Tag Archives: soup

creamy Moroccan tomato soup

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Creamy Moroccan Tomato Soup

Tomato soup was a staple in my mother’s kitchen when I was a little girl. Campbell’s Tomato Soup with the addition of either water or milk was the inspiration of all sorts of culinary works of art when I was eleven. Mom worked late on Fridays so I was allowed to make something special for my brother and me to have for supper. Inevitably, my creation  would involve elbow macaroni, canned mushrooms and Kraft cheese slices. Our spice collection was limited to dried sage or oregano that had been in the cupboard so long it no longer had any flavour. That didn’t stop me! I loved the idea of adding ingredients to canned soup to alter the taste. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not so much…

I’ll always be grateful to the Campbell Soup Company for the fun I had learning to cook. However, soup is too easy to make to have a cupboard full of soup cans. I still love experimenting with crazy combinations. Sometimes they work, sometimes not so much!

This one’s a keeper!

Creamy Moroccan Tomato Soup
Adapted from Canadian Living Magazine, November 2012

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pinch cinnamon
1 can – 28 ounce can diced tomatoes in puree
2 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

In a medium stock pot over medium high heat, warm olive oil
Add onion and garlic then sauté slowly for 10 minutes
Add tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, pepper, salt, cayenne pepper and cinnamon.
Add broth and vinegar.

Simmer until slightly reduced – depending on how thick your tomatoes are…

Add peanut butter; using immersion blender, purée soup until smooth.

THE LOVE: Cook gently. This soup is quick to make so take your time… Also, if you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender or a food processor.

printable copy

Thanks for reading.

Wild Mushroom Soup Au Gratin for Valentine’s Day

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Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved french onion soup. Sadly, it does not love me. It goes through me at the speed. Despite the ill effect this lovely classic has on me, I constantly find myself thinking about it . It’s the whole wanting what you can’t have thing!

When I woke up Sunday morning, I found myself, once again, craving a big steaming bowl of bread soaked gooey cheesy yumminess.

I thought about it all day long until I had talked myself into substituting mushrooms for the onions. It is kind of strange that I obsess over food the way that I do…

It worked perfectly.

The trick with french onion soup is a long slow cook on the onions before adding the stock.

To deepen the flavour of the mushrooms, I roasted some, sautéed some, rehydrated some and threw a few into the hot broth uncooked.

Typically, on Sunday, I serve something roasted . When Ralph walked into the dining room and saw a big honking bowl of soup topped with crunchy baguette and melted oozing mozzarella, instead of missing the meat he was delighted! He knew there would be a second bowl…

WILD MUSHROOM SOUP AU GRATIN

serves 4

5 large Portobello mushrooms, gills scraped – tops and stems chopped into 1″ dice

2 lbs white button mushrooms, sliced thick

1 cup dried wild mushrooms, rehydrated in 1 cup warmed dry white wine

extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, peeled and diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

6 cups beef broth

french baguette, day old

shredded mozzarella, to taste I like lots!

Preheat broiler

Place 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil on a baking sheet then toss half of the chopped Portobello mushrooms in the oil

Place baking sheet under broiler until mushrooms are golden – remove from broiler and set aside

Place 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat.

When oil is hot add onion, carrot and celery. Saute veg until soft.

Add remaining Portobello mushrooms and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes.

Add half of the white button mushrooms and continue cooking an additional 10 minutes

Add soup stock and bring to the boil without boiling

Add remaining white button mushrooms, broiled Portobello mushrooms and rehydrated wild mushrooms along with the wine. Be careful not to pour any grit from the bottom of the rehydrating solution into your soup.

Add dried and fresh herbs

Season to taste then allow soup to simmer for 45 minutes.

Preheat broiler

Ladle soup into oven proof bowls

Place thick bread slices on top of soup and cover with shredded mozzarella

Broil until cheese is bubbling and golden

Happy Valentine’s Day – wish me luck…

xo

a trick to make gourmet soup in six minutes

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I love making soup.

Happy, sad, stressed or bored – making soup is comforting to me. It’s that anal part of my personality that can stand and chop vegetables for hours… However, I do not have hours at my leisure at the moment. My math was a little off yesterday when I said we open ‘Italian by Night in twelve days. It’s actually 8 days away!!!!

I made this soup to have for supper tonight. It’s fast, it’s easy and it tastes like I spent all day preparing it. It took me six minutes from start to finish.

