Soup for Christmas Eve

Yesterday (Christmas Eve), I was really in the mood for my Mom and Dad's Italian Vegetable Supper Soup.  I thought it would be the perfect light dinner to have after playing for the 6 PM service at church.

I went to our new neighborhood HyVee, and man, were people ever grouchy.  Not the clerks, mind you- just the customers!  And every employee I interacted with commented how grinchy people had been all day long.  So, I went out of my way to be pleasant, even when there wasn't garlic bread or Graziano's sausage left.  I just bought some French bread, and we garlicked it ourselves.  I also bought Hyvee's in-house Italian sausage.  Christmas was not ruined.  Heh.

I left Jeffrey cooking as I went to church, but he unintentionally didn't quite follow the recipe.  And now a new classic is born!  It's kind of like Jonas Salk discovering the cure for penicillen by accident.  But in our case, without the mold.  Serendipity!

Jeffrey's Italian Vegetable and Bean Soup
yield = 6-8 servings 

1                package (1 pound) soup bean mix
1                pound lean ground beef
1                tablespoon olive oil
1                large white onion, finely chopped
1                cup peeled, diced carrots
1                cup diced celery
2                cloves garlic, chopped
1/2             teaspoon dried basil
1/2             teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/2             teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2             teaspoon dried oregano
1/2             teaspoon thyme
1/2             teaspoon table salt
1/4             teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 
8                cups chicken broth or stock
1                medium unpeeled zucchini, chopped
1/2             cup small shell pasta


1.  Bring 6 cups of water to a boil.  Add beans, cook 2 minutes, then cover and remove from heat.  Let the beans sit for 1 hour, then drain.


2.  Brown and drain the ground beef.  Set aside.  Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat.  When shimmering, add the onion, carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables have softened and started to lightly brown (about 10 minutes).  Add garlic, spices, and seasonings and cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Remove from heat. 

3.  Add chicken broth or stock to a large pot.  Add drained beans, cooked vegetables, and ground beef.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 1 hour.  Stir in zucchini and pasta and cook an additional 15 minutes.  Serve with warm, crusty bread and enjoy.

Notes:  This is a great, thick, chunky soup.  If you want to make it brothier, we won't tell.  We like it chunky, but to each his own. :)

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

While in Cedar Rapids last weekend, we met Juli's son at the big downtown farmer's market, then took him out to lunch.   He wanted to go to the Olive Garden.   While we are not at all a fan of the West Des Moines Olive Garden (we've found the service to be indifferent and the food fair at best), from past experience we knew the food served up at the Olive Garden in Cedar Rapids was pretty good.   I had a bowl of their chicken and gnocchi soup.  It was really quite good... creamy, with nice chicken flavor, tender gnocchi and simple but balanced seasoning.  I was so pleased with the soup, I decided then and there to come up with my own version once we got home.

Olive Garden's Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

I looked around online and found a couple different recipes claiming to be like the one used at Olive Garden.  Using those recipes and my memory of the soup, I put together a working recipe, then tried it out.

As you can see, my soup doesn't look quite like the version served at Olive Garden.  The biggest difference is that in mine, the chopped spinach imparted a slight green tint to the soup.  Other than that, the two are an awfully lot alike, and what differences there are - a slight variance in seasoning, mostly - do not result in either being superior to the other.  Mine turned out a bit thicker, and I'm guessing this is because I cooked the gnocchi in the soup, vs. adding cooked gnocchi to the soup, but since I like thick soups, I consider that a plus, if anything. 

I should note that I used frozen gnocchi purchased at a supermarket.   I have several gnocchi recipes I've been wanting to try out some day, but I didn't want to put in the effort needed to make fresh gnocchi in order to make the soup.
While my version isn't identical to what I had at Olive Garden, I'm quite pleased with it.  Hopefully you will be just as pleased.

