Me. I plan to try and keep up with both blogs while I'm working as the Student Host at JCCFS. I'm fairly certain that I'll be mostly posting on my travel blog though.

Since its summer time I thought I'd include one of my favorite salsa recipes. This Pineapple Mango Salsa is quick, easy, and perfect on a hot summer day.

Pineapple Mango Salsa

1 cup Fresh Pineapple

1 cup Fresh Mango

4 cloves Garlic

2 Jalapenos, seeded

1/2 cup Cilantro leaves

1/2 cup Green Onions, chopped

2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until desired texture is met. Let set 1 hour and enjoy.

Beautiful day and what's to come....

It's a beautiful late Spring day here in Rapid City, SD. I'm getting ready to start my day with a hearty bowl of oats with crushed pineapple and a cup of coffee. What do you usually start your day with?

I'm getting close to finishing the Season of The Vegan cook book. All the recipes are loaded into the publishing software, the recipes that will be photographed have been chosen, and a great friend has volunteered to copy edit. Now I need to cook and photograph food and write the index and forward. Then its off into the world! I can't wait. I think the hardest part about the whole experience so far has been trying to do it in my spare time. But I suppose that's what makes it a labor of love.

I'm also getting very close to the end of this leg of my journey in life. In early September I'll be driving across the country to Brasstown, NC to work as the Student Host at John C. Campbell Folk School. At that time I'll continue this blog (with a bit less frequency) and begin a blog about my time there. As the SH there, I get three Silver Bullet classes (ones I can't get bumped out of or pulled away from for work). I've signed up for White-Line Printmaking, Kente Cloth Weaving, and Beginning Mountain Dulcimer. Given I'm not really stepping too far out of my comfort zone with any of these, but they are classes that will allow me to further my skills. I'm also hoping to try my hand at Blacksmithing, Book Making, Forging for Mushrooms, and Danish Folk Dancing while I'm there. I'm still uncertain where I'll end up at the end of next January, but then again I'm never very sure where I'll be from year to year. I do know, that if I'm to put down roots it would have to be for a career and not just another job. I need to be working for causes that I care about. Either in the arts or for a company promoting veganism. If you know of any good leads in those fields, let me know.