Yes, We Cook!

I was going to save this till later in the week but since I was feeling a bit under the weather and needed some comfort food I had a feeling this soup would do the trick.  This was excellent and very simple.

You’ll need:

1 tbsp canola oil
12 oz lean boneless pork, cut into thin bite size strips
2 c freshly sliced shiitake mushroooms
2 c garlic, minced
3-14 oz cans chicken broth
2 tbsp dry sherry
2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tsp grated fresh ginger/1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
2 c shredded napa cabbage
1 green onion, thinly sliced
fresh cilantro sprigs

1. In lg saucepan heat oil over med heat; add pork, cook and stir for 2-3 mins or until slightly pink in the center. Remove from pan and set aside. add mushrooms and garlic and cook until tender.

2. Stir in chicken broth, sherry soy, ginger, and pepper. Bring to boiling. Stir in pork, napa cabbage, and green onion; heat through. If desired, garnish with cilantro. Makes 6-1 c servings.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 160

Total Fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 31 mg

Protein: 16 g

Carbohydrate: 10 g

Fiber: 1 g

Sodium: 169 mg

About two weeks ago Peter, over at Greek Food and Beyond, posted a recipe for Creamy Asparagus Soup. I love Creamy soups, my favorite is the Chicken Pasta soup that J.Alexander’s serves, so when I found a recipe that looked appetizing I needed to go for it. Sure, I have no experience with making any creamy-based soup but I wasn’t going to let that stop me!

I made three small changes to this recipe, but we’ll get to that in a second.

The Recipe

1/4 cup olive oil

3 leeks (white parts)

2 bay leaves (crushed, spines removed)

1 tsp dried thyme

3 Russet potatoes

8-9 cups of chicken stock

2 bunches of asparagus

1/2 cup of cream

1 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 lb cooked dark chicken chunks (I used the leftovers from the Lemon Chicken)

And the process…

In a nice sized soup pot add your olive oil over medium heat and add the chopped leeks, crushed bay leaves thyme and chicken, stir for about 10

Now grate your potatoes through the large holes of your box grater and stir in with the leeks. Simmer for about five minutes.

While the leek/potato/chicken mix is cooking, cut your asparagus separating the tips and the stem.

Add your stock, salt, pepper and the chopped asparagus stems, bring to a boil. Simmer for about 25 minutes.

Creamy Asparagus Soup? Really?

In a second pot bring water to a boil, add your asparagus tips and boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove and blanche the tips in ice-cold water.

Once the soup is ready puree with a hand blender while adding the cream (I went with one cup).

Place in a bowl, add your asparagus tips – top with freshly ground black pepper and Parmesan cheese.

That looks better, almost like Creamy Chicken Asparagus Soup!

Peter has a great soup recipe here.  I couldn’t stop eating this, and I even put some in the freezer for later. On my next go around I plan on making the soup a wee bit thicker, creamier… but one who enjoys a good creamy soup cannot go wrong here.

My changes – I added one tsp of salt as I used stock which, usually, is lower salt.  I ground up the bay leaves to a nice flake consistency, and I added the chicken for a little extra something. Have fun!

I’ve been having fun with my new (old) crock pot.

For the lentil soup I threw everything in without browning. If one wants a richer soup saute or brown the meat and veggies a bit. This one came out very well without doing so. I simply cut up and threw all the below ingredients into the pot and turned it on high. I cooked it for the afternoon. If you want to do it overnight the low setting would be fine as well.

The sausages were highly flavored and spiced so the flavor of the soup was greatly influenced by them. Think about what sort of sausage you’re using and adjust the flavors accordingly.

Ingredients

1 lb bison sausage (any sausage of your choice is fine)

2 cups dry lentils

water to fill the pot after all ingredients added

whole bunch of celery sliced

1 large onion diced

3 carrots sliced

5 cloves garlic diced

1 cup red wine

3 bay leaves

1 tbls celery seed

2 tbls balsamic vinegar

2 tbls molasses

Salt and pepper to taste (I used red chili flakes)

This is a variation on a soup I made a lot many years ago. A friend of mine gave me the idea. I don’t remember making it since I’ve moved to North Carolina from California and I’ve been here seven years. I used to make it all the time! In any case the reason I finally made it again is because Wandering Coyote and then Bob both made similar soups recently. Wandering Coyote’s blog is here.

In any case I, as usual did my own thing today and did something different from both Wandering Coyote, Bob and my own variation from the past.

• 6 medium sized red potatoes washed and cut up but not peeled (potato peels are very good for you and I happen to think they add flavor too. Red skins are also pretty)

• 1 large onion

• 10 cloves garlic

• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

• 48 oz vegetable stock

• 1 lb low fat cottage cheese (get creative here. I’ve used fresh goat cheese instead, also)

• Salt and pepper to taste

I threw all the ingredients except the cottage cheese into a pot with the stock. I cut the potatoes and onions in fourths. Garlic went in whole but peeled, of course. I took the rosemary leaves off the stems. I boiled everything until the potatoes were just starting to fall apart.

I let it all cool for a bit and then pureed the whole shebang in a blender while adding the pound of cottage cheese.

OMG!! Why in hell did I take so long to make this again…it’s heavenly! I couldn’t stop eating it. Thanks WC and Bob for putting it back in my head.

So to mark the very beginning of fall I’ve made pumpkin soup. It was not premeditated I just felt like making pumpkin soup. In general it’s been a soup I make on Thanksgiving and Christmas but I had a hankering for it the other day and so I bought a pumpkin.