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

yield = 7-8 servings

4               boneless, skinless chicken breasts
                 table salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
2               tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2               carrots, peeled and grated on the small holes of a
                    box grater
1               small yellow onion, peeled and grated on the large
                    holes of a box grater
1               celery stalk, trimmed and finely diced
2               teaspoons minced garlic
1               tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
4               cups low-sodium chicken broth
2               cups half-and-half
2               tablespoons chicken soup base
1               pound potato gnocchi
1               tablespoon corn starch, dissolved in one
                   tablespoon water
1 1/2         cups chopped spinach

Thoroughly dry the chicken breasts with paper towels and sprinkle on both sides with salt and pepper.  Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering.   Arrange the chicken breasts in the Dutch oven.   Let them cook until well-browned on one side (about 6 minutes), then turn them over and brown them on the other side.   Transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board.

Add the second tablespoon of olive oil to the Dutch oven.   When the oil is shimmering, add the carrot, onion and celery stalk.   Cook, stirring often, until the onion is translucent.  While the vegetables cook, chop the chicken breasts into small pieces.

Clear a spot in the middle of the pan, add the garlic and thyme, and cook about 45 seconds, then stir in with the vegetable mix.  Add chicken broth, half-and-half-and-half and chopped chicken.  Heat to boiling, then add the gnocchi.   Boil 4 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.    Stir in cornstarch mixture.  Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if needed, to taste.

Stir in the spinach and cook 2 minutes.  Serve with a crusty bread or garlic bread. 

Our go-to ingredient for adding chicken
flavor:  LB Jamison's Low Sodium Chicken
Flavored Soup Base.

Grown-Up Chicken and Stars Soup

We're getting a lot of squash from the CSA, so I put together this soup to use some up. 

Grown-Up Chicken and Stars Soup

 Makes 4-6 generous servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into small bite-size pieces
1/3 cup finely chopped shallots (or onions)
32 ounces chicken stock (I used Rachel Ray's)
5.5 ounce can of apricot nectar
1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into small bite-size pieces
1 cup stelline (mini star) pasta
1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
3/4 teaspoon sweet curry powder
2 medium zucchini, halved, cut lengthwise and cut into medium bite-size pieces
black pepper
additional sweet curry powder, optional

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven.  When the oil is hot, add the chicken and shallots and cook just until shallots are tender. 

Add chicken stock, apricot nectar, butternut squash, stelline, cumin and curry.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook covered for about 5 minutes. 

Add the zucchini, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until butternut squash is completely cooked. 

At the table, season to taste with black pepper and just a dash of the additional curry powder, if desired.

We served the soup with Bacon Lettuce Tomato sandwiches, and it was delicious!

Hamburger Soup

This recipe is great for a cold, blustery day.  I like to make it using leftovers from a crockpot beef roast, if i have any on hand.  My original recipe uses hamburger, though.  It tastes better than it sounds, if you're feeling skeptical!

Julianne's Vegetable Beef Soup
3 tablespoons butter
1 onion, minced fine
1 1/2 pounds extra-lean ground beef- do not substitute with regular ground beef!, or 2-3 cups leftover beef roast, cut in bite-size pieces
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
4 carrots, sliced into coins
4 stalks celery, diced
1 8-ounce package white mushrooms, sliced
4 10.5-ounce cans beef consomme
4 10.5 ounce cans, filled with water
1 15-ounce can corn, undrained 
1 tablespoons Worcestershire
1 bay leaf
10 whole, unground peppercorns
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of thyme, or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 sprinkle dried parsley flakes
1 8-ounce package frozen peas

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven.  Add onions, cook until limp and translucent.  Add ground beef (or leftover beef roast bites) and cook until the raw meat is no longer pink.  Because you used lean ground beef (you did use lean ground beef, right?), you won't have any grease to drain.  Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  Add everything else EXCEPT the frozen peas, and simmer for 45 minutes.  Right before serving, add frozen peas, and cook until warmed through, just a few minutes.

Serve with crusty French or Italian bread with plenty of butter.

Notes:  Campbell's Soup still makes a consomme beef soup, and that's what I use.  If you can't locate any, beef broth with about a tablespoon of beef stock base would be an acceptable substitution- just remember you won't need to add the cans of water.

Somehow, the chopped celery missed its photo op.

I like this recipe because 1) it makes a big batch, and freezes well, and 2) despite all the chopping, really all you have to clean up in the kitchen (other than soup bowls and spoons) is a cutting board, the Dutch oven, a wooden spoon and measuring spoons.

