Split Pea Soup

Time to revive this blog! This is my new favorite thing to make, especially since the weather is so frightful right now! If the idea of split pea soup makes you nervous, you probably haven't tasted it yet. I am a bonefide garden pea hater, and I love pea soup. So tasty and filling and bacony. Give it a try!

I got this recipe from the Williams-Sonoma "Soup" cookbook. It serves 4, so be prepared to double it if you want lots of leftovers--the first time we had it, we only ended up with a half-serving for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
2 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 c dried green or yellow split peas, picked over, rinsed, and drained
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
6 sliced bacon
2 T finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 t finely chopped fresh marjoram or 1/4 t dried marjoram
1/2 t finely chopped fresh thyme or 1/4 t dried thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onion and saute until softened, 3-5 minutes. Add the celery and carrots and saute until just slightly softened, 3 minutes.

2. Add the split peas, stock, 2 slices of bacon, parsley, marjoram, and thyme. Reduce the heat to medium-low and bring to a simmer. Cover partially and cook until peas are tender, 50-60 minutes. Discard the bacon.

3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan over medium heat, fry the remaining 4 slices bacon until crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to draim. When cool, crumble and set aside.

4. Coarsely puree 2 cups of the soup in a food processor and return to the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper to taste, return the soup to medium heat, and simmer for 5 minutes longer. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

5. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and garnish with the crumbled bacon. Serve immediately.

Tom Ka Gai (Chicken and Coconut Soup)

So flavorful and good. You can use less fancy ingredients, and it's still great (ie. lemon grass paste, regular green chili peppers, traditional mushrooms).

Serves 6 as an appetizer

2 c. chicken stock

2 stalks lemon grass, roughly chopped

2 chicken breasts cut into small chunks

2 T. fish sauce

2 cans coconut milk

chili oil to taste or 2 Thai chilies

1 tsp fresh ginger root, grated

1/4 c. straw mushrooms

3 green onions, bias sliced

juice of 1 lime

1 T. cilantro, chopped

Thai basil leaves for garnish (optional)

In a large pot combine stock, lemon grass and chicken, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Add fish sauce, coconut milk, chili oil, mushrooms, green onions, lime juice and cilantro. Simmer not boil for about 10 minutes. Serve with garnish of basil.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup

My mom and I made a double recipe of this soup over Christmas. We feed 8 people and had leftovers for later. It is quite the comfort soup.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup
From: Carolyn (Mom) Marble Serves: 4

7 cups chicken stock
2 T dry vermouth
2 T butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz medium egg noodles -- we find these in the freezer section
6 T flour
2/3 cups water
1 cup diced cooked chicken

Combine 1 cup stock, vermouth, butter. Bring to boil and reduce to 1/4 cup. Stir in cream. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat remaining stock to boil. Add noodles, cook just until tender. Blend flour with water until smooth. Add to noodles/stock and stir. Boil 1-2 minutes.

Add cream mixture and chicken. Season to taste (my mom prefers white pepper, as the dish is mono-color) and serve.

Indian Spiced Chickpea and Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

At the risk of being the nerdy one who posts twice in a row, here we go. It's soup season (we're ignoring the fact that it was so warm here today that I went running outside. In shorts. And a tank top.), and I recently discovered a real winner. This soup is simple, warm, delicious, and healthy, and (because this is the true test of a great soup) even better the next day. I made it last week and took the last tiny bit to work today--my colleague finally asked for the recipe, since I was mmming and ahhhing so much.

This is straight from Rachael Ray, and it goes along with a pretty good Indian lamb chop dish, but the soup was the real winner. I have done a half batch for the two of us, and it yields just enough for one round of leftovers apiece.

Serves 4 as a first course
Ingredients:
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cans chickpeas, drained
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cardamom
1/2 t turmeric
salt and pepper
2 c chicken of vegetable stock
1 (28-oz) can fire roasted tomatoes*
1 cup plain yogurt
Warm pita, any flavor or variety, toasted

*note about the tomatoes: on the show, Rachael used crushed fire roasted tomatoes, but at my store they only sell diced fire roasted tomatoes (which are actually a new addition to the tomato aisle, thank goodness). I just popped them in the food processor for a couple seconds once I was done with the chickpeas and it comes out splendidly.

1. Heat a medium pot with the extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Grind the chickpeas and onion in food processor. Add to pot and cook 5 minutes to sweeten onion.

3. Season the chickpeas with cumin, cardamom, turmeric, salt and pepper. Stir in stock, then tomatoes.

4. Simmer soup 5-10 minutes to combine flavors. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and warm pita for dipping.

