A little while ago I took a poll on whether or not I should review the cookbook Eva's Kitchen by Eva Longoria published by Random House Canada. Here are the results:
Yes! 37 (54%)
No! 6 (8%)
Meh... 12 (17%)
Who's cookbook? 13 (19%)
I have a feeling people were secretly curious about this Desperate Housewives actress' cookbook so I said yes to the opportunity and began putting it through my test kitchen by making her Carrot Ginger Soup:
You begin by heating up a large soup pot over medium heat. Add 3 tbsp of butter and cook one chopped yellow onion with six cloves of garlic, minced with a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally until translucent.
Eva really cares about using organic foods and I did happen to have a two pound bag of organic carrots that I put through my food processor instead of chopping. Much faster! I also added a few sprigs of thyme, a dried bay leaf, five cups of broth, ground in some black pepper and added two tablespoons of peeled chopped fresh ginger. I increased the temperature to high heat, brought to a boil for five minutes and then turned the heat down to a simmer for 20 minutes.
I removed the sprigs of thyme and the bay leaf. Instead of using a food processor (mine was going through the dishwasher) I tried using my food mill but it just turned into carrot water. I put everything into a blender instead, pureed the soup and warmed it back on the stove.
"Be sure to cook the carrots until they are very tender so that they'll puree to a silky smooth soup." ~ Eva Longoria
Well I thought I had done that but I guess mine did not cook long enough. It was a tasty soup, the ginger was fabulous with the carrots but the soup was pretty watery and did not get silky smooth. What I love about this kind of soup is that when I have nothing left in my kitchen I can have a filling soup to live on for days which is exactly what I did with this soup.
Not a bad beginning for my test kitchen but I do hope next time the recipe is even better. I give Eva's Carrot Ginger Soup four out of five wooden spoons.
9 comments:
That soup looks pretty darn bright and tasty. Looking forward to see what else Eva has for us. BTW, I just spotted another Hollywood celeb cookbook at Costco on the weekend. Gwyneth Paltrow-My Father's Daughter. There ya go, another actress gone cook lol.
I have been debating to get this cookbook. I love Eva Longoria, but you she's an actress not a cook so its questionable. With you good reviews I might just go out and buy!
Ava, Gwyneth Paltrow has a cookbook too?! I'm surprised she eats, she is so tiny! I'm making Eva's guacamole tonight to go with chicken fajitas, yum!
TAB, I am glad that me checking out the book for you may help your decision making when it comes to purchasing it. I'll let you know what I think! So far the quality of the printing, the binding and the photos has been excellent. But it's the recipes that really count!
Very healthy! Cheery on a bleak winter day too.
Looks pretty tasty!!!
Guess it's lunch time!!!
PS I'm glad your pancake picture is gone... every time I looked I think I gained 10lbs!!!
Yumm!!!
Looks like a lovely soup! I read that Eva was putting out a cookbook, but wasn't sure what to think. I didn't really imagine her cooking her own food. What are the rest of the recipes like?
It is a healthy soup and tasty! Oh I know, that pancake picture was just mean wasn't it?
Jennifer, so far the cookbook when it comes to visuals is very impressive. I am just beginning to do the recipe testing but I promise I will share more very soon. I followed her advice using copious amounts of lemon juice instead of lime in homemade guacamole and she was right, a great idea. So far, so good!
i recently learned a great (vegan) trick for making soups creamy and thick. i applied it to this recipe last night when I ran into the same "carrot water" problem. I diced up 2 smallish golden potatoes and added them to the pot, let cook 10 minutes or so until soft, then blended the whole concoction. It was great! Saving this recipe to http://cookmarked.com !
I was tempted to throw in some potatoes, my mom taught me that trick too, it's awesome! I wanted to stay true to the recipe for testing but if others want to give it a shot and have this problem, a little bit of potato would help, you're right and thanks!
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