Tag

soup

Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Soup Vegetarian

Adobo Butternut Squash Soup

written by Ali

Adobo Butternut Squash Soup is an antidote to the mid-winter blues. In the new year, I’m always drawn to super easy, super healthy recipes. My first week back at work is always hectic, so a quick soup and salad for lunch is perfect. This adobo butternut squash soup takes just five ingredients and can be prepped from start to finish in about thirty minutes. It freezes beautifully, which is always a plus for lunch prep.

Am I the only one who, in January, still has winter squash lurking from the last farmer’s markets of the season? I still have a kabocha, a spaghetti squash, and about four delicata squash hanging out in the pantry. It will be a race to use them up before they end up in the compost. Fortunately, the butternut squash was ideal for this soup. Paired with adobo chilies, this is both spicy and sweet.

Yum

Adobo Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 onion, diced
2 canned adobo chilies
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Instructions

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion. Saute until lightly browned. Add the adobo chilies and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken or vegetable stock and water. Add the cubed butternut squash. Bring the stock to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the butternut squash is soft - about 15 minutes.
Puree the soup in a blender in batches or with an immersion blender. Salt to taste.
Serves 4. Enjoy!

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January 20, 2019 0 comment

Appetizers Farmer's Market Soup Vegetarian

Potato, Mushroom, Spinach Soup

written by Ali

If you are looking for a comforting soup that has nothing to do with turkey, check out my potato, mushroom, spinach soup. You might happen to have all the ingredients on hand, and in less than an hour, you’ll have a steaming hot bowl of soup on the table. This potato, mushroom, spinach soup would make a great appetizer for your holiday entertaining, too.

I’ve been looking forward to soup weather for quite awhile now. We had some unusually warm and sunny weather for the first part of November. Thanksgiving, however, heralded in the rain – with forty mile winds and thunder and lightening. Can we just say it was a super wet Turkey Trot this year? It looks like the rain is here to stay, so you’ll be seeing soup recipes here on the blog, without a doubt.

I’d originally planned to make soup with chanterelles. However, wild foods show up inconsistently at our local co-op. No complaints, mind you – I’m just happy they stock freshly foraged foods at all. I ended up with a pound of the most beautiful oyster mushrooms instead. I had plenty of mushroom tops for this soup and the stems went into the stock back in the freezer. I love to make mushroom stock from all the stems of various mushrooms throughout the fall. I’ve also been known to toss the mushroom bits into chicken stock for an added umami flavor.

Mushrooms, potatoes, and then a handful of spinach make this soup cozy. This is a great excuse to have soup and salad for lunch. Or – if you have turkey lurking still, consider soup and grilled brie and turkey sandwiches for an easy weekend dinner.

Yum

Potato, Mushroom, Spinach Soup

Ingredients

1 small onion, diced
3 small potatoes, diced
2 cups mushrooms, diced
2 cups spinach
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 sprigs rosemary
1/4 cup flour
1 cup half and half or milk
2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute over low heat until the onion is lightly caramelized. Add the diced potatoes and stir for two or three minutes. Add the chicken or vegetable stock, rosemary, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 10 - 15 minutes or until the potato is cooked through.
While the potatoes are cooking, heat the remaining tablespoon in a small pan or saucepan. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft, adding water or stock as necessary to keep the mushrooms from sticking. Set aside.
Whisk the flour and milk in a small bowl until the flour is thoroughly incorporated and there are no lumps.
Add the flour/milk and mushrooms to the stock and potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until the soup is slightly thick and heated through - about ten minutes. Add the spinach and cook for another minute.
Remove the stems from the rosemary. Season to taste.
Serves 4 as a meal and 6 as a starter. Enjoy!

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November 24, 2018 1 comment

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Soup

Roasted Asparagus Nettle Soup

written by Ali

I’ve become a little obsessed lately with a wild foraged food: stinging nettles, which led to a soup perfect for spring – roasted asparagus nettle soup. After the gloom of winter, I can’t get enough of green vegetables come the spring. While I’ve always been a huge fan of asparagus, I’m always curious about other spring greens, particularly those that can be locally foraged or sourced. I’d read quite a bit about stinging nettles, but to tell the truth, I don’t think I’d know one in the wild if it, well, stung me.

