Soup-er Sunday: Cream of Chicken & Potato Soup

This is a "here's-what-I-had, so-here's-what-I-did" recipe. Interestingly enough, after my post about Classic Chicken Noodle Soup, I had a conversation with my mom about the soup that she used to make when we were under the weather. So delicious, so comforting, just the smell of her soup cooking in the house healed us. My mom is kind of a potato freak. So instead of using pasta or noodles, her chicken soup contains potatoes. And so last Thursday, five minutes after I had dropped my little ones off at daycare, my provider summoned me back for poor little Drew, who was shivering uncontrollably. "I cold, Mama!" he kept saying. Not too long after we pulled into the driveway, my sweetie was sporting a nice fever. He hunkered down on the couch, snuggy in hand (and mouth) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the tube. How can you deny a little guy some TV when he's feeling down?! Just few minutes after that...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
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And luckily, the stars had aligned just perfectly in terms of my refrigerator. It contained all the necessary ingredients for a healing chicken soup. There was a left over rotisserie chicken waiting to become stock, as well as some fresh chicken breast that hadn't been marked for anything else yet. And a few potatoes I had purchased at the farmer's market that hadn't seen the oven yet. Now we were cooking--literally and figuratively!
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The finished product on Thursday was lovely--and it was even "BC": Before Cream. My husband asked me, "Did you make this soup from scratch?" On Friday, at home again with sick kiddos, I made a roux, added some Penzey's Chicken Soup Base, some milk and half-n-half, and Thursday's Chicken & Potato soup became Friday's Cream of Chicken & Potato soup!


Here's What I Had & Here's What I Did (THURSDAY):

3 chicken breasts - I seasoned them with S&P, then put them in the crock pot with about an inch or two of water. I also added about 1 - 2 tablespoons of Penzey's Chicken Soup Base. If you can't get your hands on Penzey's, try substituting boullion cubes, or better yet the paste-type of boullion. I turned the crock on high.
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1 leftover rotisserie chicken - I put it in a stock pot to make broth. I also added some baby carrots, onion, garlic cloves, and a couple bay leaves simply because I had them.
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After the rotisserie chicken had simmered for a couple of hours, I strained out all the discard pieces, and added the strained broth and usable meat and carrots to the crockpot chicken.
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At this point, the crockpot chicken was well on its way to being done, also, so I diced up a couple of potatoes, and tossed them into the crockpot, too. When the chicken breast in the crockpot were done cooking, I pulled them out, shredded them, tossed them back in.
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When the potatoes came to a "fork-tender" state of being, it was time to eat!

AND THEN ON FRIDAY...
...the sickness saga continued, so I made a roux: Cook equal parts of butter (3 T) and flour (3 T) in a saucepan over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, stirring--I use a whisk--constantly. You will have a pasty mixture. Gradually add 2 cups of milk, again whisking constantly, until you have a smooth white sauce. More milk = thinner sauce, less = thicker. In this case, thickness doesn't matter a whole lot, because you're adding it to a brothy soup to make it creamy. I also added...wait for it...MORE PENZEY'S SOUP BASE to the roux before I added it to the soup. Because...I am in love with it. And I'm in love with this soup. "BC" was great. "AC" - "After Cream" was even greater! I am my mother's daughter and I can make Cream of Chicken & Potato Soup.

Weeknight Cooking: Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

I am all about authentic dishes. Long, tedious prep times? Not scared. Multi-step recipes? No sweat. Head to the store to get a specialty ingredient I don't normally keep on hand? Why not! Except during the week. Monday through Friday during the school year I'm all about fast and furious. First, when I come home, I am famished. If I don't think a meal will be ready anytime soon, I am going to eat whatever is in sight--and it probably isn't low-fat. Second, I'm mentally and physically exhausted from a day of dealing with high school students. Third, I've got two very young children. Enough said.

So, while I would love to be making my own bread crumbs, pounding out chicken breasts, rolling up ham and gruyere cheese in them, lightly sauteeing them and then finishing the cooking process in the oven--like you might do if you were making authentic chicken cordon bleu--it's Monday night, people. Please.

Good thing I found a quick and easy recipe to fake it! I had barely begun and I was already done! (That rhymes by the way.) The original recipe comes from the Kraft Food & Family magazine. I am going to tell you the original recipe, then how I changed it, and why.

