A Winter of Soup

I like cooking a couple of dishes on the weekend that will get me through Wednesday. An easy way to do that is soup! I went through some of the other soup recipes I have posted and will definitely have to make them again this winter.

• Mushroom and Feta
• Peanut Soup
• Buttermilk Soup

Last week I made a delicious Roasted Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup.

Today was a fennel-pear soup based on this recipe.

I roasted the fennel and a couple cloves of garlic, and thawed some chicken stock and apple cider I had in the freezer.

 Blended, put some delicious moldy cheese on top, and ate with a homemade pretzel.

I mostly followed the link above for the recipe, but the details are....

1 fennel bulb quartered, plus stems
2 garlic cloves
1 shallot, chopped
2 pears, chopped
~1/2 c homemade chicken stock - if you don't want to use stock of some type, you will probably want to add other spices
~1 c apple cider
~2 c water
1 bay leaf
Olive and/or grape seed oil

Spray fennel and garlic with olive oil. Roast at 400 for about 25 minutes.
Saute shallot in grape seed oil until translucent. Chop the roasted fennel. Add all the fennel and garlic to the pot and saute briefly. Add pear, cover, and saute for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the liquid and bay leaf. Bring to a boil then turn temperature down and simmer ~15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the fennel stems. Blend the soup and serve! The soup has a very mild flavor, so either add more herbs to the soup or some garnish, like a cheese or dollop of sour cream.