Ginger Garlic Noodle Soup with Greens

Soup season is around the corner, and I always enjoy a good Asian-inspired bowl full of noodles and vegetables. This recipe from The Forked Spoon is one of my favorite broth recipes because it has such a unique flavor. The smell of the broth is like 5-spice powder. Here's the recipe with minor adaptations for people living where certain ingredients are harder to find or need different cooking methods for keeping you healthier.

Ginger Garlic Noodle Soup with Greens
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 bunch green onions, sliced with green and white separate
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
5.5 cups water
2 chicken stock cubes
1 whole star anise
1.5-2 Tablespoons soy sauce
 250 grams button mushrooms, sliced
150-200 grams rice noodles (written "rice sticks" on packet)
1 small bunch bok choy or a few cups other chopped leafy greens
Sesame seeds for topping
Chili flakes for topping

Heat the oil over medium heat in a stock pot. Add onions and saute just until they begin to soft. Add in white parts of green onions, garlic, and ginger, and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Pour in the water, stock cubes, star anise, and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Open the lid, remove the star anise pod, and discard it. Add the mushrooms, uncooked noodles, chopped greens, and green onion tops, and simmer 5-8 minutes until everything is tender. Season with salt, pepper, and more soy sauce if desired. Top each bowl of soup with sesame seeds and chili flakes, if desired.

Like Campbell's But Better

If you grew up in America, you probably had Campbell's Tomato Soup with your grilled cheese sandwiches. As an adult, I look at the can of goo that comes out and wonder, "What is in that stuff?" but part of me says, "Who cares? It tastes like my childhood." I generally go the route of the more adult-like chunky tomato basil soup varieties, but every once in a while, I really get a hankering for classic Campbell's Tomato Soup, which is not available where we are. In comes this easy copycat version that I've adapted for our tastes. As always, I hope you can look past my poor photography skills...ain't nobody got time for that! (Well...I know some people actually do.)

Copycat Tomato Soup
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon oil
1 cup water
1/2 piece vegetable broth cube
1 450g can tomato puree
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Grind of fresh black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon onion powder (comes in a clear plastic packet)
3/4 cup milk (optional)

Heat oil over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until the raw smell of the flour dissipates. Whisk in water, broth cube, and tomato puree until smooth. Add all other ingredients except milk. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 5-10 minutes. Stir in milk and cook for several minutes until soup is heated through.*

*I prefer my tomato soup with no milk, but if you choose to add milk, taste your soup before you add the milk. If it tastes very acidic, you'll need to add a pinch of baking soda to keep your milk from curdling. Others suggest keeping the milk aside in a bowl and tempering it by adding some hot soup to heat the milk before you pour that back into the pot. I think either solution will help to reduce those edible, but weird little curdled milk speckles.

1-2-3-4 Soup

I stumbled across this recipe recently through a link to Ciao from Debbie and loved the simplicity of it. When I first moved here, someone shared a similar recipe with me—more of a rough guide—that you could adapt for most kinds of vegetables. This one is incredibly versatile, and the original posting has some interesting flavor suggestions. So far we have made cream of broccoli-potato, zucchini, and spinach-potato varieties. If you start with uncooked starch, reduce the amount to ¾ cup and add some additional liquid to keep the soup from becoming stew.

1-2-3-4 Soup

1 cup onions, diced

2 cups cooked starch (potatoes, rice, beans, etc.)

3 cups vegetables, diced (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini)

4 cups liquid (4 cups water + 2 stock cubes)

Oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Milk or Cream, to taste

Cheese, grated (optional)

Heat a small amount of oil over medium heat. Sauté onions in oil until translucent. Add in the cooked starch, vegetables, and liquid. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low until vegetables are tender. At this point you can either leave the soup chunky, puree the whole thing, or puree part of the soup. Stir in some cream or milk and heat through. Cream will thicken the soup so it may need to be thinned to your liking.

Super simple! If you can count to 4, you can probably make this soup work for you. It’s a great way to use up leftover potatoes or rice hanging out in the fridge—just make sure they're not growing anything first.

Loaded Potato Soup

This is one of those "stick to your ribs" recipes that I have been meaning to post for ages. In fact, I have come to my blog to look it up before cooking on more than one occasion and realized I didn't actually have it on the blog. If you're not familiar with Gina and Pat Neely on Food Network, they are a couple famous in the barbecue world who make "down home" kind of food. This is one of theirs that I have fiddled only slightly with. Serve alongside a green salad.

Loaded Potato Soup
1/4 cup/ ~60g butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 ribs celery, finely diced
1 large onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup flour
3 cups water
1 1/2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups light beer (any local beer is light)
500g or 1 lb potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup cheese, grated
Dash hot sauce
Dash Worcestershire sauce

Melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, carrot, celery, and onion, cooking until they are soft and translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the butter to make a roux. Cook for 1-2 minutes then whisk in the water, milk, and beer. Bring to a boil and add the potatoes. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Add in the cheese, hot sauce, and Worcestershire. Taste to adjust seasoning then blend the soup (or just part of it) in a blender or with an immersion stick until smooth. It should be thick and creamy.

