New year, more soup

2025-01-05T22:54:17Z

A quiet New Year's Eve here this year, but honestly, that's the usual. bell came down to visit, and we got back into watching Nirvana in Fire, and made hotpot for supper. I think the last time we had it was a couple years ago on vacation in the mountains when she and zulu came out to join us for a few days. We set an extra spot at the table for Zulu that night. It's easy to forget how physically exhausting grief is... the night after Bell went home, I think I slept for more than ten hours.

I had a good long stretch off work, but am back tomorrow. This is the first time in a couple years when I haven't set myself a major project while on vacation at home (get the basement cleared out for construction! ... deep-clean the main floor of the house post-construction! ... assemble a floor loom with no instructions!) and I still feel like I would have no trouble just hanging out at home for another week. But! A regular work week tomorrow means it's time to make! more! soup!

White Bean, Ham, and Greens Soup

2-3 carrots
an onion (and a couple cloves of garlic wouldn't be the worst)
2-3 stalks of celery
4-5 cups of chicken or ham stock
1 cup pre-cooked dried white beans or black-eyed beans, or a can of beans, or lentils
2-3 cups of greens (I used bok choy but kale or cabbage would be good too)
1 1/2 cups diced ham (sausage would be good too)
4-5 cups of chicken stock. Would also be good with a can of beer or cider, just add less stock.
Optional: a slog of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice (maybe a tablespoon?), bay leaf
Black pepper

Dice your onion (and possibly garlic), and start it browning in a bit of oil or if you're feeling ambitious, a bit of ham fat. Chop and add the carrot, and then the celery, and the ham. Add the beans and chicken stock, and a bay leaf if you have it. Simmer for about 15-20 min. Add the greens, cook for another 5 minutes or until they're done. Take out the bay leaf, add a bit of vinegar or lemon, add pepper and measure with your heart. Leave out the ham and use veggie stock if you want to go vegetarian, just be prepared to tinker with the recipe a bit for taste (I'd add a big scoop of miso and extra acid to add more flavour.)

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Liminal Zone Chicken Vegetable Soup and other recipes

2024-12-29T00:16:58Z

Most Sundays, I'll rummage through the fridge and freezer and throw together a pot of soup for weekday lunches. I'll mention whatever I'm making in the fanbinding discord server sometimes, and someone inevitably asks for the recipe, so I've started occasionally writing things down. Here's this week's soup, and a few from the past month or so, mostly for easy linking reference later.

Liminal Zone Chicken Vegetable Soup

Half an onion
2-3 carrots
3-4 stalks of celery
1/3 cup of lentils
1/2 cup of corn
1-2 chicken breasts or equivalent
4-5 cups of chicken stock
A bay leaf
1 tsp dried parsley
Black pepper
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

If your chicken isn't cooked, cut it into bite-sized pieces and brown it first. Take it out of the pot. Put a little bit of olive oil or butter in the pot on medium heat. Dice the onion and carrot and celery into whatever bite-sized pieces you prefer. Add the onion, let it brown for a minute or two, add the carrot, give it another couple minutes, add the celery. (I add them as I chop them, in that order. Toss in a bay leaf if you want. Add the lentils, corn, chicken stock, dried parsley, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are done. Add some black pepper (3-4 twists of the pepper grinder, I didn't measure) and a splash of apple cider vinegar at the end after turning off the heat but before serving.

To live up to the name, sub three stalks of wilting green onion from the bottom of the crisper drawer for the half onion, whatever is salvageable from the browning celery you bought a week before Christmas for the finite quantity of 3-4 stalks, and eat at 3:30 pm after sleeping in past ten and only grazing on nuts, chocolate, and potato chips earlier in the day, accompanied by toast with cream cheese and leftover cranberry sauce, before emerging blinking into the last half hour of daylight to go for a walk with a winter jacket thrown over top of your pajamas.

Panang Curry Soup

Like most of my soups, this is a use what's in the fridge/freezer/cupboard meal, and does not necessarily require all the ingredients below. Use what you've got and what you like, it's soup! Quantities and directions are approximate and assume general comfort with cooking, if anyone needs more specifics, let me know and I'm happy to provide.

