Instant Pot Fall Harvest Minestone Soup

While we were on vacation, we made this Minestrone recipe, originally from Ina Garten. It was super satisfying, especially because the weather was cold up north! The day we arrived back at home, we harvested all of the remaining veggies from our own yard—snow was on the way. Our crop this year included over 20 winter squash, and a giant pile of swiss chard. With Ina’s recipe fresh on my mind, I knew one way to put those veggies to work. After a few adaptions, we had a pot full of perfectly fall minestrone. Cozy, but also chock-full of veggies, which is just want I look for right after vacation.

Instant Pot Fall Harvest Minestone Soup

Published October 17, 2019 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients:

2 ounces diced pancetta or diced thick-cut bacon (optional)

1 tablespoon coconut oil or other cooking oil

1 yellow onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 large carrots, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup white wine

2 cups diced butternut squash (peeled and seeds removed)

1 16-ounce can cannellini beans, strained and rinsed

1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes

5 cups chicken broth

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 dried bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

3-4 swiss chard leaves

1/2 cup basil (optional)

Salt to taste

Optional: 2 cups cooked small-sized pasta, such as ditalini, orecchiette, or gnocchetti (Use chickpea pasta for gluten-free)

For serving: grated Parmesan

Directions:

1. Turn Instant Pot to Sauté setting. If using pancetta, place in pot and cook for a few minutes, browning on each side.
2. If pot is dry, add coconut oil. This can be skipped if there is a good amount of oil in the pot from the pancetta. Place onion, celery, carrots, and garlic in pot, and stir to combine. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent.
3. Using a knife, remove the stems from the swiss chard leaves. Place the green parts aside (reserve for later) and dice the stems. Add the stems to the pot.
4. Pour wine into pot. Using a wooden spatula, scrape the bottom of the pot, releasing any brown bits as the wine simmers (this adds flavor to the soup).
5. Add butternut squash, beans, diced tomatoes, broth, pepper, bay leaf, and thyme to pot. Stir. Place lid on Instant Pot and set to “Bean/Chili” setting. Set timer to 1 minute with vent in the sealed position.
6. When timer goes off, release the pressure and open the pot.
7. Chop the reserved swiss chard leaves into bite-sized pieces, and roughly chop the basil. Stir both into the soup. Taste, and season with salt to your preferences (note: store bought broth will likely already have salt in it, so you may not need much. Homemade broth usually doesn’t already have salt, so more will need to be added).
8. Divide pasta among serving bowls. Ladle soup into bowls, and stir to incorporate pasta. Top with grated Parmesan cheese. Serve hot. Great with a side of garlic bread or crostini!
9. Note: We stir the pasta into each serving bowl, rather than the whole pot, because if you put all of the pasta into the soup, it will absorb much of the broth, and the next day, you’ll find your leftovers are not very soup-like.

Eggplant Cannelloni

The last few months have been go, go, go, which has meant fewer posts to the blog, less time to photograph recipes, 😭 and learning to cut myself a break every once in a while.

Somehow, yesterday was April and today it's September. September thirteenth. Back in April my mantra was, "You can't do literally everything," but somewhere between then and now, my mantra became nothing but a string of words, as I continued to ignore their meaning. So, today, I'm trying out this new mantra: Cut yourself a break. It means going easy on yourself when you've been trying your hardest. It means giving yourself a pass when you need it most.

In the midst of my mantra-creating and mantra-forgetting, our stockpile of eggplants has been growing: Not a day goes by that I don't have at least three of them sitting in our fruit bowl, staring me back. This year I planted six varieties, next year I'll plant two: Fengyuan and Black Beauty. 

• Edirne - these were the first to fruit, but they're my least favorite to eat. other than their pretty green and purple stripes, they are just a little bitter and not as tasty.

• Antigua - these are my favorite to look at but they are quite small, better for slicing in half and roasting with some harissa or something of the sort.

• Fengyuan - my most copious producer, I freakin' love these eggplants. They are long (17 inches!), skinny and usually make a "J" shape. They are absolutely delicious when stir fried with some garlic and Thai basil.

• Ping Tung - I also like these for stir fries, but for whatever reason I prefer the Fengyuan... no need to grow both, they are so similar!

• Black Beauty and Florida - speaking of similar, I can barely tell these two plants apart. I think I like the black beauty ones the most (we have gotten some massive eggplants from those plants). In any case, they are the best variety for recipes like this cannelloni, where you want wide strips, or this roasted eggplant salad. They're also the variety you usually find at the grocery store.

