Easy, Low Calorie Asparagus Soup

~Adapted from Yum Sugar Webpage ~

 

Easy, Low Calorie Asparagus Soup

 

Serves 4 ish

 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

course salt

1 lb asparagus, trimmed, chopped, tips reserved

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup loosely packed spinach leaves

Optional:  sharp cheese for garnish (I used Havarti)
 

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add chopped asparagus, and cook for 1 minute. Stir in broth, red pepper flakes, and salt and 1 cup water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer; continue cooking until asparagus is tender, about 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, prepare an ice-water bath. Fill a medium saucepot with water and bring to a boil. Add salt, return to a boil, and add asparagus tips. Cook until just tender. Transfer asparagus tips to ice-water bath; let cool about 1 minute. Drain and set aside.

    4.  Remove from heat; add spinach.

    5.  Using an immersion blender, puree soup while drizzling in remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Return to heat and cook until heated through; season with salt. Divide soup evenly between 4 bowls, garnish with asparagus tips (and Havarti or some other type of sharp cheese!), and serve immediately.

Spinach and Pomegranate Soup

Adapted from Sara's Book:
(This has been one of my favorites so far!)

 

Based on a Persian traditional soup

 

Serves 4-6 (but I doubled it):

 

Ingredients:

1 lb spinach, stalks removed, rinsed

1/4 stick (2 tbsp.) butter

1 large onion or leek, finely chopped

1 tbsp. ground turmeric

2 tbsp. long-grain rice

2 tbsp. split peas (yellow recommended but I used green)

1/2 tsp crushed black peppercorns

1 tsp salt

juice and finely grated zest of 1 bitter orange or lemon

seeds of 1 pomegranate, to garnish

 

Directions:

1.  Shred the spinach and set it aside.

2.  Melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Add the onion/leek, turmeric, rice, split peas, peppercorns, and salt with enough fresh spring water to cover generously, about 1 quart.

3.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and bubble gently for 20-30 minutes, or until the rice grains are tender and the split peas are perfectly soft.

4.  Stir in the spinach and bubble again.  Reduce the heat and simmer for another 10 minutes, or until the spinach is well amalgamated into the soup.

5.  Stir in the citrus juice and zest, then taste and adjust the seasoning.

6.  Ladle into bowls and garnish each portion with a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds.

Scottish Tweed Kettle Soup

~ Adapted from Jackie's Soup Recipe Book ~

According to the book, this soup is named from a classic fish soup made with salmon.  The "Tweed Kettle" takes its name from Scotland's most famous sporting river.

Not gonna lie - this is a weird one.  If you're looking for something different, this is it.  But I wouldn't say we loved it....


Serves 4 (but I halved the recipe when I made it):

Ingredients:

4-6 salmon steaks (about 4 oz each)

1.5 lbs potatoes, diced

1 cup chopped leeks (although could also sub an onion if you like onions)

2 tablespoons chopped chives

Salt and ground black pepper 

 

For the butter sauce:

¾ cup butter

1 tbsp vinegar

2 hard-boiled eggs, freshly chopped

 

Steps:

1.        Wipe over the salmon steaks, salt them lightly, and set them aside

2.       Place half the potatoes in the bottom of a heavy saucepan, cover with the chopped leeks, top with the remaining potatoes.  Pour in enough boiling water to cover the potatoes completely – about 2 quarts – add 1 teaspoon of salt.

3.       Bring the pan to a boil, cover tightly, and simmer for 30 minutes.  (Alternatively, the recipe said you could also use a casserole dish and cook the potato mixture in the oven at 350 degrees F.  You may need to add a little more boiling water though.)

4.       Five minutes before the end of the cooking time, lay the salmon steaks on top of the potatoes and season with generous amounts of pepper.

5.       Return the broth to a boil and cover.  The fish will take no longer than 5 minutes to cook.  Stir in the chopped chives.

6.       To make the butter sauce, melt the butter in a small pan, whisk in the vinegar, and stir in the chopped hard-boiled eggs.

7.       Ladle the potatoes, leeks, and salmon steaks into warm serving bowls and hand round the egg - butter sauce separately.

 

 

Flageolet and Polenta Soup with Blue Cheese

Adapted from Sara's Soup Book

 

Serves 6-8

 

Ingredients:

2 cups flageolet beans, soaked overnight (or 2 x 450 g tins drained)

4 quarts ham or vegetable stock

3 bay leaves

A short length of ham bone (optional) - I didn't have one handy so I skipped this

2-3 cups diced ham (book recommended Serrano)

4 tablespoons pork lard or 4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons fine ground polenta

salt and ground black pepper

1/2 lb crumbled blue cheese, to garnish

 

Directions:

1.  Drain the flageolet beans and put them in a medium saucepan with the stock.  Bring to a boil and skim off any gray foam that rises.