So I was incredibly excited to see that our local food co-op has been sourcing and selling local stinging nettles. It’s well worth the $3.99 to buy a full bag of stinging nettles and spare myself wandering around the woods to find a plant I don’t think I’d recognize anyway. Plus, stinging nettles have a reputation for having a nasty bite before they are cooked. I much prefer the easy transfer from bag to boiling water using long tongs.

I’ve been doing a lot of research about how to use stinging nettles. As it turns out, they are incredibly versatile and can be used in both sweet and savory dishes. The flavor of stinging nettles is herbaceous – a little reminiscent of spinach, but with an earthier undertone. I’ll confess – I’m thoroughly hooked. I started out with the roasted asparagus nettle soup and have since also made nettle pesto. I love these so much, I finally broke down and bought a pasta maker so I can make stinging nettle ravioli next weekend.

You can certainly substitute spinach or another green for the nettles in this soup. Green is green, especially this time of year. That said, if you happen to have a nettle foraging story, I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

Yum

Roasted Asparagus Nettle Soup

Ingredients

1 pound asparagus, trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup to 1 cup cooked stinging nettles, roughly chopped
2 or 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups water
1/2 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the trimmed asparagus on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes or until the asparagus is lightly browned. Roughly chop the asparagus.
While the asparagus is roasting, prepare the stinging nettles. Add the nettles to boiling water in a saucepan. Be very cautious not to touch the nettles. Boil for five minutes and then drain. Chop the nettles roughly, using what's needed for the soup and saving the rest for other recipes (nettles can be frozen for later use).
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and saute over medium heat until the garlic is lightly browned. Add the asparagus, the cooked nettles, the stock and the water. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.
Use an immersion blender or blend in small batches until the soup is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste and the half and half. Bring the soup back to a simmer and cook until it is hot.
Serves 4. Enjoy!

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April 16, 2018 5 comments

Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Quick and Easy Soup

Creamy Tomato Dukkah Spice Soup

written by Ali

This week, I plan to enjoy a creamy tomato dukkah spice soup for lunch for as many days as I can. Oh – and I also added a little bit of preserved lemon. I made a batch of preserved lemons and preserved key limes a few weeks ago. They’ve been happily preserving in the fridge all this time and now it’s time to start making use of them. January is always time to start cleaning out the cupboards and fridge, which also means it’s when I tend to make tomato soup. I look into the pantry and realize I still have dozens of jars of diced tomatoes (and tomato sauce and tuna – but that’s a post for another day). I love how versatile canned diced tomatoes can be. I’m sure this won’t be the only week of soup and sandwich (or soup and salad) for lunch between now and the official start of spring.

The surprise ingredient for this recipe, though, is the dukkah spice. I discovered dukkah at our local Fred Meyer. They have a great section of spices and I’ve been seeing more and more interesting blends show up there. Dukkah is an Egyptian blend of spices that includes some variety of nuts and seeds. The blend I purchased had both flax seeds and sesame seeds, in addition to a number of various savory herbs and some salt. You can make your own blend, as well. Dukkah is often used as a crust for lamb or fish. I’ve still got some albacore tuna lurking in the freezer and I’m thinking it might be really tasty coated in dukkah and pan fried.

In the meantime, there’s creamy tomato dukkah spice soup to brighten up my week. I’ll be serving it on the side of sandwiches this week, as I’m working on using up some wonderful garlic sourdough we bought at the local bakery, as well as a head of lettuce. Not a bad way to start wrapping up the first month of the New Year.

Yum

Creamy Tomato Dukkah Spice Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 16 ounce cans diced tomatoes with juice
2 teaspoons dukkah spice
2 teaspoons finely chopped preserved lemons
Salt to taste

Instructions

Melt the butter and olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute the shallots until they are lightly browned.
Add the chicken stock, diced tomatoes and juice, the dukkah spice, and the preserved lemons. Bring to a low boil and simmer for thirty minutes. Taste for salt and add as needed.
Blend in an immersion blender or blender until creamy. Serve immediately or freeze for later.
Serves 4. Enjoy!

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January 22, 2018 0 comment

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Soup Vegetarian

Creamy Broccoli Cauliflower Cheddar Soup

written by Ali

One of my favorite ways to use up broccoli is to make creamy broccoli cauliflower cheddar soup. Honestly, it’s really kind of an everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink soup, as in addition to broccoli and cauliflower, you can also toss in carrots, spinach, onion, and celery if you are so inclined. Potatoes would probably work in this soup, too. The point is, this is a perfect handle your CSA veggies kind of soup.