Ok, don't quote me on the only growing two varieties thing. But those are my favorite so far this season. Have you ever grow eggplants? What were your favorite varieties? 

Normally I'd suggest serving this with a glass of red, but I happened to also be making a batch of this Fig & Pear White Wine Sangria, so of course I had to have a glass of that instead. 

P.S., if you like this recipe, you'll LOVE this Zucchini Ricotta Manicotti. 😋

Eggplant Cannelloni

Published September 13, 2018 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6-8   |    Active Time: 40 minutes

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Ingredients:

2 medium sized eggplants

2-4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups marinara sauce

1 cup mozzarella

1/2 cup parmesan

1 pound beef

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Light grill set flame to medium. Slice eggplant into strips the long way. Brush eggplant slices with olive oil, and them place on grill, cooking for about 5 minutes before flipping. Eggplant slices should have char marks on the outside and be softened through. Remove from heat, turn off grill, and set eggplant aside.
2. Heat coconut oil in a medium sized skillet over medium-high heat until it glistens. Add diced onion and minced garlic and sauté until onions are transparent.
3. Add beef to skillet. Brown beef, using a wooden spatula to create crumbles as it cooks. When beef is browned, add 1/2 cup marinara sauce to the pan and stir. Turn off heat.
4. Allow beef mixture and eggplant to cool just enough so they can be handled before proceeding to next step. (Warm is fine, just avoid burning yourself!)
5. Prepare baking dish: spread remaining 1-1/2 cups marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9x9 or 7x12 baking dish.
6. Work with one eggplant strip at a time. Lay it out in front of you, with the short end towards you, and place about 2 tablespoons of beef mixture in the center of the strip. Roll the strip around the beef, rolling in the opposite direction of your body. Place rolled eggplant in the baking dish, with the “seam” down. Repeat this step until all eggplant strips are used.
7. Sprinkle top of cannelloni with mozzarella and then parmesan, and place in oven. Set broiler to high and broil for 5-10 minutes, until cheese and sauce are bubbling. Serve hot.

Parma Rosa Chicken

Some kids go through a mac 'n' cheese phase (it's something they can cook themselves), and some kids go through a cereal phase (doesn't require cooking at all). Me? Knorr Instant Parma Rosa Sauce was a childhood fave. It’s embarrassing but true.

To this day, I'm not sure what is even in those packs of instant pasta sauce. And frankly? I don't want to know. What I do know is that it's addicting. Back then I called it "pink sauce." 

Even though I ate many (many!) packets of pink sauce as a kid, it's not what I was thinking about when I started working on this recipe. Nope, I just thought I was making a creamy chicken parmesan. It wasn't until my first bite that my memory sprang into action: 

I know this flavor! This tastes like pink sauce! 

What was that called? Parma Rosa, a Google search told me.

And it does taste just like Parma Rosa -- a bigger, bolder, fresher, real parma rosa. A grown up pink sauce. And instead of a soft creamy pink color, it's a rich creamy orange-red, evidence of real tomatoes in there. 

You can eat this dish as-is (that's what I did, with a side salad), or you could serve it over pasta. It goes great with a glass of white wine, and the leftovers are just as good the next day. 

Between this recipe and this lasagna, I've been on quite the Italian kick lately! (Is pink sauce Italian? I don't think so, but it seems Italian). 

Parma Rosa Chicken

Published July 26, 2018 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 4   |    Active Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients:

4 small chicken breasts (or 2 large cut in half)

1-2 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 yellow onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

16 ounce can tomato sauce (Note: this is in the canned tomato aisle; it is puréed tomato -- not a pre-made pizza or pasta sauce, which will already have herbs, garlic, etc)

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced

1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced, plus more for garnish

3/4 cup half-and-half

1/2 cup grated parmesan

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 10-inch oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil glistens, place the chicken in the skillet. Cook on each side for 5 minutes, until browned. Move to a plate and set aside.
2. If pan is dry, add additional tablespoon of coconut oil. Add onions and garlic, and sauté until transparent. Reduce heat to low. Pour in tomato sauce and stir.
3. Add thyme, rosemary, and basil to sauce, and then stir in the cream. Place chicken back in pan, immersing it in the sauce. Allow sauce to simmer lightly for 1-2 minutes, and then top each piece of chicken with parmesan. Place skillet in oven and turn to broil. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes — until cheese is bubbling. Remove from oven, top with additional basil for garnish, and serve hot.