Rich Root Veg and Boursin Soup

serves 4

2 cups cooked root vegetable, mashed [use whatever you have leftover. I used buttercup squash]

2 cups chicken broth [commercial is fine]

1-150g package herb and garlic boursin cheese  [This is the magic ingredient]

Place veg and chicken stock in pot

Using immersion blender, blend until smooth

Bring soup to a boil

Reduce heat to simmer and add cheese

Whisk until well blended and you have a rich delicious gourmet cream soup.

Thanks for reading.

OBAMA INCONVENIENCE CAUSES GASTRONOMICAL INSPIRATION

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I totally get the whole ’no other aircraft can be anywhere within a kazillion miles of Air Force One taking off or landing’. However, when it means that we miss our connection in Montreal, get put up in a fleabag motel, shlep back to the airport at the crack of dawn while freezing rain causes our shuttle bus to shimmy down the highway only to find out that our new flight is cancelled and the ‘has been on the job way to long’ Air Canada representative tells us she might be able to get us on a flight the following day, I am a little ticked. Surely the president, of the United States, could leave Vegas during off-peak times!

Happily, we managed to find a flight into Moncton later that afternoon. Sara picked us up, after a three-hour drive through a snow storm. We then drove back to Saint John through same snow storm and finally arrived safe, tired and hungry.

Having been away for a week, there was little to nothing in the house to eat. As I stood in the kitchen dreading the idea of going back out into the snow storm for groceries, I remembered that I had a pound of jumbo shrimp in the freezer. Inspiration is such a magical thing. Without thinking, I grabbed the shrimp, half of a leftover fennel bulb, a couple of potatoes and a few other odds and ends that were hanging out in the fridge. An hour later we had a soup of the most shrimp tail-sucking succulence that we have ever tasted.

Thanks Barack!

JUMBO SHRIMP WITH SHAVED FENNEL IN SPICY TOMATO CREAM

serves 4

1 lb jumbo shrimp, cleaned with tail left on

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed and sliced thin

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes

1 teaspoon dried chili flakes, or to taste

2 small bay leaves

2 tablespoons pesto

enough fish broth to cover vegetables, 1 – 11/2 cups I used lobster stock that I had made and frozen. You can use a commercial stock.

1 cup canned diced tomatoes or 1 cup marinara

1/3 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup heavy cream

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Parmesan cheese, to garnish

In a medium stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Make sure that the bottom of your pot is heavy so that you do not burn the veggies.

When oil is warmed, add fennel, onion and bell pepper and saute until wilted. Do not brown.

Add dried chili flakes and continue to cook for another two minutes, stirring constantly.

Pour in wine and scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the stock pot. Then add fish stock/broth.

Add potato and bay leaves. Bring to a boil then immediately reduce heat and simmer broth until potatoes are fork tender.

When potatoes are tender, stir in pesto. Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Add shrimp

Stir in the cream.

Allow soup to simmer while the shrimp poach. Be careful not to over cook your shrimp! As soon as the little guys are opaque turn the heat off. Remember that fish continues to cook as long as the broth is hot.

Typically, Italians do not serve cheese with fish but this dish was begging for some lovely shards of parmigiano.

Thanks for reading.

Cream of Roasted Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup – sans cream

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I remember when I first introduced this style of soup at Sister’s. I had a soup line-up for days! My customers were fascinated with the idea of cream soup without the cream. It made them feel like they were being decadent without the worry of too many calories. Although, given that I was also serving pizza, lasagna, focaccia sandwiches and pasta… I can safely assume that most of my customers did not spend a lot of time calorie counting.

You can use whatever combination of root vegetables that appeal to you. I have combined carrots with parsnips, potato with turnips, multiple winter squashes, beet with potato, sweet potato with carrot – you see what I mean…

The creaminess is created by pureeing the soup with an immersion blender. This is the quickest and easiest way to ’cream’ the soup but you can also use a food processor or blender and puree in small batches, as well.

Root vegetable soups freeze perfectly which makes them a personal favorite for last-minute entertaining. If your soup is already made, you can spend some fun on the garnish. Sauteed jumbo shrimp, seared sea scallops wrapped in pancetta, crusty ciabatta crostini with melted gorgonzola or a simple sprig of whatever herb you used in your soup. Floating any of these examples in the middle of the soup bowl lifts your soup to a higher level!

