Creamy Broccoli Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion (roughly diced but you’ll be blending it so doesn’t really matter how you cut it)

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (or Better than Bouillon)

1/3 cup rolled oats

1 ½ pounds broccoli (don’t be a hero – just buy some frozen broccoli and it’s already cut up for you plus so cheap)

Directions

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in broth, 1 cup water, oats, and broccoli. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer until broccoli is tender (around 10 minutes). Either blend the soup in a blender or use an immersion blender and blend it right there in the pot until it’s creamy. Add some shredded cheddar if you want more of a broccoli cheddar situation but it’s delicious on its own too even if it’s another secretly vegan soup.

Instant Pot White Chicken Chili

Ingredients

1 ½ to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breasts)

1 large yellow onion, diced 

2 4-ounce cans diced green chili peppers (you can usually only find these in mild so don’t worry about them making it spicy)

3 cloves garlic, minced 

2 teaspoons cumin 

2 teaspoons salt 

½ teaspoon coriander 

½ teaspoon dried oregano 

4 cups chicken stock (or I prefer Better than Bouillon - it's delicious and I don't have to cart gallons of stock up 3 flights of stairs every week)

1 13.5-ounce can cannellini or navy beans (drained and rinsed)

1 cup frozen corn 

Adding any of this as you serve it will be delicious: shredded monterey jack cheese, lime juice, sour cream, hot sauce, avocado

Directions

Combine the chicken, onions, green chili peppers, garlic, cumin, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, coriander, oregano in Instant Pot or slow cooker. Stir to make sure the spices coat everything and pour the chicken stock over top (should cover the chicken and vegetables by an inch or so). 

Instant pot: Include the corn and beans in with the chicken and everything else and cook it all together on the meat/chili setting on high pressure for 20 minutes. It will warm up, cook 20 minutes and once it finishes, let it naturally depressurize 10 minutes afterwards before releasing the pressure.

Slow cooker: If you’re using the slow cooker, cook for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. (It's fine to cook for 8 hours on low, if you’re going to be gone all day - chicken just gets more and more tender and starts to fall apart but you're going to shred it anyway). About 30 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the lid of the slow cooker and add the beans and corn, and then cook for the remaining time. 

Once it’s done, take the chicken out and shred it into large, bite-sized pieces with two forks. Eat it as it is or add any of the delicious things I included above to make it even tastier.

Creamy Curry Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to serve

2 medium white onions, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to season

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 large head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds), trimmed and cut into florets

4 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (or I like better than bouillon...well, better) 

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 cup coconut milk

Directions

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onions with ¼ teaspoon salt until they’re soft and translucent (8-9 minutes). Reduce heat to low, add garlic, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add cauliflower, broth, coriander, turmeric, cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer until cauliflower is soft (maybe 15 minutes or so). Purée the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender right in the pot until it’s smooth. Stir in the coconut milk. This secretly vegan soup is light, so easy to make, and delicious! It tastes almost like a potato curry soup so you'd barely know you were eating such a healthy veggie soup.

Halftime Chili

I got this recipe from Heidi and Meagan and I have made it with them before. Now that I'm flying solo and have about an hour and 15 minutes to wait while my chili simmers, I figured I would immortalize the recipe by adding it to the blog.

2 T olive oil (I truly hope that the capital T means tablespoon :)
1.5 cups chopped onions (There's nothing like onion crying away your sorrows at 6:00am.)
8 garlic cloves (I purchased a garlic press for this adventure.)
3 lbs ground chuck (Too bad they always come in 1.25 lb packages)
5 T chili powder
1 T ground cumin
1 t dried basil
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried thyme
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes in puree
1 14.5 oz can chicken broth
1 12 oz bottle of beer (In case you were curious, I used Coors Light.)
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 15 oz can chili beans
2 cups frozen corn

Heat oil in dutch oven over medium heat. (Danny couldn't keep a straight face when I told him I was making the chili in my ditch oven.)

Add onions and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent, this should take about 8 minutes.

Add meat and saute until brown. This should take about 5 minutes...unless you have 3.75 lbs in there. It takes longer. If you have a ridiculous amount of meat, I suggest taking some out and figuring out a plan to repurpose it. I think I'm going to make a meat sauce for pasta.)

Add chili powder, cumin, basil. oregano, and thyme. Stir 2 minutes.

Mix in tomatoes, chicken broth, beer, and tomato paste. (I recommend putting the tomato paste in before the beer so you can pour the beer into the tomato paste can and get any residual paste out of the can.)

Simmer until thickened to desired consistency, stirring occasionally. This should take about an hour and 15 minutes. (That's where I'm at right now.)

Mix in beans and corn.

Simmer 5 more minutes.

This note at the end of the recipe broke my heart a little when I read it this morning: Best when made the day before. That would have been great to know yesterday. But now I'll remember that for next time!

P.S. This a great recipe to make and freeze.

P.P.S. I didn't stir for 2 minutes between adding the liquid ingredients. I wasn't trying to be a rebel; I just missed that part since the recipe was written in paragraph form and I missed that step. It seems to be fine :)

I call this "Soup"

This one is a bit tough for me. My friend from Laos has been teaching me to cook, but won't provide measurements. Not only that, she won't slow down long enough for me to see what is going on or ask any questions.

This is completely trial and error, but well worth the effort. I'm hoping Meagan will jump in with some tips or corrections, since we accidentally reproduced the deliciousness once.

If you want to do this properly, you need to do it like my friend. First, wear latex gloves while you cook. Second, before and after you chop anything, wash the knife and cutting board for 5 minutes, even though they were clean when you picked them up. Third, after you wash anything, put it in a dishwasher full of clean dishes.

I know that last bit makes no sense. I have watched it happen a dozen times, and I can promise you that it makes no more sense to me than it does to you.

Anyhow:

1. 1 can coconut milk
2. 2 handfuls of medium sized shrimp (about 10? ish?)
3. 1 bunch green onion, green parts only
4. 1/3 cup white onion
5. 1 tsp chili paste (I can't read their words, so pictures to follow. just go to a good Asian market and ask for the aisle where they keep delicious stuff.)

6. 1/2 tsp tom sum (again, should be in the delicious aisle.)
7. Shallots, garlic, ginger to taste. I'd start with one shallot, 1 large clove of garlic, and about 1 inch of ginger (you still have that ginger in the freezer, right?)

8. About 1 tsp Knorr tamarind soup base (will someone please experiment with real tamarind, whatever the hell tamarind is?)

9. 2 chili peppers. I use the dried red peppers in a plastic bag from the "ethnic" section of the grocery store.
10. 1 tsp fish sauce

Add coconut milk to sauce pan, heat on high until boiling. Add ginger, shallots, garlic, tom sum, chili paste. Boil down until browned.

Add 1 cup-ish water, tamarind, fish sauce, and salt to taste.

Cut shrimp in half lengthwise and toss in with diced onion, green onion, and chili peppers. Bring to a boil and cook until shrimp are cooked, about 3 minutes.

One last note, don't worry about the heat. The burner was always on high, it was always boiling at a furious rate, and she never once looked to see if it was burning.