Roasty toasty soup

Surely, sweltering summer said sayonara and autumn arrived abruptly...

(Annie adores alliteration!)

...which is why I'm bringing back soup! That, and also because once again, I was too lazy to go grocery shopping. Yup, another weeknight, another dinner born from ingredients on hand and a little experimentation. I'm psyched to say that this is now going to be one of my go-to soup recipes! You can use regular peppers and tomatoes in this, but the fire-roasted variety lend a smoky, slow-building heat that's incredibly warming - and the addition of brown rice and lentils makes it a healthful and filling meal in a bowl.

Fire-Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

(makes about 4 servings)

1 T olive oil

1/2 c chopped onions (about 1/2 medium onion)

2 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground coriander

1 t chili powder

1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

1 jar fire-roasted bell peppers, drained and chopped

1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted or 'chili-ready' chopped tomatoes with juice

1/2 t kosher salt

1/4 c to 1/2 c chicken/vegetable stock or water

1/4 c dried lentils, picked over and rinsed (I used French green lentils)

1/4 c short-grain brown rice (I used a boil-in-bag)

(Note: Cook the lentils and rice together in a separate pot while the soup is going, and undercook them, as they'll finish in the soup - refer to your package directions and go about with about 5 minutes less cooking time. Also, 1/4 c of each may not sound like a lot, but trust me - your soup will be packed!)

In a 2-qt saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat and add the onions, sweating for about 1 minute. Add the cumin, coriander, chili powder and black pepper to the onions, and cook for another 5 minutes, until the onions have softened and the spices have become fragrant and toasted. Add in the chopped roasted peppers and stir to coat in the onion/spice mixture, cooking for about 1 minute. Add in the can of tomatoes along with the juice and the salt, stir everything to combine, and turn up the heat to bring the mixture up to a simmer for about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, and carefully transfer the mixture to a food processor (or use a blender/immersion blender); first process on low for about 30 seconds to get things going, then scrape down the sides and continue to puree until the soup is almost entirely smooth. In between your pulses, add the chicken/veg stock or broth, using your judgement about how much you need. If you had a really juicy can of tomatoes, you may need less, and if your mixture is really thick, you may need more. I used about 1/2 c total of additional liquid.

When the soup is the desired consistency, transfer it back to the original saucepan and bring up to a simmer. Add in the slightly undercooked lentils and rice, and allow everything to simmer together for another 5 minutes. Serve with crackers or crusty bread!

Chili, take #35

Chili is one of those things that I've never made the same way twice. I have yet to find the 'perfect' recipe, and my favorite chilis I've eaten have been made by Potbelly's and my friend KP - and they're not giving up their recipes anytime soon.


I'm not even sure that this recipe counts as chili, because there are no chilis in it, and in fact not even many other veggies...but there are beans. Per a quick wikipedia search, it seems that 'chili' is merely a spicy stew - so I guess by that definition, this counts! (Though my version isn't even that spicy?) At any rate, I've been wanting to try out a black bean-sweet potato flavor combo for a while, and I had some ground turkey to use up as well - and considering Chicago's winter is getting its second wind, I felt like I needed a little something warm and comforting to counteract the still-dropping temperatures outside.


This chili is hearty, healthy, and full of aromatic spices like cumin, coriander, and even cinnamon - which goes perfectly in this recipe, and was a stroke of genius on my part at the last minute :)


First, you brown the meat, and get the veggies chopped and in the pot.

Then, you add the spices and let them really toast and coat all the ingredients with their delicious goodness for a few minutes.

Tomato sauce and black beans finish it off.

I actually kept it on the thick side this time so I could eat it with some rice, but adding just one 14-oz can of diced tomatoes next time will take this into soupier territory, perfect for dunking tortilla chips.

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Turkey Chili


1 pkg ground turkey (about 1 1/3 lbs)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 large sweet potato, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 t salt
2 T chili powder (this chili was NOT spicy...I might add more next time!)
1 T cumin
1 t coriander
1/2 t cumin seeds (optional)
1/2 t oregano
1 small can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 c tomato sauce
2 T taco sauce or salsa (you can just add a little more tomato sauce if you don't have this)
pinch cinnamon


In a large dutch oven or stockpot, brown the ground turkey in a little olive oil over medium heat for about 6-7 minutes. When nearly cooked through, add the onion, garlic, sweet potato, and salt to the pot. Lowering the heat slightly to medium-low, add all the spices except for the cinnamon, stirring to coat all the meat and vegetables, and cook about 5-7 minutes until the veggies are just starting to get tender. Add the rinsed, drained black beans along with the tomato sauce and taco sauce, and stir to combine. Allow everything to simmer together and the flavors to merry over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the pinch of cinnamon and stir to incorporate. Serve over rice with some cheddar cheese on top.