Another fun thing to play around with is your liquids. I have used chicken broth for this recipe. You can also add orange juice, apple juice, white wine or whatever flavour you would like to create.

This soup recipe is healthy, delicious and easy to prepare.

Cream of Roasted Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup

serves 4-6

Preheat oven 325*F

12 large carrots

1 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 medium onion, peeled and halved

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

3 sprigs fresh thyme

5 cups chicken stock

Place vegetables in shallow roasting pan large enough for the veg to fit snugly but not stacked. Pour enough chicken stock to just come to the top of the veg.

Add sprigs of fresh thyme then cover pan with aluminium foil.

Place in oven for 90 minutes or until veg are very soft.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Remove thyme sprigs.

Place pureed veg and stock in a small stock pot.

Using an immersion blender, thoroughly puree vegetables.

Add enough additional chicken stock to acheive the desired consistency.

In total, I used 5 cups of stock – you may use more or less – you decide!

Taste for seasonings and add freshly chopped additional thyme.

Heat thoroughly and serve.

Thanks for reading.

Buttercup Squash Vichyssoise with Crispy Sage leaves

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I won!

Thank you so much for taking the time to vote for me. I can not tell you how wonderful it feels.

I love the fall. Back to school…

When the girls were little, Ralph was away a good deal of the time. He would leave early on Monday morning and return home late on Thursday. All of the responsibility of home work, extra curricular activities, chores, friends and sister issues were mine.

It was never a burden to me. I loved the constant challenge that came from raising three ‘way-too-bright’ daughters. They had all sorts of different strategies and techniques, which they used when they were trying to work the situation to their advantage. Sometimes they worked alone, other times they tag teamed me and worst of all was the gang attack – all three at once! I wish that I would have video recorded some of those conversations so that I could use them when my grand children come along…

As the girls got older, the issues became more intense. Should they dye their hair, could they each have a cell phone, should they bother with their homework – the list was long and constantly changing.

One day, on a rare occasion that Ralph was home, we were working in our office, when we heard the girls come home from school. Instead of charging in to say hello, we could hear them whispering in the kitchen. It was ‘home report day’. I did not say a word to Ralph. I wanted to see how my three little kittens were going to work their father. I figured that the report cards must not be very good if they were choreographing who would dance first!

As usual, it was Meggie. In she came, with those beautiful big brown eyes of hers. Yikes! – Ralph did not stand a chance.

Hi Dad.

Hey Sweetie, how was your day?

Well, I got my home report card today…

My back was to the girls but I could see the three of them in my computer screen – it was priceless. Kaitie and Sara were giving Meg the ‘look’ to get on with it!

Ralph pushed his chair away from his desk.

How did you make out? Mom tells me that you have not been doing your homework.

I’m busy Dad. I have swimming, the play and work.

So how’s the home report?

She passed it to him and said, ‘what do you think, Dad, do you think it’s good’

Ralph slowly looked it over, then he handed it to me. As I had expected, her marks had fallen a bit. I was always much harder on the girls about their grades than their father, which is why they chose to show the home report cards to him first.

It doesn’t matter what I think, Sweetheart – it matters what you think – you decide…

Silence.

It was brilliant!

In that moment, Ralph transferred the responsibility of decision-making from me to the girls. They always knew what the right decision was but it was so much more fun to ignore their better judgement and try to convince me to cave. Then if anything went wrong, they could say, ‘but Mom said it was alright.’

Those two little words changed our world. ‘You decide’… and they did.

This is a perfect soup for fall.

Buttercup Squash Vichyssoise with Crispy Sage Leaves

serves 4

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, peeled and diced

1 celery stalk, trimmed and diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 cups cooked buttercup squash

3 cups chicken stock - you can use commercial in a pinch!

dried red chili flakes, to taste

freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

12 large sage leaves

This soup needs to be seasoned perfectly and to your taste which is why I am not including seasoning measurements – remember to add slowly and taste – you can not take it out once it’s been stirred in!

In a medium stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium – high heat.

Add carrot, onion, celery and garlic – saute for 5 minutes stirring constantly

Add chicken stock and potatoes then bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a gentle bubble and cook until potatoes are fork tender.

Add cooked squash and break up into smaller pieces.

Remove pot from heat.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer cooked vegetables to the bowl of your food processor.

