Tag Archives: Soup

Soup’s ON! Yellow Split Pea.

Posted on October 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’m wild about soup.  Instead of talking you to death, I’ll just hit you with the recipe pronto.  This is a good intro to Fall or kick in the ass to Winter to usher in spring.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

Adapted from Heidi Swanson’s 101cookbooks.com

  • 2 cups dried split yellow peas, picked over and rinsed
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 7-ounce container of greek yogurt (omit if vegan)
  • 1/2 cup shredded unpeeled cucumber, (deseed before shredding)
  • 1 clove garlic, mashed and minced
  • scant 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
  • big pinch of salt
  • chopped olives
  • more olive oil to drizzle (I use Fustinis Meyer Lemon for topping)

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Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan, add the yellow split peas, and cook for 20 -30 minutes, or until tender. Drain, salt to taste and set aside.

Add olive oil to a big pot over med-high heat. Stir in onions and salt and cook until the onions soften, just a minute or two. Add the cooked split peas and stock/water. Bring to a simmer and let cook for a few minutes. Now remove from the heat. Using a large cup or mug ladle half of the soup into a bowl and set aside. Using a hand blender (or regular blender) puree the soup that is still remaining in the pot. Stir the reserved (still chunky) soup back into the puree – you should have a soup that is nicely textured. If you need to thin the soup out with more water (or stock) do so a bit at a time. Give the soup a taste, if it needs more salt, add more a bit at a time until the flavor of the soup really pops.

In the meantime make the yogurt topping by mixing together the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, mint, and salt. Set aside.

Ladle soup into bowls or cups, and serve each with a generous dollop of the yogurt, a drizzle of olive oil, a touch of chopped mint (any that was left on the cutting board), and a sprinkling of black olives.

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Yahtzee! Red Pepper SALE=Spicy Red Pepper Soup

Posted on February 3, 2011 | 1 comment

Some like it HOT.  I for one, basically drink Frank’s Red Hot. It has some kind of hold on me.  A sale on red peppers is like hitting 3 or 4 numbers in the lotto, not the full monty, but you still get an excellent monetary reward…especially at D & W.  So when I saw red bell peppers, 10 for $10 dollars and sprinted to the produce shelf, leaving poor Mr. Wonderful in the dust returning with 20 red bell peppers, he had no idea what had just happened.  Since he knows better than to actually ask about such things, he agreed to just wait for the finished product which we lapped up 2 days in a row and several lunch servings later.

This recipe was adapted from the klutzychef at her blog; check her out she is cute and honest…and talks about burning Rice Krispie treats, my kind of gal.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

serves 4 people as a main meal

Ingredients

  • 8 red bell peppers, roasted (no, it does NOT taste the same if you use canned-just roast them in your oven..super easy)
  • 1 baked medium russet potato, smashed
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup half and half
  • 2 medium chopped onions
  • 6 garlic cloves peeled and left whole
  • 2 tsp roasted red pepper flakes (half of this for a milder soup)
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder (omit for mild soup, I like to hurt myself eating soup like this…)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 2 cups crushed tomatoes (16 oz)
  • 1 3/4 cups reduced-fat coconut milk (or whole fat, whatever)
  • 2 cups veggie broth or water

Directions

  1. Bake your potato, set aside to cool.  Roast your peppers, whole, washed and then coated lightly with EVOO or canola oil on a foil-lined (you will thank me later for this step) jelly roll pan at 400 or so until they are black, yes, black.  Set them aside in a tightly covered bowl to cool and then stem, seed, and peel them.  This is not hard, suck it up and do it.  Seriously, the taste is worth it.
  2. In a covered non-reactive pot, heat oil in a dutch oven on medium-high heat.
  3. Add onions, carrots, salt, pepper flakes, chipotle powder, and garlic.  Sauté on medium heat for 15 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent.  DO NOT INHALE DEEPLY when you put the flakes and powder to the oil.  You might want to turn on the fan for a few minutes or suffer for about an hour.
  4. Remove the pot from heat and add canned tomatoes, red peppers, coconut milk, smashed potato guts, half/half and broth/water.
  5. Mix together so ingredients are fully integrated.
  6. Now, in batches, add the soup to a blender or food processor to mix all together.  An immersion blender works beautifully here as well since you can just throw it right into the pot.  If you have a dish towel to spare and are using a standing blender, you may want to put the towel under the cover to prevent hot soup from spilling out the top.
  7. Keep warm until ready to serve on stove over low.
  8. Top with Frank’s Red Hot (I know it’s too much, but it’s soooooo good).

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Posted in Leftovers, Make Ahead, Recipes, Soup

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Simple Split Pea Soup

Posted on January 31, 2011 | 1 comment

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You know it has been too long since last you blogged, when you can’t remember the login or password to your WordPress account.  Sorry friends.  I have a few backlogged items to share with you in the next few days and then hopefully next week some new cooking (I have a few new cookbooks, shocker).

This easy and super cheap soup comes to use via my fave Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks.com.  You can pre-order her newest and greatest cookbook on Amazon right now SuperNatural Every Day.  If not for the recipes buy it for the food porn pics.  She is as good a photog as she is a veggie chef.