Simple soup for supper

It's official - this is my 4th soup post this winter (or 5th if you include the sidebar on chicken stock from this post).  What can I say? Soup is the perfect wintertime food because it's quick and easy to make with whatever ingredients you have on hand, it can be really healthful and filling, and it's comforting after a long day.


Egg drop soup, stracciatella, avgolemono - whatever you want to call it, I've bookmarked dozens of these recipes. The short ingredient list and stove-to-table time will appeal to anyone looking for a simply painless weeknight meal. When I opened the fridge yesterday and saw eggs and chicken stock staring up at me, I figured it was a sign from the universe to just make this soup already.

Egg-Lemon Soup
(makes 2 large servings)


3 c chicken stock
1/2 c pre-cooked rice (I had leftover wild rice, even leftover white rice from Chinese takeout would be great in this)
2 eggs
2 T grated parmesan cheese
1 T fresh chopped basil
1 c frozen chopped spinach (or 1 c packed fresh spinach)
1 T fresh lemon juice
freshly ground pepper & salt to taste


In a medium saucepan, bring the stock to a boil and add the rice. While the rice boils, about 2 minutes, crack the 2 eggs in a bowl and beat with a fork to break up the yolks. Add the parmesan cheese, basil and some salt and fresh black pepper to the eggs and mix with the fork till combined. Lower the heat on the stock to medium-low, so it's no longer simmering, and using the fork, stir in a circular motion as you drizzle the egg mixture into the soup, continuously stirring. The eggs will cook immediately as they hit the hot liquid and create little rags. After you've added all the eggs, add the spinach and cook until wilted, stirring occasionally, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Serve with a piece of crusty bread, and you've got yourself a light and delicious meal.

Mom's "Italian Chili" and what's coming next

One of the reasons I wanted to make roast chicken was so I'd have plenty of homemade stock. One of the reasons I wanted plenty of homemade stock was so I could make this soup. My mom first made this a few months ago, and apparently it's been a runaway hit at home among my brothers and dad - so I asked her for the recipe. In all fairness, I changed it a fair amount based on what I had on hand and the fact that I'm only one person and she seemingly makes it for an army at a time (3 cans of cannelini beans? 3 cans of tomatoes? yikes!) - and though it'll never taste as good as Mom's, it's definitely inspired by her recipe.

Mama P's "Italian Chili"


1 T olive oil
1/2-3/4lb italian turkey sausage (about 3 sausages), casings removed
1 celery rib, small dice
1 small carrot, small dice
1 small onion, medium dice
1/2 large green bell pepper, medium dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 t fennel seed, crushed (in your hand is fine)
1 T dried basil
1 T fresh oregano (or 1 t dried)
1 t cumin
1 T chili powder
1 bay leaf
1 19-oz can cannelini beans
1 24-oz can tomatoes (not diced; I used peeled whole and pureed them in my food processor, but you can use crushed or tomato puree/sauce)
4 cups chicken broth


In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, add the oil over medium-low heat and add the sausage to the pot, breaking up with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook the sausage, stirring and breaking up, until fully cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the sausage to a bowl and reserve. Pour off excess fat from the pan, leaving about 1 T left. Add the celery, carrot, onion, bell pepper and garlic, and season with salt. Let the veggies begin to caramelize, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and all the spices and herbs from fennel to chili powder, and cook for another 2 minutes, allowing everything to coat the vegetables and begin to toast and release their oils. Add the bay leaf, cannelini beans, sausage*, tomatoes, and chicken broth, stirring it all to combine, and bring up to a boil over high heat. Once it boils, reduce heat and simmer on low for at least 10 minutes to let all the flavors meld. Taste, and stir in additional salt/chili pepper as necessary.


*Note: Instead of just dumping the sausage back in the pot, I make sure it's well-drained, and then like to finely crumble it with my hands as I add it back into the pot. I can never get it in that small of pieces using the spoon while I cook it, and this way there's more sausage throughout the soup, rather than just select spoonfuls.


Coming your way tomorrow: homemade nut butter and my first authentic (I think!) at-home Indian dish. Get excited! :)

Jumping on the bandwagon: Sausage, Lentil and Kale Soup

Every winter, a flurry of warm, delicious-looking soup recipes start popping up all over the blogosphere. It must be universal; everyone loves to tuck into a steaming bowl of comforting soup when it's cold outside. After seeing several recipes for this type of soup, it was all I could think about. This batch, which I whipped up on Sunday (a particularly blustery day here in the Windy City), turned out to be DELICIOUS! I've been eating it for lunch and dinner this week, and when it runs out I'll have to find another soup to recreate.


