Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

Delish! If you haven't read In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories About Food You Love, by Melissa Clark, you need to. Not only is it a fun read but full of amazing recipes. I started bookmarking all the ones I wanted to make and quit after the first 10 because the list encompassed almost all the recipes in the book! This is the first one I tackled. Her recipes are very straight forward and in my opinion pretty simple. They don't have hard to find ingredients with immediately deters me from trying a recipe. Melissa cooks like I do. She tries a dish at some one's house or in a restaurant and immediately goes home and tries to figure out how to make it in her own kitchen. I hope you enjoy the red lentils. They are more delicate than the typical green or french lentils. They are perfect for soups because they almost dissolve into the broth of any soup. Pairing red lentils a touch of tomato paste, cumin and lemon is brilliant! I LOVED this soup! I made some changes only because I didn't have all the ingredients in the kitchen. First I added about 1/4 cup of couscous because I didn't measure correctly at the bulk bin when I was getting my red lentils. After reading the original recipe in Melissa's book-substituting one cup of lentils for bulgar I figured I could do something similar in me rendition (and it worked!) I didn't have 2 quarts of broth so I used a bit more water and a bullion cube. I'm never sure what two large carrots look like so I used 4 medium to small ones. See what I mean about making a recipe your own!

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

serves 4-6

4 T good EVOO
2 large onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t chili powder
pinch of cayenne
1 quart Chicken or Vegetable Broth
4 C water
1 bullion cube
1 1/2 C red lentils (or 2 C lentils and no couscous)
1/4 C couscous
2 large carrots (or so)
juice of one lemon
1/3 C chopped Cilantro

In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and saute until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste, cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder and cayenne, saute about 2 minutes. Add the broth, water, lentils, couscous and carrots. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer until lentils and carrots are soft, about 30-40 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Use an immersion blender to to puree half or all the soup. When ready to serve, stir in lemon juice and serve with cilantro and a drizzle of good olive oil.

Mexican Chicken Soup

My Brother has been sending me pictures of what he has been making for dinner so I finally took the hint... he wants to be on my blog. So in honor of the 100th post I give you this delicious recipe made by Matt and Rebekah. All for you Matt, all for you! (Maybe this will make more people visit this site, now that I have a guest writer. Don't all log on at once and cause the internet to crash!)Mexican Chicken Soup

2 chicken breasts(EVOO, S&P, cook for 40min at 350)

2 C chopped yellow onion

1 C chopped celery

2 C chopped carrots

4 garlic cloves chopped

2.5 quarts of chicken stock

1 28oz can of whole tomatoes in puree, crushed

2-4 jalapeno peppers

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander seed

1/2 C chopped cilantro

6 (6inch) tortillas

garnish:

sliced avocado

sour cream

grated cheddar

tortilla chips

Cook chicken and let cool, then tear and separate meat from skin and boneHeat 3tblp's of EVOO and add carrots, celery, onions- cook until onions brown. Add garlic 30secs). Add chicken stock, tomatoes and puree, peppers, spices, and some salt and pepper, and cilantro. Cut tortillas in half and then cross wise into 1/2inch strips and add. Bring soup to boil and then simmer for 25min. Add chicken and season to taste.

...thanks Ina Garten

Italian Wedding Soup

I've been meaning to make this soup for a while now. My grandparent's and aunt made it this quite often for family gatherings and I always loved it. I didn't really have a recipe so I kind of made it up. I think it turned out pretty tasty. I used spinach instead of escarole and added tortellini instead of a small pasta. I was so good! We ate it for dinner and then for lunch over the weekend.

Italian Wedding Soup with Tortellini

1 t butter

1 t evoo

1 medium onion, diced

2 large carrots, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

8 C chicken broth

2 T fresh parsley

1 bag of frozen cheese tortellini

a few handfulls of fresh spinach

Meatballs

1/2 pound of ground turkey

2 T finely minced onion

1 egg white

pinch of salt

pinch of dried basil

2-3 T freshly grated parmesan

1 T breadcrumbs

For the meatballs:

Gently combine all ingredients and form into small balls (about 1/2 inch in size). Set a side.

For the soup:

Melt butter and evoo in a large stock pot. Add onion and carrots and cook until onions are soft. Add thyme and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Gently drop meatballs into soup and simmer for 10 minutes. Add spinach and tortellini and continue cooking for 4-5 minutes. Season with salt a pepper to taste.

Note:

I made the soup one night and added the tortellini on the day we had it for dinner. It was even better after it had sat for a day or two in the fridge.

Chicken Brunswick Stew

My version of something I have never made before! I looked up a ton of recipes and kind of mushed them together to make this one with items I had in the house. The only thing I would change would be starting with less sugar. I thought it was a touch too sweet. I think you need the surgar because otherwise it would take more like a chili. It was quite good and really easy since I used the crock pot. We had enough to freeze half for another night.

Chicken Brunswick Stew

1 large onion, chopped
2 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
15-ounce can cream-style corn
28-ounces can crushed tomatoes
15-ounce can chili beans with sauce
2 C chicken broth
¼ C Worcestershire sauce
2 T white vinegar
2 t dry mustard
½ t salt
½ t pepper
½ t hot pepper sauce
1 T sugar

Place onion in a 4-quart slow cooker; place chicken breasts on top of the onions. Add the rest of the ingredients and cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Remove the chicken and shred; return to stew. Mix thoroughly and serve.

Roasted Potato Leek Soup

I can't believe this is my first post in over 2 months. I have completely forgotten about posting. I was really into this and wanted to be dedicated to this blog and I have totally fallen off the band wagon. I can't really think of any blog worthy recipies we have made either! Oh times have been quite busy.

Well yesterday I made a pot of soup. It has been really cold here lately and Dave is in California for the week. I am trying to get through the fridge and not shop. I'm really not a soup maker. I seem to mess it up each time. I thought I would try it without the pressure of have Dave around to critique and then I go ahead and bring it over to Kate and Walid's for dinner last night! I thought it was pretty good. I found the recipe in Back to Basics by Ina Garten. I LOVE her recipes. I of course made my own modifications to suit my likings and what I had in the way of ingredients.

5 or six potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
2 big leeks rinsed and chopped
evoo
kosher salt and fresh pepper
1/4 c dry white wine
5-6 c chicken stock
1/4 c milk
1/4 freshly grated parm

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the potatoes and leeks on a sheet pan in a single layer and toss with evoo, salt and pepper. Roast vegetables for 40-45 minutes turning a couple of times. Remove the pan from the oven and place over two burners. Stir in the wine and 1 cup of chicken stock over low heat scrape up any crispy roasted bits sticking to the pan.
In batches transfer the vegetables to the food processor fitted with the steel blade adding the pan liquid and chicken stock to make a puree. Pour the puree into a large dutch oven. Add the milk and more stock if needed to make a thick soup. when ready to serve whisk in the parm.