Super Easy/Fast Baked Potato Soup

I first had baked potato soup at a Black Angus restaurant near my office close to 20 years ago.  The restaurant has been gone for some time, but the memory of that soup has remained- it was THAT good!  Smooth, velvety potato soup, topped with typical baked potato toppings- yummm!  No wonder I craved it during my pregnancy with my son (who is now almost 19- yikes, where did the time go?!)   The concept is simple:  baked potatoes turned into soup, with chicken broth and cream/milk, and don't forget the toppings- cheese, sour cream, bacon, chives, herbs, the works.  Not the healthiest soup in the world, but certainly one of the tastiest!

The other night I was tired, my hubby and I had not eaten, and were both getting cranky.   A survey of the pantry turned up 3 russet potatoes that were not yet too soft to throw away, but a few days away from it.  So, I scrubbed them and threw them in the microwave.  Soup followed, and let me tell you, it did not taste like a last-ditch-before-tossing-the-potatoes soup!  It was creamy, hearty, and delicious.  And, did I mention, easy??  Oh yes, it was!  I just had to share it here.  This was about a 30 minute total, from start to finish.  Doesn't get easier than that!

Baked Potato Soup, With Toppings

Soup:
3 slices bacon, chopped
3 medium size russet potatoes
3-4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half

Toppings:
Bacon bits
Shredded cheese
Sour Cream
Chives or chopped green onions

Scrub potatoes and dry.  Prick several times with a knife or fork.  Place on a plate in microwave,  Microwave for about 10 minutes.  Check after 10 minutes and cook for additional time if needed, until potatoes are soft.  Remove from microwave and allow to cool slightly.

 Meanwhile, heat chopped bacon in a pot on medium high heat.  Cook and stir until crispy.  Remove bacon pieces with a slotted spoon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate.  Drain fat from the pot and return to stove.

Slit the skins of the potatoes open and scoop potato flesh out with a spoon and add to the pot.  Discard skins.  Add chicken broth and heat on medium-high to a simmer.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Use a potato masher to mash potatoes in the broth until no large hunks remain.  Bring back up to a simmer, then add half and half, stirring in to incorporate.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and top with toppings as desired.

Thai Coconut Curry Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin is one of those foods that I've always thought was just ok.  I don't mind the obligatory slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, but apart from a Cooking Light recipe for delicious chocolate chip pumpkin bread, I really don't cook with pumpkin much.    This time of year, pumpkin is everywhere- in lattes at every coffee shop, in muffins at the bakery, in pasta dishes, and soups.  I've tried pumpkin soup before, and it was....ok.  Nothing that I would go out of my way to have again. One thing I've seen before and never thought it sounded good was pumpkin curry.  Not sure why, but those two things just don't seem to go together.  Well, someone probably once thought that chocolate and peanut butter didn't either, but as we all know, that is the most fantastic food combination on the planet!  Since autumn is upon us, soup weather is here (or almost here), and I have an upcoming soup potluck at work, I thought I would revisit the idea of pumpkin soup.  I wanted something different though- nothing spiced with cinnamon, or that in any way reminded me of pie.  To get some ideas, I turned to one of my favorite food websites, FoodGawker.  It's like Pinterest, only JUST for food- gorgeous pictures, and everything links back to a blog or other website where you can usually find the recipe.  FoodGawker is full of pumpkin dishes right now, so there was a lot to peruse.  I saw a number of pumpkin curry soups, but one with a Thai twist caught my attention.  Thai curry is a lot different than Indian curry, and I was curious how it would pair with the pumpkin.

As it usually happens, I reviewed several recipes, but no one recipe was "it" for me, so I took components from different ones and combined them with some of my own ideas.  The result is very  flavorful and has a nice kick to it from Thai red curry paste.  I have a totally different take on pumpkin soups now, and this is one that I will make again and again!

Thai Coconut Curry Pumpkin Soup

Serves: About 4-6

1 tbsp coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1/2 of a red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. Thai red curry paste or to taste- more if you like it spicier
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I used chicken)
2 cups pumpkin, canned or fresh roasted and mashed
1/2 cup coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Heat oil in pot and add onions, carrots and red bell pepper.  Cook 5-7 minutes until vegetables begin to soften and most liquids have evaporated.

2.  Add garlic and ginger, cook and stir one minute.  Add curry paste and stir to incorporate.  Add broth, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are completely soft.

3.  Add pumpkin and mix in well.  Puree in batches in a blender or food processor, or in the pot with an immersion blender, until smooth.

4.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in coconut milk.

This is one of those dishes that tastes better the next day, after the ingredients have had a chance to meld together.  If you make it ahead of time, add just half of the coconut milk.  Then when you reheat it, add the rest just before serving and swirl in with a spoon, for a pretty presentation.

