MADDIE here, delighted to welcome my good friend, the talented Annette Dashofy, as our guest on the blog today. Her latest book is Death By Equine - and you MUST read it ASAP. It's that good. She's giving away three e-copies of it to three lucky commenters!
Annette Dashofy’s Potato Soup
When Edith invited me to post a recipe here, I admit I was honored…and terrified. In my new mystery, Death by Equine, Dr. Jessie Cameron is a vegetarian working at a Thoroughbred racetrack. Her options at the concessions stand where she grabs a quick bite between veterinary calls are sparse. She tends to live on French fries and nachos. Not healthy and not much to base a recipe on.
So, while it’s not in the book, my tried-and-true creamy potato soup is something that Jessie would definitely whip up at home. And my vegan version can easily be made vegetarian by swapping almond milk and Smart Balance with regular milk and butter. Diehard carnivores could add ham or bacon, although trust me. Even my meat-eating husband and nephew love it just the way it is.
Ingredients:
6 large potatoes
6 stalks of
celery
2 or 3 carrots
1 medium onion,
chopped
6 tablespoons
Smart Balance or other buttery spread
6 tablespoons
all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups plain
unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Peel and cut the potatoes and carrots into small chunks. No need to dice. Same with the celery. Rinse the potatoes to remove excess starch and then place the veggies (except for the onion) into a large pot and cover with water.
Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 20 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid, and set aside. In the same pot, melt the “butter.” Add the onion and sauté until translucent.
Add the flour, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly until blended. Gradually stir in the almond milk, continuing to stir, until it starts to thicken.
Dump the vegetables back into the pot and begin ladling in the reserved liquid, bringing the mixture to a simmer.
Use a potato masher to mash the vegetables as you stir.
Continue until the vegetables are broken up and the soup is the desired consistency. Serve hot and enjoy! Prep time: 30 minutes. Cooking time: 30 minutes. Serves six.
In Death by Equine, veterinarian Jessie Cameron agrees to fill in for her mentor, Doc Lewis, at Riverview Racetrack so he can take a long-overdue vacation. When he’s tragically killed by one of his equine patients the night before he’s supposed to leave, Jessie quickly suspects the death is anything but accidental. Her search for the truth is thwarted by everyone from well-meaning friends to the police, including her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Undaunted, she discovers layers of illegal activities and deceit being perpetrated by the man she thought of as a father figure, creating a growing list of suspects with reason to want Doc dead. Too late, she realizes that her dogged quest for the truth has put her in the crosshairs of a devious killer desperate to silence her. Permanently.
Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the multi–Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. Her latest release, a standalone, is Death by Equine, about a veterinarian at a second-rate thoroughbred racetrack seeking the truth about her mentor’s mysterious death. She and her husband live on ten acres of what was her grandfather’s dairy farm in southwestern Pennsylvania with their very spoiled cat, Kensi.
