Showing posts with label Soups. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soups. Show all posts

Curried Lentil Soup (vegan, gluten free)

Curried Lentil Soup (Spicy!)

This is a spicy soup that will awaken your senses. The pot brewing on the stove will fill the kitchen with the aroma of cumin, with notes of oregano and garlic. Tumeric adds a cheery colour while the lentils, and vegetables mingle in a rich broth. Winter? What winter?

[How hot do you like it? Follow the lowered amounts of the seasoning for a "medium" heat. If you find it too spicy, adding a couple of chopped potatoes to the pot can take the heat down.]

1/2 pound carrots
1 large onion
3 stalks celery
handful of mushrooms

1-2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp- 1/4 cup cumin
2 tbsp tumeric
1-2 tbsp dry oregano leaf. If powder is what you have on hand, use half that.
1 tbsp crushed red pepper (Optional. This is where much of the heat comes from.)
1 tbsp salt or lite salt
1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups red or brown lentils

Finely chop the carrots, celery, onion, and mushrooms. Add these to a soup pot with the seasonings and oil. Cook the mixture on medium heat, stirring regularly, for about ten minutes, until the carrots are softened. This is your soup base. Add about four cups water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add the lentils and another four cups of water. Simmer for at least two hours.

[Crock Pot Directions: Cook the chopped veggies, seasonings and oil together in a sautee pan for ten minutes, then pour it into your crock pot. Add the lentils and eight cups of water. Cook on "medium" for 8-12 hours, and come home to a wonderful supper.]

www.stealthymom.com

G-BOMBS Stew (gluten free, vegan)

G-BOMBS Stew

Ever hear of the G-BOMBS diet? Dr Joel Fuhrman recommends eating certain micronutrient-rich "superfoods" every day. Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries and Seeds. For the last couple of weeks, ever since seeing his show during a public television fundraiser, we have been trying to include these foods in our usual "Five a Day" fruits and vegetable goals. How could it hurt?

For fun, I put them all together. This stew could be called "G-BOMBS Plus" because it includes servings of carrots, celery, and cabbage, too, all enveloped in a rich sweet and sour broth. Garbanzos and a sprinkle of raw kale just before serving give it a bit of crunch.

For four generous servings or eight appetizers:

2 cups carrots, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 cup kale, stem removed, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cups cooked chickpeas, frozen or canned and rinsed
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp coriander
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sesame seeds
salt (1 tsp, adjust to taste just before serving
6 cups water

1/2 cup kale, stem removed, chopped

Stir the carrots, celery, onions, and olive oil together in a soup pot. Gently sauté until the carrots are softened, about ten minutes. Layer the cabbage, kale, and mushrooms on top. If the garbanzos are frozen, just dump them out of their container and let them thaw as the other ingredients cook. If you use canned, rinse them well and place them on top. Put the lid on the pot and allow all of the ingredients to cook for another ten minutes. Stir in the parsley, coriander, raspberries, lemon juice, sesame seeds and six cups of water. Stir in half of the salt. Place the lid back on the pot and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Add the other half-teaspoon of salt to taste.

Prior to serving, garnish each bowl with a small handful of the chopped, raw kale and a couple of raw berries.

Meatball Soup (gluten free)

Meatball Soup
Inspired by a traditional Italian soup, a bowl of Meatball Soup can be a meal in itself. Big bites of vegetables and beans and tiny little meatballs in a rich vegetable broth are simple yet satisfying, warming you up on a chilly day.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped green onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup chopped yellow carrots
8 cups water
1 tbsp parsley
1 cup cooked pinto beans

1 pound local ground pork or turkey*
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper

salt to taste

Chicken and Summer Corn Soup (gluten free, crock pot)

Chicken and Summer Corn Soup


G-man asked to make chicken soup. Specifically, he wanted make soup with chicken, sweet corn, tomatoes and beans. That kid is onto something... Every bite tastes like summer. Tomatoes and kidney beans add a touch of cheerful color and the sweet corn kernels have a slight crunch. Our son may only be four years old, but he sure has great ideas in the kitchen!

4 chicken (Free range makes better soup. Trust me.)
1 large, ripe tomato
6 ears corn, kernels sliced off
2 cups cooked/ 1 can drained red kidney beans
2 tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
salt to taste

Place the chicken thighs into the crock pot and cover with water. Cook on "high" for 2-3 hours, until chicken is cooked. (All night on "low" would work if you are prepping the soup before leaving for work.) Take the chicken from the pot,  Bone is and skin it, placing the bones in the freezer for future bone broth. Chop up the chicken and put it back in the pot.