EASY CHICKEN CORDON BLEU
from Kraft Food & Family Magazine (not sure month or year)

2 cups Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken from the multi-serving canister
** I used a regular box of S.T. stuffing (6 oz) because it's what I had on hand.

4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb.)
**I have a 6'4" husband and I like to have leftovers to take to work for lunch the next day, so I used 2 lbs.

4 slices Oscar Mayer Thin Sliced Smoked Ham
**I had leftover ham from the deli, so I used that. It wasn't smoked. No big deal. AND sinc I had more chicken, I needed more ham, too. If you're following my amounts, you'll need about 6 - 8 slices of ham.

1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
**I doubled this part because we like to have plenty of sauce at our house.

1 tablespoon dijon mustard
**First I doubled the dijon, because I doubled the soup. Then I added 2 more tablespoons because the flavor wasn't coming through enough.

1 cup Kraft Shredded Swiss Cheese
**I used Meijer brand, which comes in a 6 oz. package, and I used the whole thing.


Regardless of what measurements you use, the cooking instructions will be the same:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare stuffing mix as directed on package; set aside.


2. Place chicken in a 9x13 baking dish; cover with ham. Mix soup and mustard; spoon over chicken. Top with swiss cheese. Spread prepared stuffing evenly over top.


3. Bake 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. (I had to cook an additional 10 minutes because the chicken breasts weren't small, and they were on the thicker side.)


4. Original makes four servings


5. OR the original would feed one hungry 6'4" husband + 1 wife + 1 picky 2 1/2 year old with NO leftovers.


6. If you follow my measurements, you can feed all of the above, and have one leftover portion size for wife to take to lunch and two decent-sized portions for the husband to eat at 11:00 p.m. while watching hunting shows!

Soup-er Sunday: Soup Vocabulary

I didn't really feel like making soup today, given our very warm October temperatures. We had the windows open, the thermostat said 70 degrees (almost turned the air on), and even though all of the ingredients for a lovely Cauliflower Soup had been purchased, I just didn't feel like gettin' to it. I mostly wanted to sit on it.

So I pondered the difference between some soup titles. What would be the difference between Cauliflower Bisque or Cream of Cauliflower or Cauliflower Chowder? I know when I see "bisque" or "chowder" in the title of the soup that I will be served a thick, creamy (heavy...calorie-filled...high fat...) soup. I also am already mildly familiar with "consomme" -- something to do with broth. So exciting.

Instead of grading papers, cleaning the house, taking a shower, or doing one of a million other things on my to-do list, I am here, telling you about soup vocabulary. I have problems!

Here are some of my findings:

BISQUE
Bisque, the food--not to be confused with bisque, the color--is a thick, creamy soup made from pureed seafood or vegetables. My hypothesis would be that it's the act of puree-ing that makes a bisque differ from a "cream of whatever" soup. If you're a history buff, or maybe planning to be a Jeopardy contestant someday, you can check out how the history of how bisque got it's name here. In 2006 my husband and I road-tripped through New England all the way to Maine. There, in Bar Harbor waiting for our whale-watching tour, we ate the best Lobster Bisque on the face of the planet. We still talk about it. Too bad I can't remember the name of the restaurant.

CREAM OF...
The Wikipedia definition says "Flavored broth thickened with a white sauce." Hmm. While I totally understand it, I really thought there would have been more mention of cream. To make a white sauce, you use milk or cream, so perhaps it would be redundant. For me, adding more cream is never redundant--it's intelligent.

CONSOMME

In the wise words of Wikipedia, "a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavored stock or bouillon that has been clarified usually through a fining process involving egg protein. It usually requires an advanced knowledge of cooking and past experience to create a high quality consommé." Seriously? You lost me at "fining process involving egg protein." Clearly I will not be using any such process. Attempting to make a "high quality consomme" is not on my bucket list. Give me Penzey's Chicken Soup Base, I give you broth. Period.

CHOWDER

Chowders are thick soups that traditionally contain potatoes, milk and cream. Most popular might be the seafood variety -- think New England Clam Chowder. Also pretty popular might be Corn Chowder. My definition of "chowder" would be "put on a red-checkered-bib and chow on this big ol' bowl of thick soup." Get it? Chow? Never mind.