Whiz to make a puree then return puree to the soup pot.

Add grated nutmeg, chillies, salt and pepper.

Add a little more chicken stock if the soup is too thick.

Place last tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet and fry sage leaves until crispy.

Drain fried leaves on a piece of paper towel.

Add sage flavored olive oil to soup and stir well.

This soup can be served hot or cold – you decide…

Thanks for reading.

Chicken Stock – nothing beats homemade

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I have moved up to 4th place!

There are lots of recipes for chicken stock available on the internet. You might wonder why I would bother including ‘another’ on my blog.

Simple.

I love to make it. Sort of like the essence of cooking.

It seems like such an extravagant thing to do with a chicken. Now, you can use the bones from a roasted chicken that you have already eaten the meat from. Or the raw backs and wing tips from a bunch of chickens, that you have saved and frozen over time. But nothing is going to give you the depth of flavour that a whole fresh chicken, slowly simmered over several hours, with a gorgeous mirepoix of carrots, leeks, celery, flat leaf parsley and some seasoning will provide.

For ease of extraction, I tie my vegetables together with kitchen twine. When the stock has finished cooking, I simply lift the vegetables out with the twine loop. If you do not have any leek, you can easily substitute a yellow onion. I wash my veggies but it is not necessary to peel them. I also use the top green end of the leek and save the lovely white part to eat. The mirepoix is discarded after cooking.

It is critical to use the best quality sea salt that you can. Nothing kills a beautiful stock like an insipid salt! I will tell you that some cooks do not add salt to their stock preferring to salt the dish they are adding it to. You decide…

Chicken Stock

makes 8 cups

1 celery stalk, washed and cut in half

2 medium carrots, scrubbed

top green part of 1 leek, washed thoroughly

3 sprigs flat Italian parsley

2 dried bay leaves

1 tablespoon sea salt

6 peppercorns

1 – 5 lb chicken, well rinsed – organs removed they will make your stock cloudy

Place chicken in the bottom of a large stock pot.

Tie carrots, leek, celery, parsley and bay leaves together with kitchen twine leaving a nice long loop to use as a handle – place in the pot

16 cups cold water or enough to just cover.

Add sea salt and peppercorns.

Bring chicken, mirepoix and water to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 3 hours. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

Add water if needed to keep things covered.

Remove from heat and strain through a sieve into a heatproof storage container.

Taste the chicken meat and see if you like it. I use mine for pulled chicken sandwiches – deadly!

Let cool, uncovered, then refrigerate.

Remove the fat that forms on the top before using.

Enjoy!

It is exciting to have been nominated by several readers for Best Food Blogger of 2011 on FriendsEat. I am including the badge to take you directly to their page so you can cast your vote.

You can only vote once and polls close on September 23 at 5:00pm EST.

Click the badge at the top of this screen to start voting!!

I am blown away to be included in the same list with such wonderful and inspirational food bloggers.

Thanks for reading.

Spring Vegetable Soup

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Last year, at the end of summer, Dad and I discussed where we would be building our new vegetable garden. We have a lovely flat meadow directly behind our house which receives full sunlight all day. It is close to the potting shed so, I thought it would be a perfect location. Dad cleared away all of the sod leaving a fairly large bald patch of earth ready to be tilled. With all of the rain that we have had this spring, my newly chosen vegetable garden site is a muck hole and will probably remain so until August! Dad has a very clear memory of telling me that area could be a wet spot. I told him that I do not remember him saying anything of the sort. His response, “you’re kind of hard to dissuade once you get excited about something” I find that hard to believe…lol! So my enthusiasm has come back to bite me in the butt. We are not that far behind, given the weather and the soggy ground. The veggies new home will now be in front of the house on a slight down-hill grade – same beautiful all day sunlight. This photo was taken on a foggy morning!

Mom and I drove up to Scott’s Nursery yesterday to see what vegetable starter plants were available. Obviously, buying starter plants totally outs me as a novice farmer! As you drive along Route 102, you can see all of the greenhouses full of sprouts awaiting transplanting. All in good time…

This summer I am going to try to grow red bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, leeks, tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuces, garlic, artichokes, eggplant, squash, zucchini, red onion, corn, green beans, celery, peas, spinach, beets, cukes, carrots and sun flowers! I will be keeping you posted on my journey. I can’t wait to get started.