INGREDIENTS:
Half an onion
2-3 stalks of celery
A carrot
3-4 tablespoons of panang curry paste
Can of coconut milk
2 cups chicken/vegetable stock, possibly an extra cup because this turned out pretty thick and I'm going to need to add more to the leftovers.
Block of tofu (I used medium-firm), and/or chicken, or shrimp, or chickpeas, or whatever protein you've got
Half a can each of: bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn
Handful of mushrooms (fresh, dried, whatever you've got)
Additional vegetables of your choice, I put in some leftover pieces of sweet potato, and would have added peppers and zucchini if I had them
One or two tomatoes if you want
Optional slog of Vietnamese fish sauce
Optional spoonful of peanut butter
Squeeze of lemon or lime juice
Peanuts and/or green onion on top

Except for the curry paste, coconut milk, and stock, everything else is mix and match to your tastes and what you have.

Dice and saute the onion, celery, and carrot in a bit of oil on medium heat. Cut up everything else into bite-sized pieces. If your protein is raw and needs cooking, add it now and cook it, but this would be an awesome place to toss in some leftovers. Add the curry paste, stir it around a bit for a few minutes, then add the coconut milk, stock, and the rest of the veggies and the tofu. I left the tomatoes out until the very end because I wanted them to not get stewed. Simmer for ten to fifteen minutes, taste, add extra flavouring as needed (fish sauce, citrus, etc). Add peanuts and green onion to your bowl as optional toppings. Would be excellent with rice noodles, or the noodles of your choice, or a bowl of rice. (Cook the noodles separately according to the package, add to your bowl and pour soup over top.)

Italian sausage, kale and potato soup

One medium onion
A large carrot or two small ones
3-4 stalks of celery
2 large Italian sausages, or 3-4 smaller ones
3-4 large thin-skinned yellow potatoes
a third of a cup of red lentils (optional)
A bunch of kale (or spinach)
A cup of green beans, only because it is winter and I am craving green vegetables
A bay leaf
A tablespoon of dried oregano
Half a tablespoon of dried parsley
5-6 cups of chicken stock
A parmesan cheese rind (optional but very delicious)
A quarter cup of grated parmesan
Lemon juice and pepper to taste

Chop up the sausage, or pull it out of the casing and crumble it into the pot. Saute for a few minutes on medium heat. Dice the onion and carrot and celery into whatever bite-sized pieces you prefer. When it starts to hold its shape, drain off the grease if there's a lot of it, or add a little bit of olive oil if there's not much. Add the onion, let it brown for a minute or two, add the carrot, give it another couple minutes, add the celery. Chop up your potatoes. If the bottom of the pot starts to get brown, add a spoonful of water and scrape all that delicious flavour back into the mix. Add a bay leaf, lentils if you want (they disappear into the soup, I add them for extra protein and to thicken things a little bit), add the potatoes and chicken stock, the dried herbs, the parmesan rind if you've got it (or a thumb-sized hunk of hard parmesan if you have a block without a rind, but don't worry if you don't). Simmer for about twenty minutes, until the potato's done. Chop up the beans if they need it, rinse the kale well, and add them both in the last five minutes. If you're using spinach instead, add it at the very end and just stir in before serving and let the residual heat wilt it. Stir in about a quarter cup of grated parmesan. Turn off the heat, add a splash of lemon juice and a bit of pepper, eat! Put a bit more parmesan in your bowl for extra cheesiness.

Cheddar-Potato-Chive Soup

2-3 carrots
an onion
2-3 stalks of celery
3-4 medium sized baked potatoes (maybe start with three)
a tablespoon of chopped chives
half a tablespoon of dried parsley
one or two bay leaves
a third of a cup of red lentils
I didn't add garlic, but a clove or two would be good
a cup of grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
4-5 cups of chicken stock. Would also be good with a can of beer or cider, just add less stock.
Optional: a slog of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice (maybe a tablespoon?)
Optional: Vietnamese fish sauce

Dice and sautee the carrots, celery, and onion. Sautee in a bit of olive oil for 2-3 minutes. (I add onion, cook it while I dice the carrot, add the carrot, dice the celery, leave it a couple minutes, and that usually does it.) Add the lentils and bay leaves, stir in with the veggies, and add the chicken stock. Add the potatoes, chopped up into blendable pieces. I used leftover pre-baked potatoes, but from raw, you could just grate it into the soup. It is up to you if you leave the skin on or not. Add the chives now if they're dried, or wait until the last 5-10 minutes if they're fresh. Simmer for about twenty minutes. When the lentils are soft, take out the bay leaves, and blend with a stick immersion blender. If you don't have one, mash everything with a potato masher until the potato, at least, is blended in. Grate the cheese. Turn the heat down to low, and add your cheese a small handful at a time while stirring. Add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and a slog of fish sauce if you have it and like it.

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daemonluna

New year, more soup

Liminal Zone Chicken Vegetable Soup and other recipes