vegetarian

Puerto Rican Princess Soup

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When making Puerto Rican Princess soup you will need a 6-Quart Dutch oven.  

Ingredients 

1 yellow onion
2 scoops of minced garlic, or 3 minced garlic cloves
¼ cup of oil (use an organic olive oil blend with a high smoke point)
4 chopped carrots
2 chopped celery stalks
1 handful of sliced mushrooms
½ to 1 pound of Brussels sprouts cut into halves (depending on how sprout-y you like it)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen green beans
1 quart of canned tomatoes or stewed tomatoes
1 quart of vegetable broth
½ teaspoon of red chili flakes
3 strings of fresh thyme
1 Bay leaf
½ tablespoon of marjoram or oregano
¾ cup of barley

Directions

First heat up the oil and add garlic, then add onions. 

Then add mushrooms, carrots, celery, Brussels sprouts.  Let these soften.  Pour in some of the vegetable broth to help steam them. 

Add the canned tomatoes wait a couple of minutes
Add the vegetable broth
Add peas and green beans
Add the chili flakes, thyme, bay leaf, marjoram or oregano

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 25 minutes.  Add Barley and keep simmering until the barley is cooked through. 

Enjoy!

P.S. this is A LOT soup.  Also, if the barley takes over too much of the broth add more veggie broth..duh!  

Canning spaghetti sauce (meatless)

Last night I was cooking up a batch of organic, homemade spaghetti sauce and I thought.. I should can this!  It is so yummy!  So I started looking around for others recipes.  I was surprised by how many opinions there are about canning spaghetti sauce.  I can't wait to try these. re-blogged from The farm girl 

I have tried several different spaghetti sauce recipes and always come back to this.  We love it and it looks so pretty in the jars.
16 lbs. tomatoes (about 32 cups)
4 c. onions, chopped finely
1/4 c. garlic, minced
1 c. olive oil
1/4 c. basil
1/4 c. oregano
1 T. sugar
2 T. salt
2 t. pepper
2--12 oz. cans tomato paste
1.  Chop, blend, puree your tomatoes and place in a very thick bottomed pot.  Saute onions, garlic and oil together until onions are translucent.  Add to tomatoes along with basil, oregano, sugar, salt, pepper and paste.  Simmer for 2-3 hours, or until it reaches your desired thickness.
2.  Process in steam bath canner 20 minutes for quarts and 15 minutes for pints.  Follow your canners directions and remember because the spaghetti sauce is very hot you do not need use cold water in your canner.  Start with hot water and place on medium high heat and start timing from the time steam starts coming out.

I did read in a few different places to add citric acid.  Here is why:

Tomatoes were once considered an acid food that could be safely canned in a boiling-water canner. However, because of the potential for botulism when some newer, less acidic tomato varieties are canned, certain precautions must now be taken. Add 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice to pints and 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice to quarts of tomatoes. Or add one-fourth teaspoon crystalline citric acid to pints and one-half teaspoon crystalline citric acid to quarts of tomatoes. Acid can be added directly to jars before filling. Four tablespoons of 5 percent acidity vinegar per quart may be used instead of lemon juice or citric acid, however, it may cause undesirable flavor changes. Add sugar to offset acid taste if desired.
Note: Don't use fresh lemon juice as its acidity varies. Tomato canning tablets should not be used as they are ineffective.