Speaking of CSAs, this week’s share from Valley Flora farm included lettuce, spinach, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, strawberries, dill, fennel, and zucchini. In addition, we bought potatoes, blueberries, plums, kale, marionberries, and green beans from the Farmer’s Market. It’s definitely the season for all sorts of fruits and veggies. The cauliflower, broccoli, onion, and most of the carrots went into this creamy broccoli cauliflower cheddar soup. The lettuce and spinach both were used up in salads, as was the fennel (though I’m infusing some vodka with the fennel fronds – more about that next week). The zucchini and the rest of the carrots went into a mini-muffin – check back later this week for that recipe. Some of the fruit went into sangria, while the rest of it went into both my yogurt in the mornings and into fruit salad for dessert. The potatoes got used up as part of a breakfast bowl and then as mashed potatoes one night. The green beans became a recipe from My Paris Kitchen (check out my Instagram feed for more on that one). The dill – the beautiful wonderful dill – got dehydrated in the oven at 170 degrees for 40 minutes and crumbled up. I’ve already used some on popcorn and am pretty sure the dill is going to show up in a recipe soon with cream cheese and smoked salmon – just saying. The only thing lingering in the fridge right now is the chard. Not bad for a week of significantly increased farm-to-table abundance.

I realize that for many, this is definitely not soup weather. However, here on the southern Oregon coast, creamy broccoli cauliflower cheddar soup is very welcome right now. This is comfort food at its best: a super creamy soup with a minimal amount of fuss. I’ve been eating this all week long for lunch with a side salad of spinach, roasted fennel and walnuts. It would also be absolutely wonderful with a grilled cheese sandwich.

This is a freezer-friendly soup. If you are trying to figure out how to preserve some of the bounty of the summer, you could make up a batch of this and stash it in the freezer for when the weather cools down in the fall. A good sharp cheddar is a must here – I use my favorite local cheese from Face Rock Creamery.

Yum

Creamy Broccoli Cauliflower Cheddar Soup

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
1 small onion, diced
4 cups of any combination of broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, potato and/or celery, diced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups water
2 cups milk
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 cup cheddar cheese

Instructions

Melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan. Add the onions and cook until translucent.
Add the mix of diced vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the water and milk and bring to a low boil. Stir frequently. Cook for 20 - 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Remove from heat and blend in either a blender or using an immersion blender. Stir in the cheese.
Serves 4. Enjoy!

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July 23, 2017 0 comment

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Soup

Vegetarian Asparagus Soup

written by Ali

It’s finally spring and finally time for vegetarian asparagus soup with a soft boiled egg. I love asparagus. I think it’s one of the few veggies that I absolutely gorge on when it’s in season, to the point that by the last bunch of asparagus, I think to myself, if I never see asparagus again, it will be too soon. And then there’s a very long break between asparagus seasons and the process starts all over again.

Asparagus grows very happily in the Pacific Northwest, which means it is in abundant supply in the farmer’s market. I use it in just about everything this time of year, from quiche, to omelets, to salads. I like raw asparagus, so will often chop up a couple of stalks and toss it into a green salad and call it lunch. We also roast a lot of asparagus. With a little olive oil, a bit of salt, and a good roasting, it’s the perfect side dish for many meals. One of my absolute favorite preparations, though, is asparagus soup. Vegetarian asparagus soup tastes like spring.

This vegetarian asparagus soup with a soft boiled egg recipe was inspired by Top Chef. Did anyone else watch this most recent season in Charleston? I have to admit that it was a huge disappointment: it just didn’t seem remotely fair to pit individuals who had been on the show before against those who had not. And then (spoiler alert) Brooke won. I download all my favorite reality shows from I-Tunes so that I can watch them without disturbing Clay, who is not a fan of most (though strangely enough, he doesn’t mind Ink Masters or The Great British Baking Show). Of course, this means that I’m always a week or two behind, and because I can’t stand not knowing how something ends, I usually google that week’s episode to find out who won and who didn’t. All of this to say that I knew Brooke won before I watched the episode, and now I won’t watch the last episode. I was team Sheldon and Shirley all the way.

