Corn, Corn, Corn!

Corn season is upon us and I am oh, so happy about this.  I love corn in any of its many forms.  Grits, popcorn, corn bread, corn tortillas, or just good ol' corn on the cob, give me any of it.  Any way someone serves corn is quite alright by me.

So with corn season in mind, I decided to make a soup recipe from 101cookbooks.com that I have been eyeing for a little while.  I had been waiting for this time of the year to come so I could make this recipe with the best corn possible.  Maybe it is because I am from Ohio and corn country (seriously, in my hometown we have a festival each September called "The Corn Festival"-we celebrate corn!), but corn out of the can is ridiculously horrible most of the time.  I never ever buy the cheap corn when shopping at Publix.  It just doesn't work for me.  I will buy the most expensive corn just because I think it doesn't taste bland like the cheap stuff.  So with that corn snobbery confessed, when this time of the year comes around, I love to utilize delicious corn in as many ways as possible.  How could a corn soup not be a delicious way to celebrate this vegetable?

Here's that link to the recipe I mentioned from 101cookbooks:  Corn Soup from 101cookbooks.com

This was such a fun and fresh soup to make.  Matt actually got sick over the weekend so getting to make him corn soup was a perfect way to put some fluids in him.  As you can see in the top picture, I added goat cheese to my bowl to add a little creaminess to the broth.  Matt stuck to the clear broth.  I also topped the soup with dill like the author of the original recipe recommends.  At first, I was like "Dill, really?  I don't know about that."  After adding a little and re-tasting the soup, I was like, "Dill! Really!  This is amazing!"  I actually sounded like that.  My excitement level over adding a little dill to the dish was slightly ridiculous.  Either way, dill or no dill, I hope you enjoy this soup if you have some extra corn lying around.  This recipe is definitely worth a try.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

As you all know, I absolutely love the website 101cookbooks.com.  I check with anticipation everyday to see what new additions the author has posted.  When a new post pops up, I feel a rush of excitement to see what type of dish, ingredients, and/or recipe she has put together.  It is such an inspiration to me.  (Not in a religious type of way but in a food type of way-a soul invigorating food type of way.)

As you also know from all my soup posts, this website has wonderful, delicious soup recipes.  Today's recipe is another one I took from 101cookbooks.com.  Here is the link: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/vegetarian-tortilla-soup-recipe.html

Because this soup is basically a complex tortilla broth, I decided to add a can of corn and a can of pinto beans to the broth when I was making it.  I topped the soup with feta cheese crumbles we had in the fridge and some smoked sun dried tomatoes.  I specifically bought the sun dried tomatoes for this recipe but didn't realize until later that they were smoked.  Although I wasn't sure if they would work with the tortilla soup spices, the smoky flavor actually combined with them perfectly.  It just added to the depth of the soup.  

Matt kept eating the tortilla strips off the oven tray so we didn't have many left for topping the soup.  Clearly with the quick disappearance of the tortilla strips, they were great on their own.  They were also  super easy to make and a really fun addition to the soup.  I would highly recommend trying this recipe out when you are needing a spicy Mexican soup pick-me-up.  Enjoy!

Corn, Poblano, and Bean Chili

I love chili.  Well, I take that back.  I love meatless chili with very few onions and lots of beans and no red peppers.  That is the chili I love. 

Below is a recipe I threw together the other night.  I have "created" so many vegetarian chili recipes in my time but this is the first one I am actually proud to share.  As was posted earlier in the week, because we didn't go to the party last Friday night, we had a bunch of beans and corn hanging around the fridge.  This recipe is what was created out of that leftover bean and corn dip.  

I decided to use a leek in this recipe instead of an onion because I didn't want the overpowering taste of an onion.  Although I have been cooking with onions a lot lately, I really don't like big chunks of them in soups and/or chili and/or many other dishes.  I thought using a leek would be a good compromise.  I also added some chickpeas because they are delicious.  That's really the only reason.  Who wouldn't want something delicious in their chili?

This chili took less than an hour to make from start to finish.  After adding the initial ingredients, I just left it alone and let it cook down.  I would periodically stir but didn't have to do much more.  If you decide to try this recipe, I hope you enjoy!

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Corn, Poblano, and Bean Chili

2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)

1 leek (only the white stem portion), chopped

1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cayanne pepper (less out for less spice)

1.5 teaspoons salt

1 can of chickpeas

1 can corn

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes

1.5 cups of vegetable or chicken broth

Place butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add leek, poblano, and garlic to the butter.  Saute for about 5-8 minutes or until slightly softened.  Add chili powder, cayanne powder, and salt.  Mix well and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the chickpeas, corn, kidney beans, black beans, tomatoes, and broth to pot.  Stir all the ingredients together.  Once it begins simmering, add the lid onto the pot.  Cook covered at a simmer for 20 minutes.  Take lid off and cook for 15 more minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with tortilla chips, cornbread, or biscuits.  Can be topped with shredded cheese, feta, or a bit of greek yogurt. 