This is what a sprinkle of parsley looks like.  I don't bother to measure it.

Corn Chowder with Smoked Turkey (or Ham)

It was SO cold last Friday night!  The bedroom Jeffrey and I share was probably meant to be a second story summer sleeping porch, since it's built directly over the house's ground floor front porch, and has a bank of windows all the way across the front and on another two sides.  What this translates to, is that the floor isn't very well insulated.  Most of the time I love sleeping in a cold room, but Friday was just a little too arctic!

Consequently, I was in the mood for some stormy day comfort food Saturday.  Jeffrey had to go into work, so I had the pleasure of a a day all to myself.  I have the kind of personality that gets recharged from being alone, so this was double good!  I pulled out some classical CD's and made soup for both lunch and dinner today.  The first soup was a random try to be creative, since Jeffrey's had so much good luck doing that with his cooking lately.  I think this soup would also be good with diced ham, so I'm filing this recipe as a possibility to help use up any leftover Easter ham we might have.

Corn Chowder with Smoked Turkey (or Ham)

8-ounce block of cream cheese
2 cups whole milk
1 15-ounce can creamed corn
2 tablespoons fresh snipped chives
1 1/2 cups of diced smoked turkey breast (3/4 - 1 pound)
1 cup frozen peas (about 4 ounces by weight)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 sprigs fresh thyme

Soften the cream cheese- the easiest way is in the microwave.  I discovered that my microwave has a setting for just this purpose!  If you don't have a microwave, you can heat the cream cheese in a medium saucepan on medium low heat.  Either way, the softened cream cheese is now placed in the sauce pan.  Stir in the milk and creamed corn and stir until the cream cheese is incorporated.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.  Heat through until peas and turkey are warmed.  Remove the thyme sprigs.  Serve with a garnish of fresh-ground black pepper.

Notes:  I went to HyVee's deli counter and had the butcher cut a slab of unsliced smoked turkey.  While I was at the store, I looked at what passes for fresh chives.  Not impressed- what they were selling looked more like what you might plant in the ground- thick and dry, almost looking like coarse lemon grass.  If you don't grow your own chives, do yourself a favor and buy a little plant this year.  If you are an apartment dweller, just place the plant in a small flower pot that you can keep in a sunny spot.

Also, here is what I mean by a "sprig" of thyme:

Jeffrey and Juli's Mushroom Bisque

This recipe was inspired by a recent post from one of my favorite blogs, The Iowa Housewife.  I was making the Fresh Mushroom Bisque recently featured there and had just about finished cooking the soup.  Jeffrey and I tend to like our food on the spicy side, and we wanted to perk the recipe up by adding more herbs and seasoning.  So we came up with a variation on the fly that adds thyme, bay leaf and cayenne pepper. 

We actually had to add the herbs and spices at the end, but that's not ideal, so the recipe is written the way we should have done it (if we weren't adjusting for flavor after the fact).  The finished soup is decadently creamy with a really deep, meaty mushroom flavor.  It is light years apart from condensed mushroom soup and manages to be both elegant and hearty.  Trough-worthy, for sure!

 
Jeffrey and Juli's Mushroom Bisque

4 generous servings

4 ounces fresh white mushrooms, cut into eighths
4 ounces fresh white mushrooms, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf

6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups whole milk
2 1/2 cups half and half cream

4 tablespoons butter for sauteing onion, mushrooms, and garlic
1/4 cup sherry

1.  Start by chopping the mushrooms, onion, and garlic as directed.  Set aside.

2.  Using a small sauce pan, add the chicken broth and heat on medium low until just simmering.  Add the instant bouillon and whisk until mixed thoroughly.  Add thyme sprigs and the bay leaf.  Simmer all together for 5 minutes.  Remove the thyme sprigs and the bay leaf with a slotted spoon.

3. Using a 2 quart sauce pan or small Dutch oven, melt 6 tablespoons of butter on medium low heat.  Add flour, salt, white and cayenne peppers.  Cook over low heat.   When the mixture begins to bubble, remove from heat.  Add chicken stock, milk, and half and half cream slowly, whisking as you add the liquid to avoid lumps.  Stir constantly until mixture is smooth.  Cook over medium heat until thickened (keep stirring!), remove from heat and set aside.