There you go! It's, like, 5 minutes of active cooking (unless you have a crappy food processor that requires babysitting...how old does it make me to want a new food processor for my birthday?). Seriously, just typing this up makes me want to go make a batch. Yum!

On another note, Marbs, we had your chicken couscous recipe again last week, and it was even better the second time!

Thai Red Curry Soup with Chicken & Vegetables

Follow the link to the recipe at Epicurious, but I am going to kind of adapt it here because I change a lot of it.

I am made this on Monday and it is one of my favorite easy dinners. I usually buy enough for two or three sets of this soup so I always have the stuff in the cupboard. Once you have the red curry paste and the fish sauce, everything is pretty easy to have on-hand.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste (i buy the thai kitchen kind)
• 12 ounces skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips (I use the Costco chicken tenders, dump them in the pan frozen, and then cut them up IN the pan after they have cooked awhile. Eliminates all sorts of steps.
• 3 cups canned low-salt chicken broth (I am a huge fan of the trader joe's chicken stock in the carton. Best stuff that you can buy)
  
• 3 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk (I use the light kind)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla) Thai kitchen also sells this
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (not to go on and on about trader joes, but in their freezer section, they have these little cubes of fresh spices like basil, garlic, parsley, etc. that you can just pop into a pot).
  
• Any vegetable you have (frozen peas, frozen or fresh peppers, I like the tri-color bag of peppers at TJ's, eggplant, zucchini, a can of miniature corn because they're cute, can of bamboo slices, the last two you can find in the asian section of any supermarket).
• About 2 T. of lime juice
• A bit of lemongrass makes this even better (you can buy 2 actual stalks at the supermarket but you can also buy the squeezable tubes of fresh spices that works very easily and lasts in the fridge for quite some time). It's not necessary though. I like everything pretty spicy and it adds that for sure.

Preparation:
Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add curry paste; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chicken; stir 2 minutes. Add vegetables; stir 1 minute. Add broth, coconut milk and fish sauce; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer until vegetables are tender, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in basil and serve.

Note: I usually make rice to along with this. Serve the soup and then scoop as much rice as you want in the center of the bowl. It's pretty that way and more filling.

Johnson Family Lentil Soup

Okay, before I get going I hope that everyone is planning to comment on the recipes when they try them--good, bad, indifferent. Now for the recipe...

My dad and I agree that this soup is actually better left over, which is saying a lot, since it's really darn good fresh from the crockpot. I had the leftovers for lunch today, and they were so yummy...

I seem to remember that there are a few folks on this list who don't like tomatoes (you are crazy), and the soup is delish without it, but I think it is a great addition. Also, I probably put in twice the required garlic, which is NOT how my mom made it when I was growing up. It is (prepare for sacrilege) better. Note: I will NOT post a picture, because lentil soup looks gross. But it tastes so good. I could put a picture of my empty bowl, if you'd like.

Lentil Soup, courtesy of my mom:
1 cup lentils
5 cups water
½ lb ground beef, browned
½ c chopped onion
1 t chopped garlic
1 T salt
1/16 t pepper
½ bay leaf
Optional: one chopped tomato

Put all ingredients in a crockpot, stir, and set on low for 4-8 hours.

Like RaChelle, I cook and chop the night before, then stick it in the crockpot in the morning and let it cook all day long. At times it has gone 10-11 hours and is still really good, but if you like your soup more soupy than stewy, I'd add an extra 1/2-1 cup of water if you know it will be in the pot for a long time. As it ages it thickens, too, so keep that in mind. Unless you are married to someone who likes this soup as much as Jason and I do, it should last you for a few meals. Otherwise you may fight over the leftovers, so be prepared...

Crock pot chili

I am going to post this the "old school" way, because I was not able to find this on-line.
This is my recipe to encourage Andrea to try her crock pot again. It is yummy and easy, which are two things that I enjoy. It is from "Fix it and Forget it" ~ one of the wonderful wedding gifts that has been collecting dust on the shelf. I love the name:

Colleen's Favorite Chili

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained (I have also used ground turkey, works well too)
2 garlic cloves, minced fine, or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup finely diced green peppers
2 14 1/2 oz. cans diced tomatoes
3 15 oz. cans (approx.) beans - kidney and pinto (I usually do two kidney and one pinto)
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. beaumonde spice, optional
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp., or more, chili powder
1 tsp. dried basil
1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
2. Cover. Cook on Low 8-10 hours, or High 5-6 hours

What is great - cook the meat and chop the onions and peppers the night before - then it is REALLY easy to put it in the crock pot before heading to work!

I make cornbread to go with it - oh, my, goodness!!:)