Where was I? Oh, yes – vegetarian asparagus soup. This is a riff on an asparagus soup that Sylva Senat made early on in the season. I adored the idea of putting a soft boiled egg in the middle of the soup and letting all that creamy yolk ooze out. Granted, as you’ll see in the photo, I over-boiled my egg. Rather than a 6 minute egg, I ended up with something around an 8 minute egg because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. Regardless, is it lunch time yet? Because I am getting so hungry. This might be the best tasting recipe I’ve ever made. I did make my own veggie stock this go around, and highly recommend you do the same. I’ve been gathering mushroom stems, asparagus bits, onion peels, and leftover celery leaves and stems. I throw it all in a freezer bag in the freezer and then make stock once I have a full bag. The stock gives this soup a really rich flavor. I also used a leek. So – it’s a very simple soup: veggie stock, asparagus, a leek, a few chives and some salt.

Get yourself some asparagus. Find some farm fresh eggs (store bought eggs will work to) and make this beautiful vegetarian asparagus soup with a soft boiled egg. Enjoy!

Yum

Vegetarian Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

1 leek, finely chopped
1 bunch asparagus, chopped in one or two inch chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
6 cups vegetable stock
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
Soft boiled eggs

Instructions

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the olive oil and leek and sauté until the leek is soft. Add the asparagus and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and chives. Blend the soup in a blender or use an immersion blender and blend until the soup is silky. Serve with a soft boiled egg and chives to garnish. Enjoy!
Serves 4

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This post is linked up to Tinned Tomatoes Meat Free Mondays and to Kahakai Kitchen Souper Sundays

April 10, 2017 3 comments

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Soup Vegetarian

Adobo Sweet Potato Soup

written by Ali

Adobo Sweet Potato soup is my answer to the in-between time of winter and spring. The end of January and the start of February are such awkward times of the year. In the PNW in particular, it’s not quite winter, but it’s not quite spring, either – it’s still raining, but there are those occasional days of sunshine that suggest that maybe, just maybe, spring is around the corner. In terms of seasonal foods, it’s a good time to do some pantry and fridge clearing, as well as explore what root veggies have been hanging out for too long underneath the onions. It’s definitely the time of year when sweet potatoes and potatoes get some love.

I tend not to cook sweet potatoes around the traditional times of year, like Thanksgiving. I wait, instead, until I’m back to work post-holiday, and looking for lunches that can be frozen easily. I never know quite what each week is going to bring, so it’s good to have a guaranteed good lunch waiting for me in the freezer. This adobo sweet potato soup definitely fits the bill. It’s easy to make, so didn’t consume my entire Sunday to prep. It freezes beautifully, and I’m already looking forward to eating it at lunch this week.

Canned adobo chilies lend the adobo sweet potato soup a super smokey flavor. I also used some smoked paprika, which is arguably one of my all time favorite spices. As part of the fridge/pantry clean up effort, I gathered up all the celery I could find, leaves and all, and tossed those in too. The end result is a silky, smokey, soup with a bit of sweet and just the slightest kick from the peppers.

If you checked out my post from last week with the black lentil and poached egg bowls, you know that I’m a bit mirepoix obsessed here of late. The adobo sweet potato soup has a modified mirepoix: adobo chili, celery, and onion. It’s just so colorful in the pan:

Once the smoked paprika and salt go in, the mirepoix takes on a deep red shade

And then the sweet potatoes go in.

All of this beauty becomes a gorgeous adobo sweet potato soup (after the addition of some veggie stock and some pureeing).

I added a dollop of Greek yogurt to cut the heat a bit. Greek yogurt, sour cream, or creme fraiche would all be a lovely addition to this soup.

Yum

Adobo Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 adobo chili, diced
4 stalks celery, preferably with leaves, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
Greek yogurt (optional)

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan. Add the adobo chili, the celery, and the onion and saute until the celery and onion become soft. Add the sweet potatoes, smoked paprika, and salt and stir a few times. Add the veggie stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 - 25 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
Use an immersion blender or blender and puree to desired smoothness. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt. Enjoy!
Serves 4

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This recipe is getting around. It’s linked up this week to

Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen

and at Meatless Monday on Confessions of a Mother Runner (co-hosted by Sarah at A Whisk and Two Wands).

and at Tinned Tomatoes Meat Free Mondays where it was featured for the week of February 6 (check out the great menu ideas for the week!).

and at #CookBlogShare hosted by Hijacked by Twins as well as at #SimplySeasonal hosted by Hijacked by Twins.