I developed this soup  last spring when I had nothing in the fridge but vegetables. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Spring Vegetable Soup

6 servings

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

3 celery stalks, chopped

1 small red onion, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 lb slender green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 lbs peas, shelled

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

3 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1/2 grated parmesan

3 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped

3 chive shoots, snipped into small garnish pieces

In soup pot heat oil over medium…gently saute garlic, celery and onion for 10 minutes

Add half of the asparagus, beans and peas to soup pot…stir well to coat with oil…cook for 10 minutes

Season with salt and pepper…cover with chicken stalk…bring to a boil

Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes

Add remaining vegetables and simmer for 5 more minutes this technique gives you some nice crunch

Scald cream and then slowly stir into soup…stir in fresh mint and parmesan

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chive snips.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I am participating this year in a fund raiser called the Fundy Food Festival where monies raise benefit our local Boys and Girls Club. It’s only a few days away and I want to remind any of you that live in Saint John to consider supporting a great cause. It’s a wonderful evening of sampling food created by our local chefs!

Thanks for reading.

We Ate The Easter Bunny’s Carrots

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Whenever Ralph and I go away, I have usually let our refrigerator get pretty low on food. Unfortunately, we flew home on Easter Sunday and discovered nothing but some gnarly looking carrots, a couple of shallots, a bald orange and some garlic… the bald orange was due to me needing orange zest for something two weeks ago!

Soup is one of my favorite things to make. Ralph will often tease me by saying, “he thinks I could make soup out of a boot!”

I may just surprise him one day…

Some soups require long and loving attention, others are quick and dirty. This recipe is the latter…easy peasy.

Even after 2 weeks of sitting bald in the refrigerator, the pulp of this orange is beautiful!

CARROT – ORANGE SOUP

makes 2 large servings

2 tablespoons butter

5 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 shallot, peeled and minced

1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced

1 orange, juiced and pulp saved

3 cups chicken stock

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

In a medium stock pot, melt butter over medium low heat. When butter is frothing, add shallot, garlic and carrots and saute for 10 minutes… stir frequently

Add chicken stock and orange pulp…reduce heat to low and simmer until carrots are soft.

When carrots are very soft either pass solids through a food mill or food processor. Return puree to the liquid in the stock pot. Add the orange juice and season to taste.

Make sure you remove the pulp from the peel as the peel is bitter.

Because I love the flavour of carrots and orange together I do not add additional herbs or spices. However, it’s fun to experiment so add whatever herb or ground spice you think would taste delicious with carrots or oranges. The skies the limit!

As you can see from the photo, I like my soup a little chunky. Again it is personal preference…

Thanks for reading!

dancing to her own beet

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I think one of the most difficult times in my life, as a mother ,was the moment that I realized I would not always be the gate-keeper.

It’s bitter-sweet to have raised such independent and capable young women. Their entire childhood was filled with empowering them with the skills of communication and reason.

Unfortunately, those very skills are the tools that have given them the courage to fly… unfortunate for me

When Meaghan relocated to Calgary, a huge concern for me centered around the fear that the she would be seduced by the very fast life style that this economy offers.

I can’t begin to share with you the joy I am experiencing as I watch her travel through the routines of her daily life.

Her gentle way of communicating with Theo, her puppy, friends, anybody she encounters, seems to bring a quieting to a very busy place.

She continues to be concerned about world issues and demonstrates her support or objections through her choices of where she will shop of what products she will buy.

Photographs of her family and of Theo’s family hang every where in their home… there are stacks of cookbooks, novels and home decor magazines in every room. The past times that she has always enjoyed continue to be celebrated.

Her style remains distinctly her own. Relaxed and shiny!

She is moving through this new, fast paced and impersonal environment dancing to her own lovely beat!

Last night, she prepared BORSCHT…beet soup. It was not only beautiful to look at but delish to eat.

BORSCHT

6 medium beets, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced 1/4 inch

2 carrots, peeled and diced 1/4 inch

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 large onion, peeled and diced 1/4 inch

1/2 cabbage, outer leaves peeled and sliced thin

4 cups beef broth

4 cups water

1 tablespoon white vinegar

large handful of fresh dill, chopped

1 lb mild Italian sausage meat, cooked and well crumbled

Place all of the ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low and simmer for 3 hours.

Serve with a big dollop of sour cream…yum!

Thanks for reading.