Soups & Stews

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

December 19, 2012 by Rebecca 12 Comments

Soup equals my bonus mom, Val. She is the Soup Queen. Almost without fail, anytime someone is invited over for dinner -whether family or friend- soup and muffins were on the menu. Val said that was because soup and muffins were almost always inexpensive, easy to make, and delicious. Val is the soup queen.

Her soups are a marvel of resourcefulness, deliciousness and beauty.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to learn at her elbow for more than twenty years and here are some of the most important soup tips I’ve gleaned from her over the years.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that equals a lot of soup. It doesn’t take much of any one thing to make a massive pot of excellent soup.
Don’t overthink it. Soup shouldn’t be difficult.
Keep tasting and keep adjusting. Don’t be afraid to toss something else in there if it doesn’t taste the way you want it. If you can’t fix it, ask Val. She’ll know how.
Chances are good that if your soup needs adjusting what it really needs is nutmeg. Freshly grated nutmeg. Ask Val.
Soup hides many sins. Overcook your roast? Char your roasted veggies? Got something that is just about to be past its prime? Toss it into soup and say amen.
Soup plus bread or muffins equals a happily fed crowd. Really.

Speaking of soup, Panera contacted me a few weeks ago and offered me the chance to visit one of their restaurants. I was pretty excited. After all, I am a soup nut. I’d heard people rave about the place for years and just had never gotten the chance to visit one.

Oh, the wares. Soup and bread and pastries. This is my kind of restaurant. There simply is nothing better than a homey bowl of soup served up with a hunk of tasty baguette bread. My Mom got black bean soup because it’s vegetarian and so is she. I opted for the Broccoli Cheddar Soup because, well, it had broccoli and Cheddar; two of my favourite things in the entire world. I told mom I needed to taste her soup for research purposes. She allowed me to do so. When I went to dip back in for more research, though, I’m pretty sure I saw a steely glint in her eye. I backed off and attacked my own soup with vigor. Just look at that. How could you NOT want to dive in head first?

Panera is my new go-to place for a quick bite on the town. Mom and I agreed that we’ll check their website every single time we venture to the big city to see just what the soup is of the day. I was inspired by my visit to Panera’s “Good Goes In” philosophy to finally introduce my favourite winter soup here.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup has been on my rotation for many, many years in some form or another and is just about the perfect thing for this time of year. Oh sure, it’s indulgent, creamy, rich, comforting and whatnot, but it also has broccoli. That makes it health food. I think. I’m pretty sure it does, anyway. I’ll ask Val.

Long may soup and the Soup Queen reign!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

There is really nothing more comforting than a bowl of soup on a cold winter day and this Broccoli Cheddar Soup is exceptionally good at the job. Creamy, rich, and distinctly cheesy, it doesn't skimp on tender broccoli and has gorgeous little flecks of sweet carrot hiding in it.

Ingredients

1 stick (8 tablespoons, 4 ounces by weight) unsalted butter
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or pressed
1/2 cup (2 1/8 ounces by weight) all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken broth or stock
2 broccoli crowns, cut into small bite-sized pieces, no larger than can comfortably fit on a spoon
6 cups milk
1 cup coarsely shredded carrot
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons ground mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3-4 cups grated Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot or soup pot, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in the chopped onions and garlic and a pinch of salt and let it cook 'til the onions and garlic are tender and translucent around the edges, about 4 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour over the top and stir it in until evenly coating the onions and garlic then cook for 1 minute. Pour the chicken stock into the pan, raise the heat to high, and stir well until evenly combined. Add the broccoli in, stir well, and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Boil for 3 minutes.

Lower the heat to medium and stir in the milk, carrot, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder and grated nutmeg. Cook the mixture gently, lowering the heat if necessary to prevent boiling, until the broccoli is tender, but still has body. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cheese until it is fully melted into the soup. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper to your preference.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/12/19/broccoli-cheddar-soup/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Disclosure: As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Disclosure, I was given a gift card to try Panera bread as well as a stipend to pay for ingredients used in my recipe development. All opinions and thoughts, as well as the recipe, are my own.

Filed Under: Rebecca, Recipes, Soups & Stews Tagged With: budget friendly, family-friendly, Frugal Food, kid friendly, quick and easy

Hearty Kielbasa, Bean and Vegetable Soup

October 23, 2012 by Rebecca 3 Comments

Soup is the frugal cook’s best friend. It doesn’t take much of anything; a little bit of meat, a little bit of broth, a little bit of vegetable, a little bit of onion, and a judicious hand with spices and herbs come together to stretch and create a pot of mind-bendingly good soup big enough to feed a crowd.

You and I both know meat is expensive, but it’s oh-so-good… I like my cold weather soups to have the oomph and fullness of taste that meat provides. In order to get that without breaking the bank, I use highly flavourful meats like kielbasa or smoked beef sausage in my soup. To make the meat go further, I use one of my dad’s tricks; the smaller the amount of meat I have, the smaller I dice it and the further it goes. The goal is to get a little bit of meat in every bite and this works like magic.

Now you can fool your tastebuds with the little bitty meat trick, but you can’t fool your belly into thinking its full. To help bulk up the soup and make it more satisfying you have to add STUFF. I like beans (the perennial meat substitute) and lots of ‘em, greens of some sort (spinach or kale are my preferences), carrots, celery and onions. Will the soup fail if you’re missing one of those things? Oh gosh no, it’ll just be different. I’m a food blogger, though, it’s my job to tell you how to replicate what I like best.

…And this soup is what I like best. It’s what my hubby likes best. It’s what my kids (minus the “EW! No green stuff!” crowd) like best. It’s just plain good stuff and it comes together so quickly that you’ll miss it if you blink. Unless you’re in a household of one or two people, I don’t advise reducing the recipe. Yes, it DOES make a lot. Okay, if I’m being really honest, it makes a vat. Here’s the thing, though. It is a universal truth that soup tastes better on Day Two. On Day Three? Forget about it. It’s better yet! Odds are the soup won’t make it past Day Four, but if it does, pop it into the freezer in microwave safe, resealable containers. There it will sit happily waiting for you to have a soup craving.

Mmmmmmm… soup. It’s good for the soul AND the pocketbook.

Oh! Be here tomorrow! There will be a giveaway and it’s a doozy! You want a hint? It rhymes with Mary & Play-vid. Ahem.

Hearty Kielbasa, Bean and Vegetable Soup

This hearty, super soup is chock full of garlicky kielbasa, beans, spinach, carrots, celery and onions. This will warm you straight through and keep you going!

