Cream of string beans with roasted tomatoes and potatoes

One ingredient and one good soup...

Young potato, tomato and cucumber salad with Dijon dressing and Spring herbs

No matter how big I make it, we fight over every piece till all gone.

Bok choy soup

After a weekend of indulgence, I was happy to feed me and others this light but satisfying soup.

Crisp cauliflower soup

I added the florets just before the soup was ready. The cauliflower turned out just tender and definitely tasty without the bad cabbage smell.

Minestrone with broccoli

There comes a day, when a large pot of soup is the right thing to do. Since I'm feeling Italian lately, I made minestrone, which sounds more like an opera piece. Instead, it is a thick, vegetable soup, usually with pasta, rice or beans, that tastes...almost as good as pizza.

Roasted parsley root salad with rucola

My oven is hard at work this Winter...and not exactly just baking cookies.

Red and white cabbage soup with beans

Tuscan Ribollita with local cabbage, lots of it.

Roasted beet salad with rucola

I say: "Eat more beets!"

Tomato soup with barley

...and all I had was those two sleeping tomato cans. Miracles do happen!

Cream of broccoli soup

Just have to eat broccoli sometimes.

Navy bean soup

What are those old beans doing in my pantry?

Cream of pumpkin soup

It's OK. I'm not a big fan of pumpkins. I'm not a big fan of soups. But I'm a big fan of easy, fast, light and seasonal meals with an Italian touch and doing something different on Wednesday afternoon.

French potato and string bean salad

The key to a successful potato salad is cook potatoes in advance, well in advance. Even if I over-cook the vegetable (it happens every time I use my pressure cooker), if I leave it alone for long enough, the potato will still come out firm and tasty.

Cauliflower and carrots hot-day salad

Hot days are here. Windows are all open, not prolonged cooking or baking allowed. I don't know what to eat. Maybe nothing...or maybe something. Maybe a salad. No, not the raw, green, leafy type. I eat a raw, green, leafy salad only if prepared by somebody else. My girlfriends are the experts. Too much work and not enough...food.

Barley soup (krupnik?)

I'm still not convinced that I like soups. But I end up making one about once a week. Just for a variety.

Red radish and green onion ricotta spread

One of those days (Monday, it was) that from the moment I put my feet down on the floor, I was very doubtful anything would go my way.

Baby beet soup (botwinka)

It was one of the few times, when I called my mom for a recipe. My mom's ego is bigger than mine but my appetite is bigger than the two ego's combined.

Onion soup

It's one of my favorite soups. It's thick without being starchy, creamy without...cream, rich...without calories (or cognac), simple but refined.  It's a soup I would order in a restaurant, while in France. Not in Poland. I fell in love in it once in Lyon and I'll never forget it. The one I had here, in a restaurant, on Monday...just gave me an appetite for the real thing.

Winter minestrone

Soups are no-brainer, who needs a recipe? Right. You don't. If you know a couple of rules, you don't. Because there are soups and there are soups. I went ahead and made the latter.