It’s hard to feel guilty about impulse purchases from the Farmer’s Market.  The problem is when you get home with your bounty you have to DO something with it, and there are only so many things you can DO with asparagus.   Soup is a good thing to do with asparagus.

In the crisper were half of a red onion and some celery, a carrot (who has ONE carrot left?), and the aging asparagus.  In the pantry were a  small russet potato and a box of chicken broth.  Other players?  Olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The method and the madness: 

Chop about 1/2 cup of onion, 1/3 cup of celery, and put them in a biggish pot with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and a few grinds of black pepper.  Let this cook for 10 minutes over lowish heat until the vegetables are soft and just starting to think about turning golden.

Now chop the asparagus roughly – I had 10 ounces after cutting off the woody ends - and add it to the pot.  Cook while you chop the potato.  The potato must be a russet, as a waxy potato won’t give the correct final consistency.  It was a medium sized potato - maybe 2 cups cubed?  This goes in the pot as well.  No need to peel.  Same with the carrot.

Now it’s time for the broth.  Your soup is only as good as the broth it is based on.  Feel free here to pour in a quart of homemade.  The rest of us will use our favorite store bought brand.  BUT…please do your homework.  Buy several different brands and taste them, slightly warmed, all alone.   You should believe there was a chicken involved, there should not be any weird “off” taste, it should not taste like salt, and it definitely should NOT have a neon color.  My personal favorites are Meijer Organic, Swanson (Organic or Natural Goodness), and Progresso.  I buy whichever one is on sale.  ANYHOW, add one quart of the broth you deem worthy to the pot.

Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and find something to do for 20 minutes.  Now, take a knife and randomly poke and potatoes and carrots to make sure they are tender.  All good?  Get your immersion blender and process until smooth.  You could use a blender if you had to, but that’s so messy…  Adjust seasonings if necessary.  Serve hot, warm, or cold.  In the picture I dropped in a hunk of goat cheese and it was quite nice.

Here’s the recipe for Fresh Asparagus Soup without all my commentary.

When I talk about low carb, I really mean increasing the protein and edging out the bad carbs.   The hard-core low carb diet seems to crash and burn here, but a more moderate version that puts less focus on the potatoes and rice is slowly gaining acceptance.

There is only so much chicken one can eat, but it’s advantage is that it is low fat and relatively cheap.  If I’m going to make a beef roast, it has to meet 3 criteria:  it has to fit into the grocery budget, it has to be lean, and, it has to be tender and juicy.   America’s Test Kitchen did an episode on slow roasting a beef eye of round so I decided to see if that would fit the requirements.

I purchased a 3# beef eye of round for about $8, which totally fit into the budget – you can pay more than that per pound for a good steak.

The USDA database states that a 3 oz portion of choice, beef eye of round, fat trimmed to 1/8”, roasted, has 180 calories and 8.5 grams of fat.  The equivalent chuck roast braised in a Crockpot has 305 calories and 23 grams of fat.   Eye of round wins this round.  Would the cooking method prove to make a tender and juicy roast?

The first step is to rub on 1 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of beef, then wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours for the enzymatic magic to happen.  When you’re ready to cook, simply pat dry, sear, and pop into a 225 degree oven until the temperature reaches 115, then turn off the oven and let the residual heat cook until the roast reaches 130.  They estimate the total process at about 2 hours.  A digital meat thermometer is a must for this recipe.

Does it work?  Pretty much.  I followed the preparation  instructions, and then seared it in a cast iron skillet while the oven pre-heated.  Then I popped the roast, still in the pan, in the oven.  The meat came to 115 in about 75 minutes, and I turned off the oven and let it keep going to 130.  The problem?  My family doesn’t eat beef that rare.  So, I returned the beef back to the now-cool oven, set the temperature to 225, and turned off the oven when it got there.  In about 20 minutes the beef was at 140. 

It looked dry, but it wasn’t.  It was cooked through, just the barest pink in the center, and still moist, which was pretty surprising.  It was pleasantly salty, but not overly so.  The boys said it tasted like steak.  There are no drippings so you won’t get a pan sauce or gravy, so we used our favorite steak sauces.  It was inexpensive, lean, and perfectly cooked.

For my family’s tastes I need to play around with the temperature and timing.  Leftovers (ha, we had 8 ounces left) would slice nicely for sandwiches.  A great thing about this recipe is that the oven temperature is so low you can roast beef for salads or sandwiches over the summer.  Try Slow Roasted Beef Eye Round yourself!

My sons rate Asian restaurants by their pork dumplings, and they even factor the cost per dumpling into their rating.  One day last year someone brought homemade dumplings to a potluck, and ever since then we’ve been making them ourselves.   

The recipe for pork dumplings is as simple as mixing up the filling, and plopping it onto premade wrappers.   Yes, you could make your own, but at less than $2/package, you greatly increase the time to table by buying a package from your local Asian grocer.  Although the recipe calls for napa cabbage, I substitute finely chopped regular cabbage with excellent results, and  use the leftover cabbage in other recipes.

The trickiest part of pork dumplings is sealing the wrappers – it’s a lot like fluting a pie crust, but once you have it down it goes very quickly.  We have developed quite the assembly line.  One person sits in front of the stack of wrappers and portions out the filling, the others seal.  They can be steamed immediately, or frozen (on a parchment lined sheet) for use later.  We can go from 0 to dinner in less than an hour.

This past weekend we made a batch, and as we enjoyed the fruits of our labor, the boys calculated that the cost per dumpling was less than .33 each, heartily congratulated themselves on their expertise and thrift, but did not offer to wash the dishes…

Want to make it a meal?  Add chilled mandarin oranges and steamed edamame to your meal plan.