Instructions include how to maintain the flavour of the soup and reduce the amount of sausage to make it very budget friendly.

Ingredients

8 ounces to 2 pounds of Beef or Polska Kielbasa
1 to 2 onions, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1 to 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch rounds
1 to 2 ribs of celery, washed and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced or minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 quart home canned whole tomatoes in juice or 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice
8 cups chicken broth or stock
3 cups of cooked cannellini or Great Northern beans with their liquid (or 2 cans, with liquid)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 pound of spinach (you can use chopped,frozen spinach or fresh baby spinach leaves)
salt and pepper to taste
Optional for serving: grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and hot sauce

Instructions

Begin by cutting the kielbasa. If you are using a smaller amount, dice it into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces. If you're using the larger amount, slice into 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick rounds.

Place a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium heat. Add the kielbasa pieces and cook, stirring frequently, until the kielbasa has rendered quite a bit of fat and taken on some brown colour. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the kielbasa to a rimmed plate or bowl. Drain all but 1 to 2 tablespoons of the kielbasa fat from the pan. Return the pan to the heat and add the onions, carrots and celery. Add a pinch of salt and stir to coat all of the vegetables. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the onions are translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes, stir well, and cook for another minute.

Use your hands to break up the whole tomatoes over the pan. They don't have to be perfect, but should at least be broken down to bite size. Add the juice from the can along with the chicken stock, beans and their liquid, bay leaf, and thyme leaves. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer the soup until the carrots and celery are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Return the kielbasa to the pan and add the frozen or fresh spinach to the pot. Cook just until heated through.

Serve hot. We like ours with a little grated Parmesan cheese and hot sauce.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/10/23/hearty-kielbasa-bean-and-vegetable-soup/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Soups & Stews Tagged With: budget friendly, family-friendly, Frugal Food, quick and easy, seasonal

Soup Dumplings and Irresponsible Wonton Soup (Make Ahead Monday)

February 6, 2012 by Rebecca 40 Comments

My husband has been doing a lot (A LOT) of business travel lately. As in he’s been gone more than he’s been home, unfortunately. Before he headed out for a particularly long stretch a couple weeks ago, I ran to the store and bought giant multi-packs of paper towels, toilet paper and saltine crackers. As he helped me unload the back of the car, he threw me a weird look. I said, “If I don’t get all this, it’s a certainty that as soon as you leave everyone is going to start throwing up and I’ll have to go to the store with a fever and five kids in tow looking like death warmed over trying desperately to find toilet paper and paper towels and saltine crackers because no one can keep anything else down. And when I get to the store I’ll find that there’s been a run on crackers for some reason and they only have the one-ply toilet tissue. You wouldn’t want that to happen would you?”

I get a little panicky when I know I’m going to be flying solo for a long period of time. Call it neuroticism informed by experience, but I’m sure many of you have been down this same path.

The car was pulling out of the driveway when I heard, “Mom… I feel like I’m gonna…” and you know what came next. It was going to be one of THOSE WEEKS. It was almost inevitable. But hey, I had saltines…

Saltines, however, can only sustain a family so long. So what are you to do when all available grown-ups are either feeling punky or are out of town, the kids are sick and it’s dinner time? That’s when you have a couple options: a.) order out. b.) eat chips c.) take something out of the freezer. If you’re like me, none of that sounds particularly appealing. But I’m being tricky. I have an ulterior motive.

With the casserole and cream-of-whatever-soup centric once a month cooking, food from freezer has taken a bum rap lately. I’ve already talked about my dissatisfaction with OAM cooking, so I won’t belabour the point except to say this; I get really tired of eating things that taste alike day after day. And again? I’m being tricksy and beating around the bush.

This is where I break into my own story to make a quick announcement. I’m adding a new feature here on Foodie with Family (fanfare! Bum-ba-da-DA!) Every Monday we’re going to revamp freezer food’s reputation together. Make Ahead Monday is going to feature one recipe were we do the bulk of the work on a recipe and freeze it properly so we can have fresh, varied, delicious food cooked from frozen on THOSE NIGHTS.

“But wait!” you say, “Isn’t that pretty much the same thing as OAM cooking?” Well, no, and let me explain why. One of the main points of OAM cooking is taking one or two days to cook all of the meals you’ll need for the month. Make Ahead Mondays is -at its essence- making one item every week to stash in your freezer to help you get meals on the table when you’re too busy to think.

And because the quality of food that’s been frozen is largely reliant on the way you freeze it and cook it after freezing it, Make Ahead Mondays will include instructions on the best way to stash and reheat your goodies. Most Make Ahead Mondays will feature a new recipe, but every so often, we’ll go back into the Foodie With Family archives to highlight an older recipe that holds up well to this treatment.

For our inaugural Make Ahead Monday, I’m excited to share one of my favourite soups of all time with you: Wonton Soup. This fast soup is made using fragrant ginger and scallion pork stuffed wontons that you make and freeze ahead of time. With the wontons in the freezer, this soup pulls together with only six essential additional ingredients that you usually have on hand (or nine if you want super tricked out wonton soup.)

This isn’t just my favourite soup here. It holds the distinction of being the one and only soup that absolutely everyone in the household loves madly. We’re all crazy about it. It is the only soup that I don’t have to threaten to withhold dessert in order to get the two youngest to eat. It is just about perfect in every way. Clear, fragrant, and ever-so-slightly garlicky broth with soft, pillowy ginger scallion pork dumplings and matchsticked carrots poured over thinly sliced scallions is a recipe for pleasing everyone in our home. Okay, so I omit the carrot sticks and thinly sliced scallions in the bowls of the two little ankle-biters, but that’s no big shakes. They have no idea how much scallion they’re ingesting in the dumplings. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Speaking of children and wonton soup, the name of our soup requires a little explanation. As I was preparing this very soup the other night, my eldest son entered the room and asked what I was making for dinner. “Wonton soup!” I replied. He got a wry look on his face and said, “Wouldn’t you say that’s irresponsible?” and waited for my reaction. It took me a full minute to get the joke, but when I did, I felt very secure in the knowledge that our vocabulary work has paid dividends. We have changed the name of the soup to Irresponsible Soup.

You can make as many wontons ahead of time as you’d like, just keep in mind that they’re good for up to six months in the freezer when properly frozen and wrapped, so plan accordingly. And like the dumpling recipe itself, the soup recipe lends itself to scaling up beautifully. Just apply the same cooking method and you can make dumpling soup for a crowd as easily as soup for one. If you don’t think this soup beats every container of take-out wonton soup you’ve ever had, I’ll eat my, well, I’ll eat the soup for you. How about that?

