Thai Coconut Lime Soup

It was grocery day and I was searching for a new dish to make that featured some sort of seafood.  Came across this and was immediately interested not only because of the lovely photos, but also because three of the four words in the name of this dish are some of the best foods in my opinion.  I figured three out of four wasn’t bad, and I would try to get past my distaste for soup and give it a shot.  I am glad I did.  This soup definitely has a LOT of flavor between the fresh ginger, green curry, coconut, lime, shrimp, serrano, garlic, and cilantro.  It also packs a LOT of heat!  I think next time I will wimp out and dispose of the seeds from the pepper.

One of the reasons I don’t particularly like soup is because of the broth… it just seems like too much to me I guess.  Figuring I had probably already done a number on my stomach from the heat in this dish I didn’t finish my broth, but did find that dipping some bread in it was a nice way to mellow out some of the heat and make me not feel like I was drinking my meal.  Both my husband and I though agreed this soup would be better with a little less broth, and more stuff in it.  So I would suggest increasing the ingredients in the soup to about 1.5x or maybe even 2x the amount listed, and sticking with the listed amount of broth ingredients.  I had doubled the recipe and we ended up tossing a lot of the left over broth after filled our bowls with the extra shrimp, mushrooms and onions.  Or you could throw a bit of rice in it to make it a little heartier and get rid of that excess broth issue if you are like me.

Anyway, this was still a winner in my book, and smelled amazing.  I loved the blend of flavors, and I just love trying new things.  In particular I don’t think I had ever had green curry paste before this dish.

Serves : 2                 

Ingredients :

• 1/2 lb raw shrimp
• 2 T. vegetable oil
• 2 T. fresh ginger, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 serrano, thinly sliced, seeds and all
• 1/2 onion, sliced into thin wedges
• 3 T. Thai green curry paste
• 1 T. brown sugar
• 4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• juice of 2 limes
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• zest of 1 lime

Directions :

1. Heat the oil in a pot and saute the shrimp just until pink on both sides.  Set aside.
2. In the same pan saute the ginger, garlic, hot pepper and onion for a few minutes on low to medium heat, until the onion starts to soften.
3. Add in the curry paste, brown sugar, and mushrooms.  Saute for a few more minutes.
4. Add the coconut milk, lime juice, and water to the pan.  Bring up to a simmer and cook gently for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the cooked shrimp and cilantro to the pot.  Heat through.  Taste for seasoning adjustments.
6. Serve hot with cilantro and lime zest as garnish.

Recipe from The View From The Great Island

 

Chicken Nacho Soup

I may have mentioned before that I am not much of a soup person, but that doesn’t stop me from trying them from time to time.  In doing so, I have actually found a couple I really like, which is a pretty big change from hating all soups.  Tonight’s soup was pretty good, but I am not sure it will become a favorite for me personally.  I think I would have liked it to be a tad creamier somehow, or a little less hot sauce since that was the dominating flavor to me.  I did like it with the chips for dipping though, and as far as soups go I would probably eat it again just to keep things different once in a while… perhaps with the changes I mentioned.  Jeff eats soup a lot more often than me and he said it was good, so perhaps he’s a better judge for this one.

It comes together quite easily, and doesn’t need a lot of time to cook which is always a good thing on those busy weeknights.  I love that it uses rotisserie chicken because that’s even less work you have to do, and I just really like rotisserie chicken.  At first I wasn’t sure what the recipe meant by “nachos”, but I decided it must have meant tortilla chips since the article also mentioned dipping them in the soup and some were pictured with it.  So anyway, I went with an Artisan Toasted Southwestern variety and they were perfect for this.  For the cheese I used Monteray Jack, but I bet cheddar, mozzarella, or even pepper jack if you really like the heat would also be good.

Serves : 4-6             Time to make : 40 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1/2 rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 3 T. olive oil
• 1/2 (8 oz) package cream cheese (I used fat free)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 can corn, drained
• 4 C. chicken broth
• 1 T. hot sauce
• 3 T. tomato paste
• 1 C. nachos, crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• shredded cheese for topping
• cilantro or parsley for topping (optional)

Directions :

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat.  Cook onions in hot oil until translucent.  Add garlic and jalapenos and cook a minute more.
2. Add water and cream cheese, stirring until cheese is melted.  Add crumbled nachos next, this helps to thicken the soup.  Add chicken, corn, and salsa and stir to combine.  Then add your broth, hot sauce, and tomato paste and stir again.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a low boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.
3. Serve with shredded cheese, cilantro, and more nachos for dipping.

Recipe from Jo Cooks

Day 98 : Potato Cheddar Soup

Although the forecast claimed it would be nice today with sun and 55 degree weather they failed to mention that it wouldn’t matter because the wind chill factor and clouds meant it was too cold still to do much outside.  So instead we spent the day cleaning and getting things done that had been on a back burner of late.  Since it felt like a cold day I decided to make soup.  As you may recall I am NOT a soup person, and rarely eat it.  I have only found a couple in my life that I truly enjoy.  This is now one of those.

As my husband said, who is also not a big fan of soup, this is the best potato soup I’ve ever had.  I really like the creaminess and depth of flavor with the curry powder and cayenne, and peppers.  Best of all this is another one of those dishes that are so simple to prepare because you take a little help from the store and use frozen potatoes.  So there’s no washing, and peeling, and dicing which saves  you SO much time.  It smelled so amazing while it was cooking that I could barely wait to try it, so it’s great that it was a quick soup to prepare.  The only thing we felt could make this better was the addition of some sort of meat… perhaps bacon, ham, or shrimp.

