Potato, Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

To my surprise, I have broccoli in the garden! I have planted broccoli many times before but have never had much success. This year I decided to try it again and the four plants have grown and produced some beautiful heads. The garden and the weather were the inspiration for this recipe. A cold, rainy day, where the high for the day is in the morning calls for a bowl of warm, thick soup. Serve with a simple fruit salad and you have a meal that will add some sunshine to any dreary day.

Potato Broccoli Cheddar Soup

1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced

2 leeks, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon aleppo chili
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk
3 pounds potatoes, diced
1 head broccoli
2 cups grated extra sharp Cheddar cheese
Salt and Pepper
Sour cream

In a heavy Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute onion and celery until tender, seasoning with salt as it cooks. Add flour, paprika and aleppo chili to pot and stir until the flour bubbles. Add the broth, milk and potatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes and the potatoes are tender.

While the potatoes cook, cut broccoli into bite-size pieces and steam until tender crisp. When the potatoes are tender, use a potato masher to break up some of the potatoes. Reduce the temperature to low and add the broccoli and cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and the soup is heated through, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream. Serves 6 to 8.

Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew

Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew was featured recently on America's Test Kitchen. I love this show. It is all about experimenting and testing to find the best recipe possible. I had been looking for the perfect recipe for some cannellini beans purchased at Campo de' Fiori and decided to give it a try. Plan ahead because the beans are soaked overnight in a brine solution. This is the first recipe I have tried from the show, but it will not be the last. The stew was hearty and very tasty. Next time, I will add more tomatoes for my personal taste.

Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew

4 quarts water
3 tablespoons salt
1 pound dried cannellini beans
6 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 bunch kale (about 1 pound), stems removed and leaves chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained and rinsed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
Ground pepper

Dissolve 3 tablespoons salt in 2 quarts cold water. Add beans and soak at room temperature overnight. Drain and rinse well.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add oil and pancetta . Cook until pancetta is lightly browned, 6 to 10 minutes. Add vegetables and cook until they are softened and lightly browned, 10 to 16 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minutes. Add broth, water, bay leaves and beans. Increase temperature to high and bring to a simmer. Cover pot and transfer to oven and cook until beans are almost tender (center of bean will still be firm), 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove pot from over and add greens and tomatoes. Return to oven and cook until beans and greens are tender, 30 - 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and add rosemary sprig. Cover and let stand 15 minutes. Discard bay leaf and rosemary and season with salt and pepper. To serve, drizzle with olive oil. Serves 8.

Laura's Kitchen Sink Sopa de Lima and Farmer's Market Salsa Verde

For my first Taste and Create, I was paired with Laura of The Spiced Life. Laura has a great blog with lots of recipes so it was extremely hard to select just one. Laura's Kitchen Sink Sopa de Lima caught my eye because of the limes used the season the soup and the leftover roasted chicken in my frig that needed to be used.

This is simple recipe that packs a lot of flavor. I began by making chicken broth with the remnants of the roasted chicken last night. Today I assembled the soup using frozen tomatoes from our summer harvest and leftover corn. I also substituted flour tortillas for the corn tortillas in Laura's recipe. The results were delicious. I added jalopeno peppers to Laura's list of garnishes so Kenny can add as much heat to the soup as he wants!

Sopa de Lima

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
20 ounces of diced tomatoes
8 cups chicken broth
2 (14 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups whole kernel corn
3 cups shredded roasted chicken
2 flour tortillas, cut into small strips
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice from 3 limes
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the olive oil and onions and cook the onions for 8 minutes or until they are translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minutes. Add the red pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add the spices and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Add the tomatoes and cook for 8 minutes to concentrate the flavors. Add the chicken broth, beans, corn, chicken, tortillas and cilantro and simmer covered for 45 minutes. Before serving, add the lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with garnishes. Yield: 13 - 14 cups.

Garnishes
Salsa Verde
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Sour cream
Homemade tortilla strips
Chopped jalopeno peppers

Laura loves green salsa so I decided to give it a try and created a variation of her Farmer's Market Salsa Verde.

Salsa Verde

1 poblano pepper
12 ounces tomatillos
1/2 large onion chopped
4 cloves garlic. crushed and peeled
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
jalopenos to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Wash the poblano pepper and pat dry. Remove the husks from the tomatillos, wash, and pat dry. Place pepper and tomatillos on a cookie sheet and broil in the oven until the tomatillos are olive green and the pepper is charred, turning as needed. The tomatillos will cook faster than the pepper, so remove them when they are done and continue to broil the pepper until it is charred all over. Place in a bowl to cool.

Turn the oven to 425 degrees F. and roast the onions and the garlic for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they are lightly browned.

Peel the poblano and remove the seeds. Place the poblano, the tomatillos, and juices in a food processor and pulse until pureed. Add the onions, garlic, and remaining ingredients to the food processer and pulse until pureed. Refrigerate. Yield: 1 1/2 cups.

Laura, thanks for these wonderful recipes that are sure to become a family favorite.

Black-eyed Peas and Turnip Green Soup

My entry for this year's Souper Bowl was from my garden. Our patch of greens has provided us with a great harvest. On a cold, winter day, I decided to try my hand at using the greens to make a soup. Use hot sausage for to give the soup a kick. For the competition, I made croutons from my Spicy Cornbread recipe. I baked the cornbread in a sheet pan, cut it into 1-inch cubes and toasted in the oven. It made for a great presentation, but not really worth the effort. Top the soup with Sweet Tomato Relish.


Black-eyed Peas and Turnip Green Soup

1 pound hot sausage
1 ½ cups chopped onion
1 pound turnip greens
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 cans black-eyed peas

Saute onions and sausage until sausage is browned and done. Add turnip greens, water, chicken broth and black-eyed peas. Cook until the greens are tender. Add more water if needed. Serve with cornbread croutons and tomato relish.

Payton's Chicken Stew

Payton was last year's winner of the Quail Hollow Souper Bowl. This year, he had two entries. A favorite of the competition was his Chicken Stew. This simple recipe packs a lot of flavor. It is sure to become a family favorite!

Payton’s Chicken Stew

1 – 28 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
¼ cup tomato paste
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 ½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 ½ # boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cups diced onion
2 cups frozen lima beans
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 large bell pepper, diced
4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
Lime wedges

Put tomatoes, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, cumin and oregano in a slow cooker. Stir to blend. Add chicken and vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours, or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and pull into shreds using 2 forks. Return to cooker. Serve with bacon and lime wedges.

Dale's Taco Soup

Dale is a great friend and a wonderful cook. I have enjoyed many delicious meals at her home so I was not surprised that she was the winner of the 2nd Annual Quail Hollow Souper Bowl. This soup is not only tasty, but is very simple to prepare.

Dale’s Taco Soup
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can mild Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 can lima beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can white hominy
1 small onion, chopped
1 ½ lb. ground beef
1 ½ cup water
Salt and Pepper
1 package Taco seasoning
1 package dry Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Drain beans and hominy. Brown ground been and onions and drain. Mix all ingredients together in a soup pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until heated. You can assemble everything and cook over low heat in a crock-pot. Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, etc. Be sure to have tortilla chips on the side.