I tend to stay away from vegetable soups that get all their flavor from added boxed broths or consomme. Instead, I like to find ways to develop rich flavors on my own. In this butternut squash soup, I chose to roast the butternut squash and apples to caramelize them and bring out their sweetness, so that the soup has layers of delicious flavor.

If you read the title of this blog post fully, you’ll notice that there’s farro in this soup. While totally optional, I highly recommend you add it in. Farro is a delicious grain with a slightly chewy texture. When added to soup, it turns it from a simple vegetable soup to a thick, filling bowl of comfort food.

If you like to garnish your soups, reserve the seeds from the butternut squash when you peel and cube it. Rinse and dry the seeds well. Drizzle a little olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper over the seeds and roast them at 375 for about 8 minutes- watch them well so that they don’t burn!

For a printable version of this butternut squash soup recipe, scroll to the end of this post.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Farro

What you need to make this Butternut Squash Soup Recipe:

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
• 2 apples, peeled and sliced
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 TBSP canola or vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 onions, peeled and diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 cube frozen ginger
• 1/8 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup farro, rinsed
• 10 cups water

How to make this Butternut Squash Soup Recipe:

1, Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, Scatter cubed butternut squash and apples on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for approximately 40 minutes, or until squash and apples start to brown and caramelize.

2. While squash is roasting, prepare vegetables to saute. Heat canola oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add diced onions and saute for 5-10 minutes, until translucent. Add minced garlic and ginger and saute an additional 2 minutes. Add carrots and saute until softened. Season generously with kosher salt and ground black pepper.

3. Pour in white wine and deglaze the bottom of the pot.

4. Add roasted squash and apples and any released juices to pot. Add farro, then water. Mix well. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat to simmer, and allow to cook for 30 minutes.

5. Using an immersion blender, blend soup to desired consistency. (We like it slightly chunky.) Taste and add salt if needed. Serve hot and enjoy!

What’s your go-to soup on a cold, wintry day?

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The post Hearty, Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Farro appeared first on Jewish Moms & Crafters.

Goulash comes in a few different forms, and also goes by “beef stew”. While the ingredients are not typically chametz, it is often served over macaroni, which doesn’t really work for Pesach. I haven’t attempted to replace that in this recipe, but even on its own, this slow cooker goulash makes for a great meal-in-a-bowl.

My family doesn’t use garlic on Pesach and it’s one of the more difficult ingredients for me not to use while cooking. I love garlic. Love. I use it liberally in every dish, including my slow cooker goulash, when I make it year round. In place of garlic, I used shallots and onions, and only vegetables that can be peeled, so even the most stringent on Pesach can enjoy this dish.

This slow cooker goulash is perfect for Pesach, because you can make it in the morning, and have a hot, delicious dinner ready for the family after a Chol HaMoed outing. You can keep it on low for longer than specified in the recipe instructions. I have, and it comes out delicious every time. If your crock pot has a setting that automatically switches to “Keep Warm” after completing cooking, that works too.

I have used both kinds of meat suggested in the recipe (beef stew or flanken)- while flanken is certainly tastier and softer, beef stew is an excellent alternative if you need a more inexpensive option.

A crock pot is a great addition to your Pesach shopping list– it is perfect for Chol HaMoed dinners and for a Shabbos Pesach cholent. In fact, if your crock pot does have the keep warm setting, this recipe would make a great cholent. Just make sure not to cut the vegetables too small, or they will get kind of mushy.

What you need to make Slow Cooker Goulash:

• non-stick saute pan; I use this one all the time and absolutely love it
• 4 quart crock pot
• mixing bowl
• whisk

For a printable version of this recipe, scroll to the end of this post. 

Ingredients for Slow Cooker Goulash:

2 lbs beef stew OR boneless flanken

salt and black pepper for seasoning meat

1 large onion diced

1 large shallot diced

2 potatoes peeled and cubed

1 large sweet potato peeled and cubed

2 carrots peeled and sliced

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup red wine

3 TBSP tomato paste

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp parsley dried

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 – 1 cup water

cooking spray

How to Make Slow Cooker Goulash:

1. Spray crock pot insert liberally with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the meat and let rest for a few minutes.
3. Heat a non-stick saute pan over high heat and brown the meat on all sides.
4. Remove the meat to the crock pot.
5. In the same pan, (no need to clean pan), saute onions and shallots until translucent. Remove from heat.
6. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots to meat in crock pot.
7. In a small bowl, combine chicken broth, red wine, tomato paste, sauteed onions and shallots, and seasoning. Whisk well to combine.
8. Pour mixture over contents of crock pot. Add up to one cup of water as needed. (The goulash barely needs to be covered, otherwise it will be too soupy.)
9. Set crock pot to HIGH for 4 hours OR LOW for 8-10 hours.
10. Serve immediately. (If not serving over Passover, serve over fresh rice or macaroni.)