I’d love your opinion. Do you think Make Ahead Mondays will be helpful to you or am I going to have to do some real convincing to get you to agree that there’s nothing irresponsible about it? I can’t wait to hear what you all think!

Frozen Soup Dumplings and Irresponsible Wonton Soup (Make Ahead Monday)

Clear, fragrant, and ever-so-slightly garlicky broth with soft, pillowy ginger scallion pork dumplings and matchsticked carrots poured over thinly sliced scallions is a recipe for pleasing everyone in our home and is certain to please you and yours, too.

Make a big batch of the soup dumplings (double, triple, shoot for the moon!) to keep on hand in the freezer for busy nights and last minute cravings.

Ingredients

Frozen Soup Dumpling Ingredients:

1 package wonton wrappers (about 48 3-inch square wrappers)
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon fish sauce
a 2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated or very finely minced
6 scallions, finely minced
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons dry sherry or rice wine
1 egg, beaten

Additional Ingredients to Make One Serving of Soup:

1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 cups chicken stock or broth
7 frozen soup dumplings
1/2 of a small carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 clove of garlic, peeled but whole
1 scallion, thinly sliced, green and white parts separated.

Optional For Serving With Soup:

fish sauce or soy sauce
chili garlic sauce or Sriracha
fried chow mein or wonton noodles

Instructions

To Make and Freeze Dumplings:

Line a large platter or baking sheet with parchment paper or plastic wrap and set aside.

Add the pork, fish sauce, ginger, scallions, corn starch and sherry or rice wine to a mixing bowl and stir together vigorously until it is evenly combined.

Lay out four wonton wrappers at a time on a cutting board or clean work surface and brush the entire top surface with beaten egg. (This keeps the dumplings from popping open while simmering in the soup.) Scoop a scant teaspoon of the meat mixture into the center of the wonton wrapper. Gather up the edges around the filling, pinch together and give a gentle twist to seal. They will resemble a beggar's purse or little head of garlic or onion. Place each dumpling on the prepared platter with enough room between them so they do not touch. Repeat with remaining meat and wonton wrappers.

When you have completed the dumplings, cover with plastic wrap and lay the platter or pan in the freezer. When they are fully frozen, transfer the dumplings to a resealable plastic bag, gently squeeze the air from the bag and keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.

To Prepare the Irresponsible Wonton Soup:

Drizzle the bottom of a heavy-bottomed saucepan with sesame oil and place the frozen dumplings flat side down on top of the oil. Place the garlic clove alongside the dumplings and scatter the matchsticked carrots and the whites of the scallion over the top of the dumplings.

Add one cup of stock and turn the heat to medium high. The stock will only come partway up the dumplings.

Bring the stock to a full boil. then add another cup of the stock. When that reaches a full boil, add the final cup of stock and bring once again to a boil. Allow it to boil fully for 5 minutes.

Add the thinly sliced green parts of the scallions to a serving bowl. Use a deep spoon to transfer the dumplings and carrots to the bowl and then pour the hot broth over top.

If desired, you can serve with a splash of fish sauce or soy sauce, a dollop of chili garlic sauce or Sriracha and a handful of fried chow mein or wonton noodles.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/06/soup-dumplings-and-irresponsible-wonton-soup-make-ahead-monday/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Component Foods, Freezer Pleaser, Happy Healthy and Wise, kid food, Rebecca, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Stretching your dollars

Tortilla Soup (And a Giveaway!)

February 28, 2011 by Rebecca 42 Comments

This giveaway is just a little thing, really, but I want to show my appreciation to you all. Scroll down past the recipe for details…

I have wanted to make this soup for what seems like forever. I bookmarked it. I went back to it over and over. It just seems like I never had the right combination of ingredients and weather and presence of mind to make it. Until last Friday, that is…

Last Friday I finally had the perfect confluence of events and ingredients and weather. Fifty mile per hour winds and blizzard-like snowfall. Everyone home all day long. The driveway buried under twelve inches of fresh white stuff. And I had all the ingredients I needed. It was kismet.

As the scent of onions, garlic, tomatoes, chicken and Mexican herbs and spices started filling the house, I knew we were heading in the right direction. As the smell wafted through the house, I started eyeballing my children wondering which one of them I could nibble to hold me over until the soup was done. Thankfully, I didn’t have long to wait. This soup, while it can be an all day simmer-er, is more than merely delicious in under an hour.

The verdict?

I could kick myself for not having made it sooner. Hard. And repeatedly. And once more with feeling. It is so good.

Even my “I don’t wike vegetables” gruesome twosome loved it. In fact, they had seconds. The Evil Genius and the three eldest Minions declared it to be One Soup to Rule Them All.

Let’s break down what makes this particular soup so satisfying. In it’s essence, it is a bowl full of everything I have ever loved about Mexican food. Bold flavors, savoury beans, smoky chiles? Yes, and in abundance. Moist chicken, corn tortillas, fresh jalapenos, creamy avocados? Check, check and check. If you’ve never eaten tortilla soup before, it is easiest to compare it to the flavors of chicken enchiladas. The chicken and tomato based broth is the perfect vehicle to deliver the ultimate in Mexican comfort food.

My recipe makes a monster quantity of soup. I didn’t down-size it for two solid reasons.

You’re going to eat more than you think you are. Trust me. You won’t be sorry to have more of this than you think you need but you may regret it if you make just enough for one meal. This brings me to…
Leftovers freeze like a dream. You can portion out family or individual sized servings and stash them in the freezer for fast meals. You’ll be so grateful to have a stash of this frozen to deal with last minute Tortilla Soup cravings because they. will. happen. When you’re ready for it, simply reheat and garnish.

Tortilla Soup

Adapted from Evil Chef Mom who adapted it from Alosha’s Kitchen

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 quart jar crushed tomatoes (or 4 cups canned crushed tomatoes)
3 cups cooked black beans (You can use drained, rinsed, canned beans if you don’t have home cooked ones.)
4-5 cups cooked, leftover chicken shredded or cubed (This is the equivalent of 5 chicken breast halves on the bone roasted and picked.)
10 cups chicken stock (I used homemade garlic chile chicken stock but you can use purchased chicken stock and increase the garlic by 3 cloves.)
6 ounces tomato paste (Optional. Add if you like a thicker soup.)
1-2 fresh jalapenos, minced (or 1-4 tablespoons candied jalapenos or jarred jalapenos, minced), to taste
4-8 corn tortillas minced (These are going to thicken the soup, so add the smaller amount first. Add more if you want to thicken up the soup more.)
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons oregano
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus some for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish, all optional:

hot cooked rice
avocado slices
sour cream
grated cheese
corn tortillas cut into strips (thick or thin or both), fried and salted**
corn chips
more fresh cilantro
chopped green onions
lime wedges to squeeze in soup
candied jalapenos (Please tell me you’ve made yourself some of these. No? Get on it!)