4.  Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large saute pan/skillet.  Add minced onions and cook for 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid and shrink, and the mushroom liquid has cooked off.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add sherry to the pan to deglaze and cook until the sherry has mostly cooked off or been absorbed by the mushroom mixture.

5.  Stir the mushroom mixture into the cream mixture and cook on low heat until heated through.

We served our soup with fresh ground black pepper, a little garnish of grated cheddar cheese, and oyster crackers.

Turkey Soup

Having recently made a batch of turkey stock, it was almost a requirement that I make up a batch of Turkey Soup.    There's really not much to say about this recipe - it's pretty straight-forward - and there's also not a whole lot to show, since pictures of chopped parsley and cooking pasta aren't particularly dynamic.   The finished soup was really, really good, though, and hopefully the one picture can convey that. 

One cooking tip:  don't cook the pasta in the soup itself.  Getting the soup to enough of a boil to cook the pasta will probably make the pieces of turkey fall apart, and excess starch from the cooking pasta will weaken the flavor of the broth.  Adding the just-cooked pasta to the soup keeps the pasta from getting mushy.

Turkey Soup

yield = four to five servings

1              teaspoon table salt, divided
2 1/2        quarts Basic Turkey Stock
1              cup diced, cooked turkey
1              tablespoon unsalted butter
1              large carrot, peeled and diced
1/2           teaspoon minced garlic
1              tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/4           teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
5              ounces medium shell pasta

Add 3 quarts of water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a medium stock pot and bring to a boil.   Meanwhile, add turkey stock and diced turkey to a large pot over medium heat.  Bring to a high simmer, then reduce heat to low simmer.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the diced carrot and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly browned on some edges (about 6 minutes).  Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds, then transfer carrots and garlic to the simmering pot.  Stir in parsley and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

When the water in the stock pot has come to a boil, add the pasta and cook per package directions.  When the pasta is done, drain it thoroughly then stir it into the soup.  Cook another minute or so, then serve.

Note: 
Fairly small pasta shapes work best in this soup.  I went with medium shells, but small shells would also work well.  Other good choices include orzo, stelline and ditali.

Basic Turkey Stock

After baking a turkey recently, I was left with a variety of leftovers.  I removed lots of turkey meat, including one complete breast, from the turkey, but that left me with the turkey carcass, which had a fair bit of meat still attached.  I divided the carcass into pieces and froze it, only to take it out of the freezer a week later to make turkey stock.

Turkey stock quite useful for soups, but it can also be used in place of chicken stock in any number of recipes.  My plan was to freeze a couple quarts of stock and use the rest to make a turkey soup of some sort.  I'll probably be using some of the frozen stock to make a turkey pot pie in the near future.

The following is a pretty basic recipe for stock.  It is tasty enough to stand on its own as a turkey broth, but it really shines when used as a base for other recipes.  It takes a little time, but most of that time is just simmering, with only minimal oversight necessary, and the result is well worth the time.


Basic Turkey Stock

yield = 4 1/2 quarts stock

1         carcass from a 18-20 pound turkey with ample
           amount of meat still attached, divided into sections
           to fit into a pot
2         large stalks celery, chopped course
1         large onion, peeled and halved
1         large carrot, peeled and chopped coarse
1         bay leaf
5         medium cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1         teaspoon black peppercorns, slightly cracked
5         quarts water
2         cups dry white wine
5         sprigs fresh parsley
2         sprigs fresh thyme

Add the turkey carcass, celery, onion, carrot, bay leaf, garlic cloves and peppercorns to a large stock pot (12 quarts or more works best) along with the water and wine.   Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer two hours, stirring occasionally.  Add the parsley and thyme, simmer two more hours, then strain the broth into quart-size containers.  Remove the meat from the solids and reserve for soup or other uses.  When the broth has cooled, remove and discard the fat from atop the broth.

Hearty Bean Soup

This soup recipe started as something my son's second grade class made while studying cooking and nutrition.  Each kid was sent home with a jar of beans and spices and some simple instructions, and the parents were to work with the child to prepare a soup using those ingredients and instructions, plus a few other staple ingredients noted in the instructions. 

