Food Processing

I totally do not mind chopping, dicing and for the most part doing "veggie prep", BUT I admit it takes a bit of time!  Every so often I'm reminded that soups, stews and chilis don't require "pretty", OR "recognizable" vegetables, lol! So in the past couple of days, while attempting to put together a chili as fast as possible, I remembered my food processor!  Really, do veggies need to be perfectly diced in a chili?  Out comes the food processor!   Zip, zap, whirl around, done!  Onion, celery, carrot, and whatever else I want to include!

While cleaning up and organizing the kitchen tonight I went ahead and did some food processing veggie prep for tomorrow morning's split pea and ham soup.  First I processed my carrot (bottom of container), then chard stems, celery, parsley stems and onion, because from the top down is the order in which I will saute the vegetables (onion first, celery, chard stems carrot).  I placed a paper towel in between the layers to absorb some of the water the veggies give off after being chopped in a food processor, while I store them in the fridge until the morning. Everything is ready to go in the pressure cooker at 4:30am.

It's been so cold lately that soups, stews and chilis have been my main meals.  But for once I did NOT process jalapenos for my split pea!  On Monday I made a super spicy batch of lamb chili so it was time to take a break from the heat!  But I will include an old favorite....Swiss chard stems!

Grilling a few Garam Masala spiced chicken thighs and some squash on the stove top and I'll be set for a long, long time!  God I love having the skills of feeding myself!