 

2.  Add the bay leaf and the ham bone, if using.  Add the diced ham and lard or butter.

 

3.  Bubble up the stock again, reduce the heat, and cover.  Leave to bubble gently for 1 hour or until the beans are perfectly soft (the time it takes depends on the age of the beans).  Add boiling water as necessary to maintain the volume.

 

4.  Mix the polenta with a little cold water and stir into the soup.  Bring back to a boil and bubble for 20 minutes more, or until the polenta has thickened the broth.  Taste and season with salt and pepper. 

 

5.  Ladle into deep soup bowls and garnish each portion with crumbled blue cheese.

Easy Spanish Ham and Noodle Soup

Adapted from the book I got from Sara for Christmas

So the title of this soup in the book is technically "Spanish 15 Minute Soup" - but it took more like 30 minutes for me so I'm going to modify the title.  I think the soup boils for close to a total of 15 minutes so I'm not really sure how you could get everything done in 15 minutes.  But overall the soup is very easy to make!

Anyways - here's the recipe.  Enjoy!

 Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
2 quarts chicken, beef, or ham stock
3 cups diced ham (book recommend Serrano)
7 oz vermicelli or angel hair pasta
2-6 hard boiled eggs - diced
1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped mint


Directions:

1.  Boil several hard boiled eggs.  (I did one per serving so 6 total).  I had to look up directions online for how to boil hard boiled eggs and they turned out fine.  Basically bring eggs to a boil in a pot of water (with a little vinegar and a little salt), let sit for 12 minutes, then put them in ice water to cool. 

2.  Bring the chicken, beef, or ham stock to a boil in a saucepan with the diced ham.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

3.  Add the vermicelli or angel-hair pasta.  Stir and return to a boil.  Simmer 3-4 minutes or until the pasta is soft.

4.  Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley, and mint.

 

 

 

5.  Ladle into soup bowls and add diced eggs as garnish.

 

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

Ok so not exactly a soup - but really kind of a soup.  It's made similar to soup so I'm going to add it to the blog for your enjoyment :)

Adapted from a recipe on hauteapplepie.com

Beef Brisket Ingredients:
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 3-4 lb. beef brisket
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 12 oz bottle of red or dark beer (I used Snow Cap)
4 stalks celery, cut into large pieces
2/3 C. brown sugar
1 can tomato paste
1/2 C. apple cider vinegar
1/4 C. brown mustard - although I would recommend maybe a little less.  Mine was a bit too mustard-y for me.
1/3 C. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. paprika
dash of coarse ground black pepper


Directions:

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet.  Brown brisket on all sides, about 8-10 minutes.  Add garlic half-way through.

 

Transfer meat to slow cooker.

 

Pour beer in to skillet, scraping up brown bits.  Simmer for one minute.  Add to slow cooker.  Nestle celery around beef.

 

 

In a medium bowl, add remaining ingredients and whisky.  Pour over beef.

 

Cook on low for 8-10 hours.  Remove from slow cooker and allow to sit about 10 minutes before cutting.  (Mine didn't fit completely in the liquid so I rotated it a few times but it seemed to work out just fine.) 

 

Enjoy!  (See!  Doesn't the gravy look kind of like soup!)

 

I served mine over mashed potatoes.

 

T focused on the meat!

 

And then we enjoyed some Brandy Three Apple Pie!

Bourbon Ginger Peach Pie

Following my boozy-pie theme, I decided to make a non-seasonal peach pie with bourbon and ginger (recipe adapted from Serious Eats).  Luckily, local Remingler Farms sells frozen peach slices during the winter.

I used a frozen pie crust, so either make one first and stick it in the freezer to cool or pull the pre made frozen crust out of the freezer to start thawing out.

FILLING:
In a very large bowl, mix together the following:
- 1/3 cup bourbon
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root
- 2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Once that looks all nice and mixed up, toss in the peaches.  I used about 2 pounds of peach slices and tossed them in the bourbon/spice mixture until they were very thoroughly coated.  I read an article about the 10 best bourbons, this Jim Beam one was on the list which surprised me so I had to give it a try.  It was pretty good, and definitely a great value!

Put the peaches into the crust.  I used a spatula and just fit in as many peaches as I could, then poured about half of the juices over the peaches.

TOPPING:

Put the following ingredients into a food processor:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Pulse until thoroughly mixed.  Add 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter that has been cut into smaller pieces and pulse a few more times until the mixture looks chunky.  Last, add 1 1/4 cup rolled quick oats to the mixture and pulse a couple of times to mix that in.  Pour on top of the pie.

Bake pie for about 45 minutes until the crust and the crumb topping are golden brown.  Cool thoroughly.

 

 

I didn't let the frozen peaches thaw out before baking so the crust was kind of soggy but still tasted great out of a bowl!!