Corn and Potato Chowder

It’s soup season! I had some lovely Quincy corn in the fridge that I needed to use and a recipe I wanted to try, so Corn and Potato Chowder was on the menu for dinner last night. The ingredients. These are things I almost always have on hand. The only thing I had to buy was whipping cream.

This took about 45 minutes start to finish (not including cooking the bacon). I think I can get this down to a 30 minute meal with a few tweaks. The original recipe does not call for bacon, but everything is better with bacon, right?! This was a totally filling comfort food dinner. If you sub vegetable broth for the chicken broth, the chowder is vegetarian.

This makes about 4 main dish servings. It will not freeze well due to the corn and potatoes.

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2 cups corn
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

Sauté corn, onion and garlic in a large saucepan until the onion is tender. Process half of the vegetables in a blender or food processor until finely chopped. Return to saucepan.

Add broth, potatoes and thyme. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in cream and simmer 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve topped with crumbled bacon.

Variations: try adding diced ham instead of the bacon.

Top with shredded cheddar cheese and/or chives.

Lunch from the Freezer and Pantry

No time to pack a pretty bento lunch this morning, I just grabbed something from the well stocked freezer.

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup. I rounded out the rest of my lunch with some cheese and crackers. Easy peasy. And very tasty!

This soup has a nice little zing to it from the curry powder and just a hint of sweetness from the pears. Just the thing for a gray day like today.

Pear Overload! Part #1.

I recently had the privilege of harvesting an entire tree’s worth of pears. Almost 5 gallons worth (and there’s still more to harvest!). What to do with all these pears?

I just happened to have a butternut squash in the fridge that needed to be eaten as well… So I did a quick search on RecipeZaar and found a great, easy recipe!  Butternut Squash and Pear Soup.  And it’s vegan! Bonus.

I wanted to use the entire squash, so I more or less doubled the recipe. I also used my new lemon curry powder, which is lighter in taste and worked perfectly in the soup. I didn’t have any vegetable broth on hand, so I used water and vegetable buillion.

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 lb butternut squash, cut into 1-inch pieces (about half a medium squash)
2 ripe medium bartlett pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

Heat oil on medium heat in Dutch oven or soup pot. Gently sauté onions until softened—about 5 minutes.

Add curry powder and stir, sautéing for 1 minute. Add butternut squash and pear pieces. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.

Pour in vegetable broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until squash and pear are tender. Transfer soup to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth, working in two batches if necessary.

I let the soup cool, then took my stick blender to it. The soup is creamy and thick, but not gloppy. Into tupperware it went! Each container is about 2 cups (~2 servings) of soup. Labeled and put most of it in the freezer for later. It isn’t really soup weather right now, but this will be fantastic in about a month as the weather turns cooler. I intend to eat it for lunch – maybe with some grainy crackers and chevre cheese.

And so begins my fall food storage…

Miso Soup with Enoki Mushrooms

Miso Soup with Enoki Mushrooms. Almost instant soup!!  I found this recipe in Cooking Light, but of course I also added it to my recipe files on Zaar. It is so simple – miso paste, soy sauce, enoki mushrooms and tofu. I added a sliced green onion for the top just for a little extra color. Delicious! And super easy.

I will be making this often. I really like that I get to control how strong I make the soup. I had no idea that miso soup could be this simple.

Cannellini and Cabbage Soup – Or how to convert leftovers

Sunday night I made Oktoberfest Pork Roast in the crock pot. The roast quickly disappeared, but I had lots of leftover beans. What to do with them? Half went in the freezer in small portions. Those can be made into soup or something else later. 

I found a recipe for Cannellini and Cabbage Soup in my 1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes cookbook. I  love this book!! So many great ideas. In fact, I liked it so much I bought the sequel (1001 More…).

The beans were already seasoned with juices from the pork and intermingled with small chunks of onion and apples (quite delicious!).  Since I already had lots of flavor in the beans, I had to make a few adaptations to the recipe.

Here is the original recipe:

Cannellini and Cabbage Soup

vegetable oil cooking spray
3 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon crushed caraway seed
2 (15 ounce) cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1 (15 ounce) can great northern beans, rinsed, drained
1/2 cup mostaccioli pasta, uncooked (penne)
salt and pepper to taste

Spray large saucepan with cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Sauté cabbage, onion, garlic, and caraway seeds until cabbage begins to wilt, 8 to 10 minutes. Add chicken broth, water, and beans to saucepan; heat to boiling.  Stir in pasta; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until pasta is al dente, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

What I did… I sauteed the cabbage and only 2 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. After the cabbage was tender I added  I used about 4 cups of water and added some chicken bouillon. Then I stirred in the beans. I omitted the onions and caraway seed (didn’t have any). I let this come to a boil then added several handfuls (I rarely measure when cooking for myself!) of piccolini penne.

After the pasta was cooked, I dished up the soup and served it with some dark brown bread and butter. Nice Italian/Germann comfort food dinner for a rainy night. A bit of a bland looking soup, but it was very satisfying.  Crispy bacon crumbled on top would have made it even better!

To make this truely vegetarian – use vegetarian beans (canned or not) and vegetable broth.