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (I used Fustini’s Meyer Lemon)
  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
  • 1 1/2 cups dried split green peas, AND 1/2 cup dried split yellow peas, picked over and rinsed.
  • 5 cups water
  • juice of 1/2 lemon (reserve the zest)
  • a few pinches of smoked paprika
  • more Meyer Lemon olive oil to drizzle

Add olive oil to a big pot over med-high heat. Stir in onions and salt and cook until the onions soften, just a minute or two. Add the split peas and water. Bring to a boil, dial down the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the peas are cooked through (but still a touch al dente). Using a large cup or mug ladle half of the soup into a bowl and set aside. Using a hand blender (or regular blender) puree the soup that is still remaining in the pot. Stir the reserved (still chunky) soup back into the puree – you should have a soup that is nicely textured. If you need to thin the soup out with more water (or stock) do so a bit at a time. Stir in the lemon juice and taste. If the soup needs more salt, add more a bit at a time until the flavor of the soup really pops.

Ladle into bowls or cups, and serve each drizzled with olive oil and topped with a good pinch of smoked paprika and a touch of lemon zest.

Serves 4 to 6.

This froze well, and all my work friends were jealous when it was beef on noodles day again in the cafe’ and I was eating a bowl of spring yum.  Also pictured with the soup was home-baked (from a freezer loaf) bread topped with chili sea salt and Meyer Lemon EVOO.

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Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes, Soup

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Clean Out Your Cupboard Mexican Sopa

Posted on December 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

I really, really wanted to go out and get half-off sushi at XO in downtown GR tonight, it’s just simply too cold to leave the house, really!  Typically Mr. Wonderful and I eat at XO for lunch on Tuesdays, because can you really pass up a 9 dollar stuff your face with sushi lunch?  No way.  Today however, I had a lunch and learn speaker session to attend and could not go to half-off sushi day. I was crying on the inside, really.  Instead, while listening to a charming and informative session put on by AMA West Michigan, I ate a crappy warm mixed greens salad without dressing (it looked gross), limp and flavorless “veggie pad Thai” (or my translation for the table was peanut butter spaghetti for white people-gag) and starchy, clumpy COLD rice, with a stale dinner roll.  I pushed my plate forward and covered it with my napkin for a proper burial after I ate the greens and then waited to get home to eat my leftovers from last night’s Pineapple Tofu dish.

While I am known on occasion to exaggerate (I know you are surprised by this revelation), I have to get this out of my system as I work in a catering department of a very well-known west Michigan establishment and hotelier:   food at other venues is shit compared to what we produce at my beloved place of employment.  Yes, really, shit.  I mean, I cannot emphasize enough, what an outstanding team of chefs and talented staff we have on our team.  A luncheon on our turf, would NOT leave you wishing for your leftovers at home, this I assure you.  I even passed on, are you ready for this…the Christmas sugar cookie.  The Pillsbury cut and bakes I can buy in the refrigerated section  are more desirable than the floury mess with butter frosting.  Honestly people…and you call yourselves professionals?

Sorry about that distraction, I’m still mad that while my $40.00 paid to attend the session today was in my eyes a donation to the organization, approximately $0.00 went to the food bill.  I feed my dogs better quality meals than I received at that country club, and not to the detriment of the host organization, this is all on the country club, 100% #epicfail.

On to the recipe.

As I wasn’t about to brave the cold, I took what I had and made “stone soup” or as I have dubbed it, “clean out your cupboard Mexican sopa”.  Proof you can take normal stuff from your cupboards, toss it in a pan, add some broth and have a dinner in under 20 minutes.  Mix it up people, your only limitations are what you currently have in your pantry or freezer.  Good luck!

Ingredients:

  • 3-15 ounce cans diced or whole tomatoes, zapped in the food processor to make your base
  • 3-15 ounce cans black beans drained, or 4 cups cooked black beans, one cup zapped with tomatoes above for base
  • 6 cloves garlic, zapped in food processor with first two ingredients
  • 1 large sweet onion diced
  • 1-15 ounce can whole corn kernels
  • 1 can or 2 cups great northern beans drained
  • 2T cumin, ground
  • 1T ancho chili pepper, ground or your fave chili powder blend
  • 3T chipotle en adobo, less if you don’t like spicy, play around with it beginning at 1T to taste
  • 1tsp epazote, ground
  • 4 C veggie broth or water
  • Juice of 4-5 limes

Really sophisticated directions here folks:

1.  In a dutch oven, cook onion on medium high until translucent or browned whatever you like.

2.  Dump into onion the base as described above with first 3 ingredients.

3.  Next toss in whole black beans, whole northern beans, whole kernel corn, spices, veg broth, lime juice and chipotle en adobo.

4.  Bring to boil, turn down to simmer, add salt and pepper to taste.

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Serve over baked tortilla chips or rice, sprinkle with cheese, top with avocado, sour cream, squeeze of lime, and chopped red onion.  Freezes like a champ.