Want to make your Pesach prep easier, your seder table more beautiful, and your kids’ happier and busier? Get the printable Pesach bundle today for 75% off the full value! It’s full of 30+ cleaning and menu planners, kids’ games, coloring pages, and activities as well as cool seder table decorations!

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What is your favorite go-to dinner to serve on Chol HaMoed?

The post Slow Cooker Goulash – Kosher for Pesach appeared first on Jewish Moms & Crafters.

The ultimate in Jewish cooking – golden chicken soup. After years of aiming for that perfect taste, I finally achieved it in my newest obsession: the Instant Pot. Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

The Instant Pot has taken the world by storm. The newest in pressure cooking, the Instant Pot has so many features and uses, it will make an incredible addition to your kitchen if you don’t already have it.

There are different brands, but I am only familiar with the original Instant Pot (specifically the 6 quart Duo), so that is what this recipe will configure to.

I consider myself to be a good cook. (Don’t worry – it’s not all in my head! My family and friends think so too.) I don’t cook particularly fancy or gourmet (or healthy), though. I cook traditional, delicious food, and a lot of comfort food. The quintessential trait of a Jewish mother.

My personal miracle was that I learned how to cook even though I didn’t do a stitch in the kitchen growing up. And my husband actually liked my food when I first started, um, experimenting.

It frustrated me to no end, however, that I could not figure out chicken soup. Cholent? No problem. Six hour stuffed cabbage? Totally. Any and all other soups? I got this. But chicken soup was slowly becoming the bane of my existence. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t get it to taste like my mother’s. And everyone knows, Mama’s chicken soup is the be all and end all.

As I struggled each week to make a delicious, hearty chicken soup, I tried out hundreds of variations. I added a little of this, subtracted a little of that. I even tried making it in different pots. Some weeks were better than others, but I never had a moment of “aaaah” when that first spoonful hit the back of my throat.

When I bought the Instant Pot, my intentions were to streamline my supper process. I was hoping to make more one pot meals, and cook more in the mornings, so that my nights after a full day of work would be a little easier. I never intended to use it for Shabbos cooking. Yet one week, I was looking at it sitting on my counter, and thought, “If I cooked chicken soup in there, I bet it would come out amazing.”

My reasoning was that the pressure in the pot would help the chicken soup cook more evenly and increase the flavor throughout. I totally surprised myself- I was right! The chicken soup was absolutely amazing. It had a rich beautiful color, a heavenly smell, and a taste that blew my mind. It was everything I wanted for Friday night. I knew I had to recreate it! I have been making it every week since. I tweaked a few things, tried it with different variations, but ultimately came back to the original method for the best chicken soup, and my family and I absolutely love it. Add some matzah balls (kneidlach) and crunchy, yellow croutons (mandlen), and your soup course is ready.

Instant Pot Chicken Soup

Servings: 8-10 bowls

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1-3 hours

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 whole chicken, cleaned

1 bunch dill, washed and trimmed

2 bay leaves

6-7 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 tablespoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon minced onion

2 large carrots, peeled

1 leek, outer leaves discarded and cleaned

1 parsnip, peeled

1 zucchini, optional

How to make Instant Pot Chicken Soup:

1. Turn on the saute setting on your Instant Pot and pour oil into the bottom of the pot.

2. While the pot heats up, stuff the cleaned chicken cavity with dill, bay leaves, and garlic cloves. Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper, ginger and minced onion. Rub these spices into the chicken, and under skin.

3. Place the chicken into the pot. While the chicken is heating/sauteing, prepare the vegetables. Peel and slice the carrots into large chunks.

4. Discard the outer leaves of the leek and wash very well. Cut off the top part and the hairy base of the leek and discard.

5. Peel the parsnip, but leave it whole. If using the zucchini, peel it partially, alternating strips of peeled and unpeeled. Cut into 2 to 3 large chunks.

6. Place all vegetables around the chicken in the pot. Add water to cover plus a little more. This amount will vary depending on how big your chicken is and how many vegetables you have. Never fill your pot more than 3/4 full.

7. Turn the saute setting off. Put the cover on and lock into place. Turn on the soup setting, and adjust manually to 85 minutes (high pressure).

8. Allow the pot to come to pressure. This can take some time, depending on the volume of ingredients. When the timer is up, allow the soup to naturally release pressure until the pin in the cover drops down. Allow plenty of time for this.

9. Once your soup is ready, (it will require minimal skimming, if any), transfer the water and vegetables carefully to a pot that can sit on a blech or hot plate.

10. Remove the ingredients from the chicken cavity and discard. Carve up the chicken and discard the bones. Add the sliced chicken back to your soup pot. Serve hot.

What is your favorite chicken soup memory? Let us know in the comments!

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