Recipe: Spring Vegetable Garbure

Tired chef, adoring wife.

Posted by Melissa Baumgart
After nearly a week, the garbure is going to be finished today!

Jamie was cooking all night last night, and everything is ready to be assembled and warmed to a delicious eating temperature.  I have to admit, I did give him quite a challenge for his first cooking lesson.  Thomas Keller has a way with taking every ingredient and lovingly shaping it to the culinary perfection it was grown to be.  And what that translates to in our tiny kitchen, is loads and loads of pots and pans all going at once, all over the place.  Add in the tater tots I had to cook when I realized we were having yet another garbure-less night, and our kitchen was a gorgeous chaos of food!

Here is the long awaited recipe...adapted, of course, form the amazing cookbook Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller.

spring vegetable garbure
3 tablespoons of canola oil
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
2 cups chopped leeks
2 cups coarsely chopped onions
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
parchment paper
8 cups chicken stock (we used "Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken")
1 pound of mixed baby potatoes
2 sachets
2 culs oblique cut carrots
1 teaspoon agave nectar
8 oz. pencil thin asparagus
1 cup English peas
1 cup thinly sliced green beans, cut on a diagonal
1 small head of cabbage
2 cups cooked cannellini beans
Champagne vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Flat leaf parsley

English peas, or fava beans?
I have no idea because I did not mark the bag,
and they both looked exactly the same on the inside!

Heat the canola oil in a 8-10 quart pot over medium heat.  Add the first 2 cups of carrots, leeks, and onions, and stir to coat in the oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Lay the parchment paper (loosely cut to the size of the pot) down over the vegetables, pressing it down so it rests on them. Cook, lifting the parchment lid and stirring occasionally, for 30-35 minutes. Remove the parchment and discard.

Add the stock and increase the heat to medium high.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Strin the broth into another pot and discard the vegetables.  (We saved them for use in another dish...maybe in a marinara cause I was thinking.)

Meanwhile, halve the baby potatoes and place in a pot with 1 sachet and 2 teaspoons of salt, cover with water and bring to a simmer.  Cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain and spread on a tray to cool.  Discard the sachet.

Put the oblique cut carrots, agave, second sachet, and a pinch of salt into a medium pot, cover with water and bring to a simmer.  Cook for 5 minutes, or until carrots are tender, but slightly resistant to the tooth.  Drain and discard the sachet.

Bring a large pot of salted water (1 cup of salt/gallon of water) to a boil.  Prepare an ice bath.  Meanwhile, hold the asparagus and bend to break each piece to remove the tough bottom end.  Trim all of the asparagus to the same length and cut into 1 inch pieces on the diagonal.  Working in batches, blanch the asparagus (1 minutes), green beans (2 minutes), cabbage (until tender) and English peas (1 minute).  Using a fine mesh strainer, place vegetables in the strainer, set into boiling water and remove when bright green.  Immediately after removing, place into ice bath and then on a towel to dry.

Bring the broth back to a simmer.  Add the carrots, potatoes, cannellini beans and stir in the vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, bring the soup to a simmer, add the blanched vegetables, and warm to desired temperature.  Remove from heat and serve, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with parsley leaves.

What's next???
Hear from Jamie in my interview with him on what he learned during our first cooking lesson...
And find out what I though of his finished product!