Two Panera Cook-Alikes

Two Panera Cook-Alikes

My friends at work and I all love to go to Panera Bread for lunch. I especially love this chain restaurant because they have several good choices for vegetarians. Our favorites are two vegetarian soups: Roasted tomato and pepper bisque and vegetarian black bean. Panera has foolishly stopped offering the vegetarian black bean, and they will only have the roasted tomato bisque during the winter. So, I have had to learn to make similar soups for myself. Here’s what I came up with:

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Bisque

1. 28 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes

1 15 ounce jar roasted red peppers
1 can tomato soup
3 cups vegetable broth
1 carrot, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 small onion diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
Dash Tabasco
¼ to ½ cup heavy cream

Sauté onion, carrot and celery in olive oil until tender. Add vegetable broth, tomato soup and roasted peppers. Simmer about twenty minutes to blend flavors. Puree with handheld food processor, but leave some chunks. Season with salt and Tabasco. Add cream just before serving. Serve with Crostini made from slices of a baguette brushed with olive oil and garlic.

Muir Glen makes both fire roasted tomatoes and fire roasted tomatoes with green chilies if you want a spicier soup.


A friend gave me this version of the vegetarian black bean soup. It’s pretty close.

Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped  
2 cloves garlic, minced  
2 celery ribs, finely chopped  
1/4 large red bell pepper, finely chopped  
2 cups vegetable broth  
2 cans black beans, undrained  
1/2 teaspoon salt  
1/2 teaspoon cumin  
Big dash Tabasco chipotle sauce
Juice of 1/2 lemon or 1 lime
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch  

In a pot, combine the first five ingredients; sauté for 10 minutes. Add half a can of beans, salt and cumin; cook for 5 minutes. Puree soup with handheld food processor. Add the rest of the beans to the soup. Combine the cornstarch with 1 1/2 tablespoons of water.
Add the Tabasco, the lemon or lime juice and the cornstarch to the soup; cook until thickened.

I love my handheld Cuisinart immersion blender. I call it a “boat motor”. If you don’t have one you can purée soups in small batches in your regular food processor or blender.

Strawberry Trifle

I forgot to talk about the desserts we served for Christmas dinner. We polished off the last of the trifle today. There are lots of trifle recipes that use pudding from a mix, but once you’ve had this dessert made with a real custard sauce you won’t want any imitations ever again. Custard sauce is not hard to make. Just remember to take the pan off of the heat as soon as the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon. I’ve always used strawberries for trifle, but you could use any fruit and any flavor of jam. Sometimes I will use lemon curd instead of jam. Instead of sherry you could substitute any fruity kind of liqueur.

Strawberry Trifle
1 sheet sponge cake, spread with blackberry or strawberry jam, rolled and sliced
Sherry , about a cup
2 cups sliced strawberries, sprinkled with sugar
3 cups custard sauce
½ cup sliced almonds
Whipped cream

Arrange slices of jelly roll in a trifle dish. Sprinkle with sherry. Add a layer of strawberries. Sprinkle with almonds and pour half of the custard sauce over it. Repeat for another layer. One jellyroll usually makes two layers.

Classic Sponge Cake
5 to 6 eggs, separated (separate when cold. Cover and let come to room temperature, about 20 minutes maximum)
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup sugar, divided
3 tablespoons orange juice, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon orange zest
1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1 cup sifted cake flour (sift, then measure)

In large mixing bowl at high speed, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add half of the sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are glossy and stand in soft peaks. Rub just a bit of meringue between thumb and forefinger to feel if sugar has dissolved.

In small mixing bowl at high speed, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually beat in remaining sugar, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla and salt until blended.

With a sifter or sprinkle flour with a sieve over whites. Add beaten yolk mixture. Gently, but thoroughly, fold yolk mixture and flour into whites. Pour into a jellyroll pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in preheated 325 degrees F to 350 degrees F oven until top springs back when lightly touched with finger and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 20 minutes. I lay out a dishtowel and turn the cake out onto the towel, spread it with jam and roll it while the cake is still warm.

Thin Custard Sauce:

3 cups light cream or half and half
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup (66 grams) granulated white sugar
8 large egg yolks

Makes about 3 cups
In a stainless steel bowl stir together the sugar and yolks until well blended, using a wooden spoon. In a small saucepan heat the cream just to the boiling point. An easy way to heat the cream is in the microwave in a big pyrex measuring cup. Whisk a few tablespoons of the cream into the yolk mixture; then gradually add the remaining cream, whisking constantly.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan over medium heat and gently heat the mixture to just before the boiling point (170 - 175 degrees F) (77 - 80 degrees C). Steam will begin to appear and the mixture will be slightly thicker than heavy cream. Do not boil or the eggs will curdle. Check by holding a wooden spoon sideways that is covered with the custard and run your finger along the back of the spoon. If the streak remains without the cream running down through the streak, it is ready. Immediately remove from the heat and pour through the strainer, scraping up any thickened cream that settles on the bottom of the pan. Let cool for a minuite or two and add vanilla. Sauce can be refrigerated covered with plastic wrap for a couple of days. Sauce will thickened as it cools and may be lumpy when removed from the refrigerator. Whisk over a saucepan of simmering water to remove any lumps.