Pureed Roasted Vegetable Soup

Two posts in a week- well, since I've been absent for the last 7 months, it's the least I can do!  I mentioned in my last post that I had a lot of veggies to use up, and had made two pans of roasted vegetables with some of them. I love roasted veggies- roasting brings out their flavor in a way that no other cooking method does, really concentrates it, and seems to make it richer somehow.  Believe it or not, roasted broccoli is one of my 12 year old daughter's favorite foods- yes, no joke!  It is so easy to roast vegetables too...just toss in oil, spread in a single layer on a baking sheet, and roast at a high temperature until barely tender and beginning to brown. They are so versatile too- they can be eaten as-is for a side dish, tossed in salads, or, as is the case with this recipe,made into a lovely pureed soup.

I wish that I could take credit for this soup, or even the idea for it, but I can't.  I belong to a wonderful community of working mothers, and one of my friends there posted this on the cooking forum there a few years ago.  It's not really a specific recipe, but more of a guide.  Roasted vegetables are simmered in broth until tender, then pureed and seasoned, and voila- soup!  It really is that simple- however, as I have found, the vegetables used do matter in the end product.  Pureeing vegetables does not necessarily produce an attractive result- the more green vegetables used, the more muddy and putrid the color of the soup, and however delicious the taste, it may not be so appealing to eat.  So keep that in mind when roasting your veggies, if you are doing so with a mind to use the leftovers for this soup.  Another thing I have found is that it is absolutely necessary to have tomatoes in the mix.  Fortunately I did this time- I had purchased some baby heirlooms at Trader Joe's a couple weeks back and needed to use them up, and they were a delicious addition.  Good tomatoes are not that plentiful this time of year though, so if you can't find good fresh ones, use some canned diced or stewed tomatoes, drained of course.  Add them to the broth with the roasted veggies, and they will provide a tangy zing that you wouldn't get otherwise in the soup.  One last thing- beans!  In this soup, I included some leftover roasted garbanzo beans that I had in the fridge, but you can use whatever you have- they provide protein and fiber, not to mention a nice creamy consistency.  I also like to throw in a couple of cloves or garlic.  The flavor mellows when it's simmered in the soup, but provides a nice flavor in the final product.  Salt and pepper are really the only seasoning necessary, but feel free to add fresh herbs of your choice for additional flavor.

For my soup, my roasted veggies consisted of: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, asparagus, brussels sprouts, and baby heirloom tomatoes.  I went heavier on the carrots and cauliflower than the green veggies, so that the color would not be unappealing.  Use vegetables that will roast well together- you don't necessarily want to use something like zucchini here, as it will cook much faster than the rest of the veggies.  For serving, I like to make homemade croutons with thin slices of french baguette brushed with a little olive oil, broiled until just toasted, and then add some fresh grated parmigiano reggiano and broil until just melted.  Serve the soup with a couple of croutons and extra bread for mopping up the last dregs in the bowl.  It is THAT good.

Pureed Roasted Vegetable Soup
Serves 4-6

4 cups roasted vegetables
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt/pepper to taste

Parmesan croutons:

French baguette slices
Olive oil
Grated fresh Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1.  In a large pot, combine veggies, broth, water and garlic.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until vegetables are tender enough to puree.

2.  Using a stick blender, or in batches in a food processor, puree soup until smooth.

3.  For croutons, brush baguette slices with olive oil and broil until they barely begin to brown.

4.  Top with cheese and and broil about 1 minute longer until cheese melts and begins to brown.

5.  Serve soup with croutons.

Summer Chicken and Grilled Corn Chowder

Ok.  I know.  Soup...in JULY??  Especially when most of the country has been dealing with 100+ degree temps for the last week plus??

Yeah, sorry.  Here in the Pacific NW, the summer has not been so harsh.  (Yet.)  Don't quote me, because in a couple of weeks I will probably be cursing myself for being so smug.  Yes, our warmest day so far was yesterday, which was about 90.  Really not so bad, by comparison.  I grew up where it routinely got to be 105 or more in the summer...with no central A/C.  So, yeah, this is still pretty livable (so far.)

Anyway.  Last week was the Fourth of July.  We spent the holiday with friends barbequing, hanging out, and doing fireworks in their cul-de-sac.  We potluck most years to their house, and this year I got off easy- a veggie tray with dip, some soda, and a dessert.  So I went to the store on the 4th for the veggies.  Holy cow, was it busy!!  While strolling through the produce section, I noticed the 6/$1 corn sale.  I had no plans to bring corn to the barbeque, but we all like corn, so I took advantage and bought 6 ears for $1.  I grilled some of it over this past weekend for dinner, but was left with 3 ears after that, just languishing in my kitchen.  Yesterday (Sunday) was fridge clean-out day, and I was faced with what to do with these last 3 ears of corn.  I decided to throw them on the grill, and figure out the rest later.

