This soup is adapted (ever so slightly) from a favorite soup-oriented cookbook—Anna Thomas’ Love Soup. If you don’t have turnips, substitute a slightly larger squash, more celery root or a few carrots. Celery root is the gnarly subterranean root of the common celery plant. It’s an overlooked treasure—loaded with vibrant celery flavor and a nice crunch. You’ll enjoy it raw as well as cooked—shave some into a green salad for a change of pace.
This week we welcome another guest writer, Becca Velasco—a young professional who loves cooking, but is often short on time, faced with the demands of work. Becca looks for simple recipes that translate to quick, flavorful meals tonight, yet slide easily into a satchel for tomorrow’s lunch (when, I imagine, they’re the envy of the office).
Becca’s Roasted Tomatoes and Onions with Polenta reminds us that not only is it okay to turn to a few convenience items now and then, it’s actually a brilliant move in support of an even-tempered household. (And the strategy will tide us over as we wait for Freshness Farms’ deliveries to restart.) We can always add a few fresh items, depending on what’s in the fridge; perhaps toss some cubed fennel or broccoli into the roasting pan, or sauté roughly chopped greens, like spinach or chard, and stir them into the mix. While the veggies roast, it would be wise to take a moment to kick off our shoes, open a bottle of wine and relax. Once the perfume of roasting garlic and onions begins to waft through the kitchen, we’ll be glad we resisted the temptation to grab carry-out on the way home.
While I love these roasted vegetables over polenta as Becca suggests, they would be equally inviting on their own, or tossed with cooked pasta or whole-grain farro. Even spread across toasted baguette for the easiest dinner of all. Now, onto Becca’s post…
When I need a sensational appetizer that’s quick to pull off, without fuss, I turn to a trusty secret weapon from the grocery store freezer section. A small shrink-wrapped container of buttery possibility. It’s saved me on more than one occasion; I’m in over my head, too much to do, including somehow pulling together a crowd-pleasing bite for one holiday gathering or another—on top of everything else. Packaged puff pastry is my savior at such moments. I’ve got a ready supply tucked away. It’s the best insurance policy a harried cook can buy.
This time of year makes me smile. And while we may not relish the early nightfall that squashes those favorite after-dinner strolls, who can resist the falling leaves, saturated in fiery color, or the gaggle of holidays from Halloween to Diwali, Thanksgiving and beyond? Call me odd, but I crave weather that pleads its case for a cozy jacket on foggy mornings. The drizzly weekends that prompt card games and family hang out time.
And the soup. This is its season. Steamy broth laced with vegetable chunks, lentils or healthy greens. Add a few noodles and fresh herbs. Spice it up if you like. Or purée the lot to a satiny consistency that swaddles the spoon like a blanket. There’s any number of possibilities. All warm. All delicious.
A friend of mine recently bemoaned her crowded fridge—lined with beautiful, if overly abundant pomegranates, twelve in all, accumulated over weeks of deliveries. She wondered what could be done with so much fruit. I described our battle plan. We’d been dumping the perky seeds into all manner of salads, slowly and steady. It had become a nearly nightly ritual. A tasty one.
Recently I’ve branched out beyond the salad bowl though. Turns out pomegranate seeds are one of those secret, unexpected culinary weapons with their hint of sweet-tart flavor and tiny, juice-splattering crunch. They shake our taste buds up a bit, in a new and different way (though admittedly in many cultures they are nothing new at all). We sprinkle them over a rice pilaf or stir with earthy whole-grain farro and roasted sweet potatoes. 
Or skip the grains entirely and simply top the roasted veggies on their own—the spiced sweet potatoes and kale, or alternatively roasted seasonal faves like cauliflower, beets, broccoli or carrots. Sometimes we add toasted nuts and a handful of chopped herbs if we feel inclined. A squeeze of lemon.