(As you've probably noticed with my recipes, I'm all about customizing to fit your preferences and what you have on hand. Feel free to make substitutions, etc - but I'll post it how I made it).

Sausage, Lentil and Kale Soup
(yields enough to feed one person for a late lunch and bedtime snack on Sunday, lunch and dinner on Monday, lunch on Tuesday, and lunch and dinner on Wednesday...so 8 servings?)


3/4 lb mild italian sausage, removed from casings/bulk
1 T olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped fine (I don't like eating big chunks of onion in my soup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large carrot, chopped into 1/4" pieces
1 celery stalk, chopped into 1/4" pieces
2 T tomato paste
10 cremini mushrooms, quartered
1/4 t dried thyme
1 c French green lentils, rinsed and drained
2 lightly packed cups chopped kale
2 14-oz cans of low-sodium, 98% fat-free chicken stock
1 c water
1 previously saved, frozen rind of parmesan cheese (this adds a nice silky richness to soup)


Place a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-low heat and add the olive oil and the italian sausage. Breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon, let the sausage brown until fully cooked, about 10 minutes. While the sausage is browning, you can prep all your vegetables - onion, garlic, carrot, celery, mushrooms, kale - on a large cutting board so when you're ready you can just drop them in. Remove the browned sausage with a slotted spoon to a bowl, and drain any excess fat (you just want to keep about 2 teaspoons in the pot). Still over medium-low heat, add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery to the pot and saute, stirring frequently, until just they start to sweat and soften, about 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables for about 1 minute. Add in the quartered mushrooms and the dried thyme, and continue to saute everything for another 3-5 minutes until the vegetables have taken on some color and the mushrooms have started to wilt and give off moisture. Add some fresh-cracked black pepper at this point, but only a little salt (the chicken broth will add salt too).


Add the lentils and kale to the pot, then pour in the chicken broth and water. Raise the heat to high to bring to a boil, while stirring the bottom of the pot to get all the brown bits off the bottom. When the soup reaches a boil, turn the heat back down so it just simmers. Add your parmesan rind at this point, if you're lucky enough to have one in your freezer :) Cover, and simmer the soup until the lentils are tender but not mushy - about 20-25 minutes. Remove the rind, and season to taste. Enjoy!

Impromptu holiday soup

It all started with bacon fat.


Wednesday night, amid pumpkin and apple pie baking and stuffing making, my mom decided to cook up a batch of bacon for using throughout the holiday weekend so that "the house won't smell like bacon all weekend" (which, for some reason, would be a bad thing?). After crisping up the bacon, the 12" skillet was left housing a few precious tablespoons of bacon fat, and since we obviously couldn't waste it, we started thinking about what we could do with it. Inspired by an excess of sweet potatoes and my cold-weather obsession with eating soup, this delicious and savory recipe was born.

Sweet Potato Soup
(makes 8-10 servings)


2-3 T melted bacon fat (I suppose you could use olive oil/butter...but why would you?)
1 onion, medium slice (if not using blender/processor later, mince the onion finely instead of slicing)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 large sweet potatoes, 1/4" dice
4 small (ours were smaller than palm-size) Idaho potatoes, 1/4" dice
1 1/2 T chopped fresh rosemary and thyme (sage would be delicious as well, use whatever you have)
6 cups stock (we used fresh-made turkey, could use chicken or vegetable)
salt and pepper
For serving (optional): crumbled bacon, sour cream/creme fraiche


Note: Since I was cooking at my mom's house, I had access to a boat-motor (aka immersion blender), which is what we used to puree the soup. If I were at my apartment, I would have used a food processor. You can make this recipe work even if you don't have any of these tools. 
In a large skillet, heat the bacon fat over medium-low heat and add the onion. Season the onions with salt and pepper and cook for about 8 minutes or until the onions have softened and begun to caramelize, stirring frequently. Add the garlic to the pan and stir. Dice the potatoes while the onions are cooking, then turn the heat up to medium add to the pan. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Cook the potatoes, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for 15-20 minutes until just starting to yield to fork (but not fully cooked). Add the fresh herbs and stir. Add 1 cup of stock to the pan and scrape the bottom to deglaze, then add 2 more cups of stock. Simmer the vegetables in the stock for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through, allowing the flavors to all meld together. Then, take a potato masher and slowly go around the pan, mashing the potatoes and breaking down the soup until there are no big chunks of potato left. Add remaining 3 cups of stock. (If not using a blender/processor, keep mashing until soup reaches desired consistency). Turn the heat to low, then use the immersion blender and blend the soup until pureed to desired consistency. Serve with crumbled bacon bits and a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I have much to be thankful for this year - great friends and family, and especially the fact that my first niece (and goddaughter!) was born last Saturday. :)