Easy Creamy Broccoli Soup - Leftover Magic

Sometimes keeping all courses on track at the same time is a bit of a challenge. Last night I overcooked the broccoli just a tad, so it wasn't that lovely bright green any more. It still tasted good but I knew reheating it would only turn it to mush, so sometime in the middle of the night I decided to turn it into soup. It's easy, and yes, there are cans of food involved. That's okay, as a meal doesn't always have to be 100% from scratch.

Easy Creamy Broccoli Soup

1 c. cooked broccoli
1 10 oz can cream of chicken soup
1 4 oz can mushrooms
1 can full of milk
1/2 cup each pepper jack cheese and sharp cheddar cheese
3 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan or pot combine the broccoli, soup, and milk. Mash the broccoli to get rid of the big chunks. Place on burner set to medium low and heat. Add mushrooms, liquid and all, and then add the cheeses. Melt cheeses, stirring occasionally. Season to taste, serve sprinkled with green onion. 4 servings

Tasty Tuesday, Easy Chicken Curry Soup

Time to take a break from the craziness on Facebook and share a delicious recipe schemed up by me yesterday. I'm a hobbling, babbling crazy woman due to pain and meds right now, so I will not be held accountable for telling all people to back off of Ann Romney and get a life.  For now, let's take a look at a recipe perfect for rainy Spring days.

Chicken Curry Soup
 1 chicken hind quarter
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup each diced or chopped onion, celery, carrots, zucchini, and baby bok choy.
1 3 inch cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 tsp or to taste of curry powder
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2-3 whole allspice
tsp. peppercorns
I 10 oz. can of cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup each jasmine rice and barley
Season to taste.

In a large pot toss in your chicken, onion, carrots, celery along with the broth and spices. Simmer for an hour or until chicken is tender and ready to fall off the bones. Take chicken out and add rice and barley. Simmer until just done, about 30 minutes, and add soup, zucchini and bok choy. Take chicken off the bones and discard fat and skin, then add to pot. Fish out the cinnamon stick and other large spice pieces. This is so easy, and makes enough for 6 to 8 servings. Enjoy! Now go hug someone and tell them you love them. Taa taa. :-)

Foodie Friday- Warming up with Split Pea & Ham Soup

 The other morning we woke up to this, 6 inches of white fluff after a night of blowing snow at almost whiteout conditions. Two days prior the temps had been at 66 degrees, sheesh! I just happened to bring a bag of split peas to my mother-in-laws', already knowing that it would cool down for a day or two, so I was able to satisfy my hankering for split pea and ham soup. We had an over abundance of ham left over from the funeral, and gave away as much as possible, fed the troops with more, and still had a bit to use up. I waited a week as I didn't want us to suffer from ham overload, we already have enough hams in our family.

Here's a recipe I created from browsing other recipes and reaching into my memory bank of watching my mom and stepmom, both excellent cooks. I had to make a substitution or two as my mother-in-law doesn't keep much in the way of herbs and spices around. It's easy and quick to get started. I must say, this came out sooooo yummy and is the perfect comfort food on a cold and stormy day. Serve with crusty french bread, fresh fruit and you have a meal to live for!

SPLIT PEA & HAM SOUP

2 cups dried split peas, sorted and rinsed

1 ham bone, if available

2 cups diced ham - use good quality ham, not the cheap stuff

1 medium onion, diced

2 large peeled and coin sliced carrots, quartering the larger coins

3 stalks of celery, diced

2-3 tablespoons of EVOO or extra virgin olive oil

1 quart chicken stock + 1 quart water

1 teaspoon each thyme, tarragon or mint, lemon pepper

1 bay leaf

2 dashes cayenne pepper  and a dash of seasoning salt if needed 

In a large soup pot over medium heat add olive oil and veggies, cook until tender. Add ham and bone and cook for 5 minutes more. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and let soup bubble gently until the peas break down, about an hour or so. The soup should be somewhat thick when stirred, but not gloppy, yes that's a word. :-) Taste to see if you need any seasonings, and serve with warm bread and fresh fruit. Serves 6-8. Enjoy!

Springtime Asian Style Bean and Ham Soup

Nature guy and I are heading to the temple with Annie this morning, but we wanted to make sure Mom and Dad had good food to eat today so I threw together a healthy and tasty soup this morning. I was the recipient of a bag of Asian veggies and they need to be used so I created an East meets West sort of soup perfect for a rainy day. This is a good time of year to get those spring time veggies started such as bok choy, spinach, carrots and so on.

I started off with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, heated up over medium heat in my soup pot. I then added 2 cups of diced ham, 1 very large onion, chopped, and 2 cups chopped cabbage., and 3 peeled and coined carrots. I cooked them until the vegetables were tender. I then added 1 inch of peeled, grated ginger and 4 crushed garlic cloves.

I also added to large bok choy leaves and stalks, chopped and 1 and 1/2 quarts, or 6 cups of water. To that I added 2 chicken bullion cubes and 1/3 cup barley.

 

I let that simmer until the barley was almost done and then added 3 cups chopped spinach and 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon pepper. To that I added two 16 oz. cans of great northern beans, draining only one can. Here's the finished result! Just an FYI, don't leave out the lemon pepper, it really rounds out the flavor of this soup. I've listed the ingredients below. Let me know if you try this.