 

Potato Cheddar Soup

Serves : 4               Time to make : 30 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 (28 oz) bag of frozen potatoes with peppers (potatoes o’brien)
• 1 cup mini sweet peppers, chopped
• 3 cups fat free half and half
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. curry powder
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I went with the full amount)
• 1 cup water (divided)
• 6 oz cheddar cheese
• Fresh chopped parsley and sliced mini sweet peppers for garnish/toppers

Directions :

1. In a 4 qt. dutch oven combine the frozen potatoes, peppers, half and half, salt, curry powder, cayenne and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
2. Carefully move half of the soup to a blender with remaining 1/2 cup water and cream until smooth.  Add back to the main pot, and stir to combine.
3. Add the cheese and heat until cheese is melted.
4. Serve with sliced peppers and chopped parsley on top.

Day 36 : Buffalo Chicken Dip & Award Winning Chili

Are you ready for some football?!

Even though this post is likely going to go through after the game is over, and in our house it was just a quiet evening at home watching the game by ourselves I figured I would get in the spirit of things and choose some game day traditional foods for my blog.  What could be more synonymous with the Superbowl than Chili and Buffalo Chicken Wings?!

I am not a wings kind of gal, but have been wanting to try a buffalo chicken dip for quite some time now.  There are many versions out there, but this one sounded great to me and I am so glad I chose it.  I’d say it was PERFECT for us!  So creamy, the flavors are just right and not too spicy, and so simple to make!  I can easily see this one becoming my new go-to dip for gatherings.  The recipe suggested serving it with some toasted baguette slices, but I have a cut in my mouth and didn’t want to deal with the sharp crusty bread.  So along with my UN-toasted baquette slices I  chose to serve it with some fritos as suggested by reviewers and felt they were great with it also.  Myself, I think I prefer the baguette though.

Today I used low fat ranch, and would have also chosen to use low fat cream cheese if the store had not been completely sold out, and I feel that it didn’t take away from the flavor at all.  I also decided to make my life easier, and my dish load less (or rather Jeff’s dish load) by just putting it all in the crockpot from the start.  I let it cook on high for about an hour until all the cheeses were melted and then on low for another 50-60 minutes.  Then switch it over to warm and dish out as much as you want to at a time.  You might even want to have the recipe already typed out and copied onto cards to hand out because I guarantee you will be asked for this one by a lot of people!

Now for the chili….. I grew up eating chili soup, which is a brothy sort of chili with noodles and I love it.  The only “real” chili we ever had was from a can on occasion, which I also enjoy.  I have tried a couple of recipes myself since then, and though they were ok, I haven’t found one I love yet.  This recipe wears the title “Award Winning”, which upon reading the notes I realized was just from some guy’s work cook-off , but I decided to give it a shot anyway because the ingredients listed sounded good to me.  Mostly I was just excited to try out my new dutch oven lol.

I am sorry to say that I just thought it was ok as with all the rest…. however Jeff did give it 5 stars!  I think it must be me…. maybe I prefer a more mellow chili flavor or a sweeter flavor.  I will find one someday!  Anyway, it really was good, and did remind me a lot of the canned chili with some added heat from the jalapeno and spices.  The only change I made was to use half ground beef and half ground turkey per my husband’s request.  It sure made my house smell good anyway!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Serves : 20           Time to make : 20 minutes (2 hours if done in crockpot)

Ingredients :

• 2 (10 ounce) cans chicken
• 2 (8 ounce) packets cream cheese
• 3/4 cup hot sauce (I use Frank’s wing sauce)
• 1 cup ranch dressing
• 2 cups mild cheddar cheese
• 2 loaves baguette

Day 23 : Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

What a rollercoaster of a day!  It started off rocky when I almost slid into a truck in front of me at an icy traffic light, but got better with a clean bill of dental health for me.  Partway through the day I ended up getting horrible heartburn that would not go away so I had to have Jeff do a quick grocery run after work to get a few things for the night.  Then my son came down with a fever again after finally finishing his antibiotics for strep last night, which later turned into a rash all over his face and midsection so we just got back from the ER.  Luckily it was not an allergic reaction or anything too serious and they figured it was just a viral thing or slight rash from the meds.  One great thing though that happened today was that my blog was featured on FoodPress.com for my Chocolate Covered Saltine Crackers post a few days back.  Not only is it very neat to see your work featured, but it brought in a staggering amount of blog traffic pushing me up to 250+ views just today!

Somewhere in the chaos of the day I did find time to make a recipe for my blog, and it is a good one!  I have never been a person that liked soup, but this one I like.  It’s not very brothy which I prefer, and I just love the lemony flavor.  This is a soup I have made many times, and now consider to be my go-to recipe for a nice warm comfort food on a cold busy day.  It’s super simple to make, and becomes even easier if you do like me and use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.  I usually get the lemon pepper chicken and use the entire thing for this because we like a lot of chicken in our soup.  I also go ahead and use the rind from the entire lemon which is usually more than the recipe calls for.  I even add a bit of lemon pepper on occasion if I want it super lemony.   Next time you are in the mood for a nice bowl of chicken soup I highly recommend you try this one.  You will not be sorry!

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Serves : 6-8                          Time to make : 30 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 (46oz) can chicken broth
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups chicken, cooked
• 1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh
• 1/2 tsp. lemon rind
• 1 cup uncooked rice

Directions :

1. In a 5-quart Dutch oven, combine chicken broth and cream of chicken soup, mixing until well blended.
2. Stir in rice, chicken, lemon juice and rind.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender.