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Easiest Vegetable Soup Ever!

January 9, 2012 By 2 Comments

There are so many ways to make soup and there are so many different soups that sometimes it’s a little overwhelming.  I only started making my own soups a couple of years ago and it was daunting… should I make my own stock?  Should I just use seasoned water?  What vegetables go together? Well, if you’ve never made soup, this is a great way to get your feet wet (or your spoon, as the case may be).  There’s really nothing to it, so I thought I’d share it as a jumping off point. From this combination of ingredients you can really go anywhere.

easiest vegetable soup ever 4 Easiest Vegetable Soup Ever!

  • 4 medium onions chopped
  • a heart of celery chopped
  • 8 carrots peeled and chopped (if they’re organic, just chop them – don’t bother peeling)
  • 4 cloves garlic chopped
  • salt
  • Olive Oil
  • Tabasco Chipotle Sauce (or any hot sauce you like, or leave it out, completely up to you)
  • 96 oz. beef broth (it really doesn’t matter how much you use or what kind – veggie, chicken, home made, whatever – just a whole bunch of liquid)
  • 1 box of Pomi tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes – again… it doesn’t matter… see a theme?)

Put a large pot on med/high heat.  Add olive oil and when it ribbons, add all your vegetables and a big pinch of salt. Stir to coat with oil, then let the sit for a few minutes until stirring again.

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A little brown on your veggies won’t hurt. Repeat until your vegetables are softened and your onions translucent.

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Add your broth, or stock – bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer – then add the tomatoes and the Tabasco – I used about 25 shakes – it makes for a little bit of heat, but not too much. Allow to simmer for about a half hour.

easiest vegetable soup ever 1 Easiest Vegetable Soup Ever!

At this point, taste it.  If it’s too spicy, add more broth or stock, if you want to add some pasta, you could do that.  Barley?  Why not?  Chopped left over beef or chicken?  You bet. This is a great go to recipe for a surprise cold snap, or when you’ve over indulged in some rich food and need to get back on track.  I make this huge pot and we eat it for days.

In the end, it’s up to you.  Let me know what you do with it – I’d love to know!



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Filed Under: All, Easy Dinner, Healthy, Lowcarb, Lunch, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Grilled Potato Salad

October 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

The other night we made roasted potatoes and onions.  I only used about half the bag, so I knew I had to come up with something for the rest. I thought a dinner of tuna salad, cole slaw and potato salad would be nice as we just love salad for dinner.  This dinner feels like a picnic in the dining room and we add pickles and tomato, pickled peppers and all kinds of picnic-y food.  I wanted to make the potato salad a little bit different so that it didn’t just blend in with the other mayo based salads, but complimented them and stood out. Here’s what I did.

  • About 9 red potatoes
  • half a red onion sliced very thin
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
  • about 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
  • about 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • a couple of big pinched dried parsley

Put the potatoes in a big pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 8 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the biggest potato

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Drain the potatoes and allow too cool until you can handle them. Slice the potatoes into 1/2 in. thick slices

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Heat a grill pan on med/high heat and when it’s hot, put your first batch of potatoes in.  You don’t want to crowd these as we want nice grill marks on them, so do it in batches.

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Combine the oil, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire and parsley in a bowl and whisk till combined.  Get a large bowl ready to put the grilled potatoes into.

Flip the potatoes so that you’ve got nice grill marks on each side.  When the first batch is done, put it in the big bowl and pour the dressing over it. You don’t want these to dry out and you want the dressing to start to flavor the potatoes while they’re still hot.

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Toss to combine.

Continue to grill your potato slices and adding them to the bowl.  Toss each time so that all of them get coated.

Transfer the whole salad to a container with a lid. If you’re going to eat it that day, don’t put it in the refrigerator.  This is best at room temperature or slightly warm.  If you have any left over, store in the fridge in the sealed container, but when you have the left overs, heat them up a little in the microwave, or let them come up to room temperature on the counter.

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I like to add salt and pepper at table because my family likes different levels of salt and they like to choose their own pepper.  My husband likes white pepper on most salads, I like mixed peppercorns. Your choice.  I served this with tuna salad and coleslaw



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Filed Under: All, Easy Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , ,

Home Made Deli Chicken Sandwich

October 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

In our ongoing effort to eat a more healthy, whole, unprocessed diet, there are certain things we really miss. One of them is deli meat.  My family absolutely loves cold cuts and occasionally we buy them, but really… The nitrates, the over abundance of sodium, the fillers… yuck. So, when I had a craving for a chicken sandwich from the deli, I tried to recreate it at home.  Here’s what I did:

  • 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • dried herbs and spices: I used basil, parsley, oregano, chile powder and paprika
  • condiment of your choice: I used the sriracha mayo from the other day
  • thinly sliced tomato
  • cheese: I used sliced swiss
  • lettuce: I used mixed baby greens
  • bread:  Publix had 100% whole wheat bagel flats BOGO, so that’s what we used. Yes, they’re processed, but they have no HFCS and they’re 100% whole wheat, so we used them

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat a non stick pan to med high heat.

Open the chicken and while it’s still in the package, uncovered, sprinkle the herbs and spices on top.

