Light dinner fast: Steamed artichokes

Artichokes aren’t exactly a dime a dozen right now, but close to it. Meaning they’re a screaming deal. So, buy a few and have some fun with different ways to prepare them, and play around with different dipping sauces beyond the usual melted butter ( a painful gut buster for me, considering my low functioning gall bladder).

This was dinner tonight, and Natacha said “uhmmm, tres gourmet! You are going to put deese on zee blog, oui?”

I wasn’t planning to, but she insisted.

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Springtime Meatball Soup

As I told you in the previous post, this is asparagus season. Since the veal and asparagus soup was such a success, I tried to ramp it up a bit more with chicken fennel meatballs, and the addition of artichoke hearts.

I rather like the artichoke dip that you see at parties these days. It’s garlicky and has that light lemony taste. That flavor combination was what I had in mind when I was developing this soup. I always have a couple cans of water packed artichoke hearts and bottoms in the pantry.

Again, I’m using the Williams-Sonoma veal and chicken stock bases. I really suggest having them in your refrigerator. They add a wonderful depth and complexity of flavor.

I served this for company, and it was a total hit. We drained the pot. I served it with a salad of mixed greens, mango, tomato, onion and my homemade lemon-olive oil-agave nectar vinaigrette  and a crusty bread.

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