That recipe made a simple but tasty bean soup.  I liked it quite a bit, and over the years I've revisited the recipe many times, customizing it to my taste over that period of time.   I made it again recently, for the first time in a few years, and after a bit more customization reflecting what I've learned about cooking over time, I'm even happier with it now than ever before.
First you make a simple beef broth by boiling a meaty soup bone (and, optionally, some marrow bones), skimming off the gunk that collects at the top, spooning off the fat and straining the broth before returning it to a stock pot with whatever bits of meat you can salvage from the bone.  That's pretty much all that was done in the original recipe, but the beef flavor was rather lacking in that version.  That's not too surprising, since it takes a fair bit of beef to make a hearty, beefy stock just by boiling meat and bones.  Over the years, I've punched up the meaty flavor by adding some soup base and this time - reflecting one of the standard Cook's Illustrated techniques - combining a bit of chicken stock with the beef stock.  

When I first read about this, I was suspicious, but the CI people are spot-on... combining the chicken stock (or broth) with the beef stock amps up the meaty flavor without making it taste like chicken soup. 

From there, one tosses in a few cups of beans, split peas and lentils, some seasonings and some sauteed vegetables, lets it all simmer for a couple hours, and voila!  You've got a tasty bean, beef and vegetable soup.   By cooking it long enough for the split peas to have mostly broken down and the lentils to have started doing so, you end up with a hearty soup with a thick broth.  It serves up great with a crusty bread, which comes in handy for sopping up the broth. 

Hearty Bean Soup

yield = 8-10 servings

1          1 1/2-2 pound meaty beef soup bone
2 1/2    pounds beef marrow bones (optional)
13        cups water
3          cups chicken stock (or broth)
10        teaspoons beef soup base
            (if you are using marrow bones, you need
             only 8 teaspoons soup base)
1 1/4    cups pinto beans
1          cup lentils (brown, or other variety)
1          cup split peas
1/2       cup great northern or navy beans
1/2       cup reed kidney beans
2          teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1 1/2    teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1 1/2    teaspoon table salt
1 1/2    teaspoon dried dill weed
1          teaspoon celery seed
1          teaspoon dried sage
1          teaspoon dried thyme
1/4       teaspoon crushed red pepper
2          tablespoons vegetable oil
1          cup finely chopped carrot
1          cup finely chopped celery
1          cup finely chopped onion
5          teaspoons minced garlic
1          15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

Beef soup bone and marrow bones.

Add the soup bone, marrow bones (if using) and water to a large stock pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and allow to simmer one hour, skimming the foam occasionally.  Remove the soup and marrow bones.  Pull the meat away from the bone, removing gristle and excess fat, and discard all of the bones.  Let the broth cool a bit, skim off fat, then strain the broth and return it to the stock pot,  Return the shredded meat to the pot.  Add the chicken stock and soup base and start to reheat.

Pour the beans, split peas and lentils into a collander to rinse and pick over (it isn't that unusual to find small bits of gravel in bags of dried beans).  Add the beans, peas and lentils to the stock pot along with the parsley flakes, pepper, salt, dill, celery seed, sage, thyme and crushed red pepper.  Heat to a simmer.

Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat.  When the oil is hot, add the carrot, celery and onion and cook until the onion is clear and all the vegetables are softened (5-6 minutes).  Add the garlic, cook one minute, then stir the contents of the skillet into the stock pot along with the tomatoes.

Simmer partially-covered for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Taste, adjust seasonings as desired and serve with a crusty bread. 

Black Bean and Ham Soup

We had lots of leftovers from our early-Christmas ham.  A lot of the ham was sliced up for sandwiches, but I used a good chunk of it - and the ham bone - to make up a big pot of black bean soup with ham.  There was one big obstacle to my making the soup, though:  lack of a recipe.

I used to have a pretty good recipe for black bean and ham soup, but when I went to make up my soup, I couldn't locate that recipe.  That kind of bothered me - and I haven't given up looking, as I do want to find that old recipe - but with no other option, I decided to just wing it this time around.

