Category Archives: soup

Smoky Vegetarian Chili

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VegieChili_

This Hygge inspired chili recipe comes from the recent Issue of Our Green Plate.  This is a vegan friendly vegetarian soup perfect for watching the snow melt outside.

serves 6 to 8

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 red bell peppers, diced (or any other color bell pepper)
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 ribs celery chopped
  • 6 cups cooked black, kidney, and/or pinto beans, washed and drained (4 small cans. I used equal parts kidney and black beans).
  • 2 cups frozen corn
  • 3 large carrots chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon coriander
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 minced chipotle peppers minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 cup lentils rinsed
  • 1.5 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 3 15 ounces cans diced tomatoes and juice
  • 3 to 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Saute peppers and onion in olive oil until softened over medium heat in a large pot (approximately 5 minutes).
  2. Add garlic; saute for 2 more minutes until fragrant.
  3. Add lentils and two cups broth, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender approximately 25 minutes
  4. Add remaining ingredients except cilantro; stir to combine. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for at least 20 minutes.
  5. Add cilantro during last five minutes of cooking. Top with hot sauce and serve over rice if you want, and enjoy!

Dutch Winter Split Pea Soup

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SplitPeaSoup_cover256SplitPeaSoup

I worked on a soup recipe for the new magazine Issue of Our Green Plate. This split pea soup is a very meaty and hearty soup. A great meal on its own. This soup is worth all the meat products you have to buy. The recipe comes from a local restaurant in Illinois.

https://www.facebook.com/ourgreenplate/

this is the content from the magazine:

Dutch Split Pea Soup

Recipe courtesy of Chef Tony Jamin

Al’s Café & Creamery is the quintessential local gem. Located in a Victorian style building in downtown Elgin, Chef Jamin, who trained in Holland, Germany, and France, creates outstanding globally inspired Euro-American dishes.

43 DuPage Ct., 847.742.1180, www.alscafe.com

 

A Dutch Winter Soup served as a Main Course

(6-8 servings)

2 large onions, cubed

2 leeks, sliced thinly

1 bunch of celery, sliced thinly

4 bay leaves, 6 cloves, and 6 whole black peppercorns tied up in cheesecloth to make a spice bag

16 ounces smoked ham, cubed

2 thick bone-in pork chops

8 ounces bacon, cubed

Salt

3 cups dried green split peas

1 smoked sausage, sliced

Croutons (optional)

Pumpernickel bread, buttered (optional)

Crispy bacon bits (optional)

Combine first 9 ingredients (onions through cubed bacon) in a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to a simmer and skim off any foam that forms on the surface. Leave uncovered and continue to simmer for 3 hours or until pork easily comes off the bone. Remove spice bag. Remove pork chops and cut meat from bone. Cube the pork chops and return to soup. Add salt to taste. Add split peas and simmer until peas are soft. This will thicken the soup. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Add sausage.


To serve traditionally, top each serving with croutons and offer sides of sliced buttered pumpernickel bread topped with crispy bacon bits.

 

food styling and propping: Karla Spies

Gazpacho

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gazpacho_2_MG_2274My favorite thing about Gazpacho soup is you can really put whatever vegetables you want and blend it up.  A trip to the garden or farmers market and pick up the ingredients. I use this recipe as a rough guide for my chopping and blending.  I always add a jalopeno or some hot pepper into the blend. And usually whatever tomato juice, V8 or bloody mary mix I have in the refrigerator.  Of course the garnish is also fun, be as creative as you want.  Best served cold.

 

Spicy Sweet Potato, Quinoa and Pancetta Soup

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ImageIt’s dipping below zero temperatures here in Mpls. Makes you want to stay inside and make something warm.  I’ve been reading about how healthy sweet potato and Quinoa are for you,  so when I saw this recipe in Donna Hay Magazine I had to give it a try.  I enjoyed the soup pretty simple to make and you can load it up with all the spinach you want.

recipeImageImageImage

Pumpkin Black Bean Chili

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This week I have attended a couple of Chili contest events.  What is better than a group of people getting together to eat lots of good Chili, while in costumes no less.  I will say I did not win any golden spoons with this recipe.  There was some steep competition, and I went with the vegetarian variety. Some people did say they liked it, but let’s be honest usually looking for some meat in my chili.