In big heavy pot, warm olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and a pinch of salt and sweat until semi-translucent. Add tomatoes, stock, chili powder and oregano and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add beans, chicken, jalapeno, and minced tortillas and return to a boil. Drop heat to mid-low and simmer another 10 minutes. Test the thickness and seasoning of the soup. If you want it thicker, add more minced corn tortillas. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. You may find you need to add quite a bit of salt, but add it in small increments. It’s always easier to add salt than it is to take it out! Continue simmering for about 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in lime juice and cilantro. Serve with desired garnishes.

*Ungarnished leftovers can be portioned into serving size containers and frozen for future meals.

**To make fried tortilla strips: Add about 1-inch of canola or peanut oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Heat it over medium-high heat. Slice desired amount of corn tortillas into strips, thick or thin according to preference. Drop one strip of tortilla in to the oil. If bubbles form immediately around the edges and it appears to be boiling, the oil is ready. Drop a handful of tortilla strips into the oil and stir to separate. Fry about 1-2 minutes then use tongs to transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle with salt and seasonings if desired.

Preparation Notes:

I used a stock that was based on my basic chicken stock, but simmered with an additional head of garlic and a couple dried arbol chile peppers. It added a wonderful depth of flavor to the final soup. If you have time or the inclination to make your own stock for this soup, I highly recommend it. Will this still be good with purchased stock? You betcha, but you may find you need to up the spices and garlic a bit. Just taste it before serving and adjust.

Likewise, I used home-cooked black beans simmered according to this method with a smoked pork neck bone. The hint of smoky pork in the beans was not assertive, but added another layer of flavor that really upped the deep flavor quotient in this soup. You can use drained, rinsed, canned beans if dried beans are not available.

I like my soups with a lot of body and thickness, so I used both the optional tomato paste and the additional minced corn tortillas. If you prefer a brothier soup, use the smaller amount of minced tortillas and omit the tomato paste.

Giveaway Details:

Because I love you all so much (and because I have a new puppy), I’m giving away one jar of my homemade Candied Jalapenos to two of my readers. It’s a little thing, really, but it’s from my kitchen to yours. If you like jalapenos, you’ll love these addictive little babies. Remember, this is a home canned item! To be entered to win, just leave a comment below telling me what you’d do with the jalapenos or what you had for dinner last Friday. Or just talk to me about puppies. I’m easy.

This just in… Because I love you all bigger than the bay, I’ll also give away a third jar to someone who “Likes” Foodie With Family over on Facebook. Have you seen the Facebook page yet? We have loads of fun over there. Sneak peaks, ridiculous confessions, and good clean (mostly) fun.

Tortilla Soup

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Main, Soup, Starter

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 10

In one bowl of this Best Tortilla Soup is everything I have ever loved about Mexican food.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 quart jar crushed tomatoes (or 4 cups canned crushed tomatoes)
3 cups cooked black beans (I simmered mine with a smoked pork neck bone but you can use drained, rinsed, canned beans.)
4-5 cups cooked, leftover chicken shredded or cubed (This is the equivalent of 5 chicken breast halves on the bone roasted and picked.)
10 cups chicken stock (I used homemade garlic chile chicken stock but you can use purchased chicken stock and increase the garlic by 3 cloves.)
6 ounces tomato paste (Optional. Add if you like a thicker soup.)
1-2 fresh jalapenos, minced (or 1-4 tablespoons candied jalapenos or jarred jalapenos, minced), to taste
4-8 corn tortillas minced (These are going to thicken the soup, so add the smaller amount first. Add more if you want to thicken up the soup more.)
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons oregano
¼ cup lime juice
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus some for garnish
salt and pepper to taste
Garnish, all optional:
hot cooked rice
avocado slices
sour cream
grated cheese
corn tortillas cut into strips (thick or thin or both), fried and salted**
corn chips
more fresh cilantro
chopped green onions
lime wedges to squeeze in soup

Instructions

In big heavy pot, warm olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and a pinch of salt and sweat until semi-translucent. Add tomatoes, stock, chili powder and oregano and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Add beans, chicken, jalapeno, and minced tortillas and return to a boil. Drop heat to mid-low and simmer another 10 minutes. Test the thickness and seasoning of the soup. If you want it thicker, add more minced corn tortillas. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. You may find you need to add quite a bit of salt, but add it in small increments. It’s always easier to add salt than it is to take it out! Continue simmering for about 25 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in lime juice and cilantro. Serve with desired garnishes.
*Ungarnished leftovers can be portioned into serving size containers and frozen for future meals.
**To make fried tortilla strips: Add about 1-inch of canola or peanut oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Heat it over medium-high heat. Slice desired amount of corn tortillas into strips, thick or thin according to preference. Drop one strip of tortilla in to the oil. If bubbles form immediately around the edges and it appears to be boiling, the oil is ready. Drop a handful of tortilla strips into the oil and stir to separate. Fry about 1-2 minutes then use tongs to transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle with salt and seasonings if desired.

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Filed Under: Main Dish, Rebecca, Recipes, Soups & Stews Tagged With: budget friendly, Frugal Food, kid friendly, party food

Cream of Broccoli Soup and DIY Crème Fraîche

April 25, 2010 by Rebecca 12 Comments

Did you know there’s a fan page for Foodie With Family on Facebook? Do you have any idea how lame I feel saying that? Seriously. But one exists, and it’s *blush* pretty fun for me. I love talking with all of you. Thank you all for weighing in on the ‘what do I post next’ poll. Taking into account the previous requests and promises, the winner is Homemade Grand Marnier, followed by Tres Leches Cake and Cream of Broccoli Soup. So what am I doing leading off with Cream of Broccoli Soup? It’s raining here. And when it rains I like to do three things; sit on the couch with a blanket and book, drink tea, and make soup. Thus, soup wins. Tres Leches and Grand Marnier will make their long promised appearances this week!

So you have a loaf of One-Hour Sandwich Bread in the oven… What do you serve with it? Candidate #1: Cream of Broccoli Soup.

Thick, smooth, and vibrant in both color and taste, this soup spotlights the bright flavor of fresh broccoli. And let me tell you something. I adore broccoli; Always have and always will. I guarantee that this is the Cream of Broccoli soup for serious broccoli lovers.

