Moorish-Style Chickpea and Spinach Stew Stew

I listen to NPR every day on the way home from work. Because of the economic recession, they were doing a piece on how to feed your family of four with only $10. To me, cooking cheaply is always a win. Especially something yummy. This chef told a wonderful story about how his wife made this for him when they were first married. (And he was probably less famous and making less money.) I find it’s always encouraging to cook if I hear more about how wonderful this dish is. Jason really loves this dish.

Moorish-Style Chickpea and Spinach Stew

Ingredients:

1 14 oz can of chickpeas or 9 ounces dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 ounces white sliced bread with the crusts removed
2 tablespoons pimenton (Spanish sweet paprika) or just regular paprika
1 pinch saffron
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 pound spinach, washed and cleaned (I’ve also used kale.)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Egg Drop Soup

Nothing is better than a bowl of Egg Drop Soup. At least when it comes to soup.

I remember going to Chinese restaurants as a child and sometimes wishing I could just order a big bowl of the soup. Which would’ve been a bad thing for me as a child due to a childhood egg allergy.

Thankfully, now that I’m all grown up, I don’t have the allergy anymore and I can make a big pot of it anytime I want. Plus, this is possibly one of the easiest recipes I know.

Egg Drop Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable stock
14 oz tofu
3-4 eggs
2 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger or 1 tbsp fresh ginger
2 tsp soy sauce, add more if needed
frozen edamame, as much as you like
frozen corn, as much as you like
1 can of water chestnuts chopped
Variety of seasonal vegetables from zucchini and summer squash to green beans

Pan fry your tofu to cook it and give it some firmness.

Place your stock into a medium soup pot. I liked to use my Le Creuset to make this soup. Add your salt, pepper, ginger, and soy sauce.

Add frozen vegetables, water chestnuts, and your fresh vegetables. Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes. Then you’ll want to taste it and add more ginger or soy sauce to your liking.

Put the tofu into the soup.

Cooking in the La Cruset

Next, you’re going to the thicken the soup. Remove about 1/8 of a cup of broth and put it in a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Add corn starch to your bowl and whisk well. Pour your mixture back into the soup and stir. Taste soup again. You may need to do this two or three times in order to get your desired soup thickness.

Now for adding your egg, and this is really the only way to do it. Since most of us only have two arms, you might need assistance. I often make Jason help me with this part as it seems to turn out better.

Crack eggs into a separate bowl and beat them like you were going to be making scrambled eggs. After that, start stirring your soup. You want to create a some strong whirling action. Quickly pour your beaten eggs through the tines of a dinner form. This causes the egg to evenly disperse throughout the soup, just like restaurant egg drop soup, instead of lumping into scrambled eggs. Usually, I have Jason stir while I dump the eggs in to make things easier.

Simmer for about 5 more minutes and serve. Yum.

Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup

Recipe is originally from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup lentils
6 cups water
3 bay leaves
2 slices fresh ginger root, each about the size of a quarter
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup canned chopped tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
pinch of cayenne
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
salt and ground pepper to taste

Rinse lentils. Put them in a soup pot with the water, bay leaves, and ginger. Cover and place on high heat.

Prepare the carrots and tomatoes and add them to the pot. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

While the vegetables simmer, heat olive oil in a heavy skillet on medium heat. Add onions, cook for about 10 minutes, or until browned. Add the cumin, coriander, and cayenne and saute for another minute, stirring to prevent sticking. Remove from heat.

When lentils are tender, remove the bay leaves and ginger from pot. Stir in sauteed onions and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper. Serve hot.

The original recipe calls for chicken, which I just substituted for some pan-fried tofu.

Cream of Poblano Soup

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

6 corn tortillas, 6″ (original calls for 3, which makes it thinner)
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup onion, finely diced
1/2 cup poblano peppers, fine dice
2 tbsp butter
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup half-and-half

Pan-fried tofu
Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded

Cut the corn tortillas into ninths, place in a food processor and chop until fine. Add flour, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend until the tortillas become the consistency of cornmeal.

Place the canola oil in a stockpot on medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers. Saute until onions are clear. Add butter and let melt.

Add tortilla-flour mixture to the pan and mix to form a roux, stirring with a wire whip. Do not let it burn.

While stirring, slowly add stock. Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom. Add the half-and-half. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for 7 to 10 minutes. Do not let soup come to a hard boil. Turn off heat and let cool.

Serve with tofu, cheese, diced poblano pepper, and crisply fried tortilla strips or tortilla chips. Or a variety of your choice.

This recipe is original from Cookography where they call it the Best French Onion Soup Ever, and while I still think that restaurant beat this (but that could be me romanticizing my Europe trip), I do think this is damn good soup. Jason thought it was little labor intensive — I made him stir a lot –, but from what I’ve read about French Onion Soup, this recipe is actually an easier one to make. Though Jason did admit that delicious soup was worth that little extra labor every once-in-a-while.

French Onion Soup

Serves 6

For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance.

Ingredients:

Soup

3 tbsp unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Salt
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups vegetable broth (original called for low-sodium chicken broth)
2 cups beef broth (okay, yes, I know beef broth comes from cows, but you can’t have french onion soup without it)
1/2 tbsp thyme (original calls for 6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine)
1 bay leaf
Ground black pepper

Topping

1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400°F.

Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook covered for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown — 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer — stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat on stove. Cook onions, stirring frequently, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown — 15 to 20 minutes — reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary.

Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown.

Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

For topping, arrange the baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in a 400-degree oven until the bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

The original recipe comes from the Skinny Chef. Hers was a little more low-fat than mine and contained chicken.

This soup certain beats anything out of a can. (Sorry, mom.)

Cream of Tomato Soup

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 stalk celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 26 oz can diced tomatoes or whole peeled tomatoes, diced
2 cups water
1/4 cup cream cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Heat oil in a large stockpot on medium-high heat. Add celery, carrots, and onion. Cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are soft. Add the tomato paste and turn the heat down to medium. Cook an addition 1-2 minutes until the paste become fragrant and begins to brown.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 10 to 15 minutes until the soup begins to thicken.

Add the cream cheese, salt and pepper. Blend with an immersion blender or transfer to a blender to puree.

Heat and serve.

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb asparagus
3 tbsp butter
6 sliced shallots
2 tbsp flour
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock (can substitute with water)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup milk
1/2 cup single cream (I used heavy whipping cream as that’s what I had. It made it more of a winter soup than the original one I made which was much more summer.)
2 tsp chopped fresh chervil
salt and pepper

Cut off the tops of the asparagus and set aside. I just broke them naturally where they would. Cut the remaining asparagus into slices.

Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a large saucepan. Add shallots and gently fry them for 2-3 minutes until they’re soft, but not browned.

Add asparagus and fry over low heat for about 1 minute.

Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Add stock and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and half cover the pan. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the asparagus is very tender.

Cool slightly and then process the soup in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Pour the soup slowly through a sieve back into the saucepan. Add the milk by pouring and stirring it through the sieve, with the asparagus, so as to extract the maximum amount of asparagus puree. Work the puree through with a wooden spoon.

Melt the remaining butter and fry the asparagus tips gently for 3-4 minutes to soften.

Heat the soup gently for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the cream and the asparagus tips. Continue to heat gently and serve sprinkled with chopped fresh chervil.