Later came today.  It's Monday...back to work, and I'm too tired to make a complicated dinner night.  Hubby took the kids out to grab dinner and a movie, and I pondered the grilled corn, as well as some other stray fridge ingredients, wondering if I could conjur up something out of them into something special...or at the very least, edible.  The answer, it turns out, was surprisingly simple.  This soup showcases fresh grilled corn, with a backdrop of creamy potatoes and a subtle hint of chicken.  The chicken is not the centerpiece here- that belongs to the corn, as it rightly deserves.  The chicken is just barely there, to provide a little structure and substance to an otherwise light, summery soup, making it seem more like a meal than a snack.  The flavor that comes from the grilled corn cannot be faked, so don't even think about substituting frozen or canned corn here- you will not get the same delicious results.  This is a light, yet substantial soup that delivers the essence of summer, right to your tastebuds.

To grill corn on the cob, remove husks and corn silk.  Wrap in foil and grill over a medium flame, turning occasionally, for 20 minutes.  Unwrap and cool, then cut corn from cobs.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Summer Chicken and Grilled Corn Chowder

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
 About 3 cups grilled fresh corn, cut from cob
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 carton (32 oz) chicken broth
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste
chopped chives for garnish (optional)

1.  Heat vegetable oil in a large pot.  Add onions and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft and translucent.

2.  Add corn and heat through.  Move vegetables to the side, and add chicken to the middle of the pot.  Brown chicken on one side, then turn and brown on the other.

3.  Add chicken broth and potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.  Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender.

4.  Remove chicken from soup and set aside.  Using a hand-held blender, blend soup for just a few seconds at a time.  You don't want to puree the soup, just blend it a bit so that there are still whole pieces of corn and potatoes. 

5.  Shred chicken with a fork, and return to the soup and stir in.

6.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in half and half.

7.  Serve in bowls topped with chopped chives.

Potato-Leek (or Onion) Soup

Spring is here, and winter is coming to a close...supposedly, anyway.  (Never mind the fact that three days ago it snowed enough for the schools to be closed, but I digress.)  With the change of seasons, I always begin to think differently about cooking, what to cook, and how to prepare it.  After a long winter of roasting and braising, I look forward to using my grill more often as the temperatures warm and the light stays until after dinnertime.

Unfortunately, it doesn't all happen overnight, and at least here in the PNW, it won't be consistently warm for at least another couple of months.  As such, I am kind of all over the place with cooking this time of year.  Last night, I grilled some lovely center-cut pork chops, and today, I made potato soup.  I like soup any time of year, but tend to make it less in the summer when it's warmer.  And in the spring, I like to make lighter soups with seasonal ingredients, rather than the meaty, heartier soups of winter.  This potato soup is just perfect for this time of year, and it is so simple, there's really not even a recipe for it- more a collection of ingredients, and a technique for assembling them.  It is inspired by the classic potato-leek soup of Julia Child, with just a couple of minor changes.  Her recipe calls for water, and I use a mix of water and chicken broth.  Also, I used a mix of leeks and onions in mine- I don't always, sometimes I use all of one or the other, but this time I had only two leeks, so supplemented with half an onion.  It is delicious with any of these options, not to mention light and healthy, with very little added fat.  I topped mine with newly-sprouted chives from my garden.

Potato-Leek (or Onion) Soup

1.5 tbsp butter
2 medium leeks
1/2 large onion
4 medium russett potatoes
3 cups chicken broth
water, as needed
about 1/4 cup half-and-half
salt/pepper to taste
optional: fresh chopped chives

1.  Slice root ends and most of green tops from leeks and discard.  Slice leeks in half lengthwise.  Soak in a large bowl of cold water to remove dirt and sand from between layers.  Pat dry, then slice leeks thinly crosswise.

2.  Slice onion thinly.

3.  Peel potatoes and slice thinly.

4.  Melt butter in a large pot.  Add leeks and onions; stir and cook until tender.

5.  Add chicken broth and potatoes.  Add enough water to cover potatoes by 1 inch.

6.  Bring to a boil, tnen reduce heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender.

7.  In batches, puree in a food processor or blender, or use a stick blender right in the pot.  (I **LOOOVVEE*** mine!)  Puree until smoothe and velvety.

8.  Bring heat back up to a simmer and cook about 15 more minutes.  Cook longer if it seems too watery.

9.  Add salt, pepper, and half-and-half.

Makes about 4-6 servings.  It tastes even better the second day!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is the time of year for soup.  Deep into winter, I crave the warm comfort that a good soup delivers on a dark, cold winter day.  There are a lot of soups that I make, many I have worked on perfecting over the years, but this one remains not only one of the most simple, but the most delicous as well.