I wish I had taken a picture of the cute little squash before I gutted and roasted it, but I did not so here it is after the fact.

I halved it then took out the seeds and wrapped the squash in foil. I roasted it at 400 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. After roasting the pumpkin I turned down the oven to 250 and roasted the pumpkin seeds.

These are the seeds before roasting. I lightly rinsed them. I like leaving a bit of the pumpkin goop as it helps the tamari and salt I add to them stick nicely. I roasted them at 250 for several hours until browned and crispy.

I eat them whole. They are very yummy.

Now the soup.

Ingredients:

1 smallish pumpkin (I wish I had weighed it but I didn’t)

48 oz vegetable stock

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

2 tbls virgin coconut oil

1 large onion

4 large garlic cloves

Salt to taste

1 tsp cumin

1 tbls coriander

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbls dried ginger

1 tbls dried mustard

1 tsp cayenne

plain yogurt to top the soup with (optional)

Directions:

So roast the pumpkin for an hour and a half or until nice and soft. Let cool a bit.

Saute onion and garlic in coconut oil. Let this cool a bit too once it’s nice and soft.

Toss pumkin in a blender and add enough broth to puree. Do the same with the onions and garlic. Blend one of the batches with all the spices. Mix it all up in a pot and just barely bring to a boil. Turn off and let sit for a few hours. Add the orange juice and reheat when you want to eat it.

If you like top it with the yogurt.

Done.

6 heads of broccoli

64 oz of vegetable stock

2 large onions

1 head of garlic

1 cup of cream

1/3 lb goat cheese (fresh round)

This is a large recipe. You can halve it and it would be enough for about 4 – 6 bowls.

This is one of my simple quick soups. One could saute the onions and garlic first and it might make a better soup, but these lazy put everything in some stock, boil, and puree soups are working just fine me. They are really good.

So that’s what you do. Cut up all broccoli and onions in large pieces, no need to be careful or meticulous. The only tricky part is peeling the stalks and cutting up those.

Throw the broccoli, onion, and garlic, salt and pepper in the stock, boil until very soft.

Cool the veggie a bit and puree in a blender.

Once pureed add the cream and goat cheese. Heat enough to melt the cheese but do not bring to a boil again.

I froze this and it was fine upon reheating too.

A friend of mine today asked me if I had a recipe for Gazpacho. I didn’t. I never have recipes. I never make the same thing exactly the same twice. Absolutely never.

What I did think when she told me she wanted a recipe was, “I haven’t made Gazpacho in years and I have all that I need to make it either in the kitchen or in the garden right now.”

Being that there is no time like the present I hastened to make the soup. My friend is hopefully on her way here to have some with me. It’s chilling right now, but I’ve tasted it and it’s yummy.

Ingredients:

4 ripe tomatoes diced in small pieces (I used 3 yellow and one red as that is what I had in the garden)

1/2 medium red onion diced very fine

2 jalepenos diced in tiny pieces (one was red and one was green — also from the garden — red jalapenos tend to be a bit hotter as they are riper)

2 red peppers diced (I cheated with the peppers as we don’t have them in the garden this year. I used two canned roasted red peppers)

1 large cucumber diced into small bits (I keep the skin as they are organic and have no wax)

1 – 14 oz can of tomato sauce

4 cloves of garlic finely diced

large bunch of parsley also cut finely

Salt to taste

2 tbls red wine vinegar

2 tbls balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

This is an easy dish as you just toss everything into a bowl and mix it up well, taste it to make sure it’s got the right balance of stuff. You can adjust everything to taste.

After it’s all put together put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to chill and also let the flavors blend more. It’s best cold.

Ingredients and directions

1. Chopped up 2 lbs of organic mushroom
2. Chopped up 2 very large onions
3. 4 cloves garlic chopped
4. Threw them all together in a pot with a bit of butter. Covered them and let them simmer for about 1/2 an hour.
5. Poured one box of organic veggie soup stock and about 4 cups of organic milk into the mushroom, onions and garlic. Took off the heat immediately.
6. Grated one 8 oz pack of yogurt cultured cheese with herbs and garlic
7. Dumped it all into the mushroom with milk and veggie stock.
8. added salt and a bunch of pepper

Let it cool.

1. Came back and pureed the whole shebang.
2. Had a cup of very delicious soup.

This soup was inspired by my local Earth Fare super-market which serves something akin to this with the same name in it’s hot bar. This is my version of what is clearly tomato and spinach soup. Beyond that I chose all the ingredients. It’s very good, but different than the soup at Earth Fare. They are both very good. I like that I can go to Earth Fare and get something delicious and different that I don’t have to cook!

Ingredients:
1 lb frozen chopped spinach
28 oz can whole tomatoes with juice (smooshed by hand one at a time into the pot)
14 oz can of tomato sauce
2 large onions diced into very small pieces
6 cloves of garlic diced
40 oz vegetable stock
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp dried dill
3 tbls pesto or a bunch of fresh basil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt to taste

I have been taking short cuts to make these soups and not cooking anything before putting everything into the stock. I just throw everything into the stock and boil. They’re turning out really great so if that is all you have time for don’t hesitate to do that.

If you want to take more time, then by all means, saute the onions and garlic. It can only improve an already damn good soup.

Cook everything except the cream until very soft.

Add the cream once the soup is off the fire. Do not reheat to boiling once the cream has been added.

Enjoy!! It’s delightfully rich and light at the same time.