Sweet Potato Soup

  

Sweet Potato Soup?  Yes please.  The fresh parmesan and bacon garnish really made this dish so don't leave them out.

 2 lb sweet potatoes, halved lengthwise

1/4 C water

olive oil

1 C onion, diced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

4 C chicken stock

1 slice bacon/person

Parmesan cheese for ganish

Place potatoes cut side down in a microwave-safe baking dish.  Add 1/4 C water.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave 10-15 minutes (depending on size of potato) until tender.  Cool slightly and discard skins.  I couldn't fit all my potatoes in the dish at once so had to split them into two cooking shifts.

Heat saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add oil.  Saute onion for 1 minute or so, stir in cumin and red pepper.  Add stock to pan, bring to a boil.  Place sweet potato and stock mixture in blender.  Blend till smooth (make sure you allow steam to escape through an opening in the top of the blender.  Mine has a tiny hole at top which is adequate but I've also opened the whole top and covered with a paper towel to allow steam to escape as it blends).  Return to pan and repeat with any remaining broth/potatoes until the soup is pureed.  I made my soup an hour before Geoff got home so it sat on low for an hour with a lid, but the directions say you can serve immediately.

Garnish with 1 slice bacon, crumbled, and some shaved parmesan cheese.

 And now a few pictures from Halloween night.  It was pretty cute following this little guy around as he went trick-or-treating.  He got side-tracked at one house where they had a TV outside and were sitting in chairs watching a football game.  He crawled right up into an empty chair, ignoring the offered candy, and said "ball, ball", happy to watch the game rather than get more candy.  Goofy kid, we had to forcibly pull him away from that house.  Oh, and yes he's shirtless but it was plenty warm Halloween night in Houston - comfortable in sorts and a T-shirt and no bugs to speak of.

 

Enjoying the spoils of his work.

Creamy Veggie Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup was fabulous!  But who can turn down a good tortilla soup.  And then, added bonus, it used all sorts of things sitting in our fridge that were begging to be used and even used a few carrots from the garden.

Another food that doesn't picture well - or at least doesn't picture well by me.  But trust me, it's delicious.

And, I know this looks like a lot of ingredients upon a quick glance, but they are mostly spices.  You probably have most things on hand to make this easy and delicious recipe.


Olive oil
1 small onion (or 1/2 of the huge mega onion that I had)
1 C diced carrots
1 C diced celery
1 bell pepper, diced
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 C chicken stock
1 C water
2-3 tomatoes, diced and then "crushed" in a mini food processor (it calls for canned crushed tomatoes but I needed to use up fresh)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4-5 (6-inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 C cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 C half and half (or just use milk)

Optional Garnishes:
Tortilla chips
Shredded Cheese
Diced Tomatoes
Cream Cheese
Green Onions
Diced Avocado

Heat oil in a large soup pan.  Add the onion, carrot, celery, and bell pepper.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until veggies have softened (6 min).  Add the garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, oregano, paprika, and cayenne pepper.  Stir until fragrant (2 min).  Add the broth, water, tomatoes, and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Add tortilla strips.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tortillas have disintegrated (45 min)

Add chicken and half and half.  Simmer an additional 15 minutes.  Serve with any desired garnishes (we garnished with cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream).

Thanks My Favorite Things for the recipe.

 

 

Our budding pianist.  This was not posed.  He crawled up there one day and sat down to play.

Cheese Tortellini Soup with Sausage

Super tasty and makes a lot!

Olive oil
12 oz Chicken Sausage, cut into thin slices
1 C chopped onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried Thyme
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 cartons (8 C) chicken or vegetable broth
4 C chopped fresh spinach
1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz cheese tortellini
Shredded asiago or parmesan cheese

Heat oil in soup pot.  Add sausage, onion, garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes.  Saute until sausage is cooked (if using uncooked sausage) and onion is tender.  Add broth.  Bring to a boil and stir in tortellini.  Cook according to tortellini package directions.  Add beans and spinach.  Garnish with cheese.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

How do you take a picture of a creamy green soup and not make it look inedible?  I don't know.  But this was delicious.  And we fortunately accidentally left out some tuscan bread the other night after dinner so it was nice and crusty and ready to be thrown in this soup!

