Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup

Yesterday it snowed in my home town. Snowed. It's October. I don't like how fall seems to be being skipped this year. Fall is my favourite season! The colours, the smells, the fact that I can put on a chunky warm sweater and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. Bliss!

Another of my fall faves is soup. I love a pot of homemade soup on a wet, cold, fall afternoon. A creamy soup is always a bonus. Now, what some of you may not know about me is that for a year I worked as a sous chef in a restaurant. It was a great experience and I stole learned a lot! This recipe is one we came up with as a special when we got a double order of red peppers.

You can use jarred red peppers or if you're feeling ambitious you can roast your own. Read my tutorial on how to roast red peppers here!

Tomatoes, red peppers, cream... it's a bowl full of yum!

Sautée onions, celery and carrots in butter and season with salt, pepper and thyme.

Add chicken stock and simmer until the veggies are tender.

Add crushed tomatoes. If you have fresh great, but canned are just fine.

Simmer on med-low until the soup is heated through.

Pour soup into a food processor or blender and add the roasted red peppers. Purée until smooth. (Do small batches as the hot mixture can splatter and burn you.) If you plan to freeze this is where you'd portion out the soup and prepare for freezing. If you're eating the soup right away, return the puréed veggies to the pot and add the cream. Heat through and serve.

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Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup

1 med. onion, diced
2 med. carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 tbsp butter
salt
pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
3 c chicken stock
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
3 whole roasted red peppers (or 1 jar)
1 c 10% cream

Instructions:

1. Sautée onion, celery and carrots in butter over medium heat. Season to taste with salt, pepper and thyme.
2. After about 5 minutes add chicken stock and simmer until vegetables are tender.
3. Add tomatoes and heat through.
4. In small batches, add soup mixture to a blender or food processor and purée until smooth.
5. Return purée to pot and add cream. Stir to incorporate and heat through. Serve with croutons, baguette and/or a swirl of cream.


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enjoy!

Chicken Corn Chowder

I love the movie The Devil Wears Prada. I had it saved on my PVR and watched it over and over and over... and then something went wrong with our PVR and when the guy came to look at it he deleted everything. So I ran out and bought the DVD, and I watch it over and over and over... as I did today.

One of my favourite parts of the movie is Andy's first day, she heads down to the cafeteria for lunch where she bumps into Nigel in line. As she's ladling soup into her bowl Nigel says "Corn chowder. That's an interesting choice. You do know that cellulite is one of the main ingredients in corn chowder.". I'm sure you see where I'm going with this.

All of a sudden I had a craving for corn chowder! Cellulite be damned! So here's my recipe for this creamy chicken, corn and potato rich soup that's great for lunch or dinner. Enjoy!

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Chicken Corn Chowder

2 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 small carrots, peeled & diced
2 lg. potatoes, peeled and diced small
2 c. cooked chicken or turkey, chopped
2 c. chicken stock
2/3 c. frozen corn kernels
2 c. half and half cream
salt & pepper to taste
1 sprig of fresh thyme

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter in a large stock pot and add the onions, carrots and celery. Cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the potatoes and the chicken and allow to cook for another 3-5 minutes.
3. Cover the veggies and chicken with the stock, cover and cook for 10- 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Add the corn, cream and salt & pepper. Throw in the spring of thyme whole. After 5 minutes pull it out and discard. (you want to lightly flavour the soup, not overpower it with thyme.)
5. Serve immediately.

Tip: if you plan to serve the soup the following day or freeze it, leave out the cream and only add before you serve. It keeps better that way.

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enjoy!

Amanda

Magic Soup

Whenever I'm sick, before I reach for the tissues or cold medication, I go straight to the freezer to see if I have any of this soup left. If I don't, I start to make it ASAP. It's another one of my Gran's recipes, she's truly my biggest cooking inspiration. This soup was always in her fridge once the weather started to cool down. I call it her Magic Soup cause this soup can cure any cold almost over night. I don't know what it is, maybe it's the chicken, maybe it's the veggies, or maybe it's just the idea that it's magic, but whenever I've been sick and had this soup I'm better the next day.