And so ends today's Soup Vocabulary 101. Any questions?

I have one: Got Soup?

Pumping Survival Kit

Even though we said goodbye a couple of years ago, Miss Medela made her way back into my life.

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Being a breastfeeding mom AND a full-time working mom was NOT how nature intended motherhood to work—it is not natural to be sitting hooked up to a noisy pump while your baby is rocking peacefully in someone else’s arms. Sorry Miss Medela—I just don’t bond with you quite like I bond with my child.

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Not only is it not natural, and not providing the nurturing connection between mother and child, it’s damn difficult. Every chance you get, you’re sitting by yourself with your pump. Forget eating lunch or taking a break with your colleagues. A working-nursing mom’s only lunch buddy is Miss Medela. And the relationship doesn’t end when you leave work. Every night you’re washing the pump parts out, making sure you have everything ready for the next day when you’ll be lunching again with your only work friend—the pump. Now, I do consider myself lucky because I work in a school where every two classrooms are connected by a back office. There is an extreme amount of privacy AND I can keep Miss Medela set up all of the time. I do not have to put it away or pack it up or carry it back and forth from home to work. And thank goodness, I do not have to pump in a bathroom, like others have had to do!

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For those of us who do not produce a whole lot of excess milk, pumping can be damn stressful. Before I went back to work, milk production was not a problem. I would sit in by nursing group and listen to the moms asking for advice on how to increase their milk production because they were “falling behind” now that they’ve returned to work. Been there. Done that. Happened to me with my first child. Probably going to be there again, I thought.

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Incidentally I have a friend who would literally pump an extra five ounces (like a WHOLE extra bottle) every morning. This is just not human. For me, I was elated if I had a surplus of just a few ounces a day. I was pretty diligent in building up my freezer supply before I had to return to work. And I was blessed that my maternity leave, coupled with the teacher-summer-off, made my little boy a whopping 7 months old when I returned to work full-time. Seven months of exclusive, uninterrupted, as-nature-intended breastfeeding.

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I do have a few things I’ve learned along the way that have made my relationship with Miss Medela go a little more smoothly.

The following is what I would call my pumping survival kit:
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1. A multitude of ways to make your pump do it's job: My pump had all of the following options available, and I bought them all. In fact, I wonder if Medela sells stock options...I should have purchased some!

A. AC adapter for car (great invention!)
B. AC cord battery pack (plus lots of extra batteries)
C. AC cord that came with it, PLUS an extra AC cord

2. Duplicates or even triplicates of pump parts.
At Baby Beloved, my breastfeeding-all-things-baby-and-motherhood store, I was able to purchase all of the extra parts (tubing, cups, valves, etc) for a very reasonable price. You can purchase some of the extra parts at Babies R Us, but they don't carry everything like Baby Beloved does. This cut down on having to wash items so often. I am up to EIGHT complete sets of horn-valve combos. This means that I can pump FOUR times before I have to wash a single part.

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3. Keep the pump at work, if possible.

When I went back to work after I had my first child, a friend who was done using her pump motor loaned me hers. With all of my extra parts, I was able to have a permanent pumping station set up both at home AND at work. How nice to simply bring bottles back and forth, rather than a big pump bag. How nice NOT to have to set up and take apart my pump every single day. This alone was worth every penny of every extra pump parts, and I'll bet the convenience of the two pump stations contributed to my sanity since I was having to pump both at home and at work after Drew decided to wean himself earlier than I had hoped.

Now that I am a mother of a second child, I am lucky enough to own two of my OWN pumps, because my health insurance foot the bill for a pump with EACH child. So I can keep one at work full-time and keep the other set up at home or bring with me on day trips or whatever.

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4. A microwave bottle sterilizer. I think the worst part of pumping is washing/sterilizing all the parts. Medela makes nice steam bags, but they don't hold that many parts. I keep a steam-bag with each pump all of the time, so no matter where I am, if there’s a microwave, I can sterilize. However, I purchased an Avent microwave bottle steamer, which is advertised to hold something like six bottles plus the nipples and tops. This steamer holds LOTS of pumping stuff and is done very quickly – 4 minutes. It makes my pumping life so much easier.