 

 Springtime Asian Style Bean and Ham Soup

2 T. Olive oil

2 cups diced ham

2 cups chopped cabbage

3 carrots, peeled and coined

I very large onion, chopped

1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

3 garlic cloves, crushed

6 cups water

2 chicken bullion cubes

2 bok choy leaves with stalks, chopped

3 cups chopped spinach

2 - 16 oz cans great northern beans, drain one only

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper

Kuri Stew, Pueblo Style

There is an abundance of winter squashes at the store right now, so with the colder weather, what better way to warm up than with a steaming bowl of hot stew. This recipe is an adaptation of a pumpkin soup recipe from a Pueblo Indian recipe booklet I picked up years ago when we visited the Grand Canyon. It's easy, and is easily adapted to what squashes are on hand. I bought a Blue Kuri squash because it has such an intriguing color on the outside, and makes a wonderful decoration to add a splash of contrast to the usual reds, oranges, golds and browns of my Autumn decorations. To justify the purchase when hubby asked me why I was getting it, I told him to eat. He made the comment that I probably would never use it so I decided to prove him wrong, and then I would go get another one...lol. He usually doesn't like this sort of dish as he considers it trendy yuppy food, so I made it on a night that he wasn't supposed to be home for dinner. Well, wouldn't you know it, he called and said he would be home for dinner, and asked what we were having. When I told him the other end of the phone got silent, but then he said he would be home soon. To my surprise, when we had dinner, he ended up eating 3 bowls full, and want's to eat the leftovers tonight. He admitted that he has a somewhat narrow list of foods he will eat on a regular basis, even though I can fix just about anything and he loves it. So he apologized for being a fussy brat. :-) He is actually very easy to cook for which I'm grateful for, as I love to try new foods, recipes, and ingredients. Oh, and the difference between this and the original recipe is the bacon and the red chili flakes. It also calls for one green bell pepper, but I love red peppers. I also substituted the squash for pumpkin in the original recipe as it is easier to find. You might also want to try this without the bacon, it is still very tasty, or, try some italian sausage, wow, that is very yummy!
I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Kuri Stew, Pueblo Style
3 slices of thick bacon, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 each, red bell pepper and green pepper, chopped
2 cups cooked cubed squash
2 large tomatoes, chopped,
1/2 t. each dried mint, sugar and nutmeg
1/2 to 1 t. each, seasoning salt and red chili flakes
2 cups chicken stock or 2 cups water and 2 bullion cubes
1 T. corn starch
1/2 cup cream, or canned milk

Cook bacon until crisp in deep pot. Add all veggies except squash and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add seasonings, stock, and squash; simmer for 20 minutes. Combine cream or canned milk with corn starch and add to stew, stirring until thickened. Serves 4 to 6.

Enjoying the fruits of the season

What could be better than fresh bread warm from the oven? A nice big pot of creamy soup to go with it!
It's cooled down a bit here, which inspires me to come up with some cool weather dishes. We had some dutch oven chicken left over from a dinner last week, but not enough to take care of the both of us. So I took a boneless, skinless chicken breast and threw it in a 2 qt. pot with some fresh Rosemary, Sage, and 1 1/2 quarts of water, along with 1 cup of wild rice mix. I let that simmer while I sauteed 1 chopped onion in 3 T. butter and 1 of oil in a large soup pot. I also took half each of one very large green, and one very large orange bell pepper and roasted them in the oven. After the onion was nice and caramelized, I added the mixture in the small pot, as well as 2 more quarts of water. I cut up one large carrot, and cut the kernels from one ear of fresh sweet corn. I added 2 chicken bullion cubes, and one small can of diced green chilies. I seasoned with 2 tsps of seasoning salt, and 1/2 t. garlic powder. Then I added 1/2 tsp thyme as well as 1 tsp course ground pepper. One bay leaf went in as well. This simmers until the rice was done. I turned down the burner and pulled out the chicken to cut up. I added the leftover dutch oven chicken from last week, and that gave the soup a nice creamy consistency. I also chopped up and added the roasted bell peppers at this point. For anyone who would like to try this or a variation, I would add a can of either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup since you probably won't have dutch oven chicken sitting around. I would also use 2 chicken breasts, plus 2 carrots.

The bread was a variation on my Italian bread recipe. I'll make this easier to follow here. The one thing I noticed about this bread is that it is so soft and delicious. I think it may be because we used actual best for bread flour instead of unbleached flour. My husband raved about it.
Place in mixing bowl of mixer fitted with a dough hook:
1 1/2 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
1 t. sugar
Let sit in bowl to proof or get foamy. Add:
3 T. oil
1 t. salt
1/4 c. corn meal
1/2 c. oats
3 cups of Best for Bread flour
Mix well. Gradually add more flour, 1/4 of a cup at a time, until dough forms a nice smooth ball.
Place in well oiled baking dish or casserole. Let rise until doubled and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

This bread is not only great for soups, but makes a fabulous french toast for breakfast. As an added healthy topping for our french toast this morning I took about 1/2 cup of maple syrup and warmed it up in a small pot, added a small chopped, unpeeled, granny smith apple, and a handful of walnut pieces. This was so wonderful over the french toast, you should really give it a try!