White Chili

I'm pretty sure the drop in the temperature lately and the gorgeous colored leaves all over the mountains mean that soup season is here!  I couldn't resist making a hearty chili today.

You'll be surprised how the chili flavors still shine through for a great full, satisfying dish. You won't even miss the red meat or tomato sauce of typical chili.  I started with a recipe posted by my friends at ourbestbites but had to adjust it more to my liking in several ways. I loved the outcome. 

Ingredients:
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 boneless chicken thighs, diced
1 smaller potato, diced
1 14 oz. can white northern beans (could use any other white bean)
2 cans chicken broth (28 oz.)
1/2 can green chilies
1/2 jalapeno, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp oregano
lime juice
chopped cilantro
sour cream
salt and pepper

Directions:
Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil in soup pot for a few minutes. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and toss into the pot. Add potato, beans (juice and all from can), green chilies, spices and jalapeno. Boil for 15-20 minutes until potatoes and chicken are cooked through. Top with little more salt and pepper, a sprinkle of lime juice, chopped cilantro and a generous dollop of sour cream.

If you need to go dairy-free, add a spoon of potato starch instead of the sour cream to help make a whiter broth with a bit of substance.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

What is the quintessential comfort/healing food when you are sick? Chicken Noodle Soup, of course. Now, I will admit that I will even resort to Campbell's canned version when I have no energy for anything besides microwaving a pre-prepared food, but it really isn't close to my mom's homemade chicken noodle. I get some of that, a grilled cheese sandwich and glass of milk and I feel magically improved. Even nurses at the hospital believe in the healing properties of chicken broth-they always get me a warm cup of Herb-ox broth to sip on when I get a cold about twice a year, like clockwork, and come to work looking miserable. This soup is more "brothy" than others for that very reason, the best part of the soup is the broth!

Ingredients:
2 tsp oil
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 stalk celery, chopped
6 baby carrots, chopped
2 small chicken thighs (extra fat removed) or 1/2 chicken breast
1 cup dry egg noodles
6 cup chicken broth
Salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika

Put oil, garlic, onions, celery and carrot in the soup pot and saute for a couple minutes. Add in broth and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, chop chicken into small bite-size pieces and season generously with all 4 seasonings. Drop into the soup (raw) along with the noodles and boil for 10 minutes until all the ingredients are soft and cooked through. Enjoy. Makes about 4 servings

Did I get pretty close, mom?

New England Clam Chowder

About the beginning of autumn when I start seeing leaves change, I am reminded of a fantastic vacation spent on the coast of Maine.

 A friend and I took a 5 day trip to see the New England leaves, lighthouses, coastline and to eat as much seafood as we could every day. My favorite meal had to be the lobster they pulled right out of the ocean and cooked right there on the dock. It was sooooo tasty.

During that trip, I also made sure to sample everyone's good New England clam chowder. Yum!

 I just HAD to make clam chowder yesterday when it was raining hard (which it also does a lot on the coast of Maine) and brought back all those memories. Here's the best version I have come up with in land-locked Utah (even though we have equally beautiful autumn leaves).

I'm not the kind of girl that has heavy cream just hanging around my house unless I buy it specifically for a recipe a couple times a year. The rest of it tends to go to waste because it doesn't freeze well. I recently discovered a magical thing of UHT shelf-stable whipping cream at Gossners (they also do UHT milk that is great for food storage). I can have it in my pantry and not have to worry about it going bad. I think it tastes just as good, too.


Recipe Ingredients:
2 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup diced onion
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped potato
1 cup clam juice (can use the juice in the can + bottled kind)
1-2 tsp old bay seasoning (I made my own from a recipe online)
1 1/2 TBSP flour
1 1/2 TBSP margarine
1 1/2 cup milk (I use 1% milk)
1/2 cup cream
1 can clams
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put garlic, onion, carrot, celery and potato in a soup pot and cover with clam juice. Boil until veggies are soft. Add Old Bay seasoning and set aside in a bowl. Turn heat down to med-low. Melt margarine in pot and stir in flour until it forms a firm paste (roux) like this.

Add milk a little at a time and mix thoroughly into paste until it becomes a smooth, thicker liquid. (cooking it during that process helps to get rid of the flour-y taste). Add veggies and stir to combine. Add in cream and clams and just heat through (don't boil). Add salt and pepper and parsley flakes to garnish.

Summer Gazpacho

I made a brilliant discovery this summer, watermelon and tomatoes actually go well together! Before you roll your eyes and stop reading, you have to try it first. The sweetness of the watermelon compliments all the other savory ingredients of a typical gazpacho (cold, tomato soup) so it was much easier to love-most are way too salty for me. It also has a bonus for all you onion haters out there-I don't use ANY in this recipe...which is tough to find for gazpacho.

