I love Hodge Podge, an East Coast traditional vegetable soup/chowder of sorts. It celebrates simplicity, deliciousness and fresh garden treasures. There are many ways to make Hodge Podge, but in honour of my wee girl’s delight in planting pink and purple veggies, we made a rainbow version today with what we could pick fresh this morning. Being a wee bit different with the pink and purple beans and carrots, we thought it would be okay the break the rules a bit further and add a red onion and a few chives. The great part about hodge hodge is that there is no real rules, you throw stuff in the pot as you prep the next step (and if you are really good you can even have a batch of biscuits in and baked by the time the process is done!) And the best part – it is almost completely sourced from the backyard or a local market this time of year; the slat and pepper are the only renegades!
Here is our recipe(ish)
From the Garden:
1 Red onion, chopped fine
3 cups Pink Chieftain Potatoes, chopped chunky
2 cups Purple Gem Potatoes, chopped chunky
A handful of chives
3 cups Orange, purple and white carrots, cut chunky
3 cups Pink, purple and green beans, snapped
Snap peas (as many as I could salvage)
From the Store:
1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream, 2 1/2 cups milk – that is what we had in the fridge (or half and half) – Local!
1/4 cup Real Butter – Local!
Salt and Pepper
From the family – Grandma’s Butter Biscuits
Sorry, this one is top secret!
How we did it:
Simmer the onions in butter until clear (ish)
Add chopped potatoes and chives, add water just to cover. Bring to gentle boil until the carrots are chopped.
Add the carrots, cook for 5-10 minutes, then add the beans and reduce the heat.
While the carrots are cooking – prep the biscuits (only knead 20 times – 21 would be against the time honoured rules!!)
Once the beans go in, cook for 10 minutes and put the biscuits in the oven (mine stay in 16 minutes).
Once the beans are just tender, drain off the water. Add the milk, cream, 1/4 cup of butter and as much salt and pepper as needed to taste.
Heat over medium low heat to hot (the biscuits should be done just on time!). Do not boil.
Of course, the biscuits are for dunking…if they last!!
They don’t last long in our house….
Nova Scotia Roots 