Roasted Asparagus Corn Chowder

This rain is depressing. It's June 7th and I have the fireplace on to warm up because the outside temperature drops to about 6 degrees at night. It shouldn't be time to be making soup but who wants salads and sandwiches when we are wearing scarves and gloves in the morning and at night? Ridiculous!!

I made this chowder in the slow cooker and left it for about 4 hours on low. You could do it in a regular pot and cook it faster. It depends on your time. You could also toss in raw asparagus if you don't want to roast it but I can't guarantee that the flavour will be as good. Play around!

Roasted Asparagus Corn Chowder

2 tbsp canola oil
1 medium leek, sliced thin (see note below)
3 medium carrots, sliced
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 lrg can garbanzo beans or 1 cup cooked garbanzo beans that you have waiting in your freezer
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
2 cups corn kernels, frozen or fresh
1 package powdered coconut milk
5 cups water
1 vegan stock cube
chopped roasted asparagus - however much you have left

If you are making this in a slow cooker, omit the oil and throw all the rest of the ingredients, minus the roasted asparagus, in the slow cooker, mix really well to get the coconut powder to dissolve as much as possible, and leave on low for 4 hours or so. Add the asparagus in the last 30 minutes of cooking. If you are using raw asparagus, add it at the beginning.

If you are doing this in a pot, heat the oil and fry the leek until the pieces start to brown. Add all the other ingredients , minus the roasted asparagus. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and leave to simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Toss in the roasted asparagus and leave to simmer another 5 minutes. If the asparagus is raw, toss in with the rest of the ingredients so that it cooks.

Leek Note: Leeks can be full of dirt. To clean them properly, cut off the root end and slice down the length of the leek so that you cut the rings in all the way down. Don't cut all the way through, the knife should go half way through to the core and then slice down. Put the leek under running cold water and use your thumb to separate the layers to wash the grit caught in-between the layers. You can even pull the leek layers apart, wash them, and then put them back together.

Vegan BBQ

Now that the weather is warm, people often comment to us about how much we must miss having a bbq. Umm, actually no, we don't miss it at all because we bbq at least  once a week. But what? Tofu dogs? NO WAY! We bbq vegetables and tons of them. It's my favourite way to eat the summer bounty from the local gardens.

This is not a recipe but more of a methods page for bbq-ing a variety of yummy veggies. If you have another favourite, let me know and I will add it to this page.

Forget the meat! Searing meat on a bbq is toxic anyway. Try these yummy vegetables instead. We have a tiny Weber Q100 BBQ that we use on high but if you have a a big bbq, medium will probably be high enough.

Beets
So easy! Cut off the tops (you can eat those greens like spinach or chard), trim the root, give the skin a quick wash and place on a the grill. No need to peel. The size of the beet will determine the amount of time it will take to cook. As the outside blackens and blisters, turn the beet to cook all the way around. It's cooked when a skewer goes through. You can peel them while they are hot or let them cool, leave in the fridge overnight, and then peel them even more easily. They are sugary sweet!

 Asparagus
Corey's favourite way to do asparagus is to give them a quick rinse and dry, snap off the bottom (the thicker the asparagus, the better it will be - thinner asparagus is not better), place in a shallow pan and drizzle olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper on the spears. Place the thicker stems on the bbq first and leave them to cook until they are almost charred - they turn an olive green and get soft. Flip and leave on the other side for a couple minutes. You really want the first side to be well cooked before flipping.

If you ever have leftover grilled asparagus, check out my corn soup which will be posted soon!

Yams
We ate giant yams in China that were cooked inside oil drums filled with coals. These you can do like potatoes on the grill - just leave on the grill and turn as the skin goes black and blistered. Just like the beets!

Eggplant Version 1
If you are making something like Baba Ganouj (an eggplant dip) or an Indian roasted eggplant dish, you just buy a big eggplant and put it on the bbq to blacken and blister (like the beets again!). The eggplant will swell and burst as it cooks and will need to be gently lifted onto a plate or else it'll just ooze a mushy mess onto your grill.


Eggplant Version 2, Zucchini, Pattypan Squash
Cut the veggies in half and toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on the grill cut side down and leave to grill until soft for the eggplant and al-dente for the summer squashes. You can flip them if you want but I don't always do the flip.

Onions
Peel but don't cut the ends off. Cut the whole onion into 4 pieces. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and grill on all three sides. If you do cut the ends off, just put on a skewer to grill or else the pieces will fall apart.

Tomatoes, Green Onions, Mushrooms
Yuck. Hot tomatoes. Why waste them? Eat them raw. Green Onions are just as yucky bbq-ed as they are raw but Corey really likes them. Toss in olive oil and salt and grill whole. Same goes for mushrooms. These will shrivel and become even worse tasting as they cook.

Portobello Mushrooms
These are my yummy exceptions to the yucky brown mushroom rule (they are, after all, just overgrown brown mushrooms.) Remove the stem and scrape out the gills under the cap. You can grill these whole and eat them like a burger or you can slice them. They marinate beautifully and take well to bbq sauce while you are grilling them. If you can press them will a panini cast iron press that you've heated up, that makes them even fleshier.

Garlic
Take a whole head of garlic. Cut off the top to expose the cloves. Place on a piece of foil. Drizzle olive oil over the top into the cloves, sprinkle in coarse salt and pepper. Bring up the sides of the foil and twist it together like a Hershey Kiss. Place on the grill for 30-45 minutes on low to medium. If the grill is too hot the bottom will burn. 

So there you go! You can add sauces, marinades, fresh herbs or flavoured salts to your veggies before or during the grilling time to play with the flavour. You don't need a bbq wok or veggie cage like you see at the local stores, nor do you need to wrap anything in foil except the garlic.