My soup is a little different than most broccoli soups out there (similar to this soup made by my good friend, but different than most ‘cream of broccoli’ recipes.) Why? Because I don’t put any cream or milk in it. I usually stir a bit of ye olde crème fraîche* in at the end to provide just a little tang, but I find that adding milk or cream in the whole pot of soup ends up muting the broccoli too much for my taste. Isn’t the point of a ‘broccoli’ soup to taste the aforementioned broccoli?

*Nerd alert: Check out my Richard the Lionhearted moment; Old English + French. Am I the only one laughing? Le sigh. But more practically, have you made your own crème fraîche yet? This couldn’t be simpler! Stir 2 Tablespoons of cultured buttermilk (NOT lemon or vinegar soured milk!) into 2 cups of heavy cream. Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours before refrigerating. Ta da! You made crème fraîche! And you didn’t pay an arm and a leg for it at the grocery store! And I’m using a lot of exclamation marks! It’s so exciting! I’ll stop now! I mean to say, “I’ll stop now.” Calmly.

There are a couple fringe benefits to preparing Cream of Broccoli soup this way (aside from the taste-bud tantalizing flavor.)

It’s quicker! Chop, sweat, stir, simmer, blend, serve. That’s it; no melting butter, stirring in flour, forming the roux, simmering, blending, returning to pot, adding dairy and re-heating.
It’s cheaper! Heavy cream is pricey, folks! By adding it as an accent rather than a major player, you cut down on the overall cost of the meal. Every little penny helps, right?
It’s healthier! We thicken this pot of soup with a vitamin-rich, low-maintenance potato rather than a fussy, fatty roux and heavy cream. (Don’t get me wrong. I love the fussy, fatty roux and heavy cream in other contexts, but this soup simply doesn’t need it for flavor or for texture!) More details on the health properties of broccoli? Why sure! I thought you’d never ask.

Broccoli alone is considered a super-food. It’s rich in vitamins C, K, A and dietary fiber. As if that wasn’t good enough, it’s been linked to boosting immunities, preventing cancer and the slowing or halting the aggressive spread of cancer. This is one recipe where eating healthily is no chore, it’s a delight.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, minus the broccoli-prosthelytizing, click here!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh or frozen cut-up broccoli (Use the stems as well as the florets! It tastes amazing and it’s economical!)
4 cups stock (homemade chicken or vegetable, preferably) or water
1 medium russet potato, peeled and diced
1 small cooking onion, peeled and diced
1 Tablespoon butter
salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste (You can use black pepper if white pepper is not available.)
Optional, crème fraîche for drizzling before serving (see below for instructions on making your own!)

Melt the butter in a stockpot or large soup pot over medium heat. Add onions and lower heat to medium-low. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the onions and sweat, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened. Lower the heat if necessary to avoid browning the onions. This should take about 5 minutes.

Add the broccoli, stock, and potato to the soup pot and raise the heat to medium-high. Bring the soup to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and simmer for 25 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft.

Remove the pot from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Puree the soup, in batches, in a blender or food processor or use an immersion (stick) blender in the pot to puree the soup to your desired consistency. Add the salt and pepper to taste.

If garnishing first loosen the crème fraîche in a small bowl with a fork or whisk. Use a spoon to drizzle or dollop the crème fraîche over the soup and then swirl with a toothpick to create pretty patterns throughout.

You can freeze the uneaten, un-garnished soup in tightly covered containers for up to three months.

DIY Crème Fraîche

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons cultured buttermilk (NOT lemon juice or vinegar soured milk)
2 cups heavy cream (while it’s preferable to use cream that hasn’t been ULTRA-pasteurized, you can use the ULTRA-pasteurized versions, it just may take longer to thicken properly.)

Use a whisk to combine the buttermilk with heavy cream. Cover lightly and leave at room temperature (between 65°F and 75°F) for 24 hours or until thickened (but no more than 48 hours.) This is good for two weeks (but I’ve used it longer than that…) in the refrigerator. Chilling it prior to use will thicken it further.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Main Dish, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Soups & Stews, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: Frugal Food, quick and easy, quick lunch, quick meal, Vegetarian

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

February 1, 2010 by Rebecca 13 Comments

Can we talk for a second? I feel the need to tell you something. I love you. Really, I do. Let this soup stand as proof. Because, baby, it is cold outside and this soup is going to warm you from your inside out. From your toes on up to your nose. If I could I’d deliver a big old tureen of this right to your door. (Yes. I have a soup tureen. Don’t you?) Alas, I will have to settle for sharing the recipe with you here.

This Loaded Baked Potato Soup has everything a baked potato should have and more. I guess you could say it’s all that and a bag of chips- minus the chips. It starts, of course, with a mess of baked potatoes. Why bother? Baked potato soup is to regular potato soup what J. Lo was to the Fly Girls.* Baked potatoes have an intense potato flavor -an earthiness- that boiled potatoes just cannot achieve. And that intense potato flavor is perfectly complimented by Creamy Onion Topping, crisped bacon, sliced green onions and sharp Cheddar cheese. I dare you to try not to like this soup. It can’t be done. I mean, really, look at it…

This soup calls to you whilst it bubbles on the stove top. In fact, it sings. It sings, “Don’t. Don’t you want me? You know I don’t believe it when you say that you don’t need me… Don’t you want me baby? Don’t you want me? Ooooooo-oh!”*

* I’m so sorry. For some reason I’m very much stuck in a 80′s/90′s pop culture thing today. It’s been all Human League, Thompson Twins, In Living Color, and whatnot today. I think it’s because I read an article about Milli Vanilli yesterday. Clearly I’m traumatized. And the J.Lo analogy is not as tortured an analogy as it might seem. J.Lo was fine and dandy as a member of the Fly Girls, but she was a star on her own. See? I made it work.

But as if the soup wasn’t enough on it’s own, there’s another great reason to make it. When you make this soup you are more than halfway done with the ultimate finger food for this Sunday (a.k.a. Superbowl Sunday, a.k.a. national holiday in my man-cave of a home.) Making this soup leaves you in possession of a whole pile of potato skins. So today I’ll teach you how to make the soup that’ll bring them to their knees and tomorrow I’ll show you how to make the potato skins that’ll keep them coming back for more! Sneak peak? Why sure. For you I’d do anything…

For a printer friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Soup Ingredients:

1 pound of bacon
6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 onion
12 large baked potatoes, cooled (*see instructions below for directions on how to bake potatoes)
4 cups milk
6 cups chicken broth or stock
2 cups shredded extra sharp Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
optional: up to one cup of instant mashed potato flakes to thicken soup

Creamy Onion Topping Ingredients:

2 cups Greek yogurt
1 bunch green onions (scallions), cleaned, trimmed of roots and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
additional shredded cheese

Slice bacon into 1/4-1/2 inch strips.