January 30, 2017 12 comments

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Quick and Easy Soup

Black Garlic Tomato Soup

written by Ali

I have a particularly hectic week going on this week with some sort of travel going on every day except for Friday. I had unavoidable lunches out for two of those days (though in truth, today’s lunch of salad, crab cakes, and a trio of desserts was pretty awesome, especially since it was all made by culinary students in their first term of school). In planning my week, I knew I’d need to prep things on Sunday that could frozen for lunch for later in the week. At the same time, I’ve been really intrigued by black garlic, which has been showing up at various natural food stores around town, including Trader Joe’s. Black garlic, which sounds scary, I know, is actually garlic that’s been fermented for weeks. It’s possible to make your own, but since we are living in a rental right now, and black garlic is pretty pungent smelling, I’m going to have to rely on buying it for now.

Black garlic – still in the garlic pod on the left and a peeled clove on the right.

Black garlic has a subtle flavor – somewhere between garlic and licorice. I decided to experiment and try it out in a tomato soup, which ended up being the perfect use. The soup is very easy to make – it takes just a few ingredients and about thirty minutes to cook. The best part – it freezes easily, making it a perfect lunch meal!

I’ve linked this up to Kahakai Kitchen’s Souper Sunday. If you are looking for other really great soup recipes, check out the link and you won’t be disappointed.

Black Garlic Tomato Soup

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves black garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 16 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add the black garlic and onion and sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the paprika and the salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Puree in a blender or use an immersion blender to get the soup to your desired consistency. Enjoy!

October 26, 2016 15 comments

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Main Dishes Soup

“Magic” Chicken Orzo Soup

written by Ali

I was delighted to see that Simona Carini was hosting another Novel Food edition on her lovely blog briciole. I have such fun thinking about the various books I read and what food gets cooked and consumed in those books, as well as how food can play an important role on a character’s development.

This year, I decided to make an attempt to read my way through Popsugar’s Reading Challenge, which is a list of 40 or so categories of books like satire, or a book that will be made into a movie this year. I thought it might force me out of my book comfort zone, which tends heavily toward the mystery aisle in the bookstore. One of the categories was a romance set in the future. I did some searching and came up with…a mystery that’s set in the future and is also a love story. Ok, so maybe this didn’t push me out of my reading comfort zone, but it did turn me onto a new mystery series: JD Robb’s series featuring Detective Eve Dallas and her handsome hubby, Roarke. To say that I’m hooked would be something of an understatement – I’ve been going to our used bookstore every month to add to my stash (there are over 50 books in the series so far and I’ve read 14 of them). I’ll read three or four of these at a time and then take a little break, read something else, and then start again.

One of the things that has struck me is how much food plays into each story. Eve Dallas is a tough but lovable character and her criminal turned civilian consultant husband Roarke spends much of his time taking care of her, including making sure she eats well. Dallas’s tastes lean toward red meat, pizza, and coffee, but Roarke often makes her eat her vegetables and tries to get her to appreciate the finer things in life in between her saving people and finding murderers.

There is also a wonderful surrounding cast of characters that includes Dallas’s partner, Detective Peabody. Peabody also likes to make sure that Eve eats while she is on the go and tracking down the bad guys. In one of my favorite parts of Calculated in Death (book 45 in the series), Peabody and Dallas stop for soup in between interviews of murder suspects and Dallas calls the soup “magic” – it’s just how good it is. I don’t recall that she actually ever reveals what’s in the soup, but magic soup becomes a touchstone throughout the book – later on, when Dallas and Peabody are back at their headquarters, Dallas eats some minestrone soup and sniffs at it, saying that it isn’t bad, but it isn’t “magic”.

Since soup is one of my favorite foods, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what my “magic” soup is and decided it would be chicken noodle soup of some sort. This weekend, we’ve been inundated by rain and wind here in the PNW, so I thought it was probably time to make chicken soup. Sadly, we just don’t have enough storage space in our kitchen in our Vancouver rental, so I don’t have any chicken stock stored. I decided I was going to poach some chicken breasts, with both skin and bone still on and in, and magic up some stock. Combined with a lot of garlic, a little bit of green chili, and orzo, I think this soup could make even Eve Dallas come back for seconds.

“Magic” Chicken Orzo Soup
Serves 4

For the poached chicken and stock
2 bone-in with skin chicken breasts
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1/2 red onion
1/2 leek
2 teaspoons salt

Cut the carrot in half. Do the same with the celery stalks. Cut the onion into four chunks. Cut the leek in half and make sure it is thoroughly clean. Toss the bay leaves, peppercorns, carrot, celery, onion, leek and salt in a large saucepan. Lay the chicken on top and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then turn to a low simmer. Poach for 15 – 20 minutes or until the chicken reads 165 degrees on a meat thermometer. Strain out the chicken and other soilds and reserve the poaching liquid.