I found this Pumpkin Black Bean Chili recipe which looked interesting with the pumpkin.  This was my first pie pumpkin I have ever cooked, I did like the pumpkin in the chili it gave it an interesting twist. My review of this was too much cinnamon and not enough spice for me.  I would cut the cinnamon in half from the recipe and add some fresh chopped jalepeno when dishing up a bowl.  I made it with red beans since that is what I had on hand, the veggies were good and the Guinness beer gave it a nice finish.  The chili was very colorful and pretty-hey even healthy.  But that soon changed as I added a dollop of sour cream, cheddar cheese, chopped onions and cilantro on top. One can never have too many assecories with chili, a girl’s best friend.

Recipe from Crumb blog

Don’t forget to save and roast your pumkin seeds.

Ham and Bean Stew

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It has been a beautiful fall season this year. Inspired by the golden canvas as I scoot down the river road.  The cooler weather makes me think of soup, I found this bag of 12 bean variety of dried beans that blended with the color palette out my window. As usual I find a few recipes and improvise with what sounds tasty. I soaked the beans overnight and then cooked the beans for an hour with some water bay leaves and the bones from the ham-hock.  There was not much water left in the pot when I was done cooking the beans. So I added a can of chicken stock.  I then followed the Cuban black bean stew recipe in my new cookbook: splendid table how to eat supperThe Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.

Steps

  1. Trim the meat away from the ham-hock bone, cutting it into small pieces. Don’t be too fussy; leaving some on the bone is fine. Film the bottom of a 10-quart stockpot with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the meat, bone, cloves, onions, bell peppers, garlic, jalapeno and salt. Sauté for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the vegetables are sizzling and there’s a brown glaze on the bottom of the pan (the vegetables need not brown, and take care not to let that glaze blacken).
  2. Add a little of the broth along with the garlic, bay leaves, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and tomato paste. With a wooden spatula, scrape up the glaze as you simmer the mix on medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Then add the beans, carrots, celery,can of tomatoes, fresh herbs and the remaining broth. Adjust the heat so the soup bubbles gently. Cover the pot tightly, and cook for 20 minutes.
  3. Stir in the juice from 2½ limes or ⅓ cup of the vinegar. Taste the soup for seasoning. Adjust the salt, pepper, and lime juice or vinegar to taste.
  4. Ladle the soup into bowls, topping each serving with a heaping tablespoon of chopped onion and a little fresh cilantro. Have the hot sauce on the table.

Poblano Chicken Corn Chowder

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When I first started my job at the new photo studio, it meant I was going to become another car commuting to work every morning. Not only was I driving from the city to head north to the suburbs. But as I would let everyone know: the studio was across the street from a corn field. It was just all wrong. Well, as I was soon to discover the “corn field” had the best sweet corn in town. Now I wait all season for that first bite of sweet corn, seems to make that daily commute somehow worth it.It was a sad day when I bought the last dozen corn of the season. So I made this delicious corn chowder over the weekend. The corn has also become a favorite for my cat Belli. Now she demands her own piece of corn to gnaw on.

Poblano Chicken Corn Chowder

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 3 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons margarine
  • 2 fresh poblano chile pepper, seeded and diced
  • 2 diced jalapeno
  • 1 quart half-and-half cream
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon turmeric
  • 1 pinch ground dried chile de arbol
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup margarine
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 (15 ounce) can chicken stock
  • 4 cobs of whole kernel corn
  • 1/2 pound chicken cooked and diced
  • salt to taste
  • white sugar to taste

  • Directions

    1. In a blender or food processor, puree the onion and celery; drain.
    2. Melt 2 tablespoons margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and celery puree and the poblano chile pepper. Stirring constantly, cook about 5 minutes, until tender. Mix in chicken stock, half-and-half cream, sugar, and jalapeno. Season with turmeric,chile de arbol and black pepper. Stirring often, bring to a gentle boil.
    3. Melt 1/2 cup margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Mix in the flour, and stir constantly until thickened. Remove from heat, and gradually mix into the large saucepan. Cook and stir until the mixture is well blended and thickened.
    4. Mix chicken stock,  whole kernel corn into the large saucepan mixture. Stir in the chicken, and cook 2 minutes, or until opaque. Season with salt and sugar.
    5. Garnish with sour cream and cilantro
    6. Enjoy