This recipe was inspired by Tyler Florence.  Tyler, in case you have been living in a cave for the past decade or so, is a Food Network chef/star.  I started watching him in 2000 when I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now 11.  I had some pregnancy complications, and was on bed rest for couple of weeks, and once I got tired of regular daytime televison (maybe a day and a half in), I started watching the Food Network.  Emeril, Sara Moulton, Bobby Flay, Tyler...they took me away from my troubles and made me imagine the wonderful dishes I could create in the kitchen- once I wasn't carrying the weight of several bowling balls in my abdomen, that is.  That is what got me hooked on cooking shows.  I learned so much, from cooking terms to some unusual ingredients, to knife techniques.  Tyler was my favorite.  It didn't hurt that he is all kinds of cute, and defintitely has a way with the camera!  I have enjoyed many of his shows, but my favorite remains the original Food 911, where Tyler comes to the aid of some poor unsuspecting cook with a kitchen disaster and helps them turn out an incredible dish worthy of accolades.  On this one particular show, he did chicken soup 3 different ways.  I know that one was chicken tortilla soup, one was a Thai chicken soup, and I believe that the third was a classic chicken noodle, but I'm not positive on that.  In any case, the chicken tortilla soup really grabbed me.  I had never had anything like it before, and it looked wonderful.  Tyler, though, he is a by-the-book chef, and he did everything from scratch, right down to the chicken broth.  But heck, I am a full-time working mom of 2 kids- I don't have the kind of time it takes to do that kind of thing.  So I started to think about ways I might take his recipe and modify it to use convenience ingredients, to make it easier and less time-consuming.  I think I did a pretty decent job.  I have been making this soup for several years now, and it never fails to get praise.  This was the first time I tried in in a slow cooker however.  There is some prep involved, but once that is done, it just cooks in the slow cooker and you don't have to worry about it until it is time to eat.

Ingredients:

About 4 cups cooked chicken, shredded (note: you can use rotisserie chicken, or cook your own.  I braise bone-in chicken breasts in chicken broth with some sliced onions until cooked through, cool, then remove skin and bones and shred.  I strain the broth and reserve to use for the soup.)

1 onion, sliced (see instructions)

3-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 chipotle pepper (canned in adobo sauce), chopped finely.  These come in a small can in the Mexican foods aisle of the grocery store, usually near the enchilada sauce.  I usually freeze the leftovers, and just use what I need a little at a time later.  They keep very well this way.

1 can diced tomatoes (I prefer the fire-roasted ones)

1 quart chicken broth

 Vegetable oil

4 corn tortillas, sliced (see below instructions)

Instructions:

1.  Slice onions.  This is how I do it:

Cut off the root and stem ends of the onion.

Peel skin off under cold running water (helps to prevent your eyes from tearing up.

Slice onion lengthwise into thin slices.

2.  Heat 2 tbsp. vegetable oil in a skillet until hot.  Add onions and reduce heat to medium.  Cook stirring often until onions are nicely browned and caramelized.

3.  Chop chipotle peppter into a fine mince.  Mince or press the garlic.

4.  Add garlic to onions and sautee 1 minute, being careful not to scorch garlic.  Remove from heat and dump onion mixture into slow cooker crock.

5.  Add chicken, broth, tomatoes, and chipotle pepper.  Stir to incorporate.  Cook on Low for 7 hours or High for about 4 hours.

 Note about the tomatoes: I like to puree mine with a stick blender.  You don't have to though.  If you don't want the tomato chunks without the work of pureeing them, you could use canned crushed tomatoes instead.

6.  While soup is cooking, slice up tortillas.  Stack tortillas and cut in half, then into strips

7.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Put tortilla strips on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tbsp. vegetable oil.  Toss to coat.  Separate tortilla strips and lay side by side on baking sheet, not touching.  Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until golden and crispy.  Remove from oven, toss and sprinkle with salt.  Set aside.

8.  When soup is done, ladel into bowls.  Top with tortilla strips and some shredded cheddar cheese.  Other optional toppings:  sour cream, diced avocado, chopped cilantro.

This is kind of spicy, due to the chipotle pepper.  If you don't like spicy foods, just use half a pepper or so.

This is a very warm, satisfying soup.  If you don't want the work of making your own tortilla strips, you can use bagged tortilla chips.  This will really warm you up on a long winter day.  I like to make a big batch to last for several days, though it usually only lasts a couple in my house, between my husband and my 15 year old son!

I hope you enjoyed this- I have many more soup recipes, which I hope I can share before the winter is up.  The way the weather is looking here in the Pacific Northwest, that may be a good long time, so I should be able to post at least a couple more!  Next time, though, I think I will show you a favorite chicken dish at my house, one that my kids BEG for.  Happy cooking til then!