Another northern dish with a funny name!
This quick stew of midsummer veggies has long been a favorite when we need to sample the new produce, but don’t want to stand over the stove too long!
Robbing a few new potatoes from the hills is a tradition around here. Pulling sweet baby carrots is also not to be resisted! Combine these little thefts with new green beans and whatever strikes your fancy and you end up with a simple but deliciously satisfying summer dish.
Out of the kitchen fast
This is meant to be quick to cook with little fuss. With temperatures in the high 90s this week, and very humid, whatever gets me out of the kitchen fast is for me. Also, we got a new puppy a few days ago, and my attention is a bit distracted…
While Hodge Podge (also, hotch potch) appears to have its beginnings in Scotland or England using mutton, it originated as a vegetable-based soup in Nova Scotia and many versions of this delightful summer dish have drifted through the northeast. There’s no sweating of aromatics, no fussy prep, just a bunch of veggies fresh from the garden boiled together to make a delightful medley of the season.
We can’t wait for the harvest!
Traditionally, the dish includes new potatoes and tender, sweet baby carrots (not the machined offerings in the grocery store), shelling peas and the first of the green and wax beans, new onions and their greens, all simmered quickly in a butter cream sauce. It is also traditional to put whatever else is nice or bountiful in your garden (or farm stand) at the time, including the last of the asparagus, probably the last of the sugar snaps, the first of the zucchini and yellow squash, turnips, radishes, and fennel. Herbs could include chives, parsley, dill, tarragon, chives, or chervil, or anything you love.
Hodgepodge – noun, (hoj’-poj) A random mixture; jumble. Also, hodge-podge, hodge podge.
My mother always included Swiss chard because it was always in our garden and the more you pick it, the more you get, so she picked lots! Beet greens, turnip greens, spinach, or any favorite green wouldwork here. I used both Swiss chard and the greens from the golden beets.
Not a boiled dinner, call it a quickly simmered one
Unlike a winter New England boiled dinner, this dish cooks quickly, just until everything is tender, but still vibrant, the broth sweet and light. It is served just slightly warm, or even room temperature.
My update to this vegetarian dish is to make it vegan as well by substituting coconut milk for the heavy cream, lightening it considerably. I also boiled the shells of the peas to give the dish a flavor boost in the form of a pea stock, very flavorful and quick too. Not necessary, but I hate composting flavor.
Lots to choose from this week at the farms and markets, so my dish includes new potatoes, new carrots, a leek, sweet onion, asparagus, sweet golden beets and their greens, Swiss chard, English peas, and new green beans, no wax beans yet. Don’t bother peeling the carrots, potatoes, or beets, the new veggies don’t need it, and you’ll save time and nutrition. Note that red beets will turn everything in the pot red, so keep this in mind if you don’t like that!
While mom would toss everything in the pot and just let it simmer until done, I prefer to add the veggies in stages so the beans and peas don’t overcook, keep their color, and nutrition.
Parsley and tarragon from the garden livened things up. Quite a Hodge Podge!
Hodge Podge
- 1 ½ lb. shelling peas
- 6 cups water (more or less)
- 1 ½ lbs. new potatoes, halved or whole
- 1 lb. carrots, roughly chopped or thick sliced
- 1 large onion, cut in wedges
- 1 leek (or additional onion), diced
- 3 golden or Chioggia beets, quartered
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- ½ to ¾ lb. green beans, trimmed, whole
- 1 lb. summer squash or zucchini, diced
- Large bunch of Swiss chard, stems included
- Beets tops if available
- 1 bunch of asparagus, chopped
- 1 can coconut milk, full fat or light
- 2 tbsp. fresh herbs of choice, chopped
Prep the vegetables by first scrubbing them. You do not need to peel.
Shell the peas and place the pods in a pot, cover with water, salt, and bring to a boil. Simmer for one-half hour or so. Set the peas aside.
Cut the potatoes and carrots into desired size. Peel the onion (put peelings in the pot with the pea pods) then cut it into eight wedges, leaving the root end intact. Chop the leek, white and light green part. Cut the greens from the beets and cut the beets into quarters or sixths, depending on size. Crush and roughly dice the garlic. Place all these in a large stock pot, except the beet greens, set those aside.
Cut the tips off the green beans, and set aside. Dice the summer squash, and set aside. Chop the stems of the Swiss chard and place them in the stock pot. Set the greens aside.
Once the pea pods have given up their flavor, strain this liquid into the stock pot and compost the pods. Add water to cover the vegetables, and season with salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, covered. The potatoes and carrots will be just about done.
Add the green beans and squash and cook for an additional five minutes, uncovered. Green vegetables retain their color much better when cooked in an uncovered pot.
Add the asparagus and peas and cook for an additional five minutes, uncovered.