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Posted in Fall Food, Leftovers, Less is more, Make Ahead, Michigan, Recipes, Soup

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Fresh bread, 45 minutes, no yeast. Really. It’s yummy too!

Posted on November 8, 2010 | 122 comments

Turns out you can make bread that tastes good, without much time, yeast or overloading your very busy napping, I mean working, schedule on a Sunday afternoon.  I forget that I own this cookbook until I see that someone else has dug out a keeper of a recipe from it.  I made more potato soup this afternoon in the crock pot from basically what we had in the fridge, 6 baking potatoes, 2 small yellow onions, a handful of baby carrots, 4 dried chiles, fresh thyme, a little half and half, and some skim milk while we were busy with grading, laundry, cleaning, etc and this quick savory bread was the perfect compliment to that delish dish.

Olive Oil and Salt Quick Bread
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt, preferably sea salt
  • 1 cup of warm water

To Do:

  1. Heat the oven to 375 and grease an oven proof dish or skillet – 8-9″ is probably best.
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Turn on the machine and slowly add the olive oil and most of the water.
  3. Process for 30 seconds. The dough should roll into a ball and barely sticky.  If it hasn’t come together yet, add remaining water a tablespoon at a time, processing for 5 seconds each time.  If you want to add herbs, cheese, whatever, to the dough, do it now.
  4. Put the dough into the pan and flatten it until the dough fits to the edges.  Flip and press again. Cover tightly with foil and bake.
  5. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle the top with coarse seat salt and herbs (if you like). Bake for another 20 minutes. The top will be golden and it will spring back when touched.

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Posted in Fall Food, Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes, Soup

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One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Vegan MoFo!

Posted on November 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

Confession:  I ate out tonight.  Worse yet, tomorrow I begin noshing at Restaurant Week GR, which means, the next 10 days will have more dining out than I care to admit to…however, in honor of November 2, Election Day FINALLY being behind us, I give you a recipe I will be making at some point in the next few days, as I have already baked off the potatoes in prep for it:  Baked Potato Soup. What’s the correlation to Election Day?  Well, I came across this YouTube clip of the humble potato and its rise to fame in 1992 when then VP Dan Quayle was schooled by a 6th-grader in how to spell the singular of potatoe, er, I mean potato.  Soup’s on!

Baked Potato Soup

2 T EVOO
1/4 of a large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
4 baking potatoes (about 2-1/2 lbs.)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 oz.)
6 cups milk (reduced fat if you prefer, or plain soy if vegan)
1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, divided (use reduced fat if you prefer or soy if vegan)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (for garnish, omit if you prefer)
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
6 faux-bacon slices, cooked and crumbled or other meat sub that has a smoky bite to it.  I used Morningstar Ground Sausage Crumbles in a pinch tonight.
Cracked black pepper (optional)

*adapted from Cooking Light, Rachael Ray and anon on the Interwebs

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Posted in Fall Food, Make Ahead, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Soup

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Soup Season!

Posted on September 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Fall is my favorite food season.  Tailgating and soup making are really the highlights in my humble opinion.  Mr. Wonderful did all the grocery shopping for the week after we picked out our recipes for the week over a blueberry pancake breakfast (yes, some of THOSE blueberries).  So this evening, all I had to do was pull together this easy, soul warming soup.

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Black Bean Corn Chowder

  • 1 T EVOO
  • 1 medium sweet onion, diced
  • 1 medium carrot, diced
  • 1 baking potato, peeled and diced
  • 1 package frozen corn kernels
  • 2 C black beans, cooked
  • 4 C veggie broth
  • 2 C skim milk
  • 1/4 C sweet red pepper, diced
  • 1 poblano pepper, diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, diced
  • 1/2 T onion powder
  • 1/2 T garlic powder
  • 1 T chili powder
  • 1 T cumin
  • 1 T fresh oregano
  • 1 tsp salt, to taste

Saute’ veggies (not corn) in EVOO, cook until soft.  Add spices, cook 1-2 more minutes, stirring.  Add liquids bring to boil.  Drop in frozen corn and beans.  Bring back to boil.  Serve hot with toppings of your choice.  We like sour cream, avocado and a squeeze of lime.

My black beans generally do not come from a can, except for when I am in a super duper hurry and haven’t done a good job of planning ahead.  Tonight I made a two pound bag of black beans before putting together the soup so that I had a few bags in the freezer ready to go for the next few weeks.  To quickly cook black beans, in a large pot, dump rinsed and picked over beans, cover with water plus 2 inches up the side of the pan and boil until al dente.  They will cook the rest of the way in whatever you cook them in, soup, tacos, etc.  Yeah, that’s it.  You don’t have to do all that soaking if you have about 45 minutes to boil the crap out of them.  This way, you save money, they taste WAAAYYYY better and the sodium content is much lower.  I then take the beans and freeze them in plastic bags.  They don’t last long, so I’m not sure how long they keep.  Hispanic food stores have the BEST deals on dried black beans.  I once bought a 10 pound bag for $4.00.  Seriously.  I just finished that bag a few weeks ago, it lasted about 6 months.

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Posted in Fall Food, Make Ahead, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Soup

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