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5. Patience, flexibility, and an understanding that even though you cannot do it all, you are still an awesome mother. My first child began to wean himself at about six months, when I went back to work and he LOVED the easiness of bottles. The milk came so quickly, he didn’t have to work for it or wait for it. I kept on pumping at work AND at home. I pumped ‘round the clock. I almost pumped myself into the loony bin. Even with all of the pumping, I was still regularly dipping into my freezer supply which I had worked really hard to build up while I was on maternity leave. I was sad that Drew didn’t follow the plan of nursing when we were home together and only taking bottles at daycare. I was disappointed in myself because I had planned to exclusively nurse for a year, and I could see that it just wasn’t going to happen. I was mad that I didn’t produce mad amounts of milk (no pun intended), and therefore had to pump at home and at school and everywhere in between just to keep him exclusively on breast milk for as long as I did. Around 9 months, I had to start supplementing with formula.

This time around, I still built up the freezer supply, and nursed almost exclusively until I went back to work. In fact, this time around, I barely allowed Brayden to have a bottle unless absolutely necessary. I still planned to nurse until a year, but I was very aware that my plan was only my plan. Brayden was really the one controlling the plans. Having gotten teeth much earlier than Drew, Brayden went through a biting phase that made it next to impossible for me to feed him for a week or so, and I thought that was the end. But it wasn’t. And as school started, I was already dipping into my freezer supply to keep up with Brayden’s needs (even though I was pumping THREE times a day at work). I started experimenting with Similac Organic Formula in Brayden’s cereal to make sure his tummy would survive formula. Then I started letting him drink a couple of ounces of formula after he ate his cereal to see how he reacted to the taste. Things were going FANTASTIC until the Similac Formula recall. Why not add just a little more guilt to a working mother’s repertoire? But I’m trying not to let ANY of that get to me. Brayden still nurses once or twice a day. He gets a combination of fresh breast milk, frozen breast milk, and formula in his bottles throughout the week. He is happy and healthy, and I’m doing my best. That's about all a mother could ask for!

Soup-er Sunday: Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup. Classic. Comforting. Cure-all. Need I say more?

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I thought perhaps I should make this soup today, since my husband ran 26.2 miles this morning. You know, just a marathon. His first. And he did it in 3 1/2 hours. Wow. Knowing that his body is going to be seriously hurting, why not make the classic go-to when you're not feeling so hot, right? When he got done with the race, he thought chicken noodle soup sounded good. However, he also noted he had been dreaming about a huge, cheesy pepperoni and sausage pizza since about mile number 10. So we ordered the pizza while we were walking back to the car. He can have that for lunch--after all, if I had run 26.2 miles, I would darn well eat whatever I pleased, too. We'll have the soup for dinner :)

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CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe, because his sounded most similar to mine (and I've never written mine down!)

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Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (or pressed through a garlic press)
• 2 medium carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces (or smaller)
• 2 celery ribs, chopped into bite-sized pieces (or smaller)
• 4 cups of Penzey’s prepared Chicken Soup Base OR 4 cups chicken stock (recipe follows) OR boxed stock (like Swanson's)
• 8 ounces dried wide egg noodles
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken – I like to use rotisserie chicken
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you’ve got them on hand, use the following, if not, don’t worry—you will still have delicious soup!

4 fresh thyme sprigs

1 bay leaf

1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

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Directions:

Place a soup pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Also add the thyme and bay leaf if you have them. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes until tender. Fold in the chicken, and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes to heat through; season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley (if you have it) before serving.

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CHICKEN STOCK: There are a hundred different ways to go about making chicken stock. Here is what both my mom and I do—SO easy!

• 1-2 Whole Rotisserie Chicken leftovers (Leftovers=whatever we didn’t use after we took off all of the chicken meat. For both my mom and me, that means everything except the white meat. We’re not dark meat fans. The leftovers includes the bones, skin, and all. If we don’t feel like making stock, but we don’t want to waste good leftover rotisserie chicken parts, we put them in a big Ziplock and throw it in the freezer until we do feel like making chicken stock.)
• Water

When you’re ready to make stock, put leftovers (frozen or not) into a stockpot. Add water until chicken parts are just covered. Be careful not to add too much water. This will simply dilute the stock and take away from flavor. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low so that the liquid can simmer. Simmer at least an hour. If necessary, add a little more water to keep the chicken covered while simmering.

