Queso Chicken Soup (3 Star)

This soup is one of Brandon's favorites. Most of the rest of us like it, too. It is creamy, cheesy, and chunky, full of vegetables, potatoes, chicken, and black beans.



Queso Chicken Soup
adapted from Picky Palate

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 cans of chunk chicken from Costco, undrained (or use 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken breast)
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1-2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup flour
4 cups chicken broth
15 oz can black beans, drained
15 oz can diced tomatoes (I always puree mine to appease the picky eaters)
4 Cups diced baking potato
¼ Cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
half a jar of Ragu cheese sauce or two cups of shredded cheddar or Monterrey jack

Garnish
Frito's or tortilla chips
cilantro leaves

Heat oil in a 5 qt dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Saute onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in garlic and chicken. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add cumin, salt, pepper, and flour and stir for another minute. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, and potatoes. Cook over medium heat until potatoes are fork tender. Reduce heat to low and stir in cilantro leaves and Ragu cheese sauce or grated cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Garnish with chips and cilantro leaves, if desired.




Click here for original recipe.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup (0 Star)

I like soup. Soup is good. This Roasted Cauliflower Soup is good.



The only change I made was the salt. The recipe calls for a tablespoon of coarse salt. I only had sea salt and I used 2 teaspoons. Coarse salt must be less salty because 2 teaspoons of sea salt was too salty for me. Next time I will use one.

Click here for the tutorial and here for the recipe.

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup (0 Star)

I almost didn't post this recipe because my picture is kind of lame--more of an afterthought to our consumption. But then I decided to post it because this soup is so awesome and I didn't want to wait until the next time I make it to try to get a good picture.

This is the best tomato soup I have ever tasted. It is creamy and flavorful with a slight kick. And it is full of vegetables, so it's a great way to get more good wholesomeness into yourself.

It is Picky Palate's creation and is excellent as written. However, I am posting it below with changes that I made due to ingredients that I had on hand and also because I took the easy road and made it a little differently (easier). A little flavor may have been sacrificed my way, but only the very keen palate would notice, I think!



Creamy Fire Roasted Tomato and Bacon Soup

28 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes or 28 oz fresh tomatoes and a couple of dashes of liquid smoke
1 medium or large onion, peeled and cut into fourths
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into fourths
2 stalks celery, trimmed and cut into fourths
1 Serrano pepper, stem trimmed off
4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled, or 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
¼ cup flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/3 cup bacon bits (I buy the bags from Costco) or you can cook 12 strips of bacon and then crumble (save half for garnish)

42 oz chicken broth

Few pinches of salt to taste
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 Cup half and half or heavy cream

Additional bacon bits to garnish

1. Place the first 8 ingredients into a blender in the order listed above. Puree until smooth.

2. Put the vegetable puree into a large pot and add the chicken broth. Heat to a boil and then simmer on low, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes.

3. Add salt to taste, pepper, and cream, and stir until heated through. Allow flavors to combine on a medium-low heat for about 5 minutes and then serve with bacon bits sprinkled on top.

Click here for the original recipe.

Southwest Chicken Chili (3 Star)

This is one of my favorite chicken chili recipes, from Picky Palate. It's spicy, savory, fresh, and healthful. I generally make it as written, with the addition of a cup of my favorite salsa.

Click here for the recipe.

Apple Cheddar Squash Soup (0 Star)

I couldn't believe that none of the boys liked this soup. (How often have I said this? Will I never cease to be amazed at their lackluster palates?) I really thought they would. I think I would have liked it at their ages. It was smooth and creamy and the flavor was mellow, earthy, and cheesy. I doubled this recipe and Brandon and I happily took care of it within a few days. And it was even better the second and third days. I didn't have any prosciutto or bacon so I used some smoked canned ham. Sorry if that sounds gross, but we still really loved it.

Click here for the recipe from Perry's Plate.

Coconut Red Lentil Soup (2 Star)

I would categorize this soup as a split pea soup (that also has lentils) and I like split pea soup. But this soup goes way beyond split pea soup. It is magnificent. I would never call regular split pea soup magnificent, just really good. This was beyond good. I have never used red lentils or yellow split peas before and the color created by this combination is beautiful. I definitely can't call regular old green split pea soup beautiful. And the other ingredients in this recipe really made it amazing. The recipe for this soup is from 101 Cookbooks, found here.

I followed this recipe exactly, except for the fact that I used a crock pot. I combined the first five ingredients in the crock pot and set it on low for three or four hours. Then I followed the instructions for the other ingredients, added them to the pot, and cooked on low for another hour or two.

Fantastic!

Kimchi Jjigae (3 Star)

If you are familiar with kimchi, you know that it is the very spicy, fermented cabbage that Koreans eat with every meal. Brandon loves it, but as for myself, I have not developed a taste for it, though I like to try it every now and then to see if it's better than I remembered from the last time. None of the boys like it, either. However, I really enjoyed this jjigae (soup) that Brandon made from the kimchi, and so did some of the boys. It is a spicy soup, but the spice is tempered by chicken, onions, tofu, and broth.



