S'sK Minestrone Soup

*A Sebastian's Kitchen Original Recipe

S'sK Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup kidney beans uncooked (to be cooked separately)

12 cups water

1 teaspoon veggie bouillon jelly or 1 bouillon cube

1 bunch collard greens

1 bunch celery

2 leeks

3 medium fresh organic tomatoes diced

1 large can organic diced tomatoes

8 oz. small pasta

dried oregano to taste

dried basil to taste

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Shredded mozzarella cheese for topping on soup

Step 1: Cook kidney beans in a separate medium pot (approx. time 1 hour to 1 ½ hours)

1. Cook kidney beans according to instructions on product bag.

2. When beans are tender, strain from pot and rinse under cold water.

3. Store beans in an airtight container in the refrigerator until recipe calls for beans to be added to soup.

4. Need more bean cooking help? Check out my how to boil kidney beans post here.

Step 2: Veggie prep
1. Wash collard greens.
    a. Cut off large center stems/veins of collard greens.

    b. Chop collard greens leaves. Set aside.
2. Wash and cut celery and leeks. Set aside.
3. Wash and dice fresh tomatoes. Set aside.

Step 3: Soup

1. Turn stovetop to medium-high heat.
2. Add all the water to a large pot.
3. Add veggie bouillon jelly or cube to water and stir well.
4. Add collard greens, celery, and leeks to water. Stir frequently.
5. When water begins to boil, lower heat to medium and simmer for 30 minutes stirring frequently.

6. Add freshly diced tomatoes and canned tomatoes and continue stirring occasionally.
    a. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

7. Add pre-cooked kidney beans to pot.
8. Add oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to taste.
9. Soup should start smelling and looking done. All veggies should be soft by now. Calculate how long the soup still has to cook, when you have about 10 minutes left, add the pasta.
10. Add small pasta to soup and continue to boil until pasta is cooked. Stirring frequently to prevent pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
11. Once pasta is cooked, soup is done and ready to serve.

12. Pour soup into serving dish and top with shredded mozzarella cheese.  

S'sK Potato Gnocchi

 *A Sebastian's Kitchen Original Recipe 

S'sK Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients:

2 cups potato puree

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 large egg

Day 1:

Step 1: Potato prep and boil
1.    Rinse, peel, and cube potatoes. (I usually double/triple the recipe so I boil an entire 5lb bag of potatoes all at once.)
2.    In a medium pot, boil potatoes until tender and fork goes through easily. About 30 minutes depending on how thick you cut your potatoes.

3.    Drain. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

4.    Put cubed potatoes in an air-tight container and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2:

Step 2: Gnocchi dough

1.    Remove potatoes from refrigerator and air-tight container and add potatoes to a large mixing bowl.

2.    Grab a fork or a potato masher and mash the potatoes until not lumpy. You now have potato puree.

3.    Measure potato puree in a glass Pyrex measuring cup. We want 2 cups of puree for this recipe.

    a. If you have left over puree (anything past 2 cups), you can set that aside and use that to make real mashed potatoes or make more gnocchi and freeze it! When I use my extra puree, I continue measuring it 2 cups at a time so I know how much flour to add.

4.    Add 1 large egg to the potato bowl.

5.    Add flour 1 cup at a time and mix well with a fork.
6.    Continue adding flour until potato puree turns doughy but is still sticky and wet, dough should be mostly workable.
7.    Add flour to a baking sheet and roll pieces of dough in flour into a rope.

8.    Cut small pillows off of rope.
9.    Shape into gnocchi with a fork.

10.    Boil for about 5 minutes or until gnocchi have been floating for about a minute or until cooked.
     a.    Boil gnocchi in batches and save water between each batch.
     b.    Use a straining spoon to help get gnocchi out of pot once cooked.
11.    Top with butter and mozzarella cheese or your favorite sauce – try it with fresh Alfredo sauce or my special creamy white sauce recipe, Yum!

S'sK Vegetarian Non-Spicy Coconut Cream Curry Sauce

*A Sebastian's Kitchen Original Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Savoy coconut cream cans (14 fluid oz. each)
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

1.    Open coconut cream cans and pour cream into medium pot.
2.    Turn stove top to medium-low heat and put pot on stove top.
3.    Heat coconut cream until it is warm about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4.    Add coriander, turmeric, and cumin to pot and stir well.
5.    Add salt and pepper to taste, stir well.
6.    Bring sauce to a slight simmer while stirring constantly and cook for 5-10 minutes.
    a.    If sauce starts simmering hard, stop and take it off the stove top. We don't want the cream to overcook.
7.    Turn stove top off and remove pot. Continue stirring occasionally.
8.    Sauce is ready to serve!