Giving chicken soup a little kick

Homemade chicken soup is such a simply wonderful meal. It’s a great comfort when you’re under the weather, but a warm bowl full of chicken, broth and other goodies is delicious no matter how you feel. The next time you want a little twist on a traditional favorite, give this recipe a try.

Kickin’ Chicken and Rice Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, ends removed, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 cup dry white rice, rinsed
1 cup diced cooked chicken
1 cup (7-8 ounces) diced smoked sausage (I used one of these guys)
8 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
8 ounces large shrimp, butterflied and separated

Heat olive oil over medium heat in large, heavy pot. Add garlic, onion, carrots, celery and bell pepper and sautée for a couple minutes. Stir in Creole seasoning, rice, sausage and chicken and sautée for a couple more minutes. Add broth and tomato paste. Bring pot to boil and then reduce heat, allowing soup to simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, or until rice is cooked. Stir in shrimp, cover, and simmer for another five minutes, until shrimp is fully cooked.

Keeping cans of cannellini beans close

I try not to play favorites, but when it comes to beans, I absolutely love cooking with cannellinis. These white kidney beans are just so versatile. Give any or all of these three quick, no-cook cannellini recipes a try and you’ll see what I mean.

Cannellini Bean Salad 
2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups roasted red bell peppers
2 cloves garlic juice of half a lemon
Chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Put peppers, garlic and lemon juice in a blender and process until smooth. Stir dressing in with beans in a bowl and top with parsley.

Pesto White Bean Dip
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup pesto
Juice of half a lemon
Possible dippers: Pita chips

Everything goes into the blender for a quick spin, until smooth.

Red Pepper White Bean Dip 
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans
1 cup roasted red bell pepper
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Possible dippers: Carrot and celery sticks

All ingredients go into the blender. Purée, adding a little more balsamic if you’d like to thin the dip a bit.

Roast chicken is the gift that keeps giving

The inspiration to roast a chicken is based on my love of a good deal. I can’t resist bringing home a bird when they’re on sale for only 99 cents per pound. I bought a whole chicken for the same price some people pay for just one foot-long sandwich. Please believe I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of this five-dollar fowl. First up was tonight’s delicious roast chicken with potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Tomorrow I’ll make a few quarts of chicken stock with the carcass and start thinking of different ways to use the huge bowl of cooked chicken meat currently chilling out in the fridge.

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts 
One roasting chicken (this one weighed in around five pounds)
1 teaspoon smoked salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon melted butter
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 cloves garlic
1 pound small white potatoes, washed, dried and cut into quarters
1 pound Brussels sprouts (I used Trader Joe's frozen variety)
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix melted butter, two tablespoons olive oil, salt, paprika, garlic powder, thyme and oregano in a small bowl. Rinse and pat dry chicken. Place garlic cloves in cavity and tie legs together to hold shape. Place chicken on rack in roasting pan and spread seasoning mix on skin. Toss potatoes and Brussels sprouts in a bowl with remaining olive oil, salt and pepper to lightly coat. Place potatoes and Brussels sprouts in roasting pan with chicken, and then place roasting pan in the oven. Bake 80 to 90 minutes, or until chicken is golden and the thickest part of the thigh measures 180 degrees with a meat thermometer.

Not-so-red lentils the base of spice-infused soup

I swear these lentils were red when I bought them. Granted, this delicious, spice-infused dish is nowhere near red in color, but I promise, it does contain tons of red lentils, garam masala and all kinds of other goodies that make it worth a try.

Not-So-Red Lentil Soup with Shrimp 
2 cups dried red lentils
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons garam masala spice mix
2 teaspoon smoked paprika, divided
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes with liquid
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed
Cilantro, for garnish

Put lentils in a bowl and fill with enough water to cover lentils with an inch or two of water. Soak lentils for an hour before draining and rinsing.

Heat oil in large, heavy pot over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and carrot, sautéeing for a couple minutes. Stir in garam masala, tomato paste, salt and one teaspoon smoked paprika and cook for another minute or two. Add lentils, coconut milk, tomatoes and broth to pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow soup to simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are tender. Remove from heat.