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Note 1: the addition of one, many, or all of the following ingredients would be LOVELY to add to your stock, but it is not a deal-breaker if you don’t have them on hand at the time you are ready to make your stock.

• 2 carrots, cut in large chunks
• 3 celery stalks, cut in large chunks
• 2 large white onions, quartered
• 1 head of garlic, halved so that all cloves are cut in half
• 1 turnip, halved
• 1/4 bunch fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Note 2: If I have it, I like to add a tablespoon or two of Penzey's Chicken Soup base to my cooking stock, depending on how it tastes, to give it an even richer, deeper flavor.

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When done simmering, carefully strain the stock (I use a pasta strainer) into another pot to remove all of the solids. Use the stock immediately or cover and refrigerate or freeze.

Weeknight Cooking: Chicken Pasta Primavera

I may be passionate about cooking, however, I am also a full-time working mother of two young children. When I get home from work with a two-and-a-half year old and an 8-month old in tow, the last thing I have time (or energy) to do is intense food prep (like chopping vegetables) or intense cooking (like babysitting a roux on the stove). So...I have few go-to recipes that taste really good, but involve shortcuts that I wouldn't normally take if I were cooking for the FUN of it or if I were trying to IMPRESS someone.

I like this Pasta Primavera recipe because (a) it's super easy and quick, (b) you can customize it to your family's tastes, and (c) it's a one-pot wonder--you have a complete meal and you wouldn't need to serve anything else.

By the way, "primavera" means "(the season of) spring" in Italian and Spanish. Hence the presence of fresh vegetables in this dish.


CHICKEN PASTA PRIMAVERA

Chicken - I had some frozen chicken breasts that I defrosted in the microwave. Allow for about one chicken breast per adult that you're cooking for. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Saute over medium-medium high heat in olive oil until cooked through. Set aside until pasta and veggies are cooked.

Pasta - This particular time I used Butoni Three-Cheese Tortellini, which you can find in the refrigerated section of the supermarket. Prepare as directed on the package and set aside (or leave in the colander that you used to drain pasta).

Frozen Veggies - My favorite veggies are the carrot, cauliflower, broccoli blend. I buy the Birdseye Steamfresh because you can steam them right in their package in the microwave and they turn fork tender, but not at all mushy. Prepare as directed on the package.

Sauce - I like toss this dish in a cream sauce. Because it's weeknight cooking, I did not make my own alfredo sauce, which would have been fabulous, but I used our favorite jarred version: Classico Alfredo Sauce. If I had not had any on hand, a drizzle of olive oil and/or balsalmic vinegar would have been my go-to sauce for the evening. While the frozen vegetables are cooking, pour sauce in large saucepan or stockpot (mabye the pot you cooked your pasta in). Begin to warm over medium heat. Add cooked pasta, cooked chicken, and veggies. Toss to coat.

You're done! Serve it up and make someone else do the dishes!

Soup-er Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Chili

There are two things I like about this chili. Number One: No beans! Number Two: No Beans! Just kidding—there are lots of things I like about this chili. No beans is certainly one of them. Also I like that the ground chicken breast keeps the fat and calories down…right up until you add cream and sour cream and bleu cheese crumbles and…. I also like that this chili won me my first chili-cook-off prize for Most Unique! The other categories were “Best Traditional” and “Most-Alarming,” so I was super pleased with the win. My husband said if there had been a “Best Overall” category, this chili would have won it. I’d like to think that he’s not just stroking my cooking ego J

So I started with a recipe that I found in Rachel Ray’s magazine. (Incidentally, Rachel has a second, different BCC recipe, that I came across online later.). Anyway, I did a test run of the magazine recipe last weekend. While pleased with the flavor, I thought there was a pretty high meat-to-sauce ratio, so I made a mental note that when I made it the next time for the chili cookoff, I would double the various liquids in the recipe (beer, tomato sauce, Frank’s Hot Sauce) to make it more soup-y. And then I made a few other additions and adjustments until I got to the final (winning!) result.

