Dear Daily Illini,

My name is Rob Gastfield, I am a senior in LAS.

One of my favorite easy recipes for school is my Potato and Onion Soup.

You might see other soups similar to this one that feature leek or fennel but for me the cheapest and most easily obtainable onion variety is your common yellow onion. This soup is simply delicious in its simplest first form, but my favorite feature is that it is very, very easy to complicate.

As an added tip, I recommend the ‘Better than Bullion’ stock starter for the thrifty college student who plans on making a reasonable amount of soup in the future.

Best,

Rob Gastfield

Potato & Onion Soup

Ingredients:

-2 to 3 large onions (or 4-5 small to medium ones), thinly sliced

-Up to a head of garlic, cloves peeled and crushed

-3 to 4 potatoes, washed, peeled if desired, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

-5 to 6 cups vegetable, chicken, or beef stock (I make mine veggie but the others are fine alternatives)

-A small handful of freshly chopped parsley, to mix in and to garnish

-2 tbsp butter or olive oil

-1/2 tsp of caraway seeds if you have them lying around, I also like 1/2 tsp (or more) of paprika

-Salt and pepper for seasoning

-Some sort of bread, I recommend it be hot or toasted, to serve alongside

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in large pot on medium high heat. When melted add sliced onions and stir. Cover and let cook for aprox 7-10 mins, until onions are soft and browning.

2. Add garlic, potatoes and caraway (or paprika if desired), stir, let cook another 5 mins.

3. Add Stock and bring to boil. Turn heat down, partially cover and let simmer for 15 mins or so, until potatoes are fork tender.

4. At this point the soup is ready to serve, so just stir in some parsley and add salt and pepper to taste.

5. If you or someone one you know has an immerseable blender, I recommend using it for a smooth soup, but a chunky soup is great too.

6. Ladle into soup bowls, garnish with more parsley and serve with bread (I actually even like to put my hunk of bread in the bowl first and just ladle the soup over it, Yum.)

Berry Green Smoothie

Here’s an easy healthy recipe of mine for a Berry Green Smoothie:

2 c. fresh spinach leaves

2/3 c. frozen strawberries

.5 c. frozen blueberries

1 c. skim milk, almond milk, or soy milk

1 tbsp. ground flaxseed

Enjoy!

Ashley Rosener

Graduate Assistant

Residence Hall Library System

Ikenberry Commons Library Supervisor