Put shrimp in non-stick frying pan and dust with remaining teaspoon of smoked paprika. Cook at high heat for a couple minutes on each side until shrimp are fully cooked.

Ladle lentils into soup bowls, top with four shrimp and cilantro sprigs, and serve.

Adding the recipes of others to my repertoire

A caterer once told me that it only takes a minor tweak to someone’s existing recipe to make it your own. Can’t say I agree, which is why I’m going to share a couple photos and then refer you to some delicious recipes others have created but that I’ve tried and love.

Corn Farrotto from Bon Appetit (doctored up with some garlic shrimp)

One of my favorite food bloggers posted this Toasted Sesame Quinoa with Chicken recipe a couple months ago and I’ve already made it half a dozen times.

A soup with plenty of spuds and spice

We’re not big potato eaters but every once in awhile I’ll spot a ginormous bag of spuds at the grocery store, see that it costs mere pennies, and before you know it I’ve hoisted a bag into my cart.

This is what happened during my most recent trip to the supermarket, when I spent a whopping $2 on 10 pounds of white potatoes (this soup was the result of my last cheap-as-dirt potato deal). I also picked up some end-of-season corn for 25 cents per ear.

It’s finally cooling down and feeling like fall, and these super-cheap ingredients were the basis of one of the first of many soups and stews I plan to make in the coming months. I like the sweet flavors of the corn and the cooked red onion mixed with a little bit of kick from the jalapeno, diced green chiles and cumin.

Spiced Potato and Corn Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large jalapeno, seeds removed, diced
1 medium red onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin
2 pounds white potatoes, cleaned and cut into small cubes
2 ears of corn, husked, kernels cut from cobs
7 cups chicken broth
4 oz. can diced green chiles
Salt and pepper, to taste
Green onion, for garnish

Warm oil in a large heavy pot. Add jalapenos, red onion, garlic and cumin and cook mixture, stirring occasionally, for just a couple minutes. Add potatoes, corn and broth to pot, cover pot and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Use two-cup glass measuring cup to scoop six cups of soup into blender. Puree soup mixture and pour back into the pot. Stir in the green chiles and simmer for just a couple more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Finding redemption after shopping on autopilot

Do you ever find yourself bumbling through a supermarket on autopilot, not really considering what goes into the shopping cart until you’re unloading it at the cash register?

This is what happens when I shop in zombie mode:

Yup, that’s a ridiculously small portion of dry multi-bean mix. I spotted these beans in the bulk bins a while back and thought it would be a good idea to bring some home for a future soup recipe. The problem is that I wasn’t thinking of how many beans should probably go into this soup, and I only bought about a cup of mixed beans. Ridiculous! Luckily I had plenty of dried pintos and lentils to mix in with the aforementioned sad scoop of beans. Throw the hodge podge into a pot with some veggies and spicy sausage and boom, you’ve got a delicious, filling soup for the masses.

You can prepare dry beans for a recipe like this a couple different ways. One option is to soak the beans in water overnight. What I did, because I forgot to soak my beans, is go with a “quick soak” method by putting the bean mix in a large pot, adding enough water to cover the beans with a couple inches of water, and bringing the pot to a boil. After a couple minutes of rolling boil, you can remove the pot from heat and let the beans sit, uncovered, for an hour before draining. Either method will get you beans that are ready to be cooked. And no matter which method you employ, be sure to rinse the beans prior to soaking and pick out any stones or bad beans.

Bean Bonanza Soup 
2 cups mixed dry beans, soaked, drained and rinsed
32 ounces low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
28 oz can stewed tomatoes with liquid
2 cups andouille sausage links
1 white onion, diced
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrots, celery,oregano and bay leaves. Sauté for a couple minutes before adding sausage to pot and sautéeing for a couple more minutes. Add tomatoes to the pot, using hands to crush tomatoes. Stir in beans and broth and bring to a boil before reducing heat. Allow pot to simmer, covered, for 30-60 minutes, until beans are tender. Remove bay leaves before serving soup.