I saw this recipe in last Sunday's Parade magazine (that comes in the Sunday paper) and I wanted to try it.  It was pretty delicious.  I can't decide what was my favorite - this one or the one I've been making for years.  The biggest difference between the two is this one does not have potatoes and this one is blended up so it doesn't have chunks.  Delicious.  Maybe I'll just have to alternate between the two recipes.

3 C chicken broth
1 onion, chopped
4 C broccoli, chopped (I did a little more, probably close to 5 C)
dash of garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 C butter
1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 C milk
2 C shredded cheddar - That sounds like a ridiculous amount of cheese - a little cheese goes a long way.  I'm not sure I even put in a full cup and that was plenty.

In a large soup pot mix chicken broth, onion, broccoli, garlic powder, thyme, and bay leaves.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft.

Remove bay leaves and pour mixture into a food processor.  Blend till smooth.

In the original pot, melt butter.  Whisk in flour, creating a roux (Side Note:  I am convinced you can only make a good roux if you use real butter.  Margarine splits the solids and oils when it melts and always results in a chunky roux rather than a nice, smooth, thick roux.  So buck up, embrace the calories, and go buy some real butter.)  Add milk slowly, whisking constantly.  Stir until milk thickens.  Add cheese, melt completely.  Pour in broccoli mixture.  Add salt and pepper.

Serve with delicious crusty bread!

Taco Soup

This recipe is pretty big, so for just two of us I cut it in half.


3-4 Carrots, diced
1 Onion, diced
3-4 stalks celery, diced
28 oz stewed or diced tomatoes
8 oz tomato sauce
2-16 oz cans of beans (whatever kinds are your favorite)
1 can corn
2-3 tsp chicken bouillion
2 Tbsp taco seasoning (or 1 pkg)
1 lab ground beef, cooked

Cook carrots, onions, and celery in a small amount of water (enough to cover the vegetables).  Cook until tender.  Add remaining ingredients.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, cilantro, avocado chunks, etc.

Enjoy!

Original recipe from my Mom!

Squash Soup

Delicious!  You must try this one.  The measurements are in metric units because the recipe came to me indirectly from Australia.

40 g (1/2 C) butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 bacon rashers, chopped
1.5 kg (3.5 lbs) pumpkin or butternut squash, chopped
3 large potatoes, chopped
6 C chicken stock

Heat squash for a few minutes in the microwave - this makes peeling the squash and chopping it way easier.  Cook onion and bacon in half the butter in a large soup pan.  Add the remaining butter either during cooking if the pan gets too dry or throw it in with the rest of the ingredients (or if you want to make it lighter, you can only do the 1/4 C.  I've done that before and it worked fine).  Stir in pumpkin, potatoes, and stock.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer uncovered for 20 min.  Blend or process until pureed.  Sprinkle with fresh nutmeg.

I read in a cooking magazine that in Australian recipes bacon rashers refer to a specific cut of bacon that they don't generally sell in America.  They recommended you substitute Canadian Bacon.  I never have Canadian Bacon around so I have just used three normal bacon strips.  Tastes good to me.

Tomato Parmesan Soup

1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp basil
1/2 tsp pepper
salt
4 cans (15 oz) tomatoes - crushed, diced, stewed, whatever you have on hand
2 C chicken broth
3 Tbsp sugar
3/4 C parmesan cheese - or less/none if you are feeding my dad  (I think the original recipe calls for some ridiculous amount like 1 1/2 C, I've cut it down considerably)
1-2 C cream (I've also used evaporated milk or normal milk, whatever is on hand) - I've done as little as 3/4 C and it was still good.

In large pot saute onion and garlic.  Add basil, pepper, salt, tomatoes, sugar, and broth.  Bring to boil.  Simmer for 1 hour. If the soup looks too chunky (depending on what type of canned tomatoes you used) put in a blender or food processor.  Add parmesan, simmer for another 10 minutes.  Add cream.