For the soup
Poached chicken breasts
8 cups chicken stock from the poached chicken
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1/2 red onion
1/2 leek
8 garlic cloves
1 roasted Anaheim chili (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup uncooked orzo
Salt to taste

Chop the vegetables into bite size pieces. Shred the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the carrots, onions and celery and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, leek and Anaheim chili. Saute for another two minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the orzo and cook for eight minutes. Stir in the shredded chicken and cook for ten more minutes. Season with salt to taste. Enjoy!

This blog post is linked to two really awesome blog link parties, so please take a look at the other great recipes that are out there:

Kahakai Kitchen Souper Sundays

Novel Food #28 on briciole

October 16, 2016 5 comments

Freezer Meals Main Dishes Soup

Crockpot Posole

written by Ali

I recently ran across a great blog that combines the best of two worlds: food and books. I’ve previously participated in the Novel Food challenge on Simona Carini’s beautiful blog, and was very excited to find Cook the Books Foodie Book Club. The book chosen for August and September was F.G. Hachenbeck’s The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo. This is a slightly odd book that fictionalizes Frida Kahlo’s life in context of a little recipe book that Kahlo might have kept. Recipes are sprinkled throughout the book, and then there are a few of made-for-modern-taste versions of those recipes in the back.

I was especially excited to see a book about Frida Kahlo as the focus of this blog adventure. I have been a Frida fan for a long time now – and funny enough, my first really significant encounter with her art is also tied to a food memory. When I was in my late twenties, I took off for a road adventure by myself. I was newly single and trying to find my way. That way led to a road trip to Portland, OR and then all the way up Highway 101 to Tacoma and into Seattle. I stayed at the Edgewater hotel in Seattle and walked everywhere, including the Seattle Art Museum, which was having a spectacular exhibit of both Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s work. I was transported by Kahlo’s paintings – in life, they are even more stunning than in photos. After spending hours wandering through the exhibit, I went across the street and stumbled into a Vietnamese restaurant and ate Pho for the first time. Different cultures, different foods, different times, but for me, soup and Kahlo are inexorably linked in my memory because of that trip.

I’ve read other books about Kahlo, but I will say I enjoyed this venture into magical realism. Like Kahlo’s paintings, the book merges the real with the surreal and takes us to the very personal relationship that Kahlo had with death. And with food, of course. This book is filled with rich description of food and the rich relationship that the characters have with food. I doubt the truth of some of the book, but do like the thought that Frida Kahlo had such a rich life full of so many interesting people coming and going.

My book is now very sticky-noted with all the possible recipes I may yet try to adapt. For this particular blog post though, I decided to go with Posole, largely because it hits that note of comfort food that rings for me when I think of my encounter with Kahlo’s paintings.

Not so long ago, I ran across directions for making hominy through nixtamalization – the process of turning maize into hominy. I think it may be something I try someday (this is a farm fantasy moment – that day when I can grow my own maize, have chickens and goats, and so on). For now, I’m sticking with buying hominy in the store. I advise using dried white corn posole.

This adds a step (the white corn posole needs to be soaked overnight), but also gives the soup a better flavor than canned hominy. I’ve added a few more ingredients than what is called for in the book and have also gone with a pork loin roast (rather than a pork head or other parts, as advised in the book). This is a great Sunday Supper meal, as it can be tossed in the crockpot in the morning and can cook all day. It also makes a good freezer meal.

Here’s a picture of the pork loin all rubbed in spices:

And then the end result, seven hours later. This is definitely a soup that will be added into our winter crockpot meal rotation.

Crockpot Posole
Serves 6

White corn posole, soaked overnight
1 chopped onion
2 roasted Anaheim peppers, peeled and deseeded
1 can diced tomatoes (15 ounces)
4 cups chicken broth (or 2 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water)
Pork Loin roast – between 1 and 2 pounds
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon oregano or Italian seasonings
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon ancho chili powder

Combine the seasonings and rub on the pork loin roast. Add any remaining seasonings, the pork loin roast, and all other ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours or until the pork can be easily shredded with a fork.

Serve with wedges of lime, chopped up cilantro, and sliced avocado. Enjoy!

September 20, 2016 10 comments

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