Place bacon slices in a large heavy-bottomed soup pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, just until bacon begins to crisp. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined pan.

We’ll get back to this bacon in a bit. Don’t eat it all.

Stir Greek yogurt, sliced onions and Kosher salt together in a bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time. Making it before the soup gives it time for the flavors to blend.Drain all but 6 Tablespoons of the bacon drippings out of the pan. If you’ve drained the pan right, you’ll still have lots of little crispy bits in the pan. Don’t you dare wipe those out. Those are little flavor nuggets of pure joy. Leave ‘em. Leave ‘em, I say.

Now, let’s dice onions. I’ll let the pictures help me describe the process.

Slice a little wafer off of the stem end of the onion, thusly.

Stand the onion on that nice, stable flat end.

Now cut straight down through the center of the onion from top to bottom.

Pull off the peel and lay the halves flat side down.

Now make a series of parallel slices all the way through the onion from within about a half an inch of the root end down to the cut end. Like-a this.

Turn the onion 90 degrees and cut super thin slices across your previous cut marks so that your kids who think they dislike onions will not detect the presence of onion in their soup. Oh, and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that little secret between just you and me. Thanks.

Stir the finely diced onions into the bacon fat that remains in the pan and turn the heat to low. Sweat the onions gently until they’re translucent.

While the onions are sweating, cut each baked potato into quarters, taking care to keep the skin as intact as possible. But don’t just cut them willy-nilly. Take a second to consider your potato. Cut in half first.

Now look at your halves. See how potatoes are generally oval shaped? You want to cut those halves in half again, but cut them so that you’re cutting it through the longest angle of the oval so that your quarters will be relatively stable on the pan when you lay them down. That would be front to back on the left potato half or side to side on the right potato half.

Use a regular soup spoon to carefully scrape most of the insides out of each potato quarter into a large bowl, leaving behind a shell of about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch.

Some people might tell you to take more of the potato out of the shell, but I like my potato skins with a little meat on their bones. Mmmm. Meaty potatoes.

When you have eviscerated all your potatoes line your potato shells up on a baking sheet and cover well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the shells for later use as potato skins. Use a potato masher to break up the remaining potato pulp.

It doesn’t need to be ‘mashed potato’ smooth, just broken into small bits. Some pieces of baked potato are desirable in the finished soup.

Sprinkle the flour evenly over the translucent onions and whisk until smooth.

Turn the heat back to medium. Although at first the fat and flour will seem to seize up it will loosen and become liquid again fairly quickly.

Once it returns to a liquid state and begins bubbling stir constantly and cook for 1 minute. This is your roux, or your thickener, for the soup. Whisk all of the milk into the roux and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently until thickened. To check whether your base has thickened enough dip a soup or wooden spoon into it and remove it.

If the sauce clings to the spoon like the picture above, you’re good to move on to the next step. If it is still thin, simmer a little while longer or until it does coat a spoon.

Whisk the 6 cups of chicken stock into the thickened milk base and then stir all of the smashed potato innards into the soup. With the pot over medium heat, stir frequently to prevent scorching. You don’t need to boil the soup; you just need to get it steaming hot. When it is steaming check the consistency. If it is not thick enough for your liking, sprinkle two tablespoons of instant potato flakes over the top of the soup and stir in quickly. Wait a couple minutes and check the consistency of the soup again. You can continue adding potato flakes until it is as thick as you like it. We like our soup quite thick, so I have added as much as 1 cup of flakes before. Make sure, though, to wait a couple of minutes between additions as it takes a little while for potato flakes to reach full thickening power. Stir in the 2 cups of shredded Cheddar cheese until it is completely melted. Adjust flavors with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the soup pot from the heat and serve immediately with Creamy Onion Topping, the crispy bacon pieces, sliced green onions and shredded cheese.

Come on. Sing it with me… Don’t you want me baby?

Don’t you want me?

O-ohhhhhhh!

*To Bake Potatoes

Preheat oven to 400°F. Gently scrub potatoes under cool running water to remove any dirt. Pat the potatoes dry and place directly on the middle rack in your oven. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes. They are done when they yield to gentle pressure when you squeeze them. (Wear an oven mitt when squeezing them! ) When they are done, transfer to a rack on your counter to cool.

Don’t forget. Hang on to the extra Creamy Onion Topping because tomorrow we use it to do this evil thing.

Filed Under: Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Rebecca, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Stretching your dollars

5-Minute Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup

January 19, 2010 by Rebecca 7 Comments

Today’s post is Part IV of the “Saving Money in the Kitchen” series that began Tuesday. You can read Part I here , Part II here and Part III here.

Wowza! Who knew the response to being frugal would be so excellent? I’m thrilled that so many of you are excited about stretching your food dollars to the max. I feel like we’re all part of a super secret savings club. I am fully aware how dorky that makes me sound, but really. I love knowing I’m not the only one who gets a little shiver of joy when I save a few bucks.

I promised this post yesterday and I’m oh so sorry I didn’t get the chance, but I hope you find it was worth the wait. To make it up to you I’ll share my recipe for my 5-Minute Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup. No, it is not ketchup soup. * Yes, it is done in about 5 mintutes. It is so much better -and better for you- than any of that stuff that comes in the red, white and gold cans or their imitators. And guess what. It’s less expensive than that aforementioned national brand is when it’s on sale! I kid you not. Homemade, from-scratch soup that tastes superior to, is better for you than and is cheaper than the stuff in the store.

But first we talk savings…

*Ketchup soup is the enfant terrible of the frugal foods movement. Let’s be real. It tastes like what it is; watered down ketchup. And honestly? Unless you’re stealing the ketchup packets from a fast food restaurant (What are you doing in there anyway? Those places aren’t really all that cheap!) it’s not going to end up being any cheaper than generic label or my homemade tomato soup. And it’s wrong to steal. So there.

Remember the list we’ve been talking about? The list I like to call “The Better Living List”? I call it this mainly because I haven’t come up with a wittier name just yet. I’m open for suggestions. To jog your memory, here’s the list again.

Know your preferences.
Keep staples on hand.
Know what you have on hand.
Plan your potential meals and make the most of what you already have available before you shop.
Know what you need beyond what you have to make those meals.
Build flexibility into your plan.
Build change into your plan.
Have a back-up plan.
Relax, dangit! It’s food!

