Creamy Vegetable Chowder

I love, love this soup!
Almost didn't get a picture as it so yummy!  This was the last bowl out of the pot!  I added a sprinkle of roasted garlic seasoning to give a little punch!  The kids just love it too.


Creamy Vegetable Chowder

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cauliflower, chopped
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped
• 2 carrot, chopped
• 1 cup corn
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• fresh parmesan curls

Use a little broth and cook and stir onion over medium-high heat until tender. Add cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, corn and the rest of the broth. Bring to boil.

Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Whisk milk into flour until smoothly combined; add to saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens.

Remove pan from heat; add fresh parmesan curls on top and serve!

If you like chowder recipes please be sure to check out my potato chowder!

Swiss Cheese Onion Soup

I have been eating a lot of soup lately.  Cream soups are my comfort food for cold wintry days!  Please note the cook times 30-40 minutes to prepare.

Swiss Cheese Onion Soup

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 cups thinly-sliced onions
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth(or you can use beef, or veggie)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• Buttered bread

Melt butter in large saucepan.

Cook onions over medium heat for about 10 minutes. 

Stir in chicken broth. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Whisk flour and milk in a measuring cup. 

Stir milk mix into onion mixture.  Cook on medium heat until soup comes to a boil and thickens.

While cooking cut bread into the shape of the bowl and butter.  (Save crusts in freezer to use for bread crumbs when needed)

Remove from heat. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese until melted. 

Ladle into oven-proof soup bowls. 

Top with bread butter side up.  sprinkle with with remaining cheese. 

Broil until bread is toasted!

Yummy!

Potato Chowder Recipe

Tonight I felt like comfort food!  This is pure comfort!  So creamy and tasty.  Perfect for a crisp autumn day.
Potato Chowder

Ingredients

• 2 bacon strips, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 medium red potatoes,diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups heavy cream (or use milk if watching your weight)
• 1 1/2 cup frozen corn
• Dash of pepper
• 2-1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp; remove to paper towels. Drain, reserving 1 teaspoon drippings. 
2. In the drippings, saute onion until tender. 
3. Add the potato, carrot, broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are almost tender.
4. Stir in the cream, corn and pepper. Cook 5 minutes longer. 
5. Combine the flour and cold water until smooth; gradually whisk into soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. 
6. Remove from the heat; stir in cheese until melted. Sprinkle with bacon.

Slow Cooker Saturday: Chicken Broth

Slow Cooker Chicken Broth does take some time but tastes so great!   And it is so easy too!

1. After you have a nice dinner of roast chicken, remove meat from carcass. 
2. Put the carcass into a large crock pot and fill with water.  Simmer overnight on low.  You can throw in any veggies in to flavor the broth...celery, onion, carrot, etc.
3. In the morning strain broth and pull any meat off the bones to put in your soup and discard soggy veggies. 
4. Put broth in the fridge,  when it cools you can skim off the fat.
5. Now it is ready to use in your soup recipe!

Do you have a great slow cooker recipe?  Come join the fun and link up to Slow Cooker Saturdays!

Banana Curry Soup

This is another very easy and simple recipe that my kids love!  Just don't tell my daughter there is onion in it.  And 2 of the men who tried it couldn't figure out what the main ingredient was!  Tastes a lot like squash!
 

Ingredients:
4 Bananas ,sliced 
2 Garlic cloves, chopped
3 cups Vegetable stock
1 large Onion, chopped  
1.5 tsp Curry Powder

Directions:

1. Mix curry powder and vegetable stock in a pot.
2. Add onion, bananas and garlic to the pot.
3. Bring it to boil and then simmer for an hour stirring occasionally.
4. Put it all into a blender and mix until smooth.
5. Serve with naan bread and enjoy!

Chicken Broth

I decided last week to add soup to our weeknight dinners...at least once a week.  Last week we had soup for dinner 3 times!  Minestrone, Egg drop surprise, and chicken soup!  I had lots of bones in the freezer that needed to be cooked up for soup broth.  Making your own broth  is time consuming...but if you want to save some money and have the time you should really make your own!  If you are going to buy broth please read the ingredients to make sure that it doesn't include monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Chicken Broth

After you have a nice dinner of chicken(turkey), remove meat from carcass.  If you have time you can make your broth now...but who has the time?  Wrap the carcasses up and throw them into the freezer to be used when you do have time!

1. Put the carcass into a large pot and fill with water.  Simmer for 3-4 hours(sometimes I cut it shorter).  You can throw in any veggies in to flavor the broth...celery, onion, carrot, etc.

2. Strain broth and pull any meat off the bones to put in your soup and discard soggy veggies. 

3. Put broth in the fridge overnight,  in the morning you can skim off the fat.

4. Now it is ready to use in your soup recipe!

Egg Drop Surprise Soup

When visiting a very good friend of mine she made this most delicious soup!  I asked her for the recipe to try!  She makes it look so easy!  And it is so yummy! 

For 6 servings:

1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups rice of choice (or barley or quinoa, millet)
8 cups broth of choice
about 2 cups of vegetables of your choice coarsely chopped (snow peas, asparagus, peas, edamame, broccoli, celery, carrots, spinach?)
6 eggs
about 2 sprigs of cilantro
toasted sesame oil and green onions to garnish

Fry the rice in oil at med heat until translucent (a couple of minutes).  Pour in broth and cook grains at med low heat for directed amount of time minus about 5 minutes (white rice for 10, brown rice for 35, etc). 

Increase heat to med and crack eggs directly into broth as long as there is enough room for all the eggs without being too crowded.  Otherwise bring 8 cups of water with 1 tbsp vinegar to a boil and poach eggs separately.

Once the eggs have been cooking for about 3 minutes, add your veggies.  Just cook them long enough to bring out the colour.  Celery and carrots will take longer, you can add them at the same time or before the eggs.

Turn off the heat and add your cilantro.

Put the egg into the bowl first and nestle it under rice and veggies and broth to make a "surprise!"

Drizzle sesame oil overtop.  Garnish with green onions if desired.

Beef Soup

Today I have Andrew at home with a bit of a mild cold.  We never did get the ingredients for the Waldorf salad he was hoping to make yesterday.  He was to tired to go to the store yesterday.  So that will have to wait till he is feeling better. 

Leftovers never get wasted in our house.  I always cook extra's just to have leftovers available for new meals.  Last night we had yummy leftover roast beef soup!  So easy to make, and didn't have to go to the store for any special ingredients!  With this recipe you can add what ever you have in your fridge, my soup is never the same one twice.  And the best bonus of making your own soup is no MSG, BPA, and you can control how much salt to put in.  I don't use any salt.  And remember to freeze soup leftovers for handy lunches.  I find that I have to freeze leftovers right away if I don't want them to be forgotten in the fridge before they expire.  Remember do not freeze meat twice.

Beef Soup

Leftover roast beef cut into chunks
Any left over gravy
Beef broth/water
carrots, onion, peppers, potato, celery, mushrooms, any veggies you happen to have in the fridge!
Favorite spices I used Mrs Dash herb and garlic.

Chop ingredients cook them up while adding as much liquid as you need. boil till cooked!  Not to long to make veggies to squishy.  Enjoy!