Aside from the obvious ingredients - black beans and ham - I decided to go with a basic mix of vegetables (onions, carrots, celery), plus some extras for flavor.   I had some chilis, and while I decided against chopping them up as an ingredient - I was wanting something that tasted like a soup, not watered-down chili - I decided to use them to flavor the soup but remove them before serving.   Beyond that, decided to just go with some basics for seasoning, and cornstarch to thicken the broth a bit.

The results were... okay.  Not great, but not bad, either.  The beans were well-cooked - tender, but not split open or half-dissolved.  The ham provided rich flavor, and the jalapenos and pepper flakes gave the broth a slight undercurrent of heat.  Served up with some sour cream and a bit of chopped cilantro, I liked it fine enough, but clearly it could use some improvement.   Suggestions, anyone?


Black Bean and Ham Soup

2        pounds dried black beans
1        ham bone with about 3 cups ham attached
2        jalapenos, halved and seeded
2        large onions, minced
16      cloves garlic, minced
3        bay leaves
5        tablespoons salt
2        tablespoons olive oil
2        stalks of celery, chopped
2        large carrots, peeled and chopped
2        tablespoons ground cumin
4        tablespoons dried oregano
1/2     teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2        teaspoons freshly-ground black pepper
4        tablespoons cornstarch
          chopped fresh cilantro and sour cream (to garnish)

Put the beans, ham bone, jalapenos and 30 cups of water in a stock pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes or so, then skim any scum from the surface of the water.  Add one chopped onion, 10 cloves of minced garlic, bay leaves and salt and cook about 2 hours. 

Remove the ham bone from the pot and cut meat into small hunks; discard bones and fat.  Stir the meat back into the pot.  Remove two cups of beans and a bit of broth to a bowl and mash the beans, using a potato masher or fork.  Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add the remaining onion along with the celery and carrot.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft.   Push the vegetables to the side of the skillet, add cumin, oregano, red pepper flakes and 6 cloves of minced garlic to the middle of the skillet and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute.  Stir all the contents of the skillet together, then stir in the mashed beans and liquid, along with black pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened, then transfer the skillet contents to the pot.  Stir to mix and cook another 20 minutes or so to allow the flavors to blend. 

At the end of that time, check seasoning, adjust with additional salt and pepper, if needed, then serve, providing sour cream and cilantro at the table to garnish to taste.

Toscana Soup

Juli is a big fan of the Toscana Soup served at Olive Garden, and asked me to make some for her.   She found a recipe online that claimed to be the same one used by Olive Garden, and I glanced at a couple other online recipes to get the feel for the basics of the soup before giving it a try.

I served it with garlic breadsticks, spaghetti and warmed up marinara and meatballs I froze a few weeks ago.  The soup turned out pretty good... creamy, hearty and filling, and with a nice blend of flavors. 

Juli was quite pleased with it, and that made me happy.  Beyond that, I'm starting to become something of a fan of kale.

Toscana Soup

yield = 4-5 meal-size servings

1        pound Italian sausage
2        teaspoons olive oil
1        onion, chopped fine
3/4     teaspoon minced garlic
3        medium potatoes, cut lengthwise and then cut into 1/4" slices
2        tablespoons chicken soup base
3        kale leaves, ribs removed, greens sliced
1/2     cup heavy cream

Cook the sausage in a large Dutch oven.  Remove and drain the sausage, then set it aside.

Wipe out the Dutch oven, then add the olive oil, heating it on medium.  Add the onions and cook until they are soft, then add the garlic and cook an additional minute.  Add 5 cups of water, the soup base and the sliced potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes

Add the sausage, kale and cream, return to a boil, then simmer 4-5 minutes.  Serve.

Note:
I rolled bulk Italian sausage into little balls and cooked it that way, but you could just as well use loose sausage, or cook and slice up sausage links.

Pumpkin and Red Lentil Curry Soup & Sweet and Hot Shrimp Curry

For lunch yesterday, I made two new Indian recipes.  Both were inspired by recipes in Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India, but while I used recipes from that book as a starting point, by the time I put my own spin on them, they ended up as something distinctly different.  Both were also quite good.

The one that represents the greatest departure from the recipe in Panjabi's book is Pumpkin and Lentil Curry Soup.  I started with a recipe for masoor dal (red lentils), but decided to mix several things around, include more pumpkin and make it into something more distinctly a soup.