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Coconut Red Lentil Soup

Oh lentils, how I love thee!  

I have a weird affection for lentils during the fall and winter months.  These hearty legumes come in all sort of colors, shapes, and sizes.  When I walk down the lentil aisle at the Farmer's Market, I literally feel my excitement rising inside of me.  Which color will I choose?  Do I want split lentils or unsplit?  The options are endless...

This soup recipe from 101cookbooks.com lets the lentil shine.  You finish eating a bowl of this soup only wanting more.  Luckily for me, Matt had a field trip the day after I made this for dinner which meant I got all the leftovers.  In the end, the soup ends up looking like a thick chili filled with large carrots.  When I made this recipe, I actually doubled the carrots but halved all the other ingredients.  I also only had brown lentils in our cabinet so I just used those instead of red. If you half the recipe, you will end up with about four big servings.  If you are interested in experimenting with lentils and some slightly exotic flavors such as ginger and curry, I would highly suggest giving this recipe a chance.  Here is the link to one of the most perfect fall and winter soups: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/coconut-red-lentil-soup-recipe.html  Enjoy!

A very basic chicken (or chickenless) soup

Today at 1:15pm I got a phone call from my sweet husband telling me that he was leaving school early because he was sick.  Between yesterday afternoon and today, he had caught some sort of cold in which he could not stop sneezing.  His co-teacher actually told him to go home because the sneezing was that bad (or annoying-we aren't sure which).

My mother has always taught me that if you have a cold, you need to have plenty of liquids to fight it off.  Therefore, after I got home and settled in, I asked Matt if he would be interested in having chicken noodle soup for dinner.  After discussing the benefits of a broth-filled dinner, he agreed to this dinner plan.

Below is my quick recipe for a very basic chicken noodle soup.  We had almost all the ingredients at our house so the only thing I had to run out and buy was a box of noodles.  However, in case you don't have noodles, rice would have been a perfectly acceptable replacement.  Unfortunately for us, we were out of rice too.  I don't eat chicken so I added the chicken only to Matt's portion of the soup.  This soup was really good for how basic the ingredients are.  Even Matt, who was eating the soup between sneezes and sniffles, agreed that it was mighty fine for such a quick, simple dinner.  Our house smells so warm and seasoned right now from cooking this dinner.  That only adds to the enjoyment of making it!

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Basic Chicken Soup

2 bay leaves
2 chicken breasts or tenderloins
7-8 cups of fat free chicken broth
1 box noodles (we used tri-colored spiral noodles)
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Heat a large pot of salted water.  This pot will be for your spiral noodles.  Cook according to the directions on the noodle box.

Place 2 bay leaves and 2 frozen chicken breasts in a pot of salted water over medium heat.  Once chicken is cooked through, take chicken out of water and cut into small bite sized pieces.  Add to the boiling chicken broth and vegetables.

While chicken is cooking, chop the celery and carrots.  Place chopped vegetables in a large pot filled with the chicken broth, Kosher salt, garlic powder, and black pepper.  Bring to a boil and then cook for approximately 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender on a medium heat.

Once your chicken has been added to the broth and the noodles have been cooked according to the directions, take the big pan of chicken broth off the heat.  Add noodles to the broth according to how many noodles you want in the soup.  Some people like their chicken soup with lots of noodles while others like it more brothy.  If you have extra noodles leftover, save them for another meal making adventure later in the week!

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It is fall. Time for some soup.

Soup!  Oh my goodness, my heart is warming right now at the thought of a good bowl of soup.  One reason why I love the fall so much is that soups begin popping up on restaurant menus and in food magazines.   Finding a good soup recipe is like finding a good sweater.  It is something you can always go to when you need a little comfort.

The soup recipe I made last night is from 101cookbooks.com, a website I have mentioned in a previous post.  I had made this soup in May or June of this year and have been waiting to make it again when the weather was a little cooler.  Unfortunately for our meal planning, I had planned to make this recipe on Thursday evening.  It turned out to be about 82 degrees Thursday.  Yep, that's right.  However, Matt and I decided we had planned that meal so we were going to eat that meal.  End the end we were so happy that we stuck with our plans.  It was delicious!

Here is the link to the website where you can find the  recipe: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/green-lentil-soup-with-curried-brown-butter-recipe.html

Besides the lentils, this soup is made with ingredients you might have in your fridge or cabinet on a regular basis. Hopefully the pictures below will help show the steps in this delicious soup making adventure. Enjoy!

PS- Do you see how happy Matt's hands look in these photos?  Matt said this soup should go on our list of regular weeknight meals.  He likes it that much.  Unfortunately for him, that "regular" list does not exist in this household.  However, I do agree, this soup recipe is a keeper and will probably be called upon again in the near future.