We talked about points one through five previously (You can read Part I here , Part II here and Part III here.) Today I’m devoting to points six through nine (and soup, but that comes later.)

Build flexibility into your plan.

This is, believe it or not, one of the most important things you can do to save money. And it is a darned good reason to have that list of food likes and dislikes for your family. (Remember our list from Part II?) Here’s a scenario that has happened to me that shows why flexibility is important: I knew what was in my refrigerator and pantry and I had planned my meals. Most of my dinners meals for that week were fashioned around making a huge batch of taco meat at the beginning of the week; Tacos, taco soup, cheeseburger pizza, ground beef quesadillas with leftover soup, and spaghetti, as well as a fish meal and a roast chicken for Sunday. I arrived at the store armed with my menu plan and grocery list. At the meat counter, I saw the ground beef was $2.99 per pound. According to my plan and list I was going to purchase eight pounds. Eight pounds at $2.99 per pound was $24.00. Right next to the ground beef was a manager’s special of pork shoulder for $0.69 per pound. Because I was flexible, I bought an eight pound porkshoulder roast for $5.52 and got the equivalent number of meals (shredded pork tacos, pork tortilla soup, barbecue pork pizza, pulled pork quesadillas and pulled pork nachos) at a savings of $18.48. That was almost $20 off the grocery bill right there.

So how do you build flexibility into your plan? I tell you it’s all in the list. The list of likes and dislikes and potential meals, that is. When you run across those killer sales you can take a quick glance at your list to tell you whether it’s worth bringing home. ‘Cause let me tell you something, no matter HOW cheap monkey brains were offered at my local store it wouldn’t do me a lick of good to bring them home since I would refuse to cook them let alone eat them. (Okay, monkey brains? Not so big a market for them here in Amish country, but you get my point.) And my example above was a pretty straightforward one. You can substitute slow-cooker braised shredded pork pretty easily for ground beef in most cases. The trick is in teaching yourself to recognize substitutions when they’re on sale. But you should be ready to overhaul your menu plan in a more drastic way if you see something that you all like that is on mega-sale. Having your list of potential meals handy helps you to see what you could replace on your meal plan to take advantage of sale items. Be sure to write it down if you do change meals. I have been known to forget the meals I dreamed up in the grocery store between the checkout and my car. I know. It’s sad. Maybe I should eat more fish.

Build change into your plan

Make sure you add new meals occasionally. Nothing will put me off a plan faster than getting bored. If I’ve mentioned my fickleness once I’ve mentioned it a thousand times. I need to have new, exciting foods semi-regularly. Even if it’s just Beef Sukiyaki instead of Beef Stew one week it helps keep your love of food fresh. When I was a kid, my mom had different ethnic foods for different nights of the week; Italian foods on Mondays, Filipino foods on Wednesdays, Mexican foods on Fridays, etc… I love this memory.

Have a back-up plan

I’m not much of a ‘convenience food’ gal. Truth be known, I don’t find convenience foods all that convenient. I prefer the taste and nutritional value of simple home-crafted, home-cooked food. But I’d be lying to myself and you if I didn’t say that you need to have something around to feed you all on those nights. You know just as well as I do which nights those are. They’re the nights that cap off the days where your alarm clock didn’t sound, you got the kids to school an hour late without a note, got a traffic ticket you couldn’t afford on the way to the office which also made you an hour and a half late. Then you got home to find out the dog had gotten sick on your wool sweater that was unaccountably in the middle of the floor , your kids were ‘starving’ and you had forgotten to take the ground beef out of the freezer to make dinner. Those nights you need sanity more than you need food snobbery or a guilt complex. For those occasions you need a jar or two of prepared pasta sauce, some dried pasta or frozen ravioli and a frozen loaf of garlic bread. Just do yourself a favor and have them on hand. Trust me. It would be nice to live in a land where fairy godmothers dropped off locally-grown, grass-fed meat and organic vegetable laden care-packages on nights where you could barely drag yourself to bed, but we don’t. And unless Alice Waters is your godmother, neither do you. So keep it real and make sure you have a back-up plan.

The back-up plan is the safety net that keeps you from chucking the overall plan altogether on those horrid nights. Which brings us, finally, to…

Relax dangit! It’s food!

I am totally serious. I love good food. I love it enough to spend a good deal of time thinking, talking and writing about it, cooking it, teaching people to cook it, and eating it but I don’t love it enough to make it a god. What I mean by that is that my main goal is simply to keep my family well-nourished. The ideal is locally and organically grown produce and grains, ethically raised poultry, seafood and grass-fed beef. Reality for us often falls well short of that and I will not sacrifice my family’s mental or fiscal well-being to attain that ideal. When allocating my food money, I choose the hills I’m going to die on (organic carrots, high fructose corn syrup, lettuce and celery) and the hills where I’ll execute a strategic withdrawal (potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and corn.) This is what works for us with the amount of money we have to spend. You may have more or less than we do, so do what works best within the resources you have available and don’t feel guilty about it; I’ve found my happy medium and I encourage you all to do the same. Once you have decided on your priorities, just relax and enjoy the food. Unless we’re talking about real food allergies or major health problems I really think we all need to take a deep breath and chill. In other words, no ritual suicides if you fail to attain locavore* sainthood.

*Sidebar: This has been a growing topic of discussion lately. There have been politicians, celebrity chefs and food bloggers all weighing in the subject and I’m really interested in getting your thoughts. Does ‘eating local’ matter to you? I’d love to know why it does or doesn’t.

Tomorrow, I’ll cover the “No-no List” from Part II in greater detail. (And I’ll name the winner of the Korintje Cinnamon giveaway!) But for now? Let’s talk about soup!

This isn’t just any old soup. This is magical soup recipe; It takes five minutes, costs $1.50, and yields eight cups of creamy, silky, delicious, intensely tomatoey soup. (Are you ready for my broken record routine?) There are no funky preservatives or additives and you can control the sodium without paying premium prices for low-sodium soup. That’s something I never understood. How do you charge me more when you leave things out? Hmmm…

Here’s the price breakdown (Just so’s you know I’m not funning you.)

$0.59 for a 48 ounce can of tomato puree
$0.00 for 3-3/4 cups tap water (provided your tap water is potable!)
$0.04 for 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch from a 1 pound box that cost $1.00
$0.75 for 1 cup of Half and Half from a pint carton that cost $1.50
$0.01 for 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt from a 1 pound box that cost $2.99
$0.11 for 1/2 teaspoon of celery salt and a pinch of Italian seasonings from larger bulk containers. (I love you, but I’m not determining how many 1/2 teaspoon servings of celery salt came in that 2 pound bag I got from the Amish bulk foods place. I’m making an educated estimation here.)
That brings our grand total to $1.50 for the whole batch of soup.