Add the greens and cook just until they wilt, uncovered, but mix them into the rest of the veggies.
Add the coconut milk and the herbs. Remove from the heat. Taste and correct seasoning.
Serve warm or room temperature, and garnish with a few more herbs. Yes, you can now add some butter or vegan butter it you like!
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Congrats on your new addition!!!!
Thank you! It is going to be lots of fun with two of them!
The stew looks delicious and healthy. The puppy looks adorable– and no trouble at all! 😉
The stew was really good, and I do always feel virtuous eating it! The puppy is absolutely no trouble at all, doesn’t bark, sleeps through the night, doesn’t chew on the other dog’s tail or my hair, doesn’t piddle on the floor. I should have called him angel…
You lucked out with this little guy. Yay!
Already in love!
That looks fantastic! (PS. I am ALWAYS fighting WordPress. The newish editing template drives me crazy!)
Thank you Suzanne. I’m glad you could post, my husband still cannot. It’s frustrating, and the Happiness Engineer yesterday did not live up to hers/his title.
What a delightful vegetable stew!
Thank you Jenna! It makes a lot too, so more than one meal.
That looks amazing! I love beet greens. Your new pup is precious! 💞
Thank you Anne Marie! We are all getting used to each other!
Adorable puppy, delicious Hodge Podge…i feel your pain with WP mine has been going on for months some posts I can like others not…When I comment I have to sign in every time or not and just fill in my details it is not consistent and intermittent…grrr
It just doesn’t seem to be working right since they made their “major upgrade” and forced us all to use the clunky block editor. There have been so many times I’ve written a comment on a nice article, and it won’t let me post at all! Very frustrating. This is supposed to be fun and social, not frustrating!
Thought I’d try commenting again. This would be an excellent meal or side dish!
Thank you Diane! And thank you for trying this again. It seems to be working…..for now!!!!!
What a nice vegetable dish. The Dutch “hutspot” is a winter dish of boiled carrots, onions, and potatoes.
Yes, it is probably all of the same origins! Good, comfort food at its best no matter what its origins.
What a great summer dish–it looks so good! That puppy is super-cute too! 🙂
Thank you Nancy! The puppy is certainly keeping us on our toes!
I’m a romantic. Your photo reminded me of a film, starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, where she made him dinner from her garden vegetables. 🌿🍆🫑
You are a romantic! Me too, and it was a really good movie!
How did I know that?! 😜
Yum! My kind of meal, Dorothy.
And wow! What an adorable little pooch. What a cutie.
xoxoxo
Thank you! He is adorable, and quite a handful!
Dorothy this looks so yummy…my kind of dish. I can just imagine how this would taste with lots of summer fresh ingredients. Not to mention your puppy is stealing the show!! What a cutie.
Thank you, and yes, the puppy is stealing the show, constantly! But is a sweet and cuddly thing when he is not trying to sever my fingers with his razor puppy teeth!
A funny name for a super delicious meal! I bet everything tastes differently using freshly picked ingredients 😋😋
What a cute puppy 🐶💕💕
It is yet another funny New England name for an old standby! But it is the flavor of the season! Thanks, we kinda think he’s cute too!
Kinda? 😍☺️🐶💕
Delicious looking veggie dish! AOC is too encountering wp issues.☹️
Thank you! We enjoy it so much at this time of year.
The hodge podge has to be delicious with all those fresh from the garden vegetables. My kind of meal.
It’s so easy this time of year!
Delicious Hodege Podge.
That puppy looks cute 😍
He’s a sweetie!
Cute puppy picture!
He’s a cutie, even at 3 a.m.
Awe!
I love this hodge podge! I have almost all the veges on hand but I do want to add some asparagus and squash, so will get some of those once we are out of Covid lockdown. The new puppy looks so cute. They are little for such a short time but maybe that is just as well as the biting and chewing tests one’s patience. (Our puppy just turned 1 a few months ago).
Yes, the chewing on everything! I forgot how extensively I had to baby proof the house and move all shoes especially out of harm’s way!
I don’t get what it is any shoes that pups love? Our scent? Our pup has chewed a few paire. No, sorry, it is only one of a pair! I even left an unchewed single shoe from the pair our pup had chewed as a decoy, without success. One lady had to keep her shoes in the bath as that is the only place the pup couldn’t access!
I laughed so hard at this. It is a running joke in our house how our first golden, all those years ago, chewed just one of each of my shoes! He left the other to torment me!
One of a pair left to torment you?! Yes, pups seem to know this! But then the look at up with their big brown eyes and our hearts melt! Manipulation in the nicest possible way!
Why not indeed! I love this hodge podge. And that new puppy! Hide all of your shoes.
Thank you Mimi!
The pup has been actually pretty good about my shoes with the exception of my 20-year-old Birks. However, he is a fabric eater, so napkins and potholders are his favorite snack!