Chive Blossom "Cream" Soup

Like I said yesterday, I'm using as much of what the garden gives us as I can this year. Yesterday, I made a soup using chive blossoms, chicken stock (from our most recent roasted chicken), salt, dried thyme, and a bit of flour to thicken.

Three of the four of us thought this smelled and tasted liked cream of mushroom soup. My opinion that the most prominent flavor in canned cream of mushroom soup is onion powder has been confirmed.

I picked and washed about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of open chive blossoms while thawing a scant quart of homemade, unseasoned chicken stock. I cut most of the green stem off the chive blossoms, but I didn't fuss too much over it. Using a medium saucepan, I brought the chive blossoms and chicken stock to a boil. After the chive blossoms had simmered in the chicken stock for about 20 minutes. I allowed it to stand and cool before pureeing. Just a note, cooking the chive blossoms turns them gray. I had hoped the pretty purple would remain.

Once cooled, I dumped the whole batch into a pitcher blender, adding a couple of tablespoons of all-purpose flour to blend in while pureeing. After the mixture was smooth, I returned all to the saucepan and brought it back to boil to cook the added flour and thicken. At that point, all that was needed was some salt (about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon) and a pinch of dried thyme. 

So, delicious. I went back for seconds.

Last week I made 2 jars of chive blossom vinegar, which is about all we will use in a year. I still have a lot of chive blossoms on my plants. Now that I know I can make a good soup (and a good cream of mushroom substitute for casseroles) from the blossoms, I plan on harvesting and freezing as many of the blossoms as I can in the next day or two.

Do you grow chives? Have you found ways to use the blossoms?

Making Jello With Rhubarb

Are you about to be inundated with rhubarb? Do you have favorite ways to use it? I try to use as much of our garden produce as I can. I feel that's the good steward thing to do with the abundance, and doing so saves us a lot of cashola on groceries each summer and fall. The usual ways to use rhubarb are in preserves, stewed into a sauce, or in baked goods. Here's another way to use rhubarb, rhubarb jello dessert.

What I like about this

It's a fat-free, relatively low calorie way to use rhubarb. Most rhubarb desserts add a pie crust or other grain, butter, and sugar part to make the rhubarb more palatable as a dessert. While there is sugar added to sweeten the naturally tart rhubarb, turning rhubarb into a gelatin dessert makes this a less fattening option for using our rhubarb.

It's super easy to make

Using minimal ingredients, unflavored gelatin and homemade rhubarb sauce (even the kind where you add a pinch of baking soda and reduce the sugar), rhubarb jello comes together with about 5 minutes of hands-on time.

ingredients:

4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
5-6 tablespoons room temperature water
3 cups of rhubarb sauce, sweetened to taste

As with all scratch-made, natural fruit gelatins, you soften the plain gelatin in a little water while the rhubarb sauce cooks. 

Once the rhubarb sauce is cooked and sweetened, melt the softened gelatin in the microwave and stir into the cooked rhubarb sauce. 

Puree the rhubarb in a pitcher blender and pour into a large bowl, individual bowls or custard cups. Chill overnight. 

The end result is a layered gelatin, with a foamy/fluffy layer on top and firm jello beneath. If desired, servings can be topped with whipped topping. 

My family LOVES this, and it disappears quickly.