Ad the chopped tomato, beans, corn, and all seasonings except the salt. Allow the soup to cook for at least another two hours on "high" or all day on "low."

Before serving, salt the soup, a little at a time. Half a teaspoon for the whole pot was enough for us.


I shared this recipe with these natural food recipe link-ups: Traditional Tuesdays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Fat Tuesday,  the Hearth and Soul Hop and Empty Your Archives.

www.stealthymom.com

Summer Veggies and Lentil Soup (gluten free, vegan)

Summer Veggies and Lentil Soup

Our garden is growing! Despite a couple weeks of highs at or near a hundred Fahrenheit, there are some edibles a few feet from our front door. Some things are doing better than others, so preparing a meal with our small harvest was like a bizarre episode of Chopped. My "basket" contained small beets and a zucchini. In my "pantry" there were organic Yukon Gold potatoes, lentils, and seasonings. The oven and range were strictly off limits due to the heat wave... Thank goodness for crock pots!

Beets are interesting because they are like two vegetables in one. The tops are delicious as greens and are rich in Vitamin A. The roots have a sweet and slightly peppery flavour and when cooked have a texture like a potato. Except for trimming the root ends, I chopped up the beets- tops and all- and added them to the pot.


White Borscht (gluten free, vegan)

White Borscht

Did I miss the memo and forget to put beets in the borscht? No. G-man asked to make soup with potatoes.  The beets available at our local store looked really puny, and the beets in our garden are mere cotyledons peeking through the soil. The last time we tried to get him to eat beets was unsuccessful and I am not going to try again until he harvests what he and the Cadet planted. G-man helped make the soup today, and it had all of the elements of a hearty borscht with extra potatoes and beans to stand in for beets. Both boys loved it, so let's call it a win.

Black Bean and Chicken Tamale Soup (gluten free)

Black Bean and Chicken Tamale Soup
Black beans, tomatoes, and "tamale" noodles liven up home made chicken soup with Southwest style.  Just how lively, is up to you. Ours was pretty mild, spice-wise, and our kids loved it. The gluten free egg noodles were made with masa harina, the same corn flour used in tamales. This is a two-step crock pot soup that you can prepare ahead of time.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup (crock pot hybrid)

Chicken and Vegetable Soup with a Whole Wheat and Flaxseed Biscuit

Time to clean out the fridge.... how about some chicken soup?

Sometimes you have vegetables in the fridge that are ready for stock, but not compost. While their addition to a soup would contribute nutrients and depth of flavour, you might not want the texture in the final bowl. Wilted greens, washed carrot peels, beet tops, celery ends, stuff like that.

This is what I call a crock pot hybrid: a recipe where you can use your crock pot, but not in the true sense of chucking stuff in and coming back in eight hours. You chuck stuff in, come back in four hours to tamper with it, chuck more stuff in, and serve in another two to three hours. Essentially, you are making a stock, then a soup.

Tomato and Vegetable Soup (gluten free, vegan, low sodium)

Tomato and Vegetable Soup
Most of last summer's tomato bounty became sauces for pizza and pasta. Some were frozen in ziplocks, peeled and whole, for occasions like cold and dreary March afternoons.

As I was preparing Tomato and Vegetable Soup, I chopped organic potatoes and carrots into little pieces and added peas, just like the vegetable soup I liked when I was a kid. Instead of alphabet macaroni or barley, I added quinoa, so all  of the "letters" were "C's." (It was especially missing the M's, S's and G's that the canned version contains, as in monosodium glutamate.)

Easy Broccoli Soup (gluten free, low sodium)

Easy Broccoli Soup
I used to know only two ways to get broccoli soup: the "right" way, with stock, cream, and a roux, and the canned way.  The canned way will net you a lot of sodium (750mg per "serving" of Campbell's) and a hefty dose of monosodium glutamate. Many restaurants use frozen soups and stocks, so "home made" while dining out can be as chemically-laden as canned. In high school, a great Chef taught me how to make it the right way, and it took all day.

For today's lunch, we had Broccoli Soup, the EASY way, in about an hour, with no cans, stock, or bouillon.

