Ravioli in Broth with Arugula

Monday and Tuesdays in the Winter, after a long day of work, often all I want to cook, or eat for that matter, is a steaming pot of soup. Making soup at the beginning of week usually means I get at least one lunch out of it, also a bonus. Dave and I are usually ready for a lighter dinner when the start of the week rolls around. While Dave graded tests, I whipped up a quick pot, and we were able to take 10 minutes out of our busy evenings to huddle together around our bowls of vegetables, pasta, broth and cheese. 

One of my go to recipes for soup is this Three Cheese Mushroom and Tortellini Soup from my favourite healthy cooking site Skinnytaste. That recipes method of using a parmesan rind to flavour the broth, very much inspired this one. Cooking stuffed pasta in a broth and calling it a soup is a wonderful way to enjoy pasta, without a ton of guilt. You get the satisfaction of ravioli, but you're not eating a plateful in a butter laden sauce. I like to put arugula on/in anything I possibly can - and I loved the freshness it added to this soup.

The Best Borscht

Well it's May 13th, so it's technically been "spring" for almost two months now, but it's going below freezing tonight, with a risk of snow flurries. Solution: Borscht of course! It's warm and comforting but with the colour, flavour and freshness of spring. I generally cringe at the thought of cabbage soup (perhaps from many attempts at the horrible diet of the same name that I used to suffer through before I saw the light). However, this version of borscht for some reason doesn't produce that cabbage stench - and for that reason alone you should try it.

I have made many different borscht recipes over the years, some very simple and some more complex, and this one is the winner. I was largely inspired by a favourite blogger Coffee & Quinoa in her post here. She caught my attention when she noted her Grandma Jane's similar search for the perfect borscht recipe. Her recipe was adapted from Mollie Katzen's The New Moosewood Cookbook. My only substantial change to her recipe is the addition of Paprika - a flavour I fell in love with honeymooning in Austria and Germany, filling my face with goulash (romantic). I bought some delicious Hungarian Paprika as soon as we came home because I think it's a great secret ingredient for adding savoury depth to a dish. It goes so nicely with the caraway seeds.

There are a lot of ingredients and a few extra steps in this recipe than most soups, but all the ingredients are cheap and easy to find. There is a fair bit of chopping, which I find therapeutic. The extra bit of time and steps are worth it. There is a real richness to this soup that is shocking when you consider there's only one tablespoon of butter.