It's Soup Season!

[JLW71073]

One of my favorite things about Winter is making a big pot of hot soup on a cold winter day. It's easy for us t get stuck in the rut of making the same recipes throughout the winter. So this Winter, I want to make a new soup a week. Which means I will need to do some planning ahead and identify to recipes.

Please post your favorites recipes.

Here are our favorites and later when at home I will start posting my recipes.

Country Vegetable - We make this all the time becuse we usually have ingredients on hand
Italian Wedding
Potato Cheese and Broccoli

 

[Mog]

Stuffed pepper soup

Tried this for the first time the other day. Real easy to make, and better than I thought it'd be. I used beef broth instead of water/bouillon in the recipe.

Recipe

 

[JLW71073]

Country Vegetable

Ingredients:
5 to 6 strips of bacon
1 small to medium sized onion
3 cloves of garlic
78 oz of chicken broth
28 oz of diced tomatoes
1 12 oz bag of frozen vegetables
2 to 3 potatoes
To taste:
Italian seasoning
Basil
Salt
Cracked pepper

This is one of my all time favorite soups. It's pretty easy and I find we have the ingredients at the house a lot so we can make it on a whim.

Start by browning 5 or 6 strip of bacon that has been diced.
When the bacon is about 1/2 way done I add one diced onion usually a small to medium sized onion. I also add a pinch of kosher salt at this time.
When the onion is almost done I add three cloves of minced garlic and let all of that caramelize

Once the Bacon, onion and garlic mixture is done I add 78 oz of chicken broth. I prefer to use homemade stock but I don 't always have that on hand. At the same time I add 28 oz of diced tomatoes

As the soup is heating to a boil I add Italian seasoning, Basil, another pinch of Kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper. all of this is to taste and I have no measurements (sorry)

I bring all of this to a boil and add one 12 oz bag of mixed vegetables and two or three diced potatoes (depends on the size). I bring it back to a boil and then cut the heat to low and let it simmer for a little while. The longer the better, but sometimes I make this in about an hours time.

15 minutes before dinner I add about 1/2 box of elbow macaroni. My wife reminded me that it's much simpler to pre-cook the macaroni versus adding in uncooked.

Then it's done and you can serve with a nice crusty bread. It's even better the next day.


This post was edited on 11/25 4:44 PM by JLW71073

 

[JLW71073]

I love stuffed peppers. I'm going to try this one next**

wvu

 

[JLW71073]

Re: Stuffed pepper soup

I made this today but my wife used this recipe.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/12/stuffed-pepper-soup.html

 

[JLW71073]

Smoked Turkey and Black Bean Soup

We made this last weekend and it was delicious. There are a couple of things I would like to try different.

1. Use thick cut slab of turkey and smoke a long with something else on the grill
2. Smoke a whole turkey and used the pulled meat in the soup
3. Marinate the thick cut slab of turkey overnight

All in all pretty good.

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Smoky-turkey-and-black-bean-soup-310272?columns=5&position=1%2F13&columns=5&position=1%2F13

 

[listentomenowandheermelateer!]

Roasted Pumpkin or Butternut Squash


Made this yesterday using the butternut squash. Really easy and turned out gnarly.


Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

1 med. pumpkin (or any autumn squash), cubed2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil1 tablespoon coarse sea salt1 tablespoon nutmeg1 teaspoon cayenne or paprika1 teaspoon black pepper4 cups vegetable broth (low sodium)2 cups coconut milk or skim milk (lots of fat in the coco milk)
Instructions:

Chop pumpkin into one-inch cubes and coat with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne. Roast on a baking sheet at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and slightly charred, rotating on the pan every 10 minutes or so. Transfer roasted pumpkin to a blender with some vegetable stock and coconut milk and blend until smooth.
I did it in fourths and transferred it into a pot with low heat. The milk and broth will cool it so add a little heat to warm it back up. Add remainder of milk and broth for consistency.

Lots of similar receipes online. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Mog]

Ham and potato soup

I really liked this. Used chicken broth instead of water/bouillon.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/delicious-ham-and-potato-soup/

 

[Thick]

Brunswick Stew

I use this recipe from Spanky's as my base.

I add/change:
couple tsps of honey to the sauceapple cider vinegar for white vinegaradd a healthy couple of dashes of cayenne pepper to saucesometimes use 2 cornish hens in place of chickendon't have a smoker so I braise a pork loin in apple cider and oatmeal stoutI love cinnamon and pork, so I add a few dashes of cinnamon late in the simmer
Martin's has a really good Brunswick Stew. This recipe, especially with my changes, is a bit sweeter than theirs.

 

[JLW71073]

On the list for the day after Christmas. I'm smoking a Christmas Ham

and the leftovers will go into the soup.

 

[JLW71073]

I made this soup for Christmas Day and it was excellent.

I used left over smoked ham and I sauteed the onions, celery with a clove of garlic. Next time I make this we will need to double the recipe though.

 

[JLW71073]

Chili, not sure it qualifies as a soup but it's what I made today

I can't give exact measurements here in a few ingredients as I kind of wing it. I guess that's the cool thing about chili. You can have a base recipe and tweak here and there to really get what you want out of the chili. This isn't very hot but I make it for the wife and kids.

Here is the basic recipe.

2 lbs of ground beef
1 whole onion (I usually use a yellow because that's what we usually have)
3 cloves of minced garlic
2 jalapeno's
1 banana pepper
1 green peppr
Kosher salt
Cracked black pepper
Parsley
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper
1/2 a dark beer (I brew my own so I usually use a porter or black IPA)
2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 or 2 14.5 cans of beans (I use pintos or chili beans)
1/2 a can of tomato sauce (if a little extra liquid is needed)

With some olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt I caramelize the onion and the peppers. Once these are close to done I added the garlic just to brown a little.
Add the ground beef another pinch of kosher salt, the cracked pepper, parsley, chili powder and cayenne pepper and cook until brown
Once brown, add the tomatoes, beans, beer and tomato sauce
Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer until your ready to eat.

 

[thebowl]

Split pea soup

26-30 oz of dry split peas
at least two smoked ham hocks
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 cups of carrots, chopped
2 cups of celery (with tops), chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 cups of diced ham
1 Tbs honey
S & P

Sweat the onions, carrots & celery in olive oil. Then the onion is translucent, throw in the garlic. When it releases its aroma, add the ham hocks, thyme and bay leaves and cover with cold water. Bring the temperate up to almost a boil and skim any scum that appears for 15 minutes or so. Reduce heat to low, cover (with cover ajar) and simmer for two 1/2 hours or so, stirring occasionally as needed to prevent sticking. Remove thyme branches, bay leaves and discard. Remove ham hocks, extract all meat, chop meat coarsely and return to soup. Use an immersion blender to mince the soup to desired consistency. Before serving, season and add honey and ham.Serve with fresh croutons.