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Add the chicken to the pan, seasoned side down and let it sear for about 3-4 minutes. Season the other side, flip and again, let it sear for 3-4 minutes.

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Transfer to a foil lined baking sheet and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

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When the chicken is done, allow it to cool before attempting to slice it.  We’re going to slice it as thin as possible to resemble deli meat.

Using a fork, a very sharp knife and being very patient – slice your chicken breasts as thin as possible.  If there is any fat on your slices, trim it off.  There’s nothing worse than biting into a sandwich and getting unexpected pieces of fat.

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I only slice off what I’m going to use immediately and put the rest in a sealed container and refrigerate.  That helps to keep the moisture in.

I don’t own a toaster because I threw it out ofter the hundredth time that my family didn’t clean it after using it. Fortunately, you don’t need a toaster, just a pan.  I used a non stick pan on high heat.  The bread will toast beautifully.  Toast to your liking.

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Start building your sandwich, put the condiment, meat, tomato (I always salt the tomato at this point),

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cheese and lettuce.  Slice the sandwich in half just so you can see all the yummy goodness inside.

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The dried herbs that we seared onto the meat in the beginning give it to much flavor, I promise you will not miss the deli.  Especially the deli price.

 



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Filed Under: All, Lunch, Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

Killer Chicken Salad Sandwich

May 25, 2011 By 4 Comments

This was the best chicken salad sandwich I have ever had.  Seriously.  I had the idea because we love grapes in our chicken salad and we love dried cranberries in chicken salad and when we were at Sam’s Club last week, they had really large bags of dried fruit that had apples, peaches, pears, figs, prunes, and angelino plums (I don’t know what they are either) for $5.00 a bag.

Here’s what I did:

4 chicken breasts, roasted then cooled
10 stalks celery chopped
1 med. Vidalia onion (or red) chopped
2 handfuls of dried fruit (I used mixed, with bananas and mango), chopped
1 c. good mayonnaise
1/2 c. sour cream
3 Tbs. cider vinegar
juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon celery seed

Bread
slivered almonds (chopped walnuts or pecans would work beautifully too!)
mixed greens

The most important thing about preparing this is cleaning the chicken.  There is nothing worse than biting into a piece of cartilage or fat *shudder*, so what I do is trim the visible fat off the breasts, then carefully slice each breast lenghtwise into 4 or 4 pieces and then cube those pieces, any cubes that are less than perfect, get a further trimming, discarding anything that isn’t lovely and clean.  I can’t stress how important this is… there are some unexpected textures in this salad and you don’t want anyone to find a fatty piece.

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combine the chicken, celery and onion and toss (I find if you toss this as you go, it’s easier to combine in the end)

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Next, take two big handfuls of the fruit and chop as finely as possible. You want the pieces to be smaller than the chicken pieces, small raisins are the size we’re going for.

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Add the fruit to the chicken and vegetables and toss again.

Take the rest of the ingredient and add them to a medium bowl or large measuring cup and whisk. The dressing should be creamy and pourable, if yours is too thick, add a little more vinegar.

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Pour the dressing over the salad and gently fold to combine.  You really want to keep all the pieces in tact, so don’t go too fast.

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Chill for about 40 minutes.

For the sandwich, lightly toast some bread.  Spoon some chicken salad on the bread and sprinkle with nuts.   Salt and pepper to taste, then add the greens.

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So good.   This was the only bread we had in the house – I really liked the whole wheat, but many breads would work. I would just keep the bread simple – an artisanal, really crusty bread might be too fussy.



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Filed Under: All, Easy Dinner, In My Life, Lunch, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mediterranean Tuna Couscous Salad

May 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Last week I did my semi monthly Sam’s Club visit and stocked up on all kinds of jarred items.  They inspired me to make this for dinner.

Israeli couscous
4 cans chunk white tuna (or whatever you like), drained and flaked into smaller pieces
roasted red pepper rough chopped
artichoke hearts rough chopped
sun dried tomatoes rough chopped
jarred marinated mushrooms rough chopped
kalamata olives rough chopped
bell pepper (1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow) trimmed and diced
1 cucumber peeled and diced
red onion sliced
1 cup olive oil
1 cup red wine vinegar (I used Pompeiian Pomegranate)
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon each of dried oregano, parsley, dill, celery seed – rub the herbs in your fingers to release the oils, it will make them much more fragrant and tasty.
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
A big squirt of Dijon mustard
lots of fresh cracked pepper

Prepare the couscous according to package directions- toss the tuna, roasted red pepper, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, olives and sun dried tomatoes in a large sealable container.

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When the couscous is done, allow it to cool slightly and then add it to the already mixed ingredients.  Put in the refrigerator and chill for at least one hour, then add the cucumber and red onion.

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In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and pepper.  Seal and shake till combined.  Pour over the salad and gently, but thoroughly toss – be patient this can take a while – until combined.

I loved how the fresh and jarred ingredients played off each other and the lemon in the dressing brightened the whole thing.

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This is a perfect example of a dish that you could really add anything to, in any amount you desire.  It’s not science, use what you like and what you have on hand.  Easy, good, satisfying.

Next time I think I’d add even more fresh ingredients and maybe some feta cheese.



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Filed Under: All, Easy Dinner, Fish, Lunch, Party Food, Pasta, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,
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