Determinate v. Indeterminate

Tomatoes come in 2 types-determinate and indeterminate. Determinate ripen all at once. Indeterminate ripen throughout the season. If you're ever confused....roma tomatoes are determinate! Whoa. And this isn't even the bulk of it. Most are still ripening. 

We were able to turn this....into this:

That's zucchini/tomato soup just like my mom makes! Except we used fresh tomatoes! It's basically just a puréed tomato base with potatoes, zucchinis, and onions in it. There should also be an egg cracked in it and some Parmesan but we were using what we had and we were out of Parmesan and eggs. Sad, but the soup was still great!

Turnips!

Look what we grew! I can't wait to make another turnip greens soup!

What about those turnips?

What do I do with turnips, you might be wondering. Actually, even Morgan has expressed his reservations over the turnips. It seems he's completely forgotten about the things we made last year - sautéed greens with white beans, roasted turnips, mashed turnips...

Last night, we (mostly I) made turnip greens potato soup! It was great (if I don't say so myself). And we (mostly Morgan) love any recipe that let's us use our Cuisinart hand blender that emulsifies food into soups (seriously, Morgan loves this thing). 

I started by sautéing onions in the Dutch oven (my favorite "tool") and then adding the potatoes and chicken broth. I also added 3 very small turnips that came with the bunch of greens, but we had more greens by far. I let this simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, I sautéed the turnip greens in some oil and garlic. 

Eventually, I added the greens to the potato mixture. I can't say I added them with any rhyme or reason. Just at some point, I decided to add them.

I let that simmer a little more, until the potatoes seemed soft enough to blend. Another 10 minutes or so. I just kept squeezing individual potatoes with the tongs to see how easily they smooshed. Very scientific. Eventually it seemed they all were very smooshable. 

Then it was ready to blend! I added a small amount of skim milk, but I've done similar recipes and added no milk. It just depends what we have in the house. The potatoes give it the creamy texture regardless of if you use milk. Some might use heavy cream, but I like to keep the recipe light. 

And voila!

I topped off each serving with some cheddar cheese just because we had some and everything's better with cheese. 

It made enough for 4 bowls - dinner for two and lunch for two!

Basically this recipe works with anything in substitute for the turnip greens - spinach, radish greens, squash, leeks. We use this "recipe" almost all year long, but my favorite is with leeks for potato-leek soup, but we'll have to wait for the fall for that!