This soup was inspired by a wonderful watermelon-tomato salad that I made for a party with my girlfriends purely because I stumbled upon it while browsing www.epicurious.com and the picture was captivating.  Whether it tasted good or not would be irrelevant because of its beauty, I thought. Turns out, it was surprisingly delicious and addicting so that I craved it for weeks before I collected enough of the ingredients to have it again. The next time I made it, I had leftovers so I made it into a great summer gazpacho. I really suggest making the salad first and then having the gazpacho the next day-so you get the best of both worlds. Isnt' it pretty?

This cold soup is fun in that the spicy-heat of it makes you forget it is actually a cold soup you are eating. Despite that, it really isn't as good unless you serve it really cold (this means chilling it for a couple hrs before serving or else pouring over ice cubes). As with all cold soups-use mini portions and you'll enjoy it more.

I even had it one day with lime-marinated shrimp on top, which was awesome! It made me think of having ceviche at a Mexican resort on the beach.

Ingredients for Salad:
watermelon
tomatoes of different colors
cucumber
avocado
2 TBSP lime juice
Fresh herbs (I used mint and tarragon, but cilantro would be awesome too)
(cut each fruit/vegetable into chunks and arrange on plate, sprinkle with lime juice and herbs)

Dressing:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp ground coriander
(mix into flask and drizzle onto the salad right before eating)

To make Gazpacho:
Any leftover watermelon/tomato salad
2 cloves garlic
1/2 jalepeno (seeded)
1-2 TBSP of dressing (see above)
lime-marinated shrimp (optional)

Put all ingredients into a blender (reserving a few small chunks to use as a garnish). Chill, and serve.

Minestrone soup

I love this time of summer when people hand out fresh produce from their gardens like candy (they taste much better than candy, though). Someday I will have my own beautiful garden of produce, too. I'm starting small with two tomato plants in pots on my tiny back porch this year. They are alive and actually producing so I feel accomplished. I'm not the best at growing but I can sure cook and use up produce quickly. Here is one of the easiest ways to use the tomatoes and zucchini hanging out on your counter.

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tsp margarine
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 large carrot (or 10 baby carrots), chopped
4 C chicken broth
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 can kidney beans
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 C zucchini, chopped
1 C ditalini pasta
1-2 tsp each of basil, oregano, thyme and parsley
salt and pepper

Sauté margarine, onion, and garlic in a big soup pot for 3 min. Add broth, carrot and celery and simmer for 5 minutes. Add everything else. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Kind of hard to mess up.

Egg Drop Soup

Ever get a head cold in the middle of a hot summer? Ever need a quick meal with minimal effort?  This was my delicious solution today. Normally I don't go for the Chinese takeout version of this soup because it is too thickened and a little blah. I learned that it doesn't need much thickening and that minimal addition of ginger gives new life to this old staple among soups.

Ingredients
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp cornstarch whisked with 2 tsp water
1 egg (beaten smooth)
a few slices of fresh ginger (or if you must, use a few shakes of ginger powder)
white pepper and scallions (optional)

Put chicken broth and ginger in small pot and bring to a boil. Add in cornstarch mixture and whisk. Turn down heat and stir in circular motion while pouring in beaten egg so it makes strands. Simmer for 30 seconds until egg is cooked. Garnish with pepper and scallions if desired.

Chicken and Rice Soup

Ever heard of an elimination diet? Since my gut seems to be very unhappy with me for a while now for some unknown reason, I have decided to put myself on this kind of special diet. That means I have to stick to only a few foods that are least likely to be causing any issue before I can slowly add other foods back in. Two of those simple foods happen to be chicken and rice so that's what we are having for many of our meals. Tonight's menu is the soup form.  Anyone else that may need a simple or nourishing recovery soup, here is your recipe.

Hopefully soon, I will get back to all my plans for fresh soups using all that garden produce or beachfront seafood that I'm craving. 

Have any family members that complain about eating leftovers? This is also a great way to re-purpose extra chicken or rice hanging around. Doing that will also cut your cooking time down considerably. Remember that even though we are going simple, it doesn't mean it has to be unflavorful.

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 green onions, sliced
5 baby carrots, thinly sliced
4 cups chicken broth
1 small chicken breast, cut in small chunks
1/2 C uncooked long grain rice
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil or thyme
1/4 tsp celery salt 
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

Start by a quick saute of the garlic, onion and carrots. Add in herbs, celery salt, bay leaf and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, while cutting chicken. Season chicken with little salt and pepper, then drop into the soup. After a minute or two, add in rice and boil for about 15 min. Serve.

p.s. If you are using precooked rice, only add 1/4 cup. Then only boil 3 min.