Toppings:
Grated cheese
Fried and crumbled bacon
Sliced green onions
Sour cream

Sprinkle any desired toppings over the soup and enjoy!

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

Everyone recovering from all the crazy amounts of food you ate over the past month? I have actually had to cut out sugar temporarily due to daily headaches--so sad!! In an effort to get back to some more sensible eating and beat the cold air that has taken over our house, I made this Moroccan Chickpea Stew. Over the past year I have played with this recipe a bit, trying out different variations, but this one by Dave Lieberman seems to have the best flavor as far as the spice combination. The cinnamon and cumin give it a warming feel for winter. If you have trouble digesting beans, refer to my post on sprouting a few days prior to cooking your beans or use that digestive trouble as a way to keep warm. Hah!

Moroccan Chickpea Stew
2-3 Tbs oil (olive oil is preferred)
2 medium onions, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch red chili powder, more if like
1 teaspoon paprika
1 400g can tomatoes (or blanched and peeled tomatoes)
3 cups cooked chickpeas
4 cups water
2 vegetable broth cubes
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pinch sugar, if tomatoes are tart
Handful roughly chopped greens

Heat oil over medium low heat. Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add the garlic and cook about 1 minute. Stir spices into the pot and cook until fragrant. As you add the tomatoes, crush them. Add the water, vegetable cubes, a few pinches of salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for about 30 minutes. Add the greens, bring back up to a boil, and allow them to wilt on low for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and serve with crusty bread.

If you want the soup to be more creamy, mash up some of the chickpeas in the pot before serving. This soup is totally flexible as far as how thick or thin you like it. At more or less broth to your liking. Pair it with the upcoming Pomegranate Herb Salad for an exciting Middle Eastern side.

Hearty Chili and Cornbread

I love fall, if for no other reason than it seems the perfect time to start pulling out some comfort foods!

Clearly, food photography is not my gift, but it tastes delicious!

A good, hearty chili soup just makes me feel warm and cozy and is really versatile.  It is an easy thing to make for a big group, and even if I'm just making it for our family, I usually make a big batch when I make it.  We usually eat it the first night with some cornbread, and then another night we'll often put a bit of it on a bowl of pasta for some "chili mac" or use some of it as a topping for baked potatoes.  It also freezes really well, so I like having something to tuck away to thaw out and use later for a quick meal.

So, a warning is that this makes a BIG pot of chili.  You could easily half this recipe and still have enough for a family for dinner.

To be honest, this is the first time I've ever written down what I put in the chili, and the nice thing about this "recipe," is that it is really flexible, so if you like to have more or less meat or more or less beans, you can adjust those quite easily.  You can also adjust the amount of broth you add to make it thinner or thicker. Cutting to the chase, when I made it and wrote it down, this recipe leads to a hearty chili that we really enjoy:

Hearty Chili

1 c onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

500 g ground meat (I use beef when available but have made it with buffalo, pork, or chicken, or a mix)

4 c broth 

5 c cooked/canned kidney beans 

1 large can (850 g) tomato puree

1 T cumin

2 T chili powder (American)*

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 t cinnamon

1 t brown sugar

Lightly brown the ground meat in your pot with the onions and garlic.  The meat here is usually very lean, so I usually put a few tablespoons of oil in the pan first but did not usually do that if the meat had a bit of fat to it.

Add the broth.  In the States, I would tend to use beef broth or bouillon.  Here I use 4 cups of water and 2 bouillon cubes--usually chicken but only veggie were available this time, and it was fine.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium.  

Add the cooked or canned beans.  I have shifted the kind of beans, depending on what is available.  Here, I usually try to use kidney beans.  If you use canned beans, you don't have to cook them, but I used dried beans this time, soaked them overnight and then cooked them separately in a pressure cooker.  

Add the tomato puree, cumin, and chili powder and salt and pepper to taste.

* I didn't have American chili powder available this time, so I used 1/2 teaspoon of the local chili powder, and it was still a tad on the spicy side for my kiddos. 

Simmer the chili for 20-30 minutes on a medium low heat, stirring occasionally.  If it starts to bubble much, turn down the heat.  In the last 5-10 minutes, add the cinnamon and brown sugar.

Top with sour cream, shredded cheese, or green onions, if you like.

As I said, I like to make a batch of cornbread to go with our chili.

Here is the recipe I usually use:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmothers-buttermilk-cornbread/detail.aspx

The only change I usually make is that I substitute yogurt for the buttermilk, and it works great.  This picture is a double batch, but I would recommend just a single batch unless having company.

Souper Simple Chicken Soup

Hardy, har, har... I know that was a joke my dad might come up with. Given the number of respiratory problems that come as a result of living in a place where the air is almost always polluted, chicken soup is one of those dishes that our family likes to have at regular intervals. It’s one of those classic pick me ups from childhood, and research shows you still get benefits even if it’s from a package! It’s nothing fancy, but I thought I’d share this really simple way to make a classic chicken soup.