The other new recipe, Sweet and Hot Shrimp Curry, is based on Panjabi's recipe for Shrimps in Sweet and Hot Curry.  My changes mostly involve some changes in the amounts of various ingredients, but are substantial enough to make it a different recipe. 

Both of these recipes utilize something I recently picked up for the first time, tamarind concentrate.  Lots of Thai and Indian recipes call for soaking tamarind pulp in warm water and straining out the resulting juice (tamarind pulp itself isn't really edible, but the strained liquid has a distinct, sweet-tangy flavor).  I've always found that a bit of a pain, really.  The tamarind concentrate - more or less that same strained liquid, only thickened into a paste - allows one to skip that step and still get the same flavor.  I consider this a great find, personally.

I served the two dishes up with seasoned basmati rice (basmati prepared as normal, but with a large pinch each of garam masala and turmeric) and a pair of Indian breads.  Normally we have just been preparing frozen naan with our Indian meals, but last time we stopped by Maria Grocery and Gifts, Juli accidentally grabbed several packages of roti instead.  As it turns out, the round, whole-wheat roti are just as great as the naan we've been buying, so we plan to use both from now on, for variety.

The two dishes worked well together.   The soup was flavorful, but fairly mild, such that it might have seemed a bit boring on its own, but it perfectly complemented the bold heat and sweetness of the thick curry sauce that covered the shrimp.


Pumpkin and Red Lentil Curry Soup

yield = approx. 8 generous servings

1       pound masoor dal (split red lentils)
1       tablespoon butter
1       large onion, finely chopped
2       green hot chilis, minced
1       tablespoon grated ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1       teaspoon ground coriander
1       teaspoon chili powder
1/2    teaspoon cumin powder
1       sugar pie pumpkin, peeled, seeded and strings removed
         (about 1 pound)
1       can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1/2    teaspoon salt
2       teaspoons tamarind concentrate
2       tablespoons lime juice
1/2    teaspoon garam masala
3/4    teaspoon ground cinnamon

Rinse the lentils, then set aside.

Bring 11 cups of water to a boil in a Dutch oven.  While the water heats up, heat the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, then fry the onions and chilis until the onion is nearing golden-brown (about 6 minutes).  Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook another minute, then stir in the ground coriander, the chili powder and the ground cumin and cook for one minute more.

When the water has come to a boil, add the lentils, the pumpkin, the onion mixture, tomatoes and salt to the Dutch oven.  Return to a full boil, then reduce heat to high simmer and cook for about 45 minutes, stirring often. 

Remove the soup from heat, and puree about half of it, including all pumpkin chunks and large pieces of tomato, in a blender.  Return the puree to the Dutch oven and reheat to a low simmer.  Stir in the tamarind concentrate and lime juice, then pour the soup into a serving bowl.  Sprinkle with the garam masala and cinnamon, then serve.

Note:
If one wishes to make a complete meal of this soup, stir in an ample helping of rice.

Sweet and Hot Shrimp Curry

yield = 4 servings

4        green hot chilis, chopped
2        teaspoons minced garlic
1        teaspoon cumin seeds
2        tablespoons vegetable oil
1        large onion, finely chopped
1        teaspoon garam masala
3/4     teaspoon ground coriander
3/4     teaspoon chili powder
1/2     teaspoon ground cumin
1/2     teaspoon powdered turmeric
1        14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/2  teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1        teaspoon grated jaggery or palm sugar
10      curry leaves
1/4     cup coarsely-chopped cilantro leaves
3/4     teaspoon salt
1        pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

Grind the chilis, garlic and cumin seeds into a paste; set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook the onions until they are starting to brown.  Add the chili/garlic paste and fry for two minutes, stirring well.  Add the garam masala, coriander, chili powder, cumin and turmeric and stir constantly for 1 minute.  Add the tomatoes and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Stir in the tamarind concentrate, jaggery, curry leaves, cilantro and salt and cook for about 2 minutes.  Taste; adjust sweetness, sourness and saltiness to taste, if necessary.  Add 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil.  Add the shrimp and cook until they are done, stirring often.  Serve with rice and Indian bread.