I also did some thinking on the subject of Buffalo Chicken Wings. What makes people think of Buffalo Wings? For me? Ranch dressing, bleu cheese dressing, celery sticks. Celery already makes an appearance in the recipe, but I thought why not include some ranch dressing and bleu cheese? Thus I have included the recipe for the toppings as well!

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Buffalo Chicken Chili with Bleu Cheese Crumbles and Buffalo-Ranch Sour Cream

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1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 pounds ground chicken

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed through garlic press

2-3 celery ribs, finely chopped

1 medium to large onion, finely chopped

2-3 carrots, finely chopped

1-2 jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped

Salt & freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons ground cumin (half a palmful)

1 ½ teaspoon ground coriander (one-third palmful)

6 - 8 ounces beer (your favorite brew—I used Miller Light)

1 bottle cayenne pepper hot sauce (some will be used for chili, some for ranch topper)

Two 15-oz. (or one 29 oz.) cans tomato sauce

One 8-oz. carton heavy cream

One 16-oz. container sour cream

Crumbled blue cheese

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Buffalo-Ranch Sour Cream

1 cup sour cream (or whatever you didn’t add to the pot of chili)

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons Penzey’s Buttermilk Ranch Dressing spice*

Frank’s Hot Sauce (to taste)

*if you don’t have a Penzey’s near you, you could probably buy Hidden Valley’s ranch dressing seasoning OR buy ranch-flavored vegetable dip in the sour cream section and just add the hot sauce

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1. Heat a medium Dutch oven or large skillet over high heat. Add olive oil and butter and melt together. Add the chicken and cook, breaking up the meat, for 6 minutes. Add the garlic, celery, onion, carrot, and jalapeño. Season with salt, pepper, cumin and coriander, and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the beer and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook the mixture over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes to reduce the liquid.
3. Stir in ½ cup of the hot sauce and all of the tomato sauce. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. At this point, you’ll need to start your quality control. Do some tasting. Then slowly, in small increments, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream here and a dash of heavy cream there. Taste again. Needs more hot sauce? Toss some in. Needs more cream? You got it. Sorry people, this is just how I cook.
4. The chili is ready to eat once you’re satisfied with the flavor. Of course, in my opinion, chili is always better the next day…after having been refrigerated and re-heated. Top with a bit of Buffalo-Ranch Sour Cream (recipe follows) and bleu cheese crumbles.

A Couple of Notes:

• The best part about a chili recipe is you can add more or less of something without really hurting the end product. Just do lots of quality control (tasting) and remember you can ALWAYS add more, but you can NEVER take back out!

• Rachel Ray's magazine recipe included all the ingredients except for the sour cream and heavy cream. The first time I made the chili I did not include either of those two ingredients, either. I still thought it was tasty! So if you're watching your calories, don't add in the cream or sour cream and the chili will be quite low in fat and have less calories.

• Adjust the vegetables as you would like. Since this recipe doesn’t have any beans, I thought adding more of the veggies worked nicely for texture purposes. As far as chopping goes, I just toss them in the food processor and let it do the work.

Soup-er Sunday: Tomato Tortilla Soup

Southwest flare. Healthier fare. When I first tasted the soup for "quality control" to get a handle on how much, if any, salt I needed to add, the flavor reminded me of red enchilada sauce...I've never read the ingredients on a can of red enchilada sauce, but it certainly made sense (duh...tomatoes, tortillas and cumin). I appreciate the creamy texture of this soup-- considering it doesn't have any cream--thanks to the corn tortilla pieces getting all blended up. I personally don't think this soup is spicy at all, but you might want to watch the red pepper flakes, just in case. Rachel suggests serving with a quesadilla. I suggest serving with cilantro sour cream (put a 1/2 cup of sour cream in a food processor with a handful of cilantro leaves...pulse until smooth...add a dollop to your bowl of soup).

Tomato Tortilla Soup
Rachel Ray magazine
4 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook time 30 minutes


2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cups chicken broth
One 28-ounce can peeled tomatoes, coarsely chopped, and their juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
Juice of ½ lime
Seven 6-inch corn tortillas, torn into small pieces
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent, about 7 minutes.
2. Add the chicken broth and the tomatoes and their juice. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the cumin, salt, lime juice and tortilla pieces and simmer for 2 minutes.
4. In a blender, puree the soup in batches.
5. Garnish with cilantro and serve.