To recap: eight cups of amazing tomato bisque made from scratch in five minutes for a buck-fifty. Try it on for size tonight. It’s cold out there, honey!

For a photo-free, I-go-on-and-on-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

5-Minute Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1 (48 ounce) can Tomato Puree (You can substitute crushed tomatoes if you prefer more robust texture in your soup.)
3-3/4 cups plus 1/4 cup fresh water, divided
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
3/4 teaspoon Granulated Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Celery Salt
a pinch of Italian Seasonings
1 cup Half and Half

Stir together the tomato puree, 3-3/4 cups water, Kosher salt, granulated garlic, celery salt and Italian seasonings in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. When the soup is simmering, use a fork to combine the cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl or cup. Stir the cornstarch until no lumps remain. While stirring the soup vigorously, pour the cornstarch and water mixture into the pan. Return to a simmer and continue cooking until thickened, about 1 to 2 minutes. When thickened, remove from the heat and stir in Half and Half. Serve immediately or refrigerate, tightly covered, for up to a week.

We like ours with grilled cheese sandwiches made on homemade rye bread, but it’s equally good with a handful of oyster crackers or as a meal starter. Every now and then, when I’ve been extra good, I swirl a little heavy cream into my soup when I serve it. Okay. I really do it most of the time. And I’m not necessarily really good when I do it. But it’s cream! Do I really need a reason?

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Household Hints, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: cheap food, Frugal Food, homemade tomato soup, kid friendly, quick and easy, quick meal, Vegetarian

Spicy Chicken and Cheese Calzone

April 8, 2009 by Rebecca 5 Comments

Déjà Food

Pronunciation: \ˌdā-ˌzhä-ˈfüd\

Function: noun

Etymology: Yo Momma. (Actually, my step-momma… but I wanted to say that)

1. Leftovers. But with a French name, therefore, more sophisticated.

Among the catalog of wonderful things my step-mother, Valerie, introduced me to when she and my father married are many now-standards for me: SOB Smoothies (‘Strawberry’, ‘Orange’, and ‘Banana’ Smoothies. What were you thinking she meant?), Colcannon, The California Raisins Christmas Special, Dorothy Sayers mysteries and Déjà Food. Déjà Food is nothing but leftovers, but isn’t it amazing how a simple change in words make it sound less like drudgery and more like something exciting?

The only person I’ve ever met who gets thrilled at the word ‘leftovers’ is my third born son, Ty (also variously known as Tyger [for Tiger Woods- his hero], Tylo [for our cat Milo- his favorite creature on earth] and Ty-Tron [his robot alter-ego].) He would do nearly anything, including selling one of his brothers, to ensure that he has leftovers he can eat the next day. …And if there’s just enough of an entree to serve us one meal, he’ll deliberately under-eat his portion of the dinner, conscientously wrap his own precious leftovers in foil and deposit them in the fridge. The next morning, he’ll shake himself out of bed early, run downstairs in his jammies, grab his silver wrapped goodies and plunk himself down at the table. He unwraps it reverently and munches it in silence with big blue eyes then smiles and says, “Thanks Mom!” before running off to face the day.

I am less devoted to leftovers than Ty. Once the initial thrill of the evening’s dinner wears off, there are very few dishes that I want to eat two or three or four nights in a row. Because I am mighty frugal, I always find a way to get the extra food consumed. But it takes a déjà food approach to make me excited about leftovers…

The Spicy Chicken and Super-Sharp Cheddar Calzones were made entirely of leftovers and standard pantry items making this a frugal and fast meal. With a salad, this would make an ample dinner for two adults. On those nights when you’re really, REALLY hungry, it will feed one ravenously hungry adult. Or it will be a sufficient lunch for one eleven-year old Liam who we all know has two hollow legs.

Calzones are a wonderful way to make déjà food of your leftovers. You can do just about any combination you want. As long as you keep a batch of the Master Dough Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, you can whip up calzones at a moment’s notice. Do you have last minute dinner guests? A busy night of running from practices, rehearsals, games, meetings, etc…?(That was a bit of the old subconscious showing, eh? I meant running ‘to’ practices, rehearsals, games, meetings, etc...) Leftover meat, cheese, veggies and other odds-and-ends, bits-and-pieces in almost any flavor combination can come together to make an amazing dinner. You can combine leftover taco meat, shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, chopped onions and olives for a Mexican Calzone and serve it with sour cream and salsa. You can use a few pieces of pepperoni, some browned bulk pork sausage, shredded or cubed mozzarella cheese and serve it with marinara sauce for a Meat-Lover’s Pizza Calzone. How about leftover steamed spinach (squeezed dry, of course), browned lamb (or no lamb), feta cheese, thinly sliced onions and a pinch or two of oregano served with a Tsatsiki sauce? A Greek Calzone! It can do ANY flavor combination. You have to work this into your rotation. You’ll be so glad you did.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Spicy Chicken and Super-Sharp Cheddar Calzones

Ingredients:

A grapefruit sized piece of bread dough from the Master Dough Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes.

1 cup cooked chicken, cut into small cubes (about equivalent to one grilled or otherwise cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast)

1/2 cup (or more) extra sharp cheddar cheese cut into small cubes

1/2 cooking onion, sliced thin

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional

1 1/2 teaspoons each olive oil and semolina or cornmeal for pan

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Drizzle olive oil over the bottom of a rimmed baking sheet or pan. Sprinkle semolina or cornmeal evenly over the oil. Set aside.

In a bowl or on a cutting board, gently toss together the onions, chicken, cheese and crushed red pepper flakes.

Behold the best mixing tool in the whole wide world. Your hand!

Set aside.

Lightly flour your work surface, dough, and rolling pin.

Use rolling pin to roll the dough into an approximately 8 to 9 inch circle.

Transfer the chicken, cheese, and onion mixture onto half of the circle of dough, leaving about 3/4 of an inch of bare dough around the edge.

Carefully lift the empty part of the dough over the filling, tucking in any stray bits of filling that want to poke out.

Tuck those little onion bits back in there. No onion left behind.

Fold edges back in on themselves and pinch together tightly to hold dough shut.

After folding back in on itself, pinch that dough pretty firmly.

Gently transfer to the prepared pan. Use a very sharp knife to slash two small steam vents in the calzone.

Just two slices of one inch long each will vent this perfectly. If the steam can escape, it doesn't make the bread soggy.

Bake for 25-30 minutes (depending on how brown and crispy you like your calzones.) Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes prior to serving.