With Thanksgiving this past weekend, I found myself with a rather large turkey carcass and a whole lot of leftover turkey so I seized the opportunity to make my own stock for a big batch of soup.

Stock simmering

Stock is really easy to make. Take your bones and put them in a big pot and cover with water. You need some flavours to add depth to the stock so the next thing to add would be Mirepoix, also known as the Holy Trinity of cooking: carrots, onion and celery. No need to dice or be fussy with this, just a rough couple of chops is good. I was preparing the veggies for my soup at the same time so I also threw in the skins of the onion and carrots and the base of the celery, you're not eating them, they're just for flavour and will be strained out later. I also like to throw in a lemon or two to brighten up the stock. The last thing to add would be your herbs. Salt and pepper along with bay leaves, thyme and anything else you like can go in. Simmer the stock for a couple of hours to get all the flavour out of the bones, veggies and herbs.

Cool down your stock and strain it to removes all the bones, skin, and cooked veggies and then let it sit (you can even do this overnight in the fridge) and skim off the fat that rises to the top. And voilà, your very own homemade stock, perfect for Magic Soup!

Magic Soup

4 c. chopped chicken or turkey, cooked
1 onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 tbsp. butter
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
1/2 c. small pasta (I use pasta stars but any will do)
1/2 c. short grain rice
8-10 c. of water or stock
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter in a large pot and sautée to onion, celery and carrots for a few minutes.
2. Add the chicken and continue to sautée for 2 minutes.
3. Add stock or water.
4. Add the tomatoes (with juice), pasta and rice.
5. Cover and bring to a boil and then reduce temperature to low and allow to simmer until pasta and rice are cooked.

Enjoy right away or freeze in small batches for when you really need it!

*Note, my grandma was never a stickler for a recipe with this soup, she threw in whatever she had, cabbage, beans, macaroni, peas, etc... let your pantry be your guide!

My favourite way to have a bowl of soup!

enjoy,

Amanda

French Onion Soup

Nothing says comfort food when you're sick like a big steaming bowl of soup. I haven't posted anything in a while cause there's been a nasty cold bug going around our house (kept me busy!), so with a sore throat and stuffy head my thoughts turned to warm bowls of good (and easy) eats.

My usual stand-bys are chicken & rice or a nice corn chowder, but this time my cold was craving something else. I couldn't get french onion soup out of my head, which is weird cause I've only had it once or twice in my entire life (crazy, I know). So with this obsessive thought rattling around in my brain I was on twitter and low and behold, one of my favourite tweeters posted that she had just made some french onion soup and put it on her blog. Christy Bright of Beach Brights writes an amazing home decor blog (her house is GORGEOUS!) so I figured if she has such good taste with decorating she must make a tasty bowl of soup.

I followed her recipe, making just a couple minor tweaks for the palate of my sometimes picky eaters, and we ended up with a lovely dinner that wrapped us all in comfort. Thanks Christy!


Christy's French Onion Soup adapted from Beach Brights, my additions in orange

1/4 c. butter
3 onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp. white sugar
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 c. water
1/2 c. red wine (use a good quality wine, I used Wolf Blass Yellow Label)
2 (10.5 oz) cans condensed beef broth
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 French baguette or any other crusty bread (I used Whole Clove Garlic Artisan Bread)
8 ounces sliced Swiss cheese (I used Gouda)

Melt butter in a 4-quart saucepan. Stir in sugar. Cook onions over med heat for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Stir in flour until well blended with the onions and pan juices. Add water, wine and beef broth; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover soup and simmer for 10 minutes.

Cut four 1" thick slices of bread from the loaf. Toast bread slices at 325˚F until browned, about 10 minutes (I butter these toast slices before browning). Reserve the remaining bread to serve with soup. Ladle soup into four 12-oz oven safe bowls. Place 1 slice of toasted bread on top of the soup in each bowl. Fold the cheese slices and fit onto toasted bread slices. Place soup bowls on a cookie sheet for easier handling. Broil at 425˚F for 10 minutes, or just until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Makes 4 servings.

enjoy,

Amanda