Little Girl wanted to make her contribution to the photos.

If you’ve recently had a whole chicken, you can make your own stock by boiling the carcass with onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. Honestly, I don’t even bother to peel the onions or carrots, and just chop them into halves or quarters. Add enough water to cover the bones and your favorite herbs (thyme, sage, etc.). Bring it to a boil, and then simmer the bones over low heat (just a slight bubbling in the middle) for about an hour. Strain, season, and you’ve got stock.

If you’ve not got the time to deal with that, here’s my quick version:

Souper Simple Chicken Soup
1-2 chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, whatever has some meat), chopped finely
6 cups water
3 chicken cubes (love some sodium)
1 carrot, chopped finely
4-5 small ribs celery, chopped finely
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 large garlic clove, chopped finely
2 Tablespoons butter
8 oz. pasta (roughly half a standard package), cooked separately
Pinch of dried herbs (sage, thyme, mixed herbs..whatever you like)

In a soup pot, melt the butter and sweat the veggies with a pinch of salt. You need roughly equal proportions of carrots, celery, and onion. Once the vegetables soften, add the water, chicken cubes, chicken, and pepper according to your taste. If you’re using precooked chicken, your cook time will be significantly less. After the soup comes to a boil, add the cooked pasta and heat until the chicken is fully cooked. Season to taste, and you’re done!

Note: I cook the pasta first so I doesn’t absorb all the soup. You don’t have to do this, but I think it makes the soup have more liquid. 

Pumpkin Ginger Soup

Yes, I've made comments about the crazy amounts of soup people tend to eat in their first years overseas, but I really don't have anything against soup, unless it's the only thing I eat all week. When I first moved to India, I went through a period where the most creative thing I could think to do with vegetables and no oven was make soup. Even though that was a rough culinary patch, we do enjoy lots of comforting soup in the winter. It's one sure way to stay warm at least a little while!

This Pumpkin Ginger Soup is an adaptation of a soup from Simply in Season, same series as the More with Less cookbook, but in my opinion, tremendously more applicable to modern life in a place with very seasonal eating patterns. I've owned the book for a couple years, and it has really taught me to think differently and more creatively about the vegetables we have in season. Totally a worthwhile purchase if you're looking for a good "from scratch" type book. Anyway, this soup combines some of my favorite flavors of the autumn season into a bowl of gorgeous orange. A disclaimer on this, though, is that over the few years I've made it my daughter has never liked it. The rest of us love it so take that for what it's worth.

Pumpkin Soup with Honey Butter on Toast

Pumpkin Ginger Soup
1 Tablespoon oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cups pumpkin chunks or puree
1 large or 2 medium apples, peeled and chopped
2 inches fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
4 cups water
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the oil over medium heat in a soup pot. Add the onion and ginger and saute until golden. Add in the pumpkin, apples, water, and stock cubes. Bring to a boil and then cook over med-low heat covered until the pumpkin and apples are soft and mashable. If you use pumpkin that is already cooked, this process will only take 10-15 minutes. Add seasoning to taste. If you want a smooth soup, puree in the blender.

The cookbook suggests having this soup with bread smeared with honey butter. It's a delicious combination. This soup pairs really nicely with the Autumn Fruit Salad, too.

Miso Soup

Japanese food lies at the very top of my all-time favorite cuisines. I'm not a huge fan of sushi, but Japanese food has so much more than that. Their little bite-sized salad selections just make me happy. Miso soup is something I love to have at restaurants, but is also incredibly easy to make at home. Yes, you can do it without the dashi stock (or as close as I can get here), but it's so much more delicious with it!

Miso Soup (for 4 bowls)
1 Tablespoon kelp flakes (this REALLY expands)
4 cups water
1 small block tofu
2 green onions, green and white parts sliced
4 Tablespoons miso paste

Fill a pot with 4 cups water. I do this with cold water, but in a pinch you could heat it to speed up the process. Add the kelp flakes to the water and let it sit for 30 minutes. That's your stock. Place the block of tofu on some folded up paper towels and place a weight on top to absorb excess moisture. Let it sit about 20 minutes before cutting into small cubes. Bring the soup stock up to a boil. Add the tofu, and for the sake of making sure all germs get killed, add the green onions and boil a few minutes. Scoop some of the hot stock into a bowl and add the miso paste to the boil. Stir to dissolve the paste in the water. Do a thorough job or your soup will be missing a lot of flavor from an undissolved chunk. Add the paste/water mixture to the pot. Stir just to heat through and turn off the heat. Technically, I think you should not boil the soup once the miso paste is added.

Note: If you've never made miso soup before, it separates as it cools so don't make it too far in advance. You just have to stir it up again to get it mixed when you eat it. Also, if you don't know where to get miso and kelp flakes, there's a shop called Uttam here that caters to East Asian customers. They've got all that stuff, but you could also try Japanese restaurants as many of them sell at least the miso paste quite cheaply. A lot of vegetable sellers carry tofu IF you buy in the morning. It gets sold fast, but it's ridiculously cheap for a block so its no wonder.