Fast and Easy Veggie Chowder (gluten free, vegan, low sodium)

Fast and EasyVeggie Chowder 

How about a nice, rich bowl of vegetable chowder? In about an hour, you can make this soup without stocks, cans, or boullion.

Our three-year-old helped make this; I chopped and he added to the pot. As we worked, G-man sampled the raw mushrooms, carrots, and celery. He was proud of our creation and I was happy to see him and his little brother getting so many vegetables in one sitting.

Easy Potato Soup (gluten free, low sodium)

Easy Potato Soup (gluten free, low sodium)

G-man made supper tonight. Seriously, all I did was chop up the potatoes and carrots, slice a few rings off an onion and measure out milk. He put it all in the pot. We turned on the heat, gave it an occasional stir and enjoyed homemade potato soup in less than an hour. No roux, no cream, no fuss.

For four large servings:

5 medium potatoes, peeled
1 cup peeled and chopped carrots (optional)
5 cups milk
1 cup water
2 tbsp sliced onion
1/2 tsp salt or lite salt
1 tsp dried parsley

Thinly slice three of the potatoes and coarsely cube the rest. The thin slices will dissolve, thickening the soup. Put all ingredients in a pot and turn on the heat. Leave the lid off the pot and stir the soup as it comes to a boil. Reduce the heat and stir occasionally until the larger chunks of potato are rounded and start to fall apart. Turn off the heat for a few minutes and serve.


www.stealthymom.com
I shared this at Sunday Night Soup Night,  Gluten Free Wednesday ,  Healthy 2day Wednesday,  Real Food Wednesday,  and Full Plate Thursday,  Simple Lives Thursday and the Ultimate Recipe Swap.

Mazto Ball Soup (Knaidlach)

Over the weekend, we roasted a chicken. Stealthy Dad carved it to serve, and immediately put the carcass into the crock pot to make stock.

I covered it with water and added some sad-but-not-ready-for-compost vegetables from the fridge. Thanks to the idea from on the Traditional Foods blog, I also added a couple tablespoons of vinegar to break the bones down, releasing more minerals into the broth. A day and a half later, I strained the solids from the broth. After pouring it back into the (rinsed) crock pot, I added some light seasoning to the broth: salt, ginger, sage, thyme, and dried onions.

The decision of what soup to make was not an easy one. Nearly every culture has a version of dumplings and broth. It came down to two: Won Ton or Matzo Ball. I can get decent Won Ton soup down the street, so chose to make the latter.
Matzo Ball Soup 

Basic Mild Chili (vegan, gluten free, low sodium)

Basic Mild Chili

To someone following a low sodium diet, the typical "add X cans of beans..." chili recipe is not a great idea. Cooking beans from dry may seem intimidating but is really quite simple when you use a crock pot. This vegan version is a starting point.  If you prefer to add beef or venison, wait until the beans have cooked at least eight hours.

To a crock pot, add:

Homemade Chicken Soup

The days are getting shorter, the nights chillier, and everywhere you go there are people sniffling. It is time for a nice big bowl of chicken soup.

It is also time to get out the crock pot and make your own.

Reading labels of some popular brands of canned soup for sodium content is a shocker. One cup of Progresso Roasted Chicken Garlic contains 690mg/cup. Campbell's Select harvest Light Savory Chicken and Vegetables contains 650mg per cup, while their Healthy Request Vegetable contains 410 mg/cup. A single cup of Campbell's Chicken Vegetable soup, the classic soup with the red label, contains 890 mg of sodium!  (Mmmmm, mmmm.... not so good?)
Homemade Chicken Soup

Get A Crock Pot

A cup of Campbell's 100% natural, New England-Style Braised Beef Pot Roast soup has 650mg of sodium. A cup of Healthy Request Beef and Vegetables contains 410mg.  Regular Chunky soup contains 890mg of sodium per cup, including a heaping helping of monosodium glutamate.

Hearty and packed with nutrition, a bowl of this soup has as little as 75mg sodium:

Hearty Venison Stew
By slowly cooking a soup (or stew) in a crock pot, more of the flavours are released and mingle together in the broth. This pot cooked on "low" for 24 hours, with the lid on, though it was perfectly edible after 12. The longer you wait, however, the tastier and more satisfying your meal will be. Very little salt is required, so you do not have to stop at one cup!

We rarely have the same exact soup twice because making soup is the perfect opportunity to clean out the crisper.  Today's bowl contains:

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