Kimchi Jjigae

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 lb kimchi
water enough to cover vegetables and meat
1 Tablespoon honey or sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon red pepper paste
1 package extra firm tofu
1-2 zucchini, sliced

Heat oil in a large soup pot on medium high to high heat. When hot, add chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stir occasionally until meat is browned but not cooked through.

Turn the heat down to medium and layer the kimchi on top of the meat (leave the kimchi juice in the jar). Cover and let simmer for five minutes.

Add water until the ingredients are covered. Add remaining kimchi juice, soy sauce, honey or sugar, salt, pepper, and red paste. Bring to a boil and simmer on low for ten minutes.

Add tofu (or rubber chicken, as dubbed by our youngest son) and zucchini and simmer for an additional five minutes. Serve with rice.

Chicken Enchilada Soup (3 Star)

This is one of my favorite soups, courtesy of Picky Palate, found here. It's another great recipe in which to use my homemade chipotle salsa. Other salsas work well, too. I make the recipe as written and add 1-1 1/2 cups salsa prior to boiling the soup. It adds freshness and greater depth of flavor to an already fantastic soup.

Clam Chowder and Saltine Crackers (4 Star)

Clam chowder is a popular item around here. (Except with me! I like the chowder but I could do without the clams. I guess I'm the picky one this time.) Aside from me, everyone loves it. Our second-born helped me to make this for dinner and as we were eating, the only noise was the sound of mouths smacking--an unusual occurrence.

We use a simple recipe, found here on Allrecipes. I often use evaporated milk in place of the half and half in order to ease up on fat, and I stir about a third cup of flour into the milk before adding it to the soup and then boil to create a thicker consistency.



I forgot to buy saltine crackers for this meal (I always forget something) so Brandon made his own! Wow! Check them out. He got the recipe on-line, but I don't know where. They were more dense than the store-bought variety but tasted good.

Baked Potato Soup (3 Star)

We love this soup! Even our second born loves it. Although our first-born used to, he doesn't enjoy it so much now--I don't know what's up with that because this is just plain yummy.

The recipe is from Picky Palate found here along with a lot of other really good soup recipes. You have to scroll down the page to get to the "Loaded Baked Potato Soup".

And don't be scared of the jalapeno. I was worried it would make this too spicy for my family but it didn't, and in my opinion, it is one of the things that really makes it awesome.

Beautiful Black Bean Soup (3 Star)

I changed the name of this soup to "beautiful" because it had beautiful flavor (and because I like alliteration). I LOVED this soup! Although the appearance was not beautiful at first. In fact in Brandon's words it was "scary". I have never made black bean soup before and so we are not used to such a dark soup. (Really, this might be a great thing to serve at a Halloween party! It could be called "Tar".)

I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and she raves about the Toasted Cumin Seed Crema which I thought was good. However, I don't know if mine was as good as hers because, as usual, I forgot to get something at the store and it was the cumin seed. I had cumin powder, though, and I thought that maybe I could just toast the powder which is what I did. It appeared to work but flavor-wise I imagine the seeds would be superior.

This soup was so good, especially after it had been in the fridge for a couple of days. It was incredibly easy, too. The recipe says to put the beans in the crock pot and cook--no soaking. I have never cooked beans without soaking and even though I have seen other recipes instruct this, I have never believed it. But this time I decided to let go of my limiting beliefs and it worked! Within four hours of cooking on high in the crock pot, the beans were soft.

One part of the recipe says to do this: "Transfer two cups bean mixture to blender; puree until smooth. Return puree to remaining soup in slow cooker." Being averse to this kind of hassle, I used an immersion blender and blended until there was a creamy base but still plenty of whole beans.

Isn't it beautiful?





The boys were a bit wary of this soup (I think we all were!), but three of them ate small portions and were okay with it. I think next time I make this they may warm up to it a bit more.

Ribollita (0 Star)

I have never cooked anything using kale before and I don't think I have ever eaten it before, either. So this was an adventurous recipe for me but I decided to give it a try because I want to incorporate more vegetables into our diet. I'm glad I did because this soup had amazing flavor. The recipe is from 101 Cookbooks and I followed it as closely as I was capable. However, my kale doesn't look the same so there must be some difference between the kale that I bought and the "cavolo nero (lacinato kale, Tuscan kale)" that her recipe calls for. Unfortunately, I must say that I am not quite a fan of the kale. The flavor was good in the soup but the texture seemed a little tough to me. Brandon said he liked it, though. So, being ignorant about kale, I don't know if it was poor quality or if that's just how kale is. And, my soup did not look the same as her soup even though I did my best to follow the recipe precisely. (I won't mention what my boys said this soup looked like.) Also, there are no olives in my soup because I thought there were some in my pantry but there weren't.

But don't get me wrong--this soup was really good and I plan to make it again but next time I will be sure to have olives and I will look harder for the kind of kale that is specified.






The Rosemary bread that I made to go with this soup is from Bird Food (my sister in law, Heidi's, blog) and this is the second time in a week that I've made it so that shows how much I like it. This time, instead of white flour, I made it with 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten flour